That's right! I'm doing this again!

Okay, okay, put the pitchforks down. When I get an idea in my head like this, it's either I write it out, or it burns my head until I forget about it. I will probably do this quite a few times, and while these stories aren't just one-shots, they will only be uploaded when I get around to it, unless they get incredibly popular or something.

Plus, I had a hankering for XCOM 2 and, well, with the amount of RWBY fanfiction I've been devouring, making a crossover fic was necessary. This fanfiction will follow the same rules as Feathered Rose, I'll write it when I want and for as long as I want as evidenced by the chapter length, the longest one I've ever written.

Well, on with the chapter...

Chapter 1

"Ruby?"

At the sound of the door to his private workshop opening, Chief Engineer Shen called out over his shoulder, eyes never leaving the delicate process he was going through, carefully positioning and adjusting minute components in the device sat before him.

"Yeah Shen?" Ruby asked in her casual way, adamantly refusing to call him anything other than Shen, or sometimes Raymond if absolutely necessary. Peering over his shoulder, Ruby had to do a double-take at the little machine he was assembling, her hands flying up to her mouth to stifle the squeeing noise she very nearly let out at how a machine could look simultaneously beautiful, deadly, and adorable, all in one bundle. "Are those anti-gravity panels?!"

Chuckling, Shen placed the last of the components into position, laying down his tools to look at the excitable red-haired girl practically hopping around behind him. "Yes, they are actually. I believe we actually have you to thank for getting these here undamaged."

Wincing at the memory, Ruby could only give a sheepish smile. "Well, if we left it up to the regulars, the Cyberdisc components would all just be molten slag." Striking a heroic pose with one fist pressed across her back and her other hand clasped against her chest, Ruby smiled at Shen. "Only I am capable of such finesse!" And immediately breaking her stance to laugh at Shens bewildered face.

"I fear I shall never get used to you, Ruby."

Some Time Earlier

As Ruby glanced around her little private workshop, tucked away in a corner of Beacon where nobody would bother her, she had many thoughts, none of which were that this would be the last time in a long time, potentially forever, that she'd lay eyes on it. The spare blades for Crescent Rose hanging from the wall, the reloading workbench covered in dust phials and casings, the spare metal for projects, the earmuffs she'd oh so carefully modified for her own personal needs. All of it screamed home to Ruby, and she knew every piece of it intimately. Lifting her sweetheart from its position on her back and laying it down reverently atop one of the few benches scattered around the workshop, extending it into scythe form and slowly taking it apart.

It had been a while since she'd done a full disassembly of her beloved weapon, and it showed. Several of the more hidden components were visibly worn, with even fewer still showing dangerous signs of potential breakage. In a mecha-shift weapon, especially one as complicated as Crescent Rose, having a single component fail was almost always a guarantee of complete failure if she tried to switch the weapons form. The most common failure would simply be that the weapon would jam during the process, but she'd heard tales of some weapons violently exploding as residual dust was released into the moving parts and ignited, which would be a death sentence in the middle of a fight against Grimm, a fate Ruby would prefer to avoid.

The moment her weapon was in pieces on a workbench, she began cataloguing all the parts which were damaged, setting them aside and making plans to either make the parts herself, or order in the more specialized parts, when her scroll went off with a shrill cry, making Ruby's ears twitch uncomfortably, informing the crimsonette that Ozpin had requested her presence in his office immediately.

Sighing, Ruby laid down the part she was inspecting, throwing a last look around and sighing at the work she'd have to do to get her beloved back into tip-top shape, before leaving the room, locking it behind her with her scroll and making her way at a brisk pace towards the tower.

On the way there, however, Ruby was stopped by a glowing red light appearing from a gap between two of the school buildings, and something that vaguely sounded like people talking. Shrugging her shoulders, Ruby entered the gap, taking a step back when she saw a red portal hovering a foot in the air in front of her, and could hear voices that sounded normal, though garbled somehow, sort of like when she tried talking to Qrow just using her scroll and he was too far away. Taking slow steps forwards, Ruby tried peering through the portal, though it appeared to be simply a black tunnel going to absolutely nowhere.

Noting this, Ruby resolved to inform Ozpin about the portal when she saw him. While she would normally have been plenty happy about jumping through a mysterious portal to who knows where, she didn't have her team with her, they all went to Vale for something, and her sweetheart was currently sat in a million pieces on her workbench.

Before she could even turn around the portal, as if noticing her intentions to leave, darted forwards and engulfing her in darkness, a pure darkness her eyes couldn't pierce and her voice was lost in, so she screamed for as long and hard as her body could until the darkness invaded her mind, and she fell unconscious.

"SHUT IT DOWN!"

The loud shout was heard throughout most of the Anthill, immediately placing every operative in the base on high alert, as that voice was very familiar as the voice of Central Officer Bradford, and if the yell was any indication, something had to have gone horribly wrong. Indeed, as many of the operatives noted with some worry, today was the day that Chief Engineer Shen, Chief Science Officer Vahlen, and Bradford had agreed to attempt activation of the Hyperwave Relay. If something had gone wrong with the device, any number of things could happen, from broadcasting the HQ location to the aliens to ripping a black hole through the base.

The situation in the room itself wasn't much better. Bradford was the image of fury, yelling at those present to get the device turned off, all the while Dr Vahlen was arguing with him, countermanding his orders and trying to convince the man to let the device run for a few more moments.

The strangest sight though was the unwavering focus on Engineer Shen's face, as he stared at the Relay intently, as if willing it to reveal its secrets. When Vahlen managed to convince Bradford to give the device some time, she noticed Shen's focus and warily drew his attention to her with a hand on his shoulder.

Startled, Shen whipped his head around, only to note that it was Vahlen interrupting him, though the worried look on her face managed to slightly confuse him until she gestured towards the device, which was still humming, whirring, and making any number of odd and un-planned sounds and movements. Realizing her worries at his object of attention, he merely shrugged, returning his attention to the device.

Noting down his odd actions for later study, Vahlen also returned her own attentions to the device, determined to observe every possible change occurring in the device, when the device lifted itself from its housing in a violent and ear-piercing cacophany, before seemingly collapsing inwards on itself in an utterly impossible way, and a red tear appeared in front of it, immediately startling the occupants of the room, who all, with the exception of Dr Vahlen and Engineer Shen, took wary steps backwards, all the while observing the new phenomena intently for hostility.

The suspense was palpable, and made worse when a sound not unlike a human screaming could be heard coming from the tear and getting louder by the moment, cutting out when it was about to reach an unbearable level, and the tear itself shifted, contorting and rippling, before spitting out a red and black object and abruptly snapping shut, taking the entire remains of the Hyperwave Relay with it and leaving the object in its place.

Warily, the occupants of the room observed the object, Shen and Vahlen slowly approaching it and noting with an audible gasp from Shen and widened eyes from Dr Vahlen that the object was in fact a young girl, seemingly little more than 15, draped in a red cloak with gothic style black and red clothing, and a small river of blood running down her head somewhere in the region of her left eye from how she'd landed atop the scrap metal remnants of the Relay.

The strangest part about the otherwise normal girl, however, was the pair of red-tipped wolf ears that twitched lightly and seemingly at random.

Immediately, and with typical regard for standard safety protocols, Vahlen took the first opportunity to dash over to the unconscious girl, ignoring all the weapons trained in their direction, and began making observations of her, noting practically everything down in one of her many notepads, murmuring to herself, and paying extra attention to her extra appendages.

"Dr Vahlen!" Central's voice cut through the pervading silence, stopping the enthusiastic doctor in her tracks, as she stopped writing to look up from her position next to the girl, and had the decency to at least look sheepish at the total breach of protocol. "I understand your enthusiasm, but if that was an act to draw us in, you'd be being torn apart right now, Doctor."

"My apologies Central, but it's fascinating. The device appeared to fold into itself, despite physically being incapable of inhabiting a space that small without merging matter together. And this humanoid. While I am wary to call it such, preliminary examination seems to indicate that, whoever she is, she's at least close to being human. Of course, I'll need to analyse the subject before any promises can be made, but it appears that, for some reason, the device has brought us this modified girl."

Rubbing his eyes, Central looked around the room, gesturing towards two operatives who seemed at least somewhat less jumpy than the rest. "You two, take the subject to Vahlen's holding cell. If it wakes up and is hostile or uncooperative, attempt to subdue it with Arc Throwers, and if absolutely necessary use lethal force. I'd rather keep whoever that is alive. The rest of you are dismissed, I need to report this to the Commander. I expect reports of what happened within the hour Vahlen."

The first thing Ruby could sense was a ringing sound. The kind of ringing she'd hear if she fired Crescent Rose too much without protecting her hearing. After a few moments however, Ruby was wishing her senses stayed muted, as a throbbing headache made itself known, feeling like an Ursa was smacking her in the head, and at the same time, her eye felt like somebody took an Ice Cream scoop to it. It was times like these she hated the extra hearing her wolf ears afforded her, as they magnified the sound to a horrendous degree.

When she tried to open her eyes, Ruby felt a cold chill run over her body when her right eye opened like normal, but her left eyelid felt like something was attached to it, and try as gingerly as she might, she couldn't get it to open.

Her attempts were immediately stalled when Ruby saw her current location. A small circular black room, with a bright blue light above her, the only furnishing being the small white cot bed she was laying in. Wincing at the light, Ruby walked to the wall and tapped it, stepping back when she realized she was surrounded in glass, meaning she was probably looking at one-way glass.

"H-Hello?" She asked quietly, pressing against the glass and hoping to see something through the glass, anything to indicate she was talking to somebody. "Hello? Is anybody out there?" Asking again, Ruby strained her ears, pressing the top of her head against the glass and listening intently for any sounds, any vibrations, anything at all, but to no avail, as all she could hear was her own whining breaths.

Huffing, Ruby instead looked herself over, happy to note that she was still wearing the outfit she had on when she left her workshop, though her bullets were missing and some of the clothing was a bit ruffled, which meant she'd been searched while she was unconscious, a thought which made Ruby shiver. Looking at her arms, Ruby noted a bandage was wrapped around one of her arms, a small piece of gauze being held in place, so Ruby at least knew that whoever was holding her didn't want her to die from infection of an open wound. Raising her hands to her ears, she quickly ran her fingers delicately over them, sighing when she couldn't feel anything abnormal there.

Heading back over to her cot, she sat cross-legged on it, wrapping her red cloak around herself for comfort as much as warmth, breathing deeply of the slight smell of home and keeping her ears sharp for sound, and letting her openable eye drift closed, though it snapped open again at the reminder that one of her eyes refused to open.

Feeling around her eye, Ruby could feel a long divot carved through her skin, starting above her eye and ending below it, the divot disappearing on her eyelid and continuing below her eye. She could also feel what felt like either staples or stitches running along her eyelid, holding it closed.

Feeling her panic rising slightly, Ruby was grateful for a distraction, in the form of a very light hissing sound, followed by a regular clanking sound of boots on metal, and watching as a section of the glass cylinder she was contained in rose up, revealing a walkway and a small group of people stood watching her. Several of them looked like Atlesian soldiers, in rigid uniforms and with what looked kind of like large pistol-gripped cameras held in ready stances, their weapons aimed a few inches wide of their feet.

The others looked more unique though. At the head of the group was a man in a green commando sweater over what looked like a white shirt and tie, an insignia on his left breast, his hands clasped behind him. On one side of him was a woman with a lab-coat and a green turtleneck with the same insignia as the man, a blocky-looking scroll in her hands, which she was currently noting stuff down into, glancing up at Ruby every few moments. And, on the other side of the man, was an elderly man with a red tie and a jacket over a white shirt, and an id badge hanging from the left lapel of his jacket.

Out of everyone present, Ruby immediately decided she liked him the most, as he had a small smile on his face, whereas everybody else seemed to just have frowns permanently attached to their faces. Plus he had remnants of oil and grease on his hands, and Ruby could tell that despite his best attempts to wash it off, it was the kind that built up from actually working on weapons and tech. Ruby had encountered the same problem working on Crescent Rose all the time, and saw more than once as Yang furiously scrubbed at her hands to get bike liquids off her hands.

A polite cough interrupted Ruby's inspection of them, she looked back at the man in the centre, who seemed to regard her with a mix of suspicion and interest.

"Apologies for the rough room and board, it's not every day an alien artifact folds into itself and deposits an abnormal human girl on our doorstep." At the word alien, Ruby's face scrunched up, a fact definitely not missed by her observers. "I'm sorry, but does alien mean something different to you? Vahlen told me you probably speak English, but we can't be 100% sure about it without speaking to you."

"I...I know what alien means, but what do you mean, English?" Ruby asked, tilting her head.

"Well, we're speaking English right now." Central responded quickly, watching as the girl in front of him let her face run through the full set of confused emotions. "I hate to say this, but...well, the easiest way to put this is to just ask. Do any of these words mean anything to you: Earth, America, England, France, Japan, Germany, Africa, China, Russia, India?" And watched as Ruby shook her head at them all.

"I mean, earth is another name for dirt, but aside from that, none of those words mean anything to me, why?"

Shaking his head, Central rubbed his forehead, trying to think of the best way to break the news to this girl. However, he needn't have bothered, as, quite surprisingly, Shen stepped forwards with a sad smile on his face. "It means you are probably a long way from home. Wherever you came from, you probably aren't on the same world any more. And, before you ask, we cannot send you back. The anomaly which brought you here can only be replicated if we find another of the same device, and after the hell our operatives went through to retrieve it, I doubt we'll ever find another, not unless we defeat the aliens entirely. My condolences." Shen said sadly, watching as tears welled up in the girls eye and she grabbed her cloak to cover her face, sobbing into it quietly.

"I can give you some good news though little one!" Vahlen said with glee, drawing Ruby's face out of her cloak long enough to smile at her. "I can at least prove that, despite the astronomical chances, you are definitely based off a human." And watched as the girl re-buried her face in the cloak, whilst Shen turned to glare at her. "What?" She said, raising her hands in defence.

"Why would you give her hope like that?!" Shen growled. "The way you said it sounded like you had some grand plan for her, at this point she probably doesn't give a damn about appearing to be like us." He said, watching the girl as she peered up from her cloak at them, still sat atop her cot.

"N-no, it's fine, sh-she just wa-anted to he-h-help me." Ruby said slowly, hiccuping all the way.

"Well, how about some introductions, since I'm afraid you're going to be our guest for a while it seems. I'm Central Officer Bradford, many of our operatives call me Central. That over there-" He gestured over his shoulder, "-Is Chief Science Officer Vahlen, the one responsible for figuring out how to kill those freaks up above, and in front of me is Chief Engineer Shen, the man behind our tech, or as the operatives put it, the creator of cool stuff." Vahlen was too busy to say much, instead opting for a nod while she continued typing away at her scroll, whereas Shen kept his smile on his face, waving at her when he was introduced, to which Ruby responded in kind, raising her arm and waving, then noticing the bandage on her arm.

"Oh, that'd be my doing." Vahlen said when Shen elbowed her and nodded towards Ruby, who was inspecting the bandage on her arm. "Unfortunately I had to take a sample from you to make absolutely sure you were at least close to being human, and I may have been a bit over-zealous with my tissue extraction. My apologies, but you must understand that working on alien specimens may have...dulled my inhibitions a little, as Raymond here seems fit to remind me every 5 minutes."

"Over-zealous? Doctor, with all due respect, you were planning to take a lot more than that!" He said, gesturing towards Ruby's arm while she picked at the bandage. He watched as she looked closely at the bandage, and her hand flew to her eye when she moved her arm to the left, reminding herself once again about her closed eye. "Oh, that. I'm afraid that when you arrived, you landed amongst the ruins of where the device that brought you here was inhabiting, and there were a few...jagged edges. You weren't critically wounded, but I'm afraid your eye was gone." Shen said slowly.

"G-gone? Oh." Ruby said, pulling her knees up to her chest and re-wrapping herself in her cloak, watching them with her one good eye. "Any m-more nugg-gets of tr-ruth for me?" And cracking a very small smile at them with her little joke.

"No, absolutely not." Central said, shaking his head at Shen.

"Central, you have kept her in there for too long. Please, just let me take her to my workshop. I'll be with her the whole time, and Vahlen already confirmed that for all intents and purposes she's a normal 15-year-old girl. Trapping her in there like that...it's not what we should be doing."

The time between Ruby's arrival in the XCOM Headquarters and now was filled with confusion, as the girl was continually prodded and questioned from every angle, most of their focus being on her 'Faunus' traits, as the girl put it, with her only respite from the constant questioning being Shen's discussions with her about anything from her home, to his family, to their shared love of engineering, an avenue the pair both pursued wholeheartedly, though Ruby was of course far more hands on with the stuff she made, whereas Shen had to make it reliable in other peoples hands instead of his own, a feat Ruby admired as making a weapon that other people could use was special in itself.

"Shen, I understand that. But the question still remains about why exactly she was brought here. And until I know why, I'm not letting her leave that chamber."

"Look, Bradford, you already know the answer to that was dumb luck. It could have happened to anybody. Hell, Lily could be the one currently in that damnable chamber!" Shen said, raising his voice for a rare moment, though calming himself down again at Centrals glare. "Just, please, give her this chance. If she tries anything you don't like, I'll concede the point, but I have faith in her. Besides, with some of the ideas she's given me, I think the people out there fighting would appreciate some of the breakthroughs her perspective would give me."

Looking into his friend and colleagues face, Central stared long and hard, sighing when he saw just how strongly Shen thought of this whole thing. "One chance. She gets one chance at this. She messes up, and she's staying in that chamber until this entire damn thing is dealt with, one way or the other."

Shen had to hold himself back from embracing the man in front of him with a hug, simply settling for a firm and vigorous handshake. "You won't regret this Central."

"I hope not."

The hissing sound that accompanied company sounded out in Ruby's small little world, and she turned from her position on her cot, her face blank until she saw the figure on the other side, breaking into a smile at the sight of the Engineer, and she waved at him.

"Heya Shen!" And, try as he might, Shen couldn't keep the excited grin off his face as he strode into Ruby's chamber.

"Hi there Ruby. Now, Central doesn't like this, but I don't really care, so I'm warning you now. He's expecting this to go perfectly, which means no accidental explosions, no misfires, nothing to give him anything to use to justify keeping you in here, alright?"

Ruby could only slowly nod, her mind racing about what Shen had planned. "So, uh, what's he expecting to go perfectly?"

"Well, that, my dear, is a surprise. I'm sure this chamber is stifling you by now, so, shall we be off?" And had to ward Ruby off as she attempted to tackle him with a hug.

"REALLY?!" She squealed, her face looking like it'd snap in two with how wide her smile was. "I...THANK YOU SHEN!" She yelled, slipping past his guard to wrap her arms around the older man, who simply resigned himself to patting her back, watching as the ears atop her head twitched one way and the other in excitement, and he had to bite back the temptation to pet them.

"That's fine. Now, we shouldn't take too long, or Central will likely get a bit uppity at us. Follow closely, and...don't be too excitable towards the operatives, some of them will probably be a bit jumpy at seeing you just walking through the Anthill."

Nodding along, Ruby fell into step next to Shen, hands swinging freely as Ruby enjoyed simply being able to walk more than a few steps at a time without having to turn. Granted, the short corridors of the Anthill weren't conducive to straight and long walks, but it was better than the confinement of the cell they had her in. And, with each step Ruby took, she swivelled her head around to look at her surroundings. Talking with Shen about the place was nice, but seeing this all in person was awesome, more awesome than anything she'd seen at home. Though it might just be because the only thing she'd seen for however long she'd been kept confined was featureless one-way glass.

Closing her eyes, Ruby took a deep breath through her nose, marvelling at the dozens of smells permeating the air, reminding herself of the first time she truly leaned upon only her sense of smell for guidance. A hint of roast beef here, a strong smell of sweat over there, Ruby revelled in being able to smell more than just the people who entered the container she was kept in, though she noted that she could also smell incredibly strong scents that she couldn't discern.

Rounding a few corners, Ruby noted how many people were actually in the base, and a surprising few of them actually noticed her, seemingly too busy with their tasks to care that she was even there, though maybe the fact she was walking beside one of their big-wigs was the reason. She'd had a good laugh with Shen when they talked about how he came across the title 'creator of cool stuff', and apparently being known for that was enough to make him the most valuable person in the Anthill, aside from the elusive Commander, someone Ruby was repeatedly assured both knew of her presence, and she would likely never see. If she did, she'd probably either be dead soon after or they'd won the war. The only people in the base who actually knew what the Commander looked like was Shen, Vahlen and Bradford, so for all she knew that grunt eating a sandwich could be the Commander, or the woman walking down that hallway with a datapad. Safety in obscurity was definitely seeming logical to her.

Turning the last corner, Shen quickened his step, throwing open the door to the most beautiful sight in the world, a wide flourish in his arms and a smile on his face.

"Welcome to my workshop! I'd have loved to take you into the foundry proper, but Bradford was snippy enough about even letting you leave that chamber, let alone coming to my workshop. So, we'll just have to make do."

Most of what Shen said was disregarded by Ruby, who was jumping from workbench to workbench with a gleam in her eye, cataloguing everything she knew about and things to ask Shen about. Taking a deep breath in, Ruby frowned at the smell of...fireworks? Taking a few more sniffs, Ruby followed her nose towards one of the workbenches, completely missing the careful look Shen fixed her with. Sniffing closer, Ruby crouched down next to one of the sets of drawers and stopping short when she came across an odd-looking sniper rifle tucked away, with several rounds sat next to it. Ruby immediately put distance between herself and the drawer, throwing a wary glance at Shen, who had a bright smile on his face.

"Bradford would kill me if he knew I left that there." He said with a wink towards Ruby's dumbfounded face.

"You're joking? You-...WHAT? You...I...I don't even." Ruby floundered, settling for simply stepping forwards towards the drawer slowly, making sure Shen could warn her if he didn't want her to, arriving at the drawer and slowly picking up the weapon, pulling the bolt back and breathing a sigh of relief when she saw it was unloaded. "So, you got a firing range I can shoot this thing at?" Ruby said with a smirk, lifting the rifle to her shoulder with one hand and putting her other hand to her hip. A smirk that Shen matched with a smile, and he gestured towards a door off to the side of his workshop.

"Hold on Ruby. Hand me that rifle. While I trust you, it'd be a bit too risky to just hand you a working rifle like that. The trigger wouldn't actually work if you loaded a round in and pulled it now."

Nodding, Ruby scooped up the rounds for her new toy, putting them in her pouch and walking towards the firing range, handing the rifle to Shen as she passed, though to call the room she entered just a firing range was a dis-service. Holographic depictions of aliens met her, and Ruby noted that many of them were similar to what Shen had described to her when prompted. She recognized the frail and tiny bodies of the Sectoids, and equally frail but lanky Thin Men, and the opposite end of the spectrum with the hulking mass of a Muton being dwarfed by what could only be a Sectopod.

Suddenly, even after hearing the stories of the aliens attacking this world, Ruby felt a pang of fear at the sheer sight of those aliens, particularly the Chryssalid. Shen had told her stories about how Chryssalids reproduced on the battlefield, forcibly implanting embryos in dying hosts and how, after a short period, their young would burst from the corpse. If she didn't already have trouble sleeping, she had no doubts that the Chryssalids would give her something to be scared of.

After Shen walked in behind her fiddling with the rifle and handing to her, Ruby turned her attention to sighting in the old weapon, wishing for yet another time that she'd brought Crescent Rose with her, though knowing XCOM it'd have been taken apart to be analyzed. With some prompting from Shen she managed to zero the scope to a decent range and sent the Muton projection downrange, sighting in and steadying her aim on her target.

All the while, Shen observed the crimsonette carefully, watching her steady her breathing and holding the weapon steady atop her hands, rather than the more favored method used by snipers to lay the weapon upon their elbow, whilst her eye focused on her scope and winced when she attempted to open her other eye, signs of a decent sniper if he'd ever seen one. She had occasionally talked with him about her own weapon, Crescent Rose, but when pressed only said it was a sniper rifle that she'd made. And while Shen couldn't see hint of a lie on her face, he knew she was covering something up, though seemingly out of embarrassment or fear rather than malice.

Seemingly comfortable with the weapon, Ruby looked around for a moment before frowning, and Shen had to again follow her gaze to see the earmuffs hanging from the wall, laying her weapon down gently and walking over with the frown still on her lips.

Grabbing one of the pairs, Ruby fiddled with it for a moment before turning to Shen. "Uhh, do you mind if I take this apart real quick? I kinda need to protect these." Ruby sheepishly asked, wiggling her fur-tipped ears at Shen, who merely waved her back into his workshop. After a few moments, to which Shen was sure he heard at least a few curses that he couldn't quite get the meaning of, Ruby zipped back into the room, her now thoroughly deformed headphones snugly protecting her sensitive ears. "Ta-da." She announced proudly, grabbing two more pairs of headphones and throwing one to Shen, slipping the other over her normal ears and grabbing her rifle again, shouldering it with a sigh and placing her eye behind the scope once again.

After a brief few moments of preparing herself, Ruby aimed, released her breath, and fired, marvelling at the kickback this tiny weapon had, though she mentally slapped herself as her talks with Shen had told her about how they didn't have dust on this world, instead doing everything with gunpowder. Rubbing her shoulder from the kick she hadn't been expecting, Ruby opened the bolt first, then looked back down the scope, smirking to herself when she saw the neat little black mark the bullet had left on the forehead of the Muton, and devolving into laughter when she pulled her vision from the scope and saw Shen's face frozen in surprise.

The weapon Ruby held in her hands was a junker, it was something that one of the XCOM operatives had brought from home, and relinquished to Shen when he made a request for a normal but battered weapon which wouldn't be missed if it was lost. Yet Ruby had fired it as if it were just fine, only needing a little help to zero the scope, and she'd shot a Muton through the head at a distance which would make most XCOM snipers cry at. Indeed, at those distances the snipers would resort to using radio callouts to adjust their fire, nicknaming the tactic squad-sight.

And Ruby, for her first time holding the weapon, had made the shot as if she were shooting a pistol at a few meters, without the aid of a S.C.O.P.E, nor any assistance from a spotter, instead relying on her own skill. To say he was gobsmacked was an understatement.

"So Shen, how many can I fire?" Ruby asked, picking another round out of her pouch and rolling it across her fingers and smiling at him, joyful to finally get a chance to shoot again. Ruby had taken Crescent Rose out many a time to simply shoot trees, Grimm, and occasionally just the ground itself, and nothing beat the feeling of the weapon in her hands pulling against her and sending pure death downrange at her target. Though she didn't understand his surprise, maybe snipers here didn't have rifled barrels or something? After checking the chamber carefully then looking into the barrel through the receiver revealed that the weapon she held was definitely had a rifled barrel, just adding to her confusion.

"As many as you can get ahold of Ruby. I need to speak with Central quickly, but you can stay in here and practice with that rifle if you'd like. Just promise you won't leave the range until I come back, alright?" Shen said, striding out of the room with a quick wave when Ruby nodded and slipped the bullet between her fingers smoothly into her weapon, and the sound of rapid gunfire sounded through the open door before he could even close it.

As soon as the door was closed Shen already had his communicator in hand, and opened a direct line to Central, who had assured him that if anything went wrong that he could immediately contact him and that, barring an urgent mission, he would be available.

The instant the line connected Shen began speaking. "Bradford, firstly, no, there isn't something wrong, though you may not like some of what I have to say."

Hearing a sigh from the other end, the Engineer took that as his cue to begin relaying the story to Bradford of how he had tested Ruby to see what she'd do if he accidentally left a weapon around his workshop, though immediately assuring Bradford that the weapon was ineffective, and wouldn't have fired anyway. He went on to explain how he had then shown her his range and let her have at it, after being assured based on her reaction to the weapon that she harboured absolutely no ill will towards him, though that much was obvious with their interactions.

Then he arrived at explaining Ruby's accuracy, and quite clearly heard the sound of liquid being spat out, snickering to himself as Bradford simply let out a loud "WHAT?!" when he told him just how far Ruby had shot.

What Shen didn't like though was how Bradford immediately said something about coming to see that for himself, closing the line and leaving Shen slightly regretting telling him so quickly. Perhaps letting Ruby go back to the cell first would have been better, lest she be subjected to being tested for sniper training and sent out to go and fight those aliens. He'd seen her reactions to the holograms he had for targets, and while he was surprised by the lack of fear in her eyes, he could still see the revulsion when she looked at the Chryssalid, which just told him that if she saw one of those in the field, she might freeze, which is not what XCOM would need in an operation.

Ruby had told him before about how she was a huntress, she was trained to kill creatures called Grimm, though she seemed wary to elaborate on them, only telling him the very basics. So, perhaps her past experience would let her push through her fear and revulsion, but that wasn't a chance that Shen wanted her to even have to take.

Breaking his thoughts, the door to his workshop hissed open and Central strode in, eyeing the door to his shooting range warily for a few moments before turning to Shen.

"You know, you're just as bad as Vahlen sometimes when it comes to safety protocols."

Shen could only shrug at that, knowing already that Central wouldn't appreciate that he gave Ruby a loaded weapon and told her to have fun at a shooting range. Gesturing with a hand at his range, he stepped forward to open the door, and let Central step into the range, the loud report of a rifle being fired sounding through his workshop once again, before Shen stepped through himself and closed the door behind him again, turning around to see Central staring at Ruby while she fired from a seated position, her knees up and her left arm wrapped around the weapon like a typical XCOM sniper, resting the barrel between her knees for stability.

He then turned his attention to the little screen denoting range statistics, and Shen watched as Central's jaw fell at the distances Ruby was firing at, something no XCOM sniper ever shot at. And those snipers had months with their weapons, plus enhancements like S.C.O.P.E modifications and genetic modifications. And the rifles they were firing were far more advanced than the, quite frankly, trash rifle that their guest was using to put rounds downrange.

What truly amused Shen was the way Ruby was firing. Rather than using the magazine on the weapon, Ruby had instead attached the pouch she'd placed her bullets into onto the side of her weapon, and loaded a fresh round in after each shot, slamming home the bolt and firing, then pulling toe bolt back again and loading a new bullet in. While unorthodox, Shen could certainly appreciate the shocking consistent rate of fire she was achieving with the weapon.

Finally noticing her guests, Ruby fired the round she'd chambered, opening the bolt and laying the weapon down carefully on the range table in front of her, before spinning to give Shen the biggest smile possible, visibly restraining herself from leaping at him with another hug, though they all knew that was probably just because Central was in the room and wouldn't appreciate it.

"Heya Shen, Hi Central. D-did I do something wrong?" Ruby asked, lip quivering as she looked at Central fearfully, though she brightened up when he shook his head.

"While I don't appreciate Shen disregarding my warnings and handing you a rifle, I can safely say I appreciate the results. I have to ask just how you can shoot that far?" Central said, eyebrows raising when Ruby just shrugged.

"I don't know, that's as far as I normally shoot, why? Shen also looked confused so I don't get it, that's a pretty typical range to fire at for me."

Both Shen and Central looked at Ruby with wide eyes, until Central rubbed his eyes and muttered something about embarrassment. "Ruby, our snipers typically shoot targets unassisted at this range." He said, pointing to one of the far closer targets. Then, gesturing towards a target about double the distance. "And that target is where the maximum range is for using a method of coordination the guys named squadsight, where they use one of the other soldiers to call out their targets for engagement. The distance you're firing at is far beyond that..."

"Well I don't know, like I said it's how far I normally fire." She admitted with a shrug, rubbing her arms together behind herself and wincing.

Straightening his back, Central stepped forward, eyeing Ruby closely. "Look, Ruby, we may have gotten off on the wrong foot, so I have no right to ask this, but would you perhaps consider working with us as a sniper?" Though he was interrupted by a hand on his shoulder.

"Central, while I appreciate Ruby's skills, I think she'd be far more valuable in the foundry. Some of the tech she's helped me come up with has been groundbreaking, and surely having better weapons is greater overall than having one much better sniper?" Shen said, gesturing towards Ruby who was torn between the two ideas.

"Hold on, how about I do both?" Ruby asked, drawing both men to stare at her incredulously. "If you ever have a massive need for a long-range sniper, you can get me to go, but only occasionally, and the rest of the time I'll stay down in the foundry. I still want to see those SHIVs you keep yammering on about Shen!" Ruby said, levelling a glare at Shen who raised his hands in defence. "Though all we need now is for me to be awesome at research and we could have all 3 of you wanting me in your area!" She said with a smirk.

"Hey, if Central agrees to it you can have the full run of the mill!" Shen said quickly, making Ruby throw caution to the wind and dart forwards to hug him for the second time that day, and he rubbed her hair playfully, earning a pout from him and a disbelieving look from Central.

"If I didn't know any better I'd say that's a clone of Lily, just mixed with the DNA of a wolf." Central remarked off-handedly, though he straightened up at the glare Shen levelled on him. "Anyway, that sounds alright to me. I'll be frank Ruby, I still don't fully trust you, but we need as many able bodies as we can throw at this war, and letting someone with your skills just sit in the base doesn't seem to be the best idea. Plus, with the amount Shen has been pushing for it, I imagine we'd have a full-scale riot on our hands if he let slip that some of the cool stuff was thought up by someone we currently have in a holding cell." Bradford said with a smirk, taking a step back when Ruby made to hug him as well, though she caught herself and simply settled for a big smile and a nod, her ears twitching about happily.

"Thanks Bradford!" Ruby chirped, her smile growing as he visibly showed his discomfort at hearing his name from such a high-pitched source.

"You're...welcome.

So, Ruby is an excellent sniper. I mean, considering the stupid distances XCOM 'snipers' shoot at, anyone with two brain cells to rub together could fire further.

But, her main purpose is in the foundry with Shen, making cool tech and getting into awkward situations. I have a few ideas rattling around in my head that are begging to be released, but this felt like a good place to cap the story off.

EDITED - 24/08/19 - Ruby is now a Faunus.

Why? Because I damn well wanted her to be one! Wolf-ears are cute, dammit, I dare you to argue with me on that! Go on, I promise that your arguments will never succeed in the face of Wolf-Ruby with red-tipped and fluffy wolf ears on top of her head!