I remember the time the three of us came to the island. That was a few years ago now as Ruby, my aunt and I lived in the Village. So far we were never without work as both Ruby and I were almost always helping with building and planning out new stuff, which the both of us enjoyed very much. Axycia was more on exploring and researching anything and everything she found. Though the idea that she’s an all-powerful goddess that allow her to simply know what it is was kinda odd to me.

She also looked mostly the same when we first came here. Ruby and I, on the other hand, changed quite a bit. I was a bit taller and had some muscles from all the caring and training. My hair grew out a bit and my tail became fluffier. I now had to brush it almost every day just so I can keep it clean.

Ruby also grew a bit and filled out before. She was seventeen when we came here, but now with her being twenty-four, it was apparent that she drew attention from the others. Her hair grew out to her shoulders and simply looks… older. There are times where I just stare at her as if I was charmed by her. Axycia knew this and tease me about it all the time, I try to deny it but every time I think about it, it became harder to do that.

Lana continues to come back in her hologram form to talk to me, which made both me and her happy about. Over the years Lana soon remembers who she was and, after some more questions, remember that she was once Human. But every time we tried to figure out how she came to be she just didn’t seem to remember. The one thing that seemed to didn’t change is her ability to make clothes for herself. The only thing she could do what make it so she was sorta be in between of looking like she was naked and not. I got a lot of Cortana vibes from her.

At the moment I was talking to her about my day after having an hour with Ruby with talking. I felt bad that Ruby was still having nightmares about Beacon but she was happy that I was there for her in the end. Another thing I found out was her friendship with the android Penny and Ruby’s crush on her. The idea of her having hots for a high powered android just sounded cool but it also made my heart ache a bit. I didn’t tell Lana the full story about it as I wrote more stuff down in the journal.

“You’re sounding more like a person when it comes to information.” I said to Lana as she was sitting across from me on the bed.

“I’ve been reworking the default programming and simply adding my own.” She said, smiling at me as she did. I smiled back as I wrote down what she said. I shifted a bit before I asked her the important question.

“I’m going to try again and ask you that question Lana; How did you get into the Ark system?” I asked her.

“I’m sorry but I still can’t remember how.” She said sadly, shaking her head as her gaze went down. I sighed at this as I wrote down ‘Lana still can’t remember.’ in the book.

“It’s alright Lana, it’ll come back to you.” I told her. This earned a smile from her. Her smile turned into a smirk.

“So~. I’m guessing you were talking to your crush before coming here?” she asked me. I groaned a bit.

“Lana, really?” I said with a frown.

“Oh come on, I think it’s really cute! The two of you are total fangirls over anything tech related and the way you talk about her shows that you have feelings.” she said before crossing her arms. “Why don’t you simply ask her out.”

“I… I can’t okay.” I said. “She a great friend and all but, I don’t know she has feelings for me.”

“Viri, if you really do care about her then simply ask her out.” Lana said sternly. I stared at her before speaking.

“I’ll think about it, happy?” I asked. She smiled and nodded. “Great, now I have to be nervous about that and the other woman.”

“What do you mean?” Lana asked, tilting her head a bit at this. I gave her an uneasy look before speaking.

“Well, before we all came to the village, we found this other tribe. After a while… she came.” I said. I shook my head as I continue. “It scares the hell out of me every time I go outside the force field. I feel like she’s watching me from somewhere I can’t see. She feels like someone from a Horror film, with the Gas mask and her going by the name Mother.” Her digital eyes dilated at the mention of the word Mother. She grasped her head and screamed in agony before fizzling out of existence. I looked around in surprise from this. “Lana? Lana!”

I went over to where she was and move my hand over it. Of course, I couldn’t feel anything there. Slumping back, I blinked a few times before writing down ‘The word Mother makes Lana freak. I wonder why?’

I sighed as I put the journal on my chest. With a sigh, I left my room and slid down the ladder. As I turned I came face to face with Ruby. I yelped as I didn’t expect her there.

“Hi Viri!” she greeted happily. I blinked a few times.

“Uh, hi Ruby.” I said, now calmed down a bit from the scare. “What’s up?”

“Hmm, nothing. Oh, The head leader of the Village wants to see us.” Ruby explained.

“You mean Rockmond?” I asked her.

“Yeah him.” she said with a smile. I rolled my eyes at her.

“Alright, when does he want to see us?” I asked.

“Right now.” Before I could say anything Ruby grabbed my arm and the both of us zoomed out of the building and away from it. Next thing I know I was stumbling in front of Rockmond with Ruby.

“A little warning next time please.” I asked. Ruby just shrugs before saluting to Rockmond. The man in question has aged quite a bit, his once brown hair was starting to grey out but despite the age, he was still as active as he was when we first met.

“I got Viri sir!” she said before giggling. This earned a chuckle from Rockmond before he spoke.

“I see that.” He said between chuckles. Once he stopped he looked at with a serious look. “Listen to you two, lately I’ve been hearing a lot about a sighting of our gas masked hunter. And it has occurred to me that you two might not know much about her, even after your first encounter.” He said. The reaction he got from us was nervosity and a scared look.

“To be honest sir, I wish she would simply stay away from us.” I told him, earning a nod from Ruby.

“I still have nightmares about her.” Ruby said. He gave us sympathetic looks before saying.

“You may think of her as a menace and you have every right to do so but you need to know she wasn’t like that.” He said, taking a seat at one of the many benches in the village. The two of us looked at each other.

“What do you mean?” Ruby asked.

“I mean she was used to be one of us, just another survivor on the Island trying to make due.” He said, placing a hand on his forehead. “She was the leader of the tribe I was a part of before I made this one.” He added.

“She was?” I asked, sitting down beside him.

“Yeah she was, we looked up at her like a role model. Everyone in the tribe wanted to be just like her.” He said with a little smile as he shook his head. “We even called her Mother a few occasions.” He said chuckling in remembrance.

“That’s sweet… kinda odd with the Mother part, but still really sweet.” Ruby said. Rockmond gave her an odd look as she smiled sheepishly.

“It all changed when she took the Alpha trials of Ascending. The last I saw her, my leader, was when she began her hike up the Volcano to begin her trial and ascend.” Rockmond said with a sigh. “Something obviously went wrong in there, she came back out months later wearing that accursed mask and barely clothed. Upon sight of my tribemates, she ripped them to shreds and stripped them of their gear. I was lucky to make it out with my life.” He added. I shifted uncomfortably at this.

“What was her name?” Ruby asked.

“Lana Shepherd.” He answered without missing a beat. My eyes widen a bit. Was Lana… no, it can be. Can it?

“Viri? Are you okay?” Ruby asked me. I looked at her and at Rockmond.

“I… I just remembered something that I need to… bye!” I said before I bolted away from them. I ran back to the house and climbed up the stairs to my room. I burst into the room before I shouted. “Hey! You here?! I really need to talk to you!” Soon enough, the room emitted a familiar bright blue glow before Lana’s body formed sitting on the bed, her gaze at the wall. I went over to her and stared. “Lana… you there? I have a really important question to ask.”

“Ask away.” She said, her voice lacking any emotion. I blinked at this.

“Okay, two questions: are you okay? Before you sounded pretty freaked out before.” I asked.

“I remember… I remember how I became… this.” She said, looking at her hands as she spoke. I stared at her for a moment.

“Lana Shepherd.” As I said that she looked up at me. “That’s your name… Lana Shepherd.” She nodded in acknowledgment. I sat down on the bed and looked at her hands. “I’m… I’m so sorry for this but, what happened? What happened during your trial up in that mountain?”

“I fought my way deep into the cave, slew the Gigan that stood guard and found the terminal that sent me out of the island and into some sort of Tek hall. There I found it, the Overseer of the Ark.” She said, displaying an image of a large mechanical thing in the shape of the survivors gems. “It started attacking me on sight and sent hordes of its defense drones. I fought it with all my might and won but the blasted thing had one last trick up its sleeve. It had swapped my consciousness with its own and had trapped me in its body.” She said before burying her face in her hands.

“Then… this Overseer has been running around in your body all this time.” I said. “But… why is it trying to destroy other tribes?”

“It sees them as a threat. The Overseer’s job is to watch over the Ark, supply the survivors with supply drops and allow them ascension.” She said, raising her head from her hands and adding. “There was something that corrupted it and caused it grow very hostile.I was denied my Ascension and trapped in its body.” She finished, her digital eyes tearing up. I looked down at the bed and out of the window. It was a few moments before I stood up.

“You remember someone named Rockmond?” I asked her.

“Yes, he was my second in command of my old tribe.” She answered, looking at me with teary eyes before she wiped them away.

“Yeah, he’s not the second command anymore, more like the leader of his own tribe.” I turned and smiled. “He called me and Ruby out and started talking about you.” This causes her to smile as I continue. “We are also going to try to bring you back Lana.”

“That’s impossible, especially with that thing running amuck with my body.” She said, hate filling her tone at the mention of the being responsible for her current state.

“Yeah, that thing is in your body.” I said, pointing at her. “But you’re in its body, take some time and you could have full control over what it can do and do the same thing with it.” She nodded slowly at this. I frowned a bit as a thought came to mind. “Why is it always in books that anyone gets switch with a different being never think of figuring out what they can now do?” I looked back at Lana as she stares at me oddly. I blushed at that. “Sorry, my mind wanders a bit.” she then raised an eyebrow.

“You think I haven’t been trying? The Overseer made it hard for me to access anything it can do.” she explained. “It took me forever just to make this hologram, and it’s not the greatest.”

“... Good point.” I said as I sighed.

“Viri?” I heard a voice from behind me. I turned to see Ruby there. “Are you okay?”

I stared at her, looked Lana, then back at her. “Yes… I’m fine. Can you go find Rockmond and my aunt?”

“Sure… why?” she asked me. I sighed as I looked over at Lana, which to Ruby was an empty bed.

“There’s… a lot of things to talk about.”

When the other two came up to the room I started to tell them everything, me talking to Lana, the questions, the Journal, everything. They all listened to me explained until I came up to now. I rubbed my face a bit as I sat back down. “And… that’s it.”

“She… she was trapped in this system? All this time?” Ruby asked. I simply nodded as I looked over at Lana who was on the second bunk looking at us. My aunt simply flipped through the pages of the Journal as I talked.

“So she was cheated from her reward.” Rockmond said, a frown on his face at the revelation of Lana’s fate. “That monster has no right to live, even in her body.” He said, balling his fist.

“Yeah, but what I don’t get is how did it make her so powerful.” I asked. I glanced over at Lana before a thought came to mind. “Did it… max out all of your stats as it switched?”

“No, without my consciousness the specimen implant is inactive, therefore useless. But the attributes I had before it took my body would have stayed.” She said informatively.

“Right…” I looked over at Rockmond. “I’m guessing she was really strong and fast back then?”

“Yes, her strength was unrivaled and her speed was something every survivor could wish for.” Rockmond said, leaning onto the wall.

“Great, so we’re dealing with a superhuman with the mind of a crazy computer.” I grumbled. I looked up at Lana. “Er, no offense.”

“No offense taken.” She said, sitting up cross-legged. I looked at everyone else for a moment before looking at both my aunt and Rockmond.

“So… I got nothing, do you two have anything?” I asked. Rockmond looked at me for a moment.

“I...need some time to think.” he said. “I knew something was wrong but… didn’t think it would be this.” he shook his head a bit before continuing. “I’ll give some thought on it and come back with my ideas.”

With that, he climbed down on the ladder and out of the room. My aunt… was nowhere to be seen, along with the journal. She just jacked my Journal! Rude.

I sighed as it was just me, Lana, and Ruby. Ruby was sitting on my bed deep in thought as I stared at her. Lana saw me, then looked at her and gestured me to talk to her. I looked at her oddly before walking over to Ruby.

“Hey, you alright?” I asked.

“Hmm? Oh, yeah I’m fine.” she told me. She brushed some hair out of her face before continuing. “It just, how much we seemed to fit into this world.” she looked over at me with her silver eyes. “Did it feel like that when you came to Remnant?”

“Kinda, I was born in Remnant and lived there until I was like five or six.” I told her.

“Oh… right.” she said with a giggle. “Did you travel to other worlds?”

“Not really, in truth I went to Reamnet and Equestria, that’s it.” I told her.

“That… sounds kinda lame.” Ruby said. I playfully push her as she laughed. “Haha… so, you remember our earlier talk?”

“About Penny?” I asked. She nodded with a blush.

“Yeah… I think it was her that I learned that I…” Ruby trailed off a bit.

“Were into girls?” I asked with an arched eyebrow. She blushed even more at that.

“Say that louder, the Dinos didn’t hear you.” she said.

“Okay.” with that I took a deep breath. Ruby scrambled and covered my mouth.

“I didn’t mean it!” she said. I simply started to laugh as I pulled away.

“Come on, that was funny.” I told her. “Moving on, Penny and girls.”

“Well, sure I had a crush on Penny after we got to talk and I told Yang about it.” Ruby then frowned a bit “Yang also spent the next night explaining to me about relationships.”

“Wow, that’s… unlike her.” I said, thinking back from before.

“You telling me… Anyway, I don’t believe Penny would feel the same way though.” she said sadly. I was taken aback by this.

“What, why?” I asked. She shrugs.

“Oh well, she’s an android and maybe didn’t understand feelings.” Ruby then pulled her legs up to her. “Besides, I doubt she would yes if I asked.”

“That’s not true!” I told her. She looked at me with that same sad smile.

“Thanks for saying that but it’s true. I don’t have Weiss’ complexion and singing voice, or Blake’s calm and caring personality, nor my sisters… well, she’s hot.” Ruby looks down at herself. “I’m twenty-four years old but I think even that wouldn’t do me favors.”

“That’s not true!” I said loudly. Ruby looked at me to say something but I continued. “You’re the greatest person I know. You’re kind, thoughtful, funny and most importantly beautiful.” Ruby stared at me in shock as I stared back.

“You… you mean that?” Ruby asked. I nodded as I just realized what I just said.

“Uhh…” was all I could say until there was knocking. I looked over and heard Rockmond and my aunts voice coming from below. “Let’s… talk about this later.”

I stood up just as Rockmond was climbing up. I saw Lana looking at me and giving me thumbs up with a smile. I suppress the urge to roll my eyes as the other two climbed up.

“We’ve come to decision and with a few of my trusted warriors, it might just work.” Said Rockmond before helping my Aunt up to her feet. This caught Lana’s full attention and mines.

“And that is?” I asked.

“Tomorrow at dawn, we’re going for a hike up the volcano.” Rockmond said, his tone indicating that wasn’t kidding.

“You and your group?” I asked him.

“You and Ruby are amongst my most trusted warriors, along with Edward and the twins.” He answered, looking at the two of us. Lana looked at us worryingly as he said this.

“Okay, we go up to the volcano and… then what?” Ruby asked Rockmond. He looked at us before looking out the window, seeing the top of the volcano just beyond the forcefield.

“We enter the cave and… we’ll the rest is a bit of a work in progress but it’s nothing we can’t do.” He said with a bit of a shrug before glancing back at us. “Right now though, we need to get you fitted with some armor.” He said with a smirk.

“Wait… do you mean....”

“We get some power armor?!” I said, finishing Ruby’s sentence.

“Well, what other kind of armor do you think I’m talking about?” He asked jokingly while crossing his arms with a smirk. “Head on over to the Replicator, someone will be there to suit you up.” He said, gesturing towards the large spinning orb near the smithy building. I always wondered what that thing was.

Both me and Ruby look at each other before a broad smile formed on is both.

“We get power armor!!!” Ruby said excitedly. I nodded happily. This earned a laugh from everyone else. With that said me and Ruby headed off to the Replicator in a happy hurry. The one thing I wondered was what Ruby was carrying with her. It was a wooden box that she was holding under her arm. I didn’t ask about it as we got to the place.

We looked up at the large, orb-like building with some kind of light or energy inside it.

“Ooo~.” The two of us said as we stare at it. From the side of the structure, was the man responsible for everyone’s weapons and armor. He was at the same age as Rockmond, maybe a little older by a year or two. He was banging something hard with a hammer, it must’ve been something primitive for him to be using a hammer.

“Um, hello?” I called out to him. He stopped and turned to face us, revealing his one glazed eye, his other eye being a solid red color.

“Hmm?” He hummed, narrowing his eyes at us to get a good look at us. “Ah yes, Viri and Ruby. I was expecting your arrival.” He said, letting go of the hammer and leaving atop the wooden table he was working on. “I’ve already been informed of your need for armor.” He said, going into a back room leaving the door slightly ajar. The two of us looked at each other as we waited. He soon came back out wearing a half complete suit of Tek armor minus the chestpiece. “Follow me.” He said and we did just that. He led us towards the orb as it spun around, emitting its hypnotic light. “Place your hands on the replicator.” He instructed us. Hesitantly we did as he said, feeling the oddly cool surface of the orb. “Alright now, you might feel a little discomfort or pleasure, different between people. I don’t know why.” He said muttering the last bit mostly to himself as he walked up to the large machine. He soon went out of view, having gone to the other side of the large machine.

We stood there with our hands on the orb before the machine shone its hypnotic blue color. After a few minutes of waiting, I started to get a little bored with standing here.

“Umm, is something going to happen?” Ruby asked the man. Upon saying this, the orb emitted a wave of its blue light that coursed through Ruby’s body, her hands being covered in the light as it formed the tek gauntlets. Once the light moved up her chest, the armor formed around her before the light down to her legs, creating the leggings and finally the boots. Once everything was done, the helmet formed around her head, her face still visible until the visor formed. Soon Ruby was encased in Tek armor. She stepped away from the orb and looked at herself. “Whoa…”

As Ruby looked at the armor the orb emitted the same wave for me. I watch the same process happen again, only for me. After a few moments, I was in my own set of armor. I took a few steps back to give myself a once-over.

“Yeah… whoa.” I said when I felt… something. It kinda came out of the blue but I felt really… warm. I shifted a bit as the man came around to see us.

“There we go, nicely armored and fully charged. Your suits have been fitted with element batteries, element is what we use to power all of our tek. Your batteries will allow you to consume less element and store more.” He said, looking at me as I shifted a bit. “You alright?” He asked.

“Yes!” I said in a higher tone. I cough a bit as I tried to calm down a bit.

“Is it uhh, warm in here? I feel really warm.” Ruby said as she too shifted a bit. He blinked at the both of us before sighing.

“Right, the aftereffect. Well, just know that it’ll wear off in about an hour or so. In the meantime, do be sure to be in private when you’re ehh… relieving the stress as most would say.” He said, heading back to his workbench after bidding us farewell. The two of us looked at each other for a moment.

“You… don’t mind if I use our room to… you know…” Ruby asked.

“No no, you go ahead… I’ll just… ask my aunt if I can use her room to… you know.” I told her. The two of us stared at each other before we quickly headed off to do our… relieving.

What happened is that it didn’t last an hour, it lasted for the rest of the day. At the end I passed out from this, feeling the effects wear off.

Well, that was fun... I think?

Author's Notes:

So we get a look at what Ruby and Viri look like a few years older and... yeah that ending just happened.