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Ruby finds herself facing her end. As she pushes her Semblance to new heights, the world breaks. In one fluid, crystallising moment everything changes. A 23 year old Ruby Rose, one of the deadliest hunters on Remnant, spills out of the void and into the dorm of team RWBY, including a 15 year old version of herself. A hunter in a world of unknowing prey.
— Summary

Remnant's Reclaimer by Hysterical Clerical Hijinks is a RWBY Time Travel or Peggy Sue fanfic.

The main premise is that a future version of Ruby, referred to as Rose, finally kills Big Bad Cinder after a war in future Remnant that kills many of her friends, including her beloved sister Yang. Cinder's final attack, in an attempt to kill Ruby, instead sends Ruby back in time to when she attended Beacon Academy- specifically, to the past Team RWBY.

Now Ruby and Rose, in addition to the rest of the team, take the opportunity to Set Right What Once Went Wrong and prevent Cinder from causing the Bad Future Rose hails from. Which, granted, is easier said than done.

Is now a featured fic in Weiss Reacts. Also, it hasn't been updated in a long time.


Remnant's Reclaimer contains examples of the following tropes, which may include unmarked spoilers for RWBY:

  • Abnormal Limb Rotation Range: Tropes Are Flexible, no pun intended.
  • Absurdly Sharp Blade: Future!Crescent Rose has one made of "dust reinforced steel with a small diamond edge."
  • Affectionate Nickname: Rose calls Ruby "little Rose," the same as their mother used to call them.
  • Alternate Universe: The fic's timeline only resembles canon RWBY up until the end of Vol. 2, and information presented after that does not appear to factor into the fic.
  • Amusing Injuries: When Yang beats up Team CRDL, Rose mentions that she won't stop Yang because Rose is "extremely vindictive" and finds it "fun to watch." One of Team CRDL closes the chapter with "GAH, MY SPLEEN!"
  • An Arm and a Leg: Future!Weiss is said to have lost an arm by the time Ruby makes her trip back.
  • As You Know: In Chapter 12, Rose explains to Yang (and readers) what Arachne Grimm are. Yang says she already knew, but Rose replies that she was just checking, since she was recounting a (potential) future incident.
  • Ax-Crazy: Cinder, towards the end of the war. Once it becomes obvious that she's not going to win, she snaps and starts lashing out blindly, trying to destroy everything she can.
  • Badass Family: As per canon, the extended Rose/Xiao Long/Branwen family is extremely badass. When on missions together, nothing short of the Legendary Grimm even stand a chance.
  • Bad Future: Rose mentions during her debriefing that Vale has all but been destroyed, because of the war.
    • She goes into greater detail later on, and it's really not pretty, if Rose's rather obvious issues are anything to go by. But if you really must know what exactly happened: Taiyang, Ozpin, and the Beacon staff members as well as about half the students were poisoned during an end-of-year feast when the White Fang took the cooks' families hostage. Weiss has lost an arm. Yang is dead. Blake has spent the last four months in a torture-induced coma. Vale has essentially ceased to be a major power, to the point that Rose is glad the other major powers have stepped in.
  • Belligerent Sexual Tension: Future!Ruby describes Yang and Weiss as "the textbook definition of sexual tension."
    Future!Ruby: You are quite fucking literally fire and ice.
  • Big, Screwed-Up Family: The Schnees.
  • Broken Bird: Rose. Losing all your friends to years of war will do that to a person.
  • Butt-Monkey: Cardin Winchester. Given the usual tropes attached to him, though, it's difficult to feel any sympathy.
  • Canine Companion: After the near-disastrous incident with Cardin, Zwei apparently has taken it upon himself to become Velvet's "unofficial protector" against bullies. It helps that the rabbit Faunus adores him so much she spoils him rotten.
  • Canon Discontinuity: As this fanfic was written before Volume 3 of RWBY aired, a lot of events and characters in the fic are different from canon.
    • Yang dies instead of Pyrrha in Rose's future, Weiss loses her arm instead of Yang, and Ruby loses her eye instead of Cinder (Cinder and Roman are personally killed one after the other by Ruby). Also, Cinder killed the White Fang's previous leader in a coup in Future!Ruby's backstory, while in canon the White Fang's previous leader, Blake's still-alive father, stepped down by choice.
    • Yang, Qrow, and possibly Taiyang have different Semblances Fan Fic Semblances than they do in canon Canon Semblances.
    • Cinder is portrayed as the Big Bad, as Salem hadn't been revealed yet, and Mercury and Emerald have different surnames in this fic ("Selth" and "Harron") than in canon (Black and Sustrai).
    • Weiss's and Blake's relatives are changed from canon, Changes and Lie Ren has a surviving grandfather and is treated as if his name uses Eastern naming conventions (family name Lie, personal name Ren) when canon (V4 C10) reveals that Lie is his personal name and his past-deceased parents had the surname Ren.
    • In this fanfic, Faunus don't mix-and-match traits from different-species parents and have at most one major trait if one parent is human, but add together traits from same-species Faunus parents. Canon Faunus (V4 WoR: Faunus) have only one animal feature, which matches one parent if both are same-species Faunus or one is Faunus and the other human and is random if both parents are different-species Faunus.
  • Caught Monologuing: Rose made the mistake of stopping to lecture Cinder instead of finishing her off, which gave Cinder time enough to prepare her final attack.
  • Cerebus Syndrome/Darker and Edgier: Compared to the original series.
    • Canon!Cinder Fall had the goal of stealing the remaining powers of the Fall Maiden who was hidden in Beacon Academy after a prior attack by Cinder left her in a coma. In this fic, her aim is to become the queen of Vale, despite the fact that Vale hasn't been a monarchy for over 500 years, and is willing to murder thousands of people in order to get it. She also is responsible for the violent direction that the White Fang has been taking in recent years, having secretly killed the previous leader in a coup.
    • Weiss' father. Rose flat-out calls him a slaver and the most morally repugnant being on Remnant, short of Cinder herself. Weiss doesn't take this well, especially once Rose provides video evidence of her father's depravities. Thankfully, she gets better.
  • Chekhov's Gag: Before Rose's "super-secret training trip," Yang was briefly noted to have finished doing laundry. After the incident listed under I'll Be in My Bunk, Yang comes out of the shower wearing Ruby's (smaller) clothes to provoke Weiss, and (after Weiss flees) Blake points out that Weiss has the memory to remember that Yang had no reason not to wear her own clothes instead.
  • Chewing the Scenery: Chapter 29 opens with Rose and Glynda watching Nora leave Taiyang's training class. Taiyang cries while Nora plays the "grizzled, stoic hero saying goodbye to her ladylove." Hammers and explosions forever, baby.
  • Chick Magnet: To Taiyang's chagrin, Future!Ruby "has already grown into her Xiao Long genes."
  • Closet Key: Rose talks Yang into realizing she has a crush on Weiss, and informs her that, due to Weiss's upbringing, Yang might have to be a Closet Key to Weiss herself before Weiss can reciprocate her feelings.
  • Cool Airship: Qrow's dropship, the Corvus, though its coolness isn't quite on display yet.
  • Corrupt Corporate Executive: Weiss's father's treatment of Faunus laborers is expanded upon in this fic.
  • Country Matters: Chapter 18 uses an adjective form to describe a wing attack used by Izhar against Rose.
  • Covert Pervert: Blake, but Future!Ruby repeatedly takes opportunities to out her to the rest of her team.
  • Crazy-Prepared: The Huntsmen and Huntresses even have a code and a passphrase for Time Travellers!
    Future!Ruby: Situation 'Reelection' period seven years, four months. Confirmation code: 'Clipped wings, further flight.'
    Ozpin: Confirmed. Level two confirmation code: 'Ice burns underfoot.'
    Future!Ruby: Level two confirmation: 'Sky burns overhead.'
    Ozpin: Confirmed. My god.
  • Crushing Handshake: Taiyang and Nora give each other one when they meet; neither is hurt by doing so.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • Future!Ruby vs Future!Roman Torchwick. Torchwick didn't even last a whole minute.
    • Future!Ruby takes on all of Team RWBY at once in a match, bare-handed. They don't even last a minute, or land a single hit on her. Somehow, Pyrrha and Ren aren't surprised by the match's outcome.
  • Cuteness Proximity:
    • Just like in canon, Weiss's initial hostility to Zwei disintegrates within half a minute of exposure to the dog, after which she starts cooing and fawning over him. And judging by Rose feeling deja vu at the scene, this had happened in her timeline as well.
    • Ruby's reaction to Blake's cat ears is to Squee and try to tackle-hug her.
  • Dead Fic: The last update to the fic was Chapter 30 on March 26, 2016.
  • Deflector Shields: Taiyang Xiao Long's Semblance creates force fields that can block any single type of attack.
  • Did You Just Have Sex?: Taiyang's horrified and Qrow's amused reactions to Rose's discarded clothes left behind in Glynda Goodwitch's office, and Team RWBY's reaction to the photo of said finding taken by Ozpin.
  • Despair Event Horizon: Upon seeing Izhar the Ravager (or one of the "lesser" Drakes), one White Fang just drops his sword and falls to his knees, crying Tears of Fear until its acid spit kills him.
  • Detect Evil: Inverted - Lie Ren can sense the innate light and goodness in all of Ruby's family.
  • Diegetic Soundtrack Usage: When visiting Rose in the hospital, Blake hums Ruby's theme song.
  • Drop What You Are Doing: Ozpin drops his coffee mug when he first sees Future!Ruby and mistakes her for Summer.
  • Embarrassing Nickname: After getting a heart-shaped acid burn on his ass, Taiyang is labeled "Sweetcheeks".
  • Evil Plan: Cinder made several in both timelines.
    • Future!Cinder's decades-long plan completely wiped out the Huntsmen and Huntresses of Vale. She killed nearly half the students of Beacon in one sitting by poisoning a graduation feast (of the staff, only Dr. Oobleck survives) - and Future!Ruby describes this as "one of the least of her crimes." She repeatedly unleashed Grimm on towns and villages in order to undercut faith in Hunters, then "rebelled" with the support of much of the population of Vale behind her. On top of that, she prevented the other three kingdoms from interfering by declaring it a civil war, tying them up politically. The only reason Cinder lost was because of Future!Team RWBY, who she inadvertently trained to become deadly huntresses by sending fodder at them, enabling them to last long and become strong enough to deplete her officer base – if they hadn't been there, Cinder would have won easily.
    • Future!Ruby and co's present-timeline covert-op in Thousand Homes allowed her to obtain, among other data, files for Present!Cinder's "Operation Maskfall," a plan to assassinate Raven Branwen. True to its name, it contains very specific details on Raven's abilities and limitations and contingencies to exploit those weaknesses and enable the White Fang to kill her. Future!Ruby says that this is just one of Cinder's evil plans, and that others are even better.
  • Expecting Someone Taller: Taiyang deadpans this when he sees Izhar the Ravager.
  • Explain, Explain... Oh, Crap!:
  • Eye Color Change: Yang's and Taiyang's Canonicity? eyes change from lilac to red when they're angered.
  • Eye Patch After Time Skip: Future!Ruby had lost her left eye in a mishap during a routine skirmish.
  • Famed In-Story: Exploited in the Bad Future when Future!Team JNPR were pulled from frontline combat and forced to grandstand their reputations in order to serve as Hope Bringers to the general population, because the public's fear and despair would otherwise have kept attracting and empowering the Grimm. Future!Ruby mentally credits them for having done at least half of what the government demagogues said they did.
  • Feed It a Bomb: Taiyang throws Malwr down Izhar's gullet. The results are... about what you'd expect.
  • Flat Joy: Blake's reaction when Yang says Blake will also reap the benefits of Present!Ruby's tackle hugs.
  • Flipping the Bird: Multiple characters do this on various occasions, sometimes petty, sometimes not so much.
  • Foreshadowing: In Chapter 15, Rose mentions that Taiyang would get along well with Nora Valkyrie, while Glynda remarks that she'd be surprised if the two didn't destroy Beacon Academy within the year. The two meet in Chapter 28, and in Chapters 29 and 30, their training sessions scare to death both Glynda and Lie Ren.
  • Freudian Threat: Taiyang expects Glynda to "freeze, then consequently shatter, his testicles" if she ever caught him peeping at her (which he was more or less doing at the time, what with him staring at her bouncing breasts). She does catch him... but instead she threatens to gouge his eyes out.
  • Future Badass: Ruby Rose. Her contribution as a whole was apparently so great that Rose was fast-tracked to become high commander of Vale's forces (whatever was left of them, anyway), to her own surprise.
  • Future Me Scares Me: Whenever Future!Ruby gets a murderous look in her eye or reminds Team RWBY that she is a cold-blooded killer, Present!Ruby shivers. Yang's not happy about what Ruby becomes, either.
  • Gender-Inclusive Writing: Instead of calling the heroes "Huntsmen" and "Huntresses" like canon RWBY does, this fanfic uses "Hunter" to refer to both sexes, like the official Japanese dub.
  • Girl on Girl Is Hot: Blake certainly seems to think so!
  • A Glass in the Hand: Glynda's reaction when informed of the near-disaster caused by Cardin's bullying Velvet.
  • The Glomp: When Blake reveals her Faunus status to her team, Future!Ruby has to grab Present!Ruby to stop her from doing this, but Present!Ruby eventually slips free and glomps Blake and Weiss.
  • Good Scars, Evil Scars: The results of the Izhar fight leaves Qrow with a thin scar along the side of his face. As good as he already looked to begin with, this somehow actually improves upon said looks!
    Taiyang: Only him. Only he could get hit in the face with acid and come out prettier than he was before.
  • Green-Eyed Monster: Blake twice shows signs of jealousy when presented evidence of Rose's "fun" with Glynda.
  • Grievous Harm with a Body: An epically pissed-off Yang (see Scars are Forever below) decides to deal with Cardin Winchester's sexism by beating him unconscious with his own partner.
  • Gun Nut: Weiss snarks that Present!Ruby would replace her living teammates with talking guns if she could.
  • Hero Killer: Any Grimm that is so powerful and infamous as to have been given a name is this by default.
  • Hulk Speak: Qrow does this at one point to mock Taiyang, who flips him off for it.
  • Hurricane of Puns: Future!Yang had given one off when she discovered that she was lava-proof.
    Future!Ruby (quoting Future!Yang): Hey guys! It's unbe-lava-ble; in fact, it might just magma day.
  • I Call Him "Mister Happy": Yang named her breasts "Ein" ("One," her right) and "Zwei" ("Two," her left). When questioned about this, she says she named Zwei after her boob and not the other way around. Yang then asks Future!Ruby if she named her "baps," even as a joke, but Future!Ruby denies having done so.
  • I'll Be in My Bunk: A variation - After Rose's Training from Hell, a later relaxing Weiss manages to avoid sharing her dwindling supply of bath salts with Yang by telling her that their shower has multiple different pressure settings. Yang almost immediately declares that she's going to take a bath, then hastens to clarify to Weiss (and Blake, who's also there) that she didn't mean that kind of bath...
  • Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Future!Ruby's finishing blow against Future!Cinder Fall in Chapter 1.
  • I Shall Taunt You: Taiyang does this to provoke the rage-maddened Izhar the Ravager at a critical moment, just so he could throw Malwr straight down its throat.
  • Lame Pun Reaction:
    • Future!Ruby has a pained look on her face when recounting Future!Yang's lava puns to Present!Yang.
    • When Blake complains about Future!Ruby's training plan, Future!Ruby calls Blake a pussy. Blake glares at her, Yang laughs for a moment, and Future!Ruby admits, "That one gets old really fast," a sentiment with which Blake agrees.
  • Les Collaborateurs: Going by Rose's rant to Taiyang at the end of Chapter 15, in her timeline Cardin Winchester defected to Cinder's side at some point. She's rational enough, however, to not punish his present self for actions that he has yet to even contemplate the possibility of committing.
  • Let Us Never Speak of This Again: Weiss's reaction to Future!Ruby "seducing" Present!Ruby. Present!Ruby and Yang concur, but Blake's delayed reaction is noticed by her teammates, which highlights her Covert Pervert status again.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Izhar the Ravager is huge, has strength and toughness befitting its size, is fast and agile despite its bulk, and can attack at range by spitting acid that strips humans/Faunus to skeletons and melts through stone.
  • Little Bit Beastly: Blake, even more so than in canon. Besides her ears, her eyes also have slitted pupils like a cat's, which she covers up via contacts, and is also capable of purring. Rose of course already knows about this, though the rest of her team doesn't. (Yet.) She also implied she has a tail.
    • Partially revealed in Chapter 23. They know she's a Faunus, though she hasn't yet revealed her eyes or the purring.
    • As of Chapter 28, Yang and Weiss are aware of the eyes. It was also stated that Faunus with multiple major (i.e. obvious) traits are rare, and tend to have more of the subtle ones (which can include increased strength or senses, dangersense, and hollow bones depending on species) as a result. Blake states she hasn't heard of anyone with as many major traits as she does.
  • Long List:
  • Ludicrous Gibs: The natural result of swallowing a Reusable Kinetic-explosion Hammer, as Izhar learns to its cost.
  • Made of Explodium:
    • Dust remains as volatile as in canon; Cardin Winchester accidentally causes an explosion at Beacon Academy that barely avoids setting off enough stores of Dust to kill hundreds of other students (and he is subject to disciplinary action for doing so), and when Rose and her new coworkers carry out a black op at a Dust mine, the Dust factors in as both a weapon and a hazard.
    • Taiyang's weapon Malwr contains what is known as a Reusable Kinetic Grenade. Without his Semblance to enable him to shut it off manually, it would never stop exploding.
  • Mass "Oh, Crap!":
  • Mix-and-Match Weapon: Future!Ruby's Crescent Rose is an upgraded version of Present!Ruby's with a serrated scythe blade and a Dust-cartridge revolver barrel based on Weiss's Myrtenaster (but no flamethrower).
  • My Future Self and Me: Future!Ruby and Present!Ruby bond over weapons and cookies.
  • Named Weapons: Besides Team RWBY's, Taiyang's hammer is named Malwr and Qrow's scythe is named Orcus.
  • Names to Run Away from Really Fast: Izhar the Ravager. Rose is a heroine, but Lie Ren notes that her code name "Crimson Harvest" is too uncommon and ominous for her to be anything less than a top-ranking badass.
  • Nice Job Fixing It, Villain: Future!Cinder's obsession with killing Team RWBY proves to be her undoing, causing them to become the most powerful and experienced Hunter team alive.
  • "No. Just… No" Reaction: Rose deliberately invokes this to troll present!Team RWBY, Taiyang, and Qrow.
    Yang: If I wasn't so disturbed, I'd probably be impressed at how easy you just psyched out dad and uncle Qrow. Especially uncle Qrow.
  • Noodle Incident: Several are mentioned with varying levels of detail.
  • Nosebleed: Blake gets one when Rose replies to Weiss's remark about having "seen people eat at [Glynda's] desk" with a comeback implying a particular sex act.
  • The Nose Knows: After seeing Future!Ruby, Zwei can recognize her with a few sniffs.
  • Not Distracted by the Sexy: When Rose strips to her underwear in Glynda Goodwitch's office, Glynda is as stoic and unimpressed as expected and deflects all come-on lines with deadpan rebuttals. Rose eventually does succeed.
  • Not Hyperbole:
    • Rose scolds Qrow for his vice of smoking, saying it will kill him. Qrow think it's Smug Straight Edge behavior until she tells him he died of lung cancer in her future.
    • Going over some plans that she'd acquired in the future, Rose comments they have Cinder's name all over them. Because she actually signed the documents.
  • Not So Above It All: After Rose seduces Glynda, Rose gets a message on her scroll the next morning with a photo of Taiyang and Qrow in Glynda's office, with a dismayed Taiyang holding Rose's forgotten clothes and Qrow laughing his ass off. Given to whom she had explained her situation, Rose deduces that Ozpin took and sent the photo.
  • Not So Stoic: Happens twice to Ozpin. The first is when he mistakes Rose for her mother Summer, so shocked that he drops his coffee mug. The second is when he learns of Cinder's attack on Beacon in the future.
    Ozpin looks apocalyptic. Rose can see the tell-tale signs of his Semblance activating subconsciously; shadowy tendrils spreading out from his iris, turning his eyes a haunting, eerie black. His white-knuckle grip on his cane is another indication of his anger. But nothing is more indicative of his rage than the ferocious snarling set of his mouth, his teeth bared in a primal expression of fury.
    "They dare to hurt my students?" Ozpin's voice echoes around the room, sharp and cold, akin to a blade being drawn from it's scabbard.
  • Not What It Looks Like: Weiss's explanation for a Suggestive Collision. Blake replies, "They always say that."
  • Oh, My Gods!: Several characters swear by Dust, and later by Oum. The latter almost became a Harsher in Hindsight in the wake of Monty Oum's death. One reviewer, however, suggested that the author keep using it, as a tribute to the man himself.
  • Old Master: An off-screen example is referenced when Lie Ren thinks of "the most dangerous man in the world, his grandfather, Vacuo's Slumbering Dragon."
  • Once Done, Never Forgotten:
    • Defied by Future!Ruby when she decides that this is a reason not to seduce Glynda Goodwitch in her office while Taiyang lies fainted in the same room.
    • Future!Ruby and Present!Blake discuss the former's (and her teammates') reactions to finding out about Blake's Ninjas of Love novel series.
      Present!Blake: I'd never hear the end of it.
      Future!Ruby: You never do.
  • One-Steve Limit: Future!Ruby takes the name Rouge Rose (or just "Rose" for short), Ruby and Yang's older sister, as a cover identity in order to avoid name confusion with her younger self. Initially and temporarily defied by Present!Ruby, who doesn't want to be "weird" and tell people not to call Future!Ruby by her proper name.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: See Future Me Scares Me and Not So Stoic above.
  • Outrun the Fireball: Trying to do this is what caused Ruby to travel into the past.
  • Parental Sexuality Squick:
  • Precision F-Strike: Several times, usually (but not only) when Rose explains the events and effects of her Bad Future.
  • Psycho for Hire: Neo is described as such by Future!Ruby, who (despite calling her a sadist and torturer) claims that Neo is "not evil" and may possibly be bribed away from Cinder's side. Rose seems "interested" in her.
  • Puppy-Dog Eyes: Ruby tends to use these a lot. Rose, as her future self, is the only one immune.
  • Rage Breaking Point: Over the course of Chapters 22 and 23, Yang had been struggling to keep her temper in check after a whole week of discovering just how inhumane the Schnee Dust Company is to its Faunus workers under Weiss's father, and watching Weiss gradually break down in horror in the face of all the incontrovertible evidence of such atrocities. Then after Blake outs herself as a Faunus to Team RWBY, Yang notices scars on one of Blake's ears... the legacy of ear-markers that she had already seen on way too many Faunus that were practically slave laborers for the SDC. Cue Yang rushing to the gym to vent her now uncountable outrage at the realization that her partner was one of the SDC's countless victims. She almost makes it into the gym, but one of Team CRDL bumps into her at the door and calls her a sexist slur...
  • Red Baron:
    • Apparently, Huntsmen and Huntresses can earn these if they become skilled enough. Nicknames include "Duchess" Glynda, Taiyang the "Unassailable Aegis", Qrow "the Hewer" and "Man of Many Masks" (though he dislikes the latter, as being famed for secrecy is oxymoronic), and Future!Ruby the "Crimson Harvest" (according to her war passcard) - which, as Lie Ren notes, is too ominous a title to be casually given to her or self-applied.
    • Any Grimm powerful enough to earn its own name also gets a title in the process, such as Izhar the Ravager.
  • Required Secondary Powers: Yang's fire Semblance grants her immunity to fire damage. Combined with her Aura, she can even withstand the raw heat and pressure of molten lava. In contrast to canon Semblances and uses for Aura, this protection doesn't extend to her clothes.
  • The Reveal:
    • Rose reveals to Weiss the truth about Weiss's father's abuses against the Faunus.
    • At Rose's urging, Blake comes out about her being a Faunus to her team much earlier than in canon, and with significantly less intra-team drama involved. (Inter-team, however, is another story.) However, Blake takes her time on revealing the sheer extent of her animal features.
  • Rouge Angles of Satin: Misspelled names include Dr. Bartholomew Oobleck ("Ooblek"), Taiyang Xiao Long (usually "Tai-Yang Xiao-Long", but variations also appear), and Velvet Scarlatina ("Scarletina"); other errors include misused punctuation, missing articles (a/an/the), and incorrect plurals (referring to Rose's "eyes" despite her having lost one).
  • Ruder and Cruder: The characters are more prone to cursing in times of duress compared to the original show. More stoic characters like Ozpin and Glynda generally avoid it.
  • Scars are Forever: Blake has some on one of her cat ears, the result of "living conditions" in the mines. Yang very nearly goes berserk over this.
  • School Bullying Is Harmless: Played with. As Rose explains it, the only reason why Team CRDL hasn't been called out on their canon Jerkassery is because Beacon is a warrior school: students are expected and encouraged to be able to stand up for themselves. Faculty will typically only step in if it looks like someone might get seriously hurt as a result.
  • Screams Like a Little Girl: When attacked by Yang, Team CRDL are described as making "girlish shrieks."
  • Screw Yourself: Future!Ruby invoked this during the forest training trip to troll Present!Team RWBY and later Taiyang and Qrow. Reactions include Mass "Oh, Crap!", "No. Just… No" Reaction, This Is Wrong on So Many Levels!, Let Us Never Speak of This Again, Luminescent Blush, Thousand-Yard Stare, Weirdness Censor, and Rapid-Fire "No!".
  • Series Continuity Error: Not counting discrepancies with canon RWBY (that is, considering only what appears in this fic):
    • Chapters 3 and 4 show Weiss, Blake, and Yang horrified to see Future!Ruby cleaning human blood and gore off her Crescent Rose, but in Chapter 2 she leaves it in the dorm while she takes a shower and Present!Ruby examines it in front of the rest of her team without anyone noticing or commenting on any blood. It may be that said bits were caught up in the internal gearworks instead of dripping off the blade, but the story isn't specific enough.
    • In Chapter 6, Future!Ruby flirts with Glynda in front of Ozpin and Team RWBY by saying that Future!Glynda had maintained her beauty through the passage of time, but in Chapter 15 she tells Ozpin, Glynda, Taiyang, and Qrow that a poisoned end-of-year feast killed all the Beacon staff except for Dr. Oobleck, without excluding Glynda. Then again, she might have said that for the sake of flirting.
    • In Chapter 12, Future!Ruby claims that Yang's Semblance of fire- and lava-immunity was discovered when Future!Yang fell into an active volcano's magma and emerged unharmed but naked with her clothes burned off. However, Aura is shown in canon (and is not contradicted in this fic) to protect the person's held items and worn belongings (such as clothes and weapons, including armor and improvised weapons) in addition to the person's body. At least this is kept consistent later when Yang removes one glove to pat out a campfire with her bare hand.
  • Set Right What Once Went Wrong: Not intentional, but Rose certainly isn't going to pass up the opportunity.
  • Shell-Shocked Veteran: Rose notes that she is very much this. Ironically, she and Glynda expect Ozpin to object to her teaching at Beacon over this, but this is exactly why Ozpin hires her as Beacon's new combat instructor: she's been through a war, and therefore knows what the students need to learn in order to survive.
  • Ship-to-Ship Combat: Invoked when Rose uses this to trick Blake into admitting she did read Ninjas of Love.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Simple Solution Won't Work: After Rose first gets back and explains her story to Ozpin, Ozpin suggests they go and take out Cinder right away now that they have all the information about her. Rose declines since Cinder's followers would go on a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and cause mass destruction.
  • Slashed Throat: Future!Ruby's finishing blow against Future!Roman Torchwick in Chapter 1.
  • Slavery Is a Special Kind of Evil: The reveal of the extent to which Weiss's father has abused the Faunus eliminates the last shreds of respect Weiss had for him and drives Ruby and Yang to tears (and Yang to rage).
  • Smoking Is Not Cool: Future!Ruby throws out Present!Qrow's last cigarette during a meeting where she'd just explained her Bad Future, complaining that Future!Qrow had died of smoking-induced lung cancer before Future!Ruby's graduation. Present!Qrow's anger turns to shaken disbelief, and Taiyang agrees that it's an Undignified Death.
  • Something Only They Would Say: Taiyang tests Rose this way, to confirm that she really is Ruby.
  • Sophisticated as Hell: After Present!Team RWBY's ill-advised spar with Future!Ruby, Yang thinks Weiss "calling someone a sadistic whore had never sounded so classy."
  • Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Future!Cinder sent out her ranking officers with Huntsman training when low-level conscripts failed to kill Future!Team RWBY. This failed, as Future!Ruby explains to a distraught Present!Team RWBY, because Future!Team RWBY killed them all, leading Future!Cinder to Put Them All Out of My Misery.
  • Spit Take: Present!Ruby in the second half Chapter 16, with milk, when Blake explains the events of the first half.
  • Stealth Expert: Qrow. Combined with his Semblance, he can do pretty much anything in perfect silence.
  • Strong Family Resemblance: Future!Ruby looks and sounds so much like her late mother Summer, that several characters mistake her for Summer at first glance, including Ozpin and Ruby's own father. Taiyang notes later that "Rose" is taller than her mother was.
  • Suggestive Collision: In Chapter 16, Weiss accidentally causes one between Yang and herself by pulling off Yang's (borrowed) Modesty Towel while she stepped out of the bathroom after a shower. Blake caught them in the act and lampshaded it.
  • Super Spit: Izhar the Ravager is a Grimm Drake that spits blue Hollywood Acid that leaves victims Stripped to the Bone.
  • Suspiciously Specific Tense: How Blake recognizes that Rose's team successfully killed Izhar the Ravager.
  • "Take That!" Kiss: When Rose acts like The Tease in front of Taiyang, he jokes that she'll "corrupt the children," then expresses belief that even Future!Ruby is still too innocent regarding romance and sexuality. Rose reacts by French-kissing Glynda Goodwitch in front of Taiyang and Ozpin.
    Rose: Who said anything about corrupting the children?
  • Taking You with Me: Cinder tries to do this to Ruby, culminating in the latter's trip through time.
  • The Revolution Will Not Be Civilized: Cinder will do anything to get what she wants.
  • The Tease: Rose has grown somewhere between this (apparently it's a Xiao Long thing) and The Gadfly.
  • This Is Gonna Suck:
  • Time Travel: Natch. Rose breaking the limits of her own Semblance, combined with Cinder's final suicide-strike attack, flings Rose back in time by several years.
  • Title Drop: Chapter 14 ends with Future!Ruby telling Taiyang and Qrow the story of "A Remnant she hopes to reclaim."
  • Together in Death: A fox Faunus and wolf Faunus couple are killed by Rose during the Dust mine infiltration. Their last act is to kiss each other while bleeding to death, and Rose has to repress her guilt about killing them and keep going.
  • Tragic Keepsake: Future!Ruby has Future!Yang's bloodstained scarf, which has "Property of Yang Xiao Long, official badass" inscribed on the inside; she shows Present!Yang, who checks and confirms that it matches her own scarf.
  • Training from Hell: Rose puts Team RWBY and her first class through this.
    Rose: Hello, everyone. My name is Professor Rouge Rose, but you may address me as Miss, Professor, or Rose. I am your new combat instructor, and this (slaps the wall behind her, drawing up shades and revealing a chalkboard with "Avoiding the pointy end - 101" written on it) is your new class.
    (The class's response was a mixed bag of stunned silence, growing dread, and smothered laughter.)
    Rose: Practical application begins in five minutes.
    (The mixed bag became decidedly less mixed, after that.)
  • Understatement: Chapter 30 opens with this light-hearted dinner chat involving Qrow and Ozpin:
    Qrow: Ozpin, what is your stance on teachers murdering students in a blood rage?
    Ozpin: (Finishes chewing and swallowing a mouthful of food) Not positive.
    Qrow: What if they were getting rid of only the stupid ones? Raising the standards of the school, as it were?
    Ozpin: You'll find my lack of support in your endeavor to cull the student population to be unchanged, unfortunately. (looks suitably apologetic)
  • Ventriloquism: Qrow's Semblance in a nutshell. It allows him to silently bifurcate people with a Sinister Scythe.
  • Verbal Tic: Both Rubys, Yang, Taiyang, and Qrow appear fond of using "yup" and "nope" as replies, and both Rubys and Yang in particular like to "pop" the p-sound at the end of both words.
  • Vitriolic Best Buds: Taiyang and Qrow. They constantly rip into each other, but it is clear they have been friends since they were teenagers.
  • Vomit Discretion Shot: Weiss throws up when she sees Future!Ruby cleaning blood off Crescent Rose. When Future!Ruby explains that she's been fighting a war and "lost count years ago" of how many people she's killed, Yang throws up at the thought of her younger sister killing her way through a war zone.
  • Wake Up, Go to School & Save the World: Lampshaded. Between Cinder and her lieutenants posing as students, and the good guys being either students themselves or else teachers, the weekend is the only time anyone is able to get anything significant done.
  • Waking Non Sequitur: Ruby wakes up from a dream in Chapter 11 screaming about a tiramisu apocalypse and Weiss' blood tasting delicious with sugar.
  • War Is Hell: The war against Cinder is so bad that once it is over, Future!Ruby states the other three kingdoms intend to annex Vale, simply because there isn't anything left; the economy, population, and infrastructure have been completely wiped out. On a more personal note, the war has cost Future!Ruby an eye, Future!Weiss one of her arms, has left Future!Blake in a months-long coma, and costs Future!Yang her life.
  • Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Discussed - killing present!Cinder might not be that difficult in and of itself, but she has so many detailed plans ready to go, and so many loyalists potentially capable of carrying them out after her death, that the good guys can't risk alerting her to their awareness of her because her (or her subordinates') revenge would endanger innocent people.
  • Why Won't You Die?: Cinder's first line in the story, which sets the tone for how things have been going in the future.
  • You Have GOT to Be Kidding Me!: Taiyang's response when he sees Qrow's new acid-burn "good" facial scar.
  • You Need to Get Laid: Yang jokes like this about Glynda Goodwitch, but she (and the rest of Team RWBY) is shocked (and Yang is amused, and Blake is turned on) when Rose does successfully seduce Glynda.
  • Your Little Dismissive Diminutive: Rose uses this to mock Cardin Winchester and his "little gang."

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