Magma Admin!Ruby, also known as Magma Ruby and Fourth Flame Ruby, is my take on the AU that I started working on a little over 3 years ago where Courtney began researching Ruby a lot earlier and thus scouting him for team magma. A lot of the au focuses on some hypotheticals i find interesting and some dynamics i really wanted to happen so really it’s just very self indulgent lol ^^

in this ruby never took the running shoes norman gave him and because of this he never ran off that cliff and never met sapphire/started the bet, instead being chased into a bush where he was helped by courtney. they get along pretty well, ruby likes that she doesn’t ask questions, and it’s just nice to have someone out there who believes in his contest career. she offers to let him crash at her place but he’s adamant that he can stay at hotels for now until that money starts to dwindle. courtney introduces him to tabitha, soft launches the idea of team magma, that seeds planted in his head, and then ruby’s flat broke. the contests aren’t covering all his expenses, he barely knows how to camp, and he’s conveniently got these two friends who’re willing to let him stay at their place. and what is that place? abandoned house.

what courtney failed to mention is that their pseudo-cult does NOT have stable housing but she assures him that it’s not that bad and brings him in to speak with maxie, who he actually gets along pretty well with. it’s clear that these guys are well established, loyal, and committed. he doesn’t really agree with what they’re doing but it’s better than being on the streets and potentially found by his dad. and so now he’s staying with team magma and all he’s required to do is help out a little bit with the stuff they’re doing, at first just some research, preparing food, even making some outfits which he’s excited to do, and in return he gets a room, meals, and… a FATHER FIGURE!?!?!

he gets emotionally attached to maxie. he’s a weak weak boy and very lacking in that department and now he just really cares about making him proud. now his responsibilities are piling up a bit and he can’t really travel a ton to participate in new contests, sort of at the whim of when they have to move bases, but they do so frequently enough that he’s still content. now he’s coming along on missions and doing some support work, still not battling, but then they’re on their way to steal the submarine when who do they come across? SAPPHIRE!! AND SHES KICKING THEIR ASSES!!!!!

most of the grunts are down so it’s really just tabitha and ruby, who’s helping out pretty minimally, mostly being lookout, but sapphire recognises him as a weak link and immediately attacks. ruby panics because this very strong, fanged, leaf wrapped girl is now tackling him to the ground and he doesn’t really want to fight her in front of all his coworkers so he ends up running away and leaving tabitha by himself. everyone’s pretty pissed at him for that because it cost them the submarine so courtney sits him down and opens up a little bit about her backstory and why she fights and how beautiful she finds burning things. this resonates with a ruby a bit and he starts to consider fighting again when necessary, at least to help team magma.

This au is stretched out along a longer timeline than canon, and when ruby meets blaise they are very annoyed with each other and begin a rivalry in which either one tries to become an admin before the other. over the months ruby climbs the ranks and becomes more ruthless and desperate to please maxie, not knowing that all the admins basically know everything about him and who his father is. after a successful mission, he’s finally promoted to admin, basically only so that he feels more indebted to stay with team magma and not because he really deserves it, BUT!! because of this he gets a little promotion gift.

tabitha is a bit of a blend between his rs and oras designs/traits and is a little more chill— but because of this he’s very technologically savvy and makes gauntlets and boots for ruby. all of the admins (also blaise but not yet) have their own little gimmicks, like his smoke putting people to sleep, blaise’s illusions, and courtney’s berries (also burning things to crisps but i see that more as her rejecting gimmicks) and ruby’s is vortexes of fire that are used to propel himself in the air. these are meant to parallel the running shoes ^^ courtney also gives him a solrock that’s his fire type

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i’m gonna take the promotion as a chance to explain sapph just a bit because i love her so much. i have more but this’ll be too long if i use it but basically i used this au as a chance to explore some themes i really like and wish were used with her story ^^

sapph, of course, doesnt meet ruby at the start of the arc, but birch does task her with being on the lookout while she’s on her journey. She’s just a little more messed up by the salamence incident and has more of a complex about strength and this’ll affect her a lot later on.

she ends up meeting wally in petalburg because she was sent to speak with norman a bit and helps him catch a pokemon, not lending him her own pokemon but encouraging him to be more active in the battle himself and kind of legends arceus-ing (i’ve never played it dont quote me on that but like. he didn’t fight the pokemon with his bare hands but he distracted it yknow lol) but then the earthquake happens and wallys washed away!!! and so she goes on her journey mostly as normal, helping mr stone and being given the letter, and then she’s approached about a capture of the museum because of some coverage she’s gotten under gabby and ty (i love them i need them somewhere) and goes to help out.

they’re not too hard to deal with but there’s this kid her age who’s doing an insane job picking apart her team but wont fight back when she comes after him? and she kind of tucks that away in her mind for later, but successfully chases them away and is approached by winona, who wants her to train under her gym and sapphire’s very excited about this! this guidance is really what she needs because she’s not really getting that competitive push, and she’s knocking out badges until the threat of team magma and aqua begin to be a little too real.

Since the story is drawn out a bit more unfortunately i do not know how to use the bet’s significance yet but basically it’s just like in canon where she abandons it for a bit because of everything going on😭 during this weird period she’s mostly jsut camping out and training and plotting and all that.

wally was found by mr briney and goes through a lot of ruby’s plot points until he returns to the mainland where his parents are of course a little very worried about him and bring him to verdanturf to recover, but he’s still doing his own training when he can. sapph is mostly hanging out between mauville and fortree and she’s still very close with and helping wally out while coordinating w gym leaders, but while she’s doing that who shows up to her campsite in the middle of the night? MAGMA ADMIN RUBY!?!?!!??

this parts confusing but basically ruby isn’t the strongest admin but he’s borderline maxie’s right hand man and assistant, and by this point since ruby’s joined team aqua and magma have been looking for the orbs for about a year.

it’s now june and they’re at a stalemate, so ruby’s been sent to negotiate with matt and shelly. the two of them want to speed things up and while aqua has the technology to locate the orbs, it’d be a lot faster if tabitha and shelly were to work together again, and so they temporarily team up to find both orbs faster.

eventually the locator is finished and there’s a mad dash to get the orbs, which are claimed by team magma!!! they celebrate and this is a huge moment for them all, but now suddenly this overarching goal that ruby doesnt really believe in is becoming a little too real, and he never imagined itd go this far. This is when team magma throws a party, drinking and eating for hours into the night, and the admins are DRUNK. and it’s let slip just how much they know about ruby’s past, which makes him furious.

ruby leaves the room, betrayed, and goes to speak to maxie for any reassurance from this guy he trusts so much. they talk for a bit and ruby tries to breach the subject of groudon a bit, asking just how serious maxie is about this whole thing, maxie takes this as him faltering and questions just how loyal ruby is to team magma. he backtracks and assures him that he loves this place, because he does, and wants to help them, but ruby also kind of has to come to terms with how far he’s willing to go. The conversation escalates a bit as ruby tries to talk him down but maxie’s very out of it and comes off way more abrasive than he should, telling ruby that he regrets making him admin over blaise. this sends ruby over the edge and he leaves, going to his room.

At this point he’s manic, he feels this intense loyalty to team magma, but also this sense of justice telling him he can’t let them get away with controlling groudon. At the same time he’s also just fearful and angry and wants to leave, and so he packs his stuff, breaks into maxie’s office, steals both orbs, and leaves. he runs and runs until he reaches route 119 and finds sapphire, who’s camping there.

now sapphire is very hostile towards him and for good reason, he’s supposedly evil, but he manages to explain himself and while she’s still skeptical, he allows her to take his pokeballs temporarily and stay the night. for a while they’re both very wary of each other and she’s very hesitant to let her guard down around him but he’s completely willing to expose team magma plans to her, just as long as she doesn’t rat him out to the gym leaders.

they camp a bit more, make plans together, bond a bit, and ruby offhandedly mentions that he was interested in doing contests in the hoenn region but wasn’t able to pursue it because of everything that’s been happening. sapphire admits that she’s been going through a similar thing with the gym challenge, and tells him that while she’s can’t commit herself to that dream she’s planning to travel to verdanturf and reconnect with wally, which would give ruby the chance to compete. he’s very excited about this and goes with her, where he also meets wally for the first time.

she tells wally about what’s been going on in hoenn and he’s very eager to help, but sapph says that he probably shouldn’t leave town for his health. this leads to all three of them LIVING TOGETHER!!!! while there’s still natural disasters happening and the teams running rampant (sapph and wally don’t know ruby has the orbs, wally doesnt know ruby’s from team magma) they actually are able to have a fun coming of age summer!

but by ruby’s birthday team magma is closing in on the orbs location and ruby is very very anxious about this. the three of them are still hanging out but there’s more grunts in the area and the presence of the orbs are really weighing on him, until one night wally comes to call him for dinner and ruby panics and drops the orbs on the floor.

wally walks in, sees these, and is rightfully very confused and upset. ruby swears he has reason for them and begs wally to trust him, and he gives him the benefit of the doubt in thanks ruby gives him celebi as a parallel to ralts.

not even days later the entirety of team magma is swarming verdanturf and sapph has called the gym leaders to the area in order to subdue the teams. ruby’s about to run, but when suddenly he sees blaise running around in an admin uniform, he becomes extremely jealous and ends up confronting them all. this is a TERRIBLE decision and obviously they all corner him, ruby asks why he was replaced, if he was really only chosen because of his dad, he only really wants answers but then a grunt notices the orbs and his bag and it becomes very serious.

suddenly he’s being attacked on all sides and starting to feel very cornered. sapph and wally realise what’s happening and run out right at the moment ruby pulls out the orbs.

(gore warning!)

sapph is PISSED. ruby’s not only completely destroyed her plans but also has been lying to her for ages. the contact with the orb is waking up groudon and kyogre and tremors and floods are beginning to happen around verdanturf. gym leaders begin to show up slowly and now in being surrounded ruby ends up absorbing the red orb and being possessed by groudon.

unfortunately ruby is 11 and extremely stubborn! and while he does in part want to use groudon to drive everyone away, he also doesn’t want to help team magmas plans, and also doesnt want the orb destroying him from the inside. so in trying to will groudon both back underground and out of his arm, the force of it causes the orb to explode inside his body, causing his arm to shoot off. and norman sees ALL of it.

and so he runs onto the battlefield, seeing his son for the first time in a year, and rushes him to a hospital. the red orb has exploded and thus there’s now no way to control groudon, that’s now gone back underground, and maxie is very frantically searching through all the blood for any fragments he can find. He finally stands and leaves without saying a word to any of his teammates, leaving them without guidance.

Archie, however, has taken the chance to steal the blue orb and fully control kyogre, turning the situation into a battle to stop team aqua. Sapph’s still upset of course but now she, wally, and the gym leaders (minus norman) are working with team magma to try and defeat kyogre, but before long central hoenn is almost destroyed.

Ruby’s been taken to the hospital but the orb took too much of a toll on his body and he’s died before he could be really helped at all. Everything has gone to shit and now wally has this very heavy weight in his pocket in the form of everyone’s favorite,,, celebi. the deus ex machina is included yeah. BUT!!!! celebi reverses time but goes to visit ruby in the instant of his death. they’re in the time warp and they have a wordless exchange where celebi offers to reverse ruby’s injuries and restore the orb, but ruby decides to decline this and keep the orb shattered in exchange for his arm. and yeah! he wakes up at home where his mom is by his bedside. sapphire is still very rightfully upset and while she is VERY worried for him, is physically too mad to visit.

there’s intentionally many plot points not wrapped up because i have an epilogue that’s almost the size of the main story and also this would be too long with every point i wanted to explain (this is insanely abridged) but that’s the main bit! the epilogue focuses much less on ruby and it’s mostly about/covers the equivalent of mirage island/juan, sapph’s gym challenge/very unhealthy mental state, each admin but especially blaise, amber, wally’s training, the salamence incident (we don’t have time to unpack all THAT during the fight!), wallace, etc. but ruby does get a lot in regards to learning to live as an amputee, trying to function in society as a criminal, getting along with his parents, etc!

umm but yeah! lmk if y’all have any questions i love to yap. sorry again this took so long, i’ve written this in my head/physically at least 7 times lol. i’m still trying to figure out how to work in emerald/oras so if y’all have any ideas lmk…

i also tried to draw out parts of this but i did not get far so y’all can have a couple lol