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Chapter Text

Second Try.

A wide and vast array of weapons were displayed around Ruby by the spirit in the tree. The spirit told Ruby that she could take any of them and become a new person. Someone better than Ruby Rose, at least that's the implication Ruby heard. Ruby walks from case to case as the blacksmith spirit speaks to her though Ruby could barely hear her voice through the fog in her mind.

Ruby comes to a stop in front of a case. Inside the case was Miló and Akoúo̱, The shield and javelin of her dead friend Pyrrha, the friend she wasn't fast enough to save. Earlier the spirit asked Ruby what she wanted and Ruby couldn't bring herself to answer. But now staring at the reminder of her first real failure she had only one answer.

“I want to have been faster!..” Ruby cries. 

“I want to have been smarter and stronger, strong enough to protect Pyrrha, and Penny… and everyone else!...” Ruby could hardly see through the tears as they dropped all over her hands. She just couldn't handle the guilt anymore, she still hears the sound of Jaune begging her and Weiss to save Pyrrha, she remembers the way his words had spurred her on as she had raced to save Pyrrha.

At the time there was very little doubt in Ruby's mind that she'd make it in time, she'd always been fast after all. The night that Beacon fell, however, the only thing Ruby was fast enough for, was to make it in time to see an arrow pierce her friend's heart. 

“Hmm, hmm, hmmm.” The sound of a voice she hadn't heard in awhile humming lightly, jarred Ruby from her thoughts. Raising her eyes from her tear soaked hands, Ruby sees that the glass case holding Miló and Akoúo̱ was showing her a vision. The vision showed Pyrrha humming lightly to herself as she traversed Emerald Forest, which Ruby could only assume was during the day of their initiation. 

Seeing Pyrrha alive causes Ruby's heart to lurch in her throat as she reaches forward instinctively and shouts her name. “Pyrrha!” And with a flash of white light, Ruby was no longer standing in the near empty void surrounded by weapons, Instead she was surrounded by bright green trees, staring down the startled face of her long dead friend. 

“Hello there.” Pyrrha calls out kindly despite the wary look in her eyes. “I didn't notice your approach at all.” The wariness in her expression quickly gives way to concern as she notices the tears staining Ruby's face. 

“Are you okay? You're not hurt are you?” Pyrrha questions her warmly as she lightly jogs towards Ruby. Of course Ruby couldn't bring herself to respond, she couldn't even begin to comprehend what was happening to her. This didn't feel anything like the vision the lamp had shown her. Pyrrha was really there right in front of her, every one of Ruby's senses were telling her the same thing, that this was real. 

Pyrrha's really right there in front of her, alive! There was only one thing her mind could think to do, and consequences be damned, that's what she did. With another shout of “Pyrrha!” and a burst of her semblance Ruby threw her arms around Pyrrha in one of the tightest hug of her life.

 “This doesn't make any sense!” Glynda Goodwitch, headmistress of Beacon Academy remarks to Professor Ozpin, headmaster of said Academy who sits besides her. Ozpin gives a light hum in response as he sips his coffee. 

“Miss Rose was nowhere near Miss Nikos merely a moment ago, and now they're partners. I know Miss Rose is fast but there wasn't a hint of her semblance until she hugged Nikos. What happened?” Ozpin's lips curl upwards around his coffee cup. 

“I wish I could say that I have the answer to your question, Glynda sadly I'm just as flummoxed as you are.” Ozpin takes a long sip of his coffee. His eyes focused on the tears in Ruby's expression. 

“I'm more concerned with what's got Miss Rose so distraught.” Glynda's eyes narrow in concern at that. As far she could tell Ruby Rose seemed perfectly fine in combat scenarios, so she doubts she's scared of the Grimm. The only thing that seemed to somewhat rattle her was social interaction, even then Glynda didn't think her social anxiety was bad enough to bring her to such tears. 

Glynda's brow furrowed in confusion as she realized another oddity. As far as she knew her and Pyrrha Nikos just met, so for someone with social anxiety to latch on to a total stranger seemed strange to Glynda. Similar thoughts run through Professor Ozpin's mind as he worries he jumped the gun in offering Ruby a spot in Beacon at her age. 

She had reminded him so much of her mother Summer Rose, that perhaps it had blinded him to how much she still had to grow. Thinking of Summer made his grip on his cup shake slightly, the last thing he wanted was to fail Ruby like he had failed her mother.

Being hugged to death by a distraught girl she just met is not exactly how Pyrrha expected her initiation to start but here she is. Thinking back, Pyrrha believes she recalls her name. 

“It's Ruby right? That's your name isn't it?” Pyrrha questions the shaking girl as she lightly pats her shoulder. The girl in her arms shaking goes still after the question. She stays there frozen for a second or two before leaping back with a look of horrified realization. She adverts her eyes from Pyrrha and mumbles a few words inaudibly. 

“I'm sorry. What was that?” Pyrrha smiles as warmly as she can, slouching her posture so she can go eye level with the shorter girl. 

“I don't know what came over me, sorry for the hug out of nowhere… oh and yeah I'm Ruby” Ruby wipes a few tears from her cheeks and finally brings her eyes to Pyrrha's as silver meets green. Happy to have made headway with the troubled teen Pyrrha decides not to push Ruby for answers quite yet. 

“I don't know about you Ruby but I haven't locked eyes with anyone else yet, so I guess that makes us partners huh?” Once again Ruby's eyes widened in realization, to Pyrrha's dismay she began to hyperventilate.

 “Alright that's enough! You were off base Professor. Miss Rose is much too young for this. Look at her, this level of panic attack is no joke.” Glynda exclaims in startled concern. 

Ozpin wasn't far off from agreeing with her; the look in Ruby's eyes was truly haunting. Staring at her eyes though he couldn't quite give in to his desire to pull her from the initiation. Their silver nature was far too valuable to the war with Salem to simply let them go to waste. Though two years in the grand scope of things wasn't that long of a wait. 

Salem had been dormant for years if this was just a year or two ago Oz wouldn't hesitate to give Ruby more time. However after the attack on Amber, he just wasn't sure they had the time. He truly shared Glynda's concern, seeing Ruby like this broke his heart, especially considering her resemblance to Summer, but…

“Give her some time, Glynda. Let's see how Miss Nikos deals with the situation. Perhaps she can help Ruby with her panic attack. If she can, such a skill will prove invaluable in her career as a Huntress.“ While there was some logic to his reasoning, he wasn't sure Glynda bought it, judging by the look on his friend's face, he knew he didn't.

It's only when Pyrrha says that they are now partners that Ruby fully understands the gravity of her situation. Somehow, the Tree has sent her into the past, Pyrrha's really alive again. Which means that also Penny is as well, and now that she's in the past Ruby can change things, she can really save her lost friends. 

Now the Ruby of months past would've been thrilled by the chance. But following the catastrophic failure that was Atlas and Mantle. She couldn't help but believe that any other of her friends would've been a much better choice to send back to save them. There's just no doubt in her mind at the moment that Ruby will just screw it up. The weight of the responsibility and fear of her inevitable failure cause her to hyperventilate severely.

Why couldn't it have been Weiss, or better yet Jaune he was always a much better strategic than Ruby ever was, surely he could devise a plan to prevent the Fall Of Beacon and save Pyrrha.

Ruby though… thought that keeping the truth from Ironwood was the right move, only for the lies to drive him insane. Ruby thought that turning Penny into a human would save her, only for newfound mortality to lead to her permanent death. If there's anything these experiences told her it's that Ruby interfering with the past and changing things is only going to make things worse. Maybe Pyrrha and Penny will die earlier, maybe Jaune will join them, or Weiss, or Blake, or Nora, or Ren or Yang…

Her spiraling thoughts are stilled by the comforting weight of Pyrrha's hands on her shoulders. Ruby's pupils dilate as her eyes flicker up and down her friend's expression. Technically, she reminds herself, she and Pyrrha aren't friends anymore, not yet anyway. It's probably best if they don't become friends. Actually Ruby reckons safer for Pyrrha most definitely. 

“Breathe Ruby, slowly in and out… in and out.” Pyrrha soothes her softly and as patiently as humanly possible. 

“It's perfectly natural I'm sure for someone of your age, no matter how gifted, to feel panic at her first real combat scenario.” Ruby couldn't help the sardonic chuckle that breaks through her panic. The idea that Pyrrha thought she was some inexperienced kid frightened at her first dangerous combat while understandable from her perspective was just way too far off. 

She might be a kid but Ruby's far from inexperienced at this point. This isn't even close to her first dangerous combat, or anywhere near her most dangerous. Ruby's grown quite familiar with dangerous situations, far too familiar especially with their consequences. 

Pyrrha frowns slightly in what Ruby reads as confused hurt, at the mocking tone of her chuckle. Ruby flinches at the sight. 

“Sorry, ‘wasn't mocking you I swear.” Ruby takes a deep breath finally getting a grasp on her panic. She still didn't have much faith in her abilities to change things for the better, but with such an opportunity she couldn't afford to back away from the challenge. Lack of self-confidence be damned. 

“Thanks Pyrrha. I'm ready for the rest of the initiation. Promise.” Ruby gives Pyrrha a determined look, that she hopes comes close to the kind she used to give so easily. Pyrrha didn't look overly convinced, not that Ruby could blame her. Pyrrha closed her eyes and breathed in slightly before giving Ruby a supportive smile.

 “Ok then partner. I threw my spear to stop Jaune's fall. We'll have to make our way over to him to retrieve it, and hopefully support him in finding a partner.” Ruby saw a flash of disappointment in Pyrrha's eyes. Knowing what she knows about her and Jaune, Ruby can't help but feel guilty ruining their chance to be partners. 

Though considering she has the responsibility of saving Pyrrha from her fate, being partners with her this go around is probably the best thing going forward, Ruby hopes so anyway. 

Weiss couldn't help but smile as she walked through the Emerald Forest, she couldn't stop herself this initiation was the perfect chance to prove herself. The best part is she won't have to worry about stupid energetic kids with red tipped hair or annoying blonde idiots, because she was going to partner with Pyrrha Nikos. 

First of course she'd have to make sure she's the first person she makes eye contact with, but Weiss was confident that would happen, it just had to. She was a Schnee after all, only the best for a Schnee. Against her will the thought came from her father's voice which Weiss couldn't help but flinch at.

Wading through the bushes Weiss shakes her head to rid herself of distracting thoughts like her father. The sounds of grunting from above her causes her to look up. To her horror she comes face to face with the blonde idiot. He's hanging from a tree because of a spear piercing his hoodie. 

Weiss closes her eyes and pinches her nose in frustration hoping beyond hope to herself that he had already partnered with someone so she can get out of teaming with him. She looks back up at him to see him giving her a pathetically hopeful expression.

“Hi… can you help me down… please?” Her gaze travels from his face to the spear holding him up instantly recognizing it. 

“That’s Pyrrha's spear.” Jaune chuckles nervously. 

“Yeah she probably figured I didn't have a landing strategy… She was right of course.” Jaune looked down in shame at that last admission. Weiss quickly squashes the sympathy his expression inspired within her. Her eyes widen as an epiphany comes to her. 

Pyrrha will assuredly make her way here to collect her spear, which means Weiss can still somewhat salvage the situation. She might be stuck with this blonde buffoon, she shudders involuntarily at that, but it seems she can still end up on Pyrrha's team after all. She just had to wait for the champion to come to her.

Pyrrha and Ruby make their way towards Jaune in a somewhat tense silence as Pyrrha observes Ruby to make sure she's not going to have any panic attacks. From what she can tell it seems like her partner has gotten her emotions under control but it's hard for Pyrrha to move past the look of distraught she had seen in the girl's eyes mere moments ago.

Something Pyrrha notices that surprises her is the way Ruby carries herself. She's seen warriors twice Ruby's age carry themselves much worse outside of battle. If Pyrrha had to guess from her stance and the look in her eyes, she'd say Ruby has as much if not more combat experience than even herself which has her even more confused and worried about what had caused Ruby's prior state. 

“We should be nearing the location where Jaune fell.” Ruby's expression lit up with excitement only for it to give way to weariness quickly.

“We should pick up the pace then.” Ruby declares as she switches from a walk to a jog. Pyrrha puts her concerns about her new partner to the side to focus on the situation at hand, she sprints to catch up.

She and Ruby find themselves at Jaune's location quickly. 

 To Pyrrha's surprise Jaune wasn't alone, Weiss was with him. When they saw her they both smiled, Jaune's with a nervous smile, and Weiss with a confident one. I'm Weiss's grip is Miló, the white-haired girl strides towards Pyrrha with Miló outstretched. Weiss clears her throat as she comes to a stop in front of her.

“Your weapon, I kept it safe for you.” Similar to their conversation in the locker room. Weiss's kindness hid an ulterior motive, Pyrrha could tell by the look in her eyes she was more interested in having a champion fighter on her team than she is in being friends with Pyrrha. She didn't get the feeling Weiss meant it maliciously or anything like that but it still upset her. 

Pyrrha accepts her weapon with a polite smile and thank you. Pyrrha turns towards Jaune with a more sincere and excited smile.

“I see you, like me, have already found a partner. I hope it doesn't mean there's no room in your team for two more.” Jaune's nervous expression is replaced with relieved excitement.

“Of course, you can join, the more, the merrier is what my mom always told me.” Jaune chuckles never as he smiles at her before turning his attention to Ruby at which point his enthusiasm only grew. 

“Hi Ruby. It looks like we're going to be teammates isn't that cool.” Ruby responds to his enthusiasm with a muted smile, causing Jaune to frown worryingly. Jaune calling attention to Ruby causes Weiss to scoff. 

“Oh for crying out loud, not you again. First I'm forced to be on that team with the blonde buffoon, but now I'm in a team with a brat. What a farce.” Both Jaune and Ruby flinch with hurt, Ruby's more stark than Jaune's. Seeing the looks on their faces causes feelings of protectiveness in Pyrrha. 

“Excuse me...” Pyrrha interjects sternly but tries her best to keep anger out of her voice. 

“But there's no call to speak to either of them that way. Please apologize!” Being scolded by Pyrrha makes Weiss jump back and give her a startled look. If it were any other situation Pyrrha might feel bad for startling her at the moment she was too annoyed however. 

Weiss looks down pensively, leading Pyrrha to wonder if she's reflecting on her actions, before a look of realization settles on her face. Weiss takes a deep breath before turning to give the other two frustrated but contrite looks. 

“Pyrrha's right of course. I am sorry, I don't have a lot of experience with…” Weiss seems to struggle with the right way to describe Ruby and Jaune. “Normal people.” Weiss bows her head slightly. Pyrrha glares, judging her sincerity, after a few seconds Pyrrha determines that she means it. Pyrrha's glare softens to a relieved smile.

Jaune chuckles nervously, while Ruby's eyes slightly glaze over as if her mind is elsewhere.

“That’s okay, this is a stressful situation.” Jaune says somewhat awkwardly, while Ruby continues to silently stare off into the distance. Jaune notices this as his worried expression returns. He nudges her softly with his elbow saying her name. She jumps slightly before quickly looking at Jaune then turns her expression to Weiss as if she's seeing her for the first time today.

“It's okay Weiss we're good.” Weiss smiles in response, looking like it pained her slightly before nodding her head in acknowledgement. Glad to see things are getting better before the four of them Pyrrha clears her throat. 

“Well shall we make our way to our goal then… team.” She adds, team at the end of her sentence somewhat cautiously. The other three straighten up before turning towards her and nodding. Pyrrha smiles, maybe this team will work out better than she first expected.

‘“Alright Professor, It would seem that with help of Nikos Miss Rose has collected herself. However, I believe we should continue to monitor the girl's mental state vigilantly.” Ozpin doesn't respond verbally to Glynda's statement instead he gives her a slight nod. He never takes his eyes off Ruby, simply observing her for any sign of mental collapse. Satisfied that she's found her bearings at least for the moment he moves his attention to Pyrrha.

When he first heard that the famous Mistral champion was coming to Beacon he wondered if should begin to prepare her for joining his efforts against Salem. Then Amber was attacked and he knew he had to find a suitable vessel to inherit the power of the Fall Maiden. 

His instincts told him that Nikos might work, she undoubtedly had the combat skill to use the powers and hopefully protect them better than Amber did. Of course none of her skills would matter if her heart was in the wrong place, or if she lacked discipline. So he knew he'd have to use her time in his school to test her. 

After what he just witnessed he now had little doubt her heart was in the right place. The kindness she showed to Ruby was quite heartwarming, but what impressed him even more was the patience she gave Ruby. His eyes drift to Weiss momentarily, certainly she would not have handled it with such grace. Ozpin shakes the distracting thought from his mind to focus on Pyrrha.

Everything he had just witnessed led him to believe in his first instinct about the Mistral champion. He would have to keep his eyes on her for a bit longer before making his final decision of course. His mind wanders back to the sight of her holding a panicked Ruby in her arms. Such kindness was truly a gift to the world. 

A cold shiver as he realizes his plan for involving her in his centuries long war with Salem had a high chance of robbing the world of the gift that was Pyrrha Nikos. He doubted the cold grasp around his heart would leave anytime soon after all, when it came to defeating Salem everything and everyone came second… 

They had to. 

Ruby couldn't help but observe the other three, Weiss, Jaune and- Ruby takes a deep breath fighting off tears -Pyrrha, assuming this wasn't some weird vision, and she wasn't going to find herself back in the void with the blacksmith, she truly did end up back in the past on initiation day. 

This go around she wasn't going to be on team RWBY, she might not even be a leader anymore, which as far as she is concerned is for the best. This will be her new team this time, most likely anyway who knows what kind of twists Ozpin has up his sleeves. Thinking about Ozpin causes an even deeper pit in her stomach to form. The weight of her situation felt unbearable. 

She would almost definitely have to save him as well as Penny and Pyrrha. That would probably be the right thing to do, however, she couldn't help but think of Oscar. The farm boy turned world protector. If Ozpin doesn't die in the fall, he doesn't link consciousness with Oscar, meaning he and Ruby will probably never meet. 

Better for him of course, that Ruby had no doubt of. She couldn't help but think about their friendship though, the one they formed through vigorous trials and tribulations. As tough as those times were for Ruby, his friendship was a boost to her motivation. She knew she wasn't the only one in the group that had felt that way. 

After all, Oscar was intrinsically tied to Ozpin, someone they all had strained feelings on, and despite this link with Oz. When Oscar disappeared after his argument with Jaune, there was very little doubt in everyone's minds that without the boy there was a hole in their group. That alone speaks to the bond he had formed with the group. Selfishly, Ruby doesn't want to change things in such a way that she doesn't meet him, even if it was better for him as well as the world. 

She pushes those thoughts to the back of her mind, she couldn't let herself swayed by her selfish feelings and wants. Besides she needs to focus on her present, the here and now, which is initiation. She won't be able to change anything if she doesn't actually make it into Beacon. 

Ruby returns her attention to what's going on around her, the group is following Pyrrha's lead in pursuit of the forest temple where Ozpin placed the relics that the initiation was built around. Now that she's no longer distracted by thoughts of the future, Ruby realizes that they're going the wrong way and that she knows the right one. 

“Ah, Pyrrha…” Ruby calls out, her voice shaky as the concept of being around Pyrrha, alive, was still hard to grasp. Pyrrha, as well as the other two turn to look at her from her position at the back of the group. Pyrrha and Jaune both look at her kind interest, while Weiss visibly tries to push down her annoyance.

“We're heading the wrong way, our objective is this way.” Ruby points in the direction of the forest temple. Pyrrha opens her mouth to respond before she can, Weiss snaps at Ruby instead. 

“Why didn't you say something earlier you dunce!?” Ruby flinches, she forgot how mean Weiss was back then. Ruby prepares herself to apologize, she doesn't get the chance as Pyrrha cuts in. 

“Weiss! Be nice!” Pyrrha scolds the heiress once again. Just like last time, Weiss's posture crumbles at Pyrrha's ire. Pyrrha lighters her frown to a smile as she turns her attention back to Ruby. 

“Thank you for pointing us in the right direction, Ruby.” Pyrrha punctuated her gratitude with a tilt of her head, signaling for Ruby to lead on. Ruby flinches, taking a reflexive step back. She might be feeling a bit better about the idea of trying to fix the past, but she can't be a leader, not after how badly she messed up in her original timeliness. 

Pyrrha's eyes furrow in concern at Ruby's reaction. Pyrrha walks over to Ruby with purpose before squeezing Ruby's shoulder reassuringly with a gentle smile on her face. No words need to be exchanged as Pyrrha takes charge once again, leading on in the direction Ruby had pointed. 

Ruby lets out a sigh of relief at not being forced to take charge, she smiles lightly after Pyrrha as she walks away, Ruby sprints after her. Not noticing how Jaune stares after her in concern. Ruby forgot how amazing Pyrrha was, but now being around her and knowing that this time around they're partners. Ruby starts to believe this second try might actually work out. 

Chapter Text

A Second Team(Well Third Team Technically)

It doesn't take long for the group to end up at the temple after Ruby points them in the right direction. They find Blake and Yang waiting for them when they arrive. Immediately upon noticing them Yang jogs toward Ruby while Blake hangs back and observes. 

“Ruby, you made it.” Yang isn't particularly hurried or concerned at first, until she gets within reaching distance of her sister. Yang's expression drops in concern.

“Hey Rubes, what's wrong?” Yang looks at her with a familiar face of concern that when she was younger would make Ruby instantly break down and tell her older sister everything. As Ruby is now it just makes her slightly confused. Ruby thought she had got her emotions back under control thanks to Pyrrha. Though now that she thinks about it, after everything she's been through she supposes her baseline emotional state is much more disturbed than it used to be. 

“I'm fine Yang, seriously you don't need to worry about me.” Ruby punctuated the statement with her best assured grin. It doesn't seem to assure Yang of anything. Yang's face doesn't brighten at all, the only change is slight twinge of confusion as she softly places her right hand on Ruby's shoulder in attempted comfort. 

Against Ruby's will she instinctively shakes her shoulder knocking her sister's hand off. Yang's expression fell farther into concern this time with a twinge of hurt. Ruby bites back a frustrated groan, the last thing she wants is for Yang to treat her like a broken little girl. Even if that's exactly how she feels, Ruby fails to bite back a despondent sigh. There goes the good mood Pyrrha helped her find.

Yang steps closer as if to offer further comfort. Her attempt is interrupted by the sound of Nora entering the clearing shouting. 

“Ursa, Ursaa… URSAAA!!” Nora shouted for Grimm as she darted around with her hand creating a visor over her eyes, as she looked around, searching for an Ursa as if she was playing hide and seek with a toddler. When she spots Ruby and Yang she jumps in between them. 

“Have either of you seen an Ursa around this big?...” Nora stretches her arms wide standing on her toes as she asks.

“I was in the middle of riding on the back of an Ursa when all of a sudden it vanished.” Yang stares at Nora with her head tilted, a bewildered expression on her face. 

“You mean it died and dissolved into a black cloud like Grimm do?” Nora looks at Yang like she made one of her patented bad puns. 

“Pfft, I know what a Grimm's death is like and this wasn't it. It was like one second it was there and the next it was gone.” Nora lets out a shocked gasp as she cups her cheeks like she came to a startling realization. 

“Or maybe like it was never there to begin with.” She stressed the last two words like a little kid discussing a huge secret. She's interrupted by Ren running up to her out of breath and panting. 

“Nora please… don't run… off like that.” Ren can barely get his plea out in-between his gasps for air. Nora has the self-awareness to look sheepish as she chuckles and scratches the back of her head. 

“Sorry Ren.” Nora continues chuckling, Ren collects his breath, Yang looks between the two confused, as Ruby sulks with her eyes cast down. Blake walks over to the four of them. 

“You're saying, a Grimm just disappeared?” She questions Nora who nods her head vigorously, looking pleased that someone believed her crazy statement. Blake scratches her chin thoughtfully.

“I wonder if that's related to why we're not being swarmed by Grimm. Which is what I expected considering…” Blake's sentence trails off as she waves her hand in Ruby's direction, alluding to the negative emotions rolling off her in waves. Everyone's gaze returns to Ruby, who finally raises her head to notice everyone's attention.

“You know you're right…” Remarks Pyrrha, a look of realization and deep thought on her face. “Ruby was having a full blown panic attack earlier…” 

“Ruby was what!?” Yang shouts loudly interrupting Pyrrha, looking wildly between her and Ruby. Pyrrha gives Yang a rueful smile while Ruby looks anywhere but at her worried sister. Pyrrha continues her line of thought.

“It didn't occur to me at the time, I was too focused on Ruby, but the amount of negative emotions pouring out of her should've definitely attracted Grimm but none came.” As she listens to Pyrrha, Ruby begins to catch up on what the others were talking about while she was sulking. 

She wonders about the lack of Grimm; she comes to the conclusion that it has to be because of whatever magic the Great Tree used to send her to the past. Though Emerald Forest suddenly having zero Grimm was very strange, so strange in fact that it had her doubting she was really in the past. Perhaps this was actually just a really vivid vision and she'll be back in the Everafter in no time. The thought fills her with anxiety.

“The kids are right, Professor. I've checked all of our cameras in the Emerald Forest and can't find a single sign of any Grimm.” Exclaims Glynda as she scours through all of their cameras. Ozpin's brain was already moving a mile a minute, searching his long memory for any similar example of Grimm vanishing from a vast area for no apparent reason. 

He couldn't recall anything like this happening before, which obviously has him put on edge. The immediate theory that came to mind, of course, is that somehow for some reason Salem recalled the Grimm to her. Which would definitely be cause for concern though doing so without a trace was a new trick if true. His attention switches back towards Ruby as thinks back on what happened earlier.

“Glynda can you check the recordings, specifically the moment of Miss Rose's strange instant relocation. If my hunch is right you should be able to narrow the timeline of the Grimm's disappearance to that same moment.” Glynda wastes no time in following Ozpin's direction. Oz continues his appraisal of Ruby as she does so. He wonders what secrets she's holding, what her connection with the Grimm's disappearance could be but most of all, he wonders if she can be trusted.

Pyrrha's rumination of the weird lack of Grimm in the Emerald Forest is interrupted by Weiss walking up from behind her. Turning towards the heiress she's greeted by the sight of a rook chess piece being held towards her, Pyrrha notices a matching rook in Weiss's other hand. 

“Here, I figured that the matching of pieces denotes which pair of partners will be put on the same team.” Before Pyrrha can comment on Weiss's deduction she's intercepted by Jaune. 

“Ah Weiss… forgive me but… I'm pretty sure that was… uh, my idea?” Jaune mumbles nervously through what should be a statement but he poses as a question. Pyrrha raises her left eyebrow at Weiss measuringly. The heiress blushes and furrows her eyebrows with a look of frustration on her face. 

“Yeah well, you just said what we were obviously both thinking. Like who wouldn't figure that out?” She grumbles clearly lying and embarrassed about being called out. Pyrrha shakes her head at Weiss's posturing, part of her was annoyed at her lying to get on Pyrrha's good side, the other side of Pyrrha knows that like Pyrrha Weiss has spent most of her life in the public eye where posturing is a requirement. 

In the end Pyrrha's understanding won out over her annoyance, so she accepts the offered chess piece and moves the conversation on to spare Weiss further embarrassment for the moment. 

“Well, I see while the rest of us were distracted by the lack of Grimm you stayed focused on the mission. How commendable…” Weiss preens at the compliment though her shoulders slump only slightly as Pyrrha continues. “of the two of you.” 

Weiss seems disappointed to share the praise with Jaune, but the grin on his face assured Pyrrha it was the right move. His excitement is short lived, as he catches on to the other part of her statement.

“The lack of Grimm?” He questions clearly confused. Weiss also leans forwards with an interested expression. Pyrrha wastes no time explaining to them what Nora said, as well the rest of their assessments. The two of them both seem bewildered Jaune more so. 

“Ruby had a panic attack?!” His confusion is clearly over powered by his horror. His attention switches from the two of them to the red clocked girl. His unabashed concern was heartwarming, so much so that it even softened Weiss's cold demeanor. Weiss looks at Ruby like she's seeing her for the first time. 

Jaune doesn't hesitate to walk towards Ruby. Pyrrha instinctively reaches out to grab his arm and halt him. His head fiercely whips towards her looking upset at being stopped from comforting his friend. Pyrrha shakes her in a negative, with a sad look on her face. 

“Not in front of so many people, she's going to feel ganged up on. Better to do it in private later.” Jaune recognizes the wisdom in her warning and his shoulders sag. Weiss steps forward, worrying Pyrrha who thinks Weiss is ignoring her advice. 

“There's no point in worrying about where the Grimm are, instead we should be thankful that we can achieve our objective unimpeded.” Weiss leaves no room for argument with her tone, as she diverted the group's attention from the Grimm and Ruby. Ruby's demeanor perks up as she looks at Weiss with a grateful expression. 

“She's right. This is still an initiation and we still have a job to do, so let's grab our relics and get out of here.” The rest of the group respond and get ready to head out. Ren very gently grabs Nora by her arm and guides to the last podium with a chess piece grabbing the knight piece that Yang and Blake had grabbed before the rest of the group had arrived. 

As the rest of the group headed out, Yang stayed backed and observed Ruby with a concerned frown. Blake grabbed her comfortingly by the shoulder. Yang sighed reservedly.  

“I'm fine. Let's just get going.”

After they returned from the Emerald Forest, the eight were split into two teams. Pyrrha, Ruby, Weiss, and Jaune are team PARS(Paradise). Ren, Nora, Blake, and Yang are Team LNBY(Lingonberry). 

It's hard to put into words just how Ruby was relieved to not be the leader this go around. Jaune not being the leader surprised her at first, but then she realized since there was no fight with Grimm this time he didn't have the chance to show off his leadership skills. 

Now obviously Ruby knows she has to change things if she wants things to be better this time around. That being said, the more things her presence changes, the less she knows what to expect and the more her anxiety grows. She's pretty sure at some point she should tell Ozpin, she's from the future, she'll need his resources to actually make a difference. Though it's tough for her to be confident in him of all people after everything she's learned about him.

Not to mention it's been tough to find time to think, with how often Yang's been bothering her, trying to get her to open up. Ruby understands where she's coming from, literally days ago Ruby was her usual awkward but happy self, and now she's reserved and avoidant. 

Her gut tells her she can confide in her older sister however in order to tell her about the future she has to tell her about all of her screw-ups that led them to where they were. She just can't see herself telling anybody about her failures, the guilt is just too much. If she's honest that's probably more of the reason she hasn't told Ozpin than just her mistrust of him. 

Thinking about all of this she can feel her heart rate start to rise. She takes a few deep breaths to try and calm her anxiety. She can feel her heart rate slow, up until she sees Yang walk towards her. She can't help but think to herself ‘oh crap’ as she loses control of her breathing.

Ozpin sighs as he sits alone in his office staring at his scroll. Apparently Qrow heard about Ruby's panic attack from Taiyang who heard about it from Yang and has been blowing up Oz's scroll asking about it. Ozpin told Qrow the truth, that he has no clue what caused it and that he's monitoring her mental state closely. 

Qrow expressed doubt when Ozpin said he didn't know what caused the panic attack. Not because he doesn't trust Ozpin's heart, at the moment he still has Qrow's trust and Oz hopes to keep it that way, but Qrow knows that Ozpin keeps secrets. Qrow just trusts that Oz is keeping them for a good reason. 

Ozpin is grateful for that leeway though at the moment he wished would believe him, that he's not keeping any secrets regarding his niece. Ozpin winces, as he realizes that he is keeping a secret regarding Ruby he didn't tell Qrow about the disappearing Grimm and connection Oz suspected they shared with Ruby. 

The centuries old wizard groans as he massages his forehead. Has he really gotten so used to secrets that he can't always notice when he's not sharing them? Ozpin shakes his head before getting out of his chair and making his way out of his office, perhaps a walk around campus will do him some good.

Yang approaches Ruby carefully, her little sister has been avoiding her ever since initiation, it has Yang hurt and confused, but most of all worried about her sister. Yang steps next to Ruby's left, the two of them were walking through one of Beacon's many hallways. It's been four days since initiation and they had their last class of the day. 

Ruby split off from her team the moment class was over. Yang saw Pyrrha and Jaune watch her leave with worried expressions, which let Yang know that Ruby wasn't confiding in her teammates either. The first thing Yang notices upon reaching her sister's side is her hurried breathing. 

Realizing that her baby sister's having a panic attack Yang reaches forward her shoulder, only for Ruby to sidestep her hand walking quickly behind Yang moving around to walk on the blonde's left side. Before Yang can say anything Ruby speaks. 

“I'm fine Yang, you don't need to worry about me.” Yang could tell Ruby tried to sound strong but her voice cracked towards the end of the sentence. She hears Ruby mutter what sounds like ‘shit’ under her breath. Ruby raises her head to look her in the eyes, Yang's breath hitches at the vulnerable look in her eyes. 

Ruby's mouth opens as if she is about to speak, making Yang hopeful that she's finally going to tell her what's wrong. Before a single sound escapes her mouth, Ruby's gone with nothing but rose petals left to show that she was there in the first place. The sight has her echoing her sister's earlier sentiment. 

“Shit!”

Ruby speeds through the halls until she finds herself outside in the courtyard. She comes to a stop just as the tears become too much for her to see through. She begins to rub at her cheeks and eyelids when she hears a voice that causes a cold to envelope her heart. Turning to her left she sees Ozpin giving her a sad smile. 

“Hello Ruby…” He takes a pause as he looks down seemingly looking for the right words. As she waits for him to continue sheepish feels her tears dry up. She couldn't cry in front of him. Something in her core just wouldn't let her shed tears in front of Ozpin. 

“It's obvious to anyone paying attention that you're going through a great deal. Though what exactly you're going through, isn't quite as apparent. You know, I've been through a great many things in my time.” Ruby couldn't help but let out a short cackle at that understatement of all understatements. Ozpin frowns briefly but quickly continues. 

“So I can assure you whatever it is that's weighing on you, I can offer advice on ways to lighten the load.” The white-haired man takes a step closer, it takes a great deal of restraint for Ruby to not step back. The look Ozpin gives her surprises her, she expected many emotions, such as pity maybe, but guilt she wasn't expecting. 

“Even though I don't know what's bothering you I can't help but feel like I'm responsible for it, so please… Ruby, let me help you.” To Ruby's surprise once again she feels the cold grip around her heart dissipate. She still doesn't feel  trust, but the deep hesitancy she felt towards him is gone. 

Logically she's known she must confide in him, the only thing stopping her was her emotions. After hearing his plea she feels like her emotions have calmed enough for her to tell him. 

“OK Professor, I'll tell you, but we have to do it in private. Give me till tomorrow.” Ozpin visibly relaxed. 

“I don't mean to be difficult, but I think we both know how fragile your mental state is right now and there's no guarantee you'll still feel up to this tomorrow.” Ruby feels the cold edge return slightly and she does hesitate in her response.

“Tomorrow or not at all Professor.”

Weiss was trying to focus on her homework, but she struggled to do so, with Jaune pacing holes in their shared room. Jaune was mumbling about Ruby and her obvious turmoil that won't let them help with. His pacing is interrupted by the sound of the door opening. 

To the surprise of both of them it was Ruby, who normally returned much later in the day, in order to avoid conversation with them easier. Ruby seemed surprisingly present even giving the two of them a small smile before sitting on her bed, which was tucked away in the corner of the room. 

She pulled out her scroll and began typing. Jaune watched her intently. For almost two whole minutes the only sound in the room was Ruby's typing. Weiss could almost still hear Jaune's mumbling despite his mouth having remained shut since Ruby entered. 

Having enough of his nonsense, she grumbles frustratedly before storming over to him, grabbing his arm and dragging to stand next to Ruby's bed. 

For the love of everything, Ruby, Jaune's going to talk and you're going to listen and then when he's done you're going to talk back understand?” She phrased it like a question but spoke it like a statement. Jaune looked at her rattled, clearly concerned that her lack of gentleness will ruin Ruby's decent mood.

Judging by the look on Ruby's face Weiss doesn't think it will. The young girl looked surprised, but oddly comforted. Weiss wasn't sure why, but she wasn't going to question her about it, cause she had a hunch that actually would ruin her mood. Ruby looked at Jaune expectantly who took a quick breath before speaking.

“Ruby, I know our friendship is relatively new, we've only known each other a few days after all.” Weiss doesn't think Jaune notices but Ruby's expression falls slightly at that, which Weiss found odd.

“But despite that, I care about you and I want to help you. But it's not just me, Pyrrha, your sister and even Weiss want to help you so please, talk to us.” Jaune delivers his plea with sincerity Weiss has a hard time imagining another person being able to match. She's not sure it has the desired effect by the way Ruby looks away. 

“Jaune… I… I'm sorry but I can't make any promises. I don't have good control of my emotions lately. My head is clear at the moment but I'm not sure how long it'll last, and what I'm working on is just too important to put on hold for our friendship so while my head is clear I need to focus on this.” 

Weiss can't help but find it ironic that the most words she's heard from Ruby since they became a team is her telling them that she can't talk to them. Jaune gazes into Ruby's eyes in contemplation. 

“I'm not sure what you mean by what you're working on. That being said, I'll drop it for now, keep in mind though that it's only for now. I'm not giving up on our friendship Ruby.”

The next day Ruby wakes up earlier than normal, several hours before the rest of her team. She made Ozpin agree to meet before anyone else wakes up so she can avoid any questions from her team. She sneaks out with her scroll grasped tightly in her hand.

As she walks down the hallway she stares at her scroll, specifically the notes she spent all of last night writing. She wrote down every important detail she could remember, she knows it's only a matter of time before she falls back into her state of self-loathing. Which is why she needs to make sure this conversation with Ozpin goes perfectly since she doesn't have a clue when she'll be able to have a productive conversation again. 

“Ruby?” The sound of Pyrrha's voice coming from behind her stops Ruby dead in her tracks. She bites back a groan at the fact that the one thing she woke up early to avoid was happening anyway. Putting on best determined smile Ruby turns towards her partner, something she's still very much getting used to calling Pyrrha.

“Is everything ok?” Pyrrha asks as she softly walks out of their room still in her night clothes, red pajama pants that match the color of her hair with a plain loose fitting white t-shirt. She's clearly still very tired, her concern apparently giving just enough energy to get her out of bed to posture Ruby. 

“I'll be fine Pyrrha you can go back to bed.” Pyrrha frowns in response before shaking her head and approaching Ruby with a steady pace. 

“Jaune shared with me what you told him yesterday Ruby. About how whatever you're dealing with is too important for you to spend your energy on us.” Pyrrha comes to a stop right in front of her forcing Ruby to crane her neck upwards to look into the much taller girl's green eyes.

“However I can't accept that, you see, I'm the leader of our team, more than that you're my partner Ruby. Which means it's my responsibility to support you.” Pyrrha lays her hands on Ruby's shoulders with a gentle but firm grip. All of the fatigue that had been in Pyrrha's eyes mere moments ago seemed to have been completely replaced by determination. 

“Therefore I cannot just leave you alone like this. Like it or not Ruby, we're in this together.” The fire in Pyrrha's speech puts Ruby on the backfoot, she prepares to tell Pyrrha once again to go back to bed only for the horrible memory of Pyrrha's last moments to flash through Ruby's mind.

The sight of Cinder's arrow piercing the fierce redhead's heart is a stark image that can never be erased. If Ruby was in a less clear headed state then the image would've sent her spiraling. As she is at the moment it just made her realize something so simple, that she felt like an idiot for not thinking about it sooner.

Pyrrha's just as relevant to Ruby's long term goal as Ozpin is. Pyrrha was the first true failure to rattle Ruby. It was that horrible memory of her death that formed the pit in her stomach that eventually grew to the point it consumed her heart. 

There were several other contributing factors of course, Ironwood, Mantle, and Penny. But it started with her not making it in time to save Pyrrha. All of this is why telling Pyrrha about the future is just as important as telling Ozpin. Now that realizes this the tension in Ruby's shoulders fades. 

“OK Pyrrha you win. I have a private meeting with Ozpin. That's where I'm going, it was going to be just the two of us, but honestly you just helped me realize something that should have been obvious.” Ruby hears the sound of Pyrrha throat hitching. Ruby had her undivided attention, clear as day.

“I should have invited you from the start, but Pyrrha we're not going to wake the others, this meeting is just going to be me you and Ozpin, ok.”

Chapter Text

Ruby's Tale Of Struggle

When Ruby enters his office Ozpin's relieved, he was almost certain she would back out. When Pyrrha enters behind her he's pleasantly surprised, seeing Ruby put distance between herself and her team worried him, even more than her panic attack did. Personal connection is imperative to one's mental health, especially when one's young. 

If Ruby truly was here to confide in him and brought a friend along for support then that eases his doubts about her. The fact that after only knowing Pyrrha for less than a week, also spoke volumes about the champion, making Ozpin even more confident in Pyrrha's potential as a maiden. 

“Please have a seat.” Ozpin greets the two of them as warmly as he can. Pyrrha replies with a polite smile and nod, while Ruby maintains a stoic face, silently taking the offered seat. Ozpin gives Ruby a chance to speak but she simply stares blankly at the scroll gripped tightly in her hand. Pyrrha shuffles around in her seat looking uncomfortable with the tense silence.

“Good morning Professor.” Pyrrha finally says politely putting an end to the tense silence. Ozpin nods, smiling gently at the redhead. Ozpin clears his throat before returning his attention to Ruby.

“Well Ruby, I'm glad you came. I assure you whatever's troubling you, you can share it with me…” Ozpin pauses before nodding to Pyrrha with a smile. “As well as Miss Nikos it would seem.” Pyrrha nods in Ruby's direction with a kind smile that Ruby doesn't seem to notice, too distracted by the scroll in her hands. Ruby turns her scroll on to reveal a series of notes. 

“I know about you and Salem.” To say that Ruby's first words since entering his office sent a bolt through Ozpin's heart would be an understatement, Oz shoots up to his feet. The sharp sting of panic welled within him. His eyes flicker to Pyrrha, moments ago the sight of her next to Ruby comforted Ozpin, now it filled him with dread.

“Perhaps it'd be best if Miss Nikos waited…” Ruby cuts Ozpin off before he can finish. “Pyrrha stays!” Ruby leaves no room for argument with her tone. The confused frown on Pyrrha's face grows deeper. 

“What's wrong with my being here Professor? Who's Salem and what does she have to do with Ruby?” A fantastic question that last one, and question Ozpin would very much like to know the answer to. 

“I could answer, Pyrrha but…” Ruby begins before raising her eyes from her notes to level a piercing glare at Ozpin. “I think I'd much rather give the Professor here a chance to actually earn the trust he so readily asks for.” Ruby punctuated her last statement with an expectant eyebrow raise.

It was clear as day the doubt she had that he could actually earn her trust. Of course the bind that she's put him in here is that she herself has given him no reason to trust her either. Up until initiation and the strange incident with her and the Grimm, Ruby's relationship to Summer and Qrow was enough for him to her to a certain extent.

Of course Ruby's not the only person in the room with him. His eyes shift nervously between Ruby and Pyrrha. Ruby clearly already knew some amount of the truth, but now she's asking him to share it with Pyrrha, a student that just joined his school mere days ago. Of course, bringing Pyrrha into the fight against Salem has been on his mind but not this early, he needed to observe her for a few months to be sure she was trustworthy.

Ruby just took that option away from him. If he doesn't comply she'll just tell Pyrrha, and since Ruby clearly isn't a big fan of his, which is odd considering just days ago she seemed to be, the version she tells Pyrrha probably won't be positive. Since she knows about Salem, obviously someone told her, it clearly wasn't Qrow she would have a much more positive view on the situation if her knowledge of it came from him. 

The idea of Taiyang having told her crosses his mind, Oz knew that a part of Tai held him responsible for Summer's death so maybe he told Ruby about Salem and her mother to warn her against joining his crusade. That was possible, but doubtful Taiyang might've left the fight with Salem but last Oz knew tai still believed in it, he just couldn't bring himself to fight it anymore.  

Not to mention the day initiation Ruby acted like a relatively innocent girl with a dream of being a fairy tail hero. Then all of a sudden she's instantly teleporting across the Emerald Forest, and then she's a completely different person and having a panic attack. It truly didn't make any sense. 

Of course at the same time as this shift in location and personality all of the Grimm in the Emerald Forest vanished which simply couldn't be a coincidence. There has to be a connection between the two, and a connection with Grimm implies a connection with Salem. Of course Ruby hearing about his war with Salem from her point of view would certainly explain her having problems with Ozpin.

So Ozpin's best theory is that using some kind of powerful magic Salem grabbed Ruby from initiation, told her some twisted version of their history to turn Ruby against him, then somehow returned her to the Emerald Forest at the same time she took her only in a different location and perhaps, this teleportation and time manipulation spell required a lot of energy and Salem used the Grimm in the Emerald Forest as that source of energy.

It was certainly the best theory Ozpin had, of course it had issues with it that prevented him from truly believing it. Surely if Salem was capable of magic this powerful, she would've won the war against him a long time ago. Which would imply that she recently gained this power, but then, was turning Ruby against him and then sending her to join her school really the best use of such a crazy ability. 

Also, if Ruby was an agent of Salem what's the purpose of this meeting, Ozpin considers the Ruby brought Pyrrha, if persuading her to join Salem's side was her goal why wouldn't she tell Pyrrha in private where they can twist the facts all they want to insure she sides with them. Perhaps everything he hypothesized about Salem attempting to turn Ruby is true but the girl has doubts? 

If that's the case then Oz needs to take this chance to win Ruby's trust. Ozpin shakes his head with a small smile. Isn't that precisely what Ruby asked, for him to earn her trust? Sometimes the solution to a complicated situation is the simplest one. 

So Ozpin told Pyrrha and Ruby about the war with Salem, how she's been around for centuries, how she controls the Grimm, about the Maidens, how Ozpin has dedicated his life to stopping her and how he leads a group that includes Ruby's uncle and used to include her father and mother. 

He doesn't tell them everything of course, his past relationship with Salem was off limits as was the fact that she's immortal, him and Salem having been married once is irrelevant and the fact that she can't be killed will only dissuade them from trying to stop her. Not to mention the fear that information can cause getting out would only make her and her Grimm stronger.

Ozpin hopes that his drive to save the world from Salem shone through and that it was enough to win Ruby over. After all, if she was an agent of Salem and he couldn't convince her to change sides he'd have to lock her up; he couldn't imagine Qrow and Taiyang taking that well. Not to mention his own distaste at the idea of locking up Summer Rose's daughter. 

Ruby scoffs loudly, sounding insulted. She glares at him disdainfully, shaking her head.

“You just can't help yourself can you? You tell the ‘truth’...” She stressed the word trust with heavy sarcasm. “But only the parts that make you look the hero. You obscure the less favorable parts with the terror that the threat of a centuries old witch brings.” Ozpin's gaze moves from the heated look on Ruby's face to gauge Pyrrha's reaction. 

The redhead seemed overwhelmed and horrified. Ruby follows his gaze looking at Pyrrha, Ruby takes a deep breath before giving Pyrrha a sad smile. Ruby reaches over to give Pyrrha's knee a comforting squeeze.

“I'm sorry, you're having an insane amount dropped on you right now the last thing you need is me getting confrontational.” Ruby looks guilty for putting Pyrrha in this situation, which is a feeling Ozpin shares. Pyrrha gives Ruby a shaky nod before closing her eyes, taking a deep breath, then opens her eyes and gives Ruby a determined look.

“I'm alright. But I've got a lot of questions, some are for the Professor but my first question is, what isn't he telling me that's got you so upset?” A great question that Oz is scared for Ruby to answer. Ruby looks at and examines Pyrrha, seeming to judge if she's ready for what Ruby has to say next.

“There's a few things he left out. The first one is that he's just as old as Salem. You see he reincarnates when he dies into a new body, it's a bit more complicated so we can save the details for a bit later.” Ozpin nervously watches as Ruby continues.

“Salem and him used to be married.” Ozpin's heart goes cold. Pyrrha's eyes go wide as she darts her head back and forth between Oz and Ruby. 

“But neither of those things are as important as the last thing he's kept secret.” Pyrrha leans forward clearly keen on hearing what Ruby has to say next. The only thing Ozpin is keen on is putting an end to this conversation, however he couldn't bring himself to do it, he couldn't bring himself to do much of anything at the moment.

“Pyrrha Salem's immortal. She can't be killed.”

It was their first day off since arriving at Beacon, Yang, Nora and Ren were up and out of the room by the time Blake woke up. So Blake showered and had some breakfast in the cafeteria. She expected to run into her team there but she didn't. So Blake returned to their dorm room to get some reading in. Shortly after she started reading Yang returned with a frustrated expression on her face and began pacing back and forth in their room.

The sound of Yang's pacing makes it very hard for Blake to read. She couldn't bring herself to be too annoyed at the blonde. She's concerned about her little sister after all, and for good reason. Ever since initiation Ruby has been distant, clearly depressed and apparently had at least one panic attack. 

So yeah, Blake understood and if she knew how to help she would. Mental health is complicated unfortunately and she's certainly no expert. Blake sighs before closing her book and sitting up in her bed. 

“Yang, pacing is only going to make your anxiety worse. It certainly isn't going to help Ruby either. C'mon, sit down, take a breath.” Blake lays her book down on her right side while patting the bed on her left side for Yang to sit down next to her. Yang lets out a grunt of frustration before following Blake's advice and sitting down, though she seems to forget the take a breath part. 

“I just don't understand. I mean she was nervous at the start of initiation sure, but not panic attack nervous. And why won't she talk to me? She was attached to my hip the entire time since we left home to the start of initiation, and now she wants nothing to do with me? I don't understand what possibly could've happened during initiation to cause her to act like this.” 

Blake patiently listens to Yang's rant, taking in everything she says so she can formulate a response. Obviously Blake doesn't know Ruby very well, only having had one conversation with her, so she has to rely on Yang's perspective for now. 

“First off Yang, I said take a breath.” Blake replies firmly, as she puts her hand on Yang's shoulder. Yang looks at Blake blinking several times before nodding and taking a deep breath. Seeing Yang calm down just a bit, Blake continues. 

“Second, can you recall what the last thing you said to Ruby was before initiation began.” Yang eyes trail to the left as she thinks back. 

“I mean I floated the idea that maybe she should be on somebody else's team, you know so she could break out of her shell. She's not going to be able to rely on me for everything her whole life.” Blake not knowing Ruby well latches on to that as a possible reason for Ruby's avoidance.

“Maybe Ruby's not sharing her problems with you as her way of proving you wrong, that she doesn't rely on you for everything?” Yang's head darts to stare at Blake, a startled expression on her face. 

“You're saying it's my fault my sister won't talk to me?” Blake flinches, that wasn't what was trying to get at, opens her mouth, to apologize and clarify what she meant, but the door to their room flies open interrupting their conversation. Nora skips into the room followed at a more sedate pace by Ren. 

“Gooooddd morninnngg team." Nora stretches the good morning as if she was singing. Nora looks full of caffeine and energy as usual, while Ren behind her looks less so. 

“Me and Ren spent the morning doing some thinking as co-captains…” The rest of the team shake their heads amused. Really Ren was their captain but Nora insisted that if Ren was captain then that means she is also captain. For the first few days Blake and Yang would try to correct her, but Nora would always pretend she couldn't hear them, and Ren would just shake his head with affection from behind her.

Eventually Blake and Yang catched on to the fact that Ren and Nora did practically everything together and that maybe Nora had a point, even if she acted silly about it. 

“And we had a great idea, since it's our first day off, it's time for…. Team Bonding!” Nora said we but Blake's pretty sure it was her idea and Ren just went along with it. Not that team bad idea of course. The only problem is Blake is not sure if Yang is able to put her worry over her sister on the back burner. 

Nora waits expectantly with an excited grin as she bounces in place, while Ren observes Blake and Yang calmly with his usual stoic expression. Blake turns her attention back to Yang with a curious expression and a little bit of worry. Yang gives Nora a sad smile and opens her mouth, Blake assumes to decline but Nora cuts her off. 

“Non-negotiable. Co-Captains orders.” The energetic girl exclaims with her usual enthusiasm. Ren puts his hand on her shoulder stepping in front of her stand directly in front of Yang. He manages to convey kindness and understanding with minimal change in facial expression. 

“We all understand your concern for your sister, though I think that being stressed out about it will only make it harder to help her. So maybe take the day, have some fun, then you can come back to the problem with a fresh perspective.” Blake's eyes go wide, she can see Yang's do the same. That was by far the most words she had ever heard Ren use at one time. She could tell by the awkward expression on his face that he's more than aware of it.

If he ever asks she'd probably tell him a white lie and say he delivered the pep talk with confidence. Blake looked to Nora briefly who's grinning brightly at Ren, Blake turns back to Yang, though not before noticing a small blush on Nora's face. Yang looks contemplative, eyes rolling slowly back and forth. 

“Of course, the last thing I want is for you to feel pressured by your captain…” Ren says only to get interrupted by a shout from Nora.

“Co-captains!” Ren lets out a rare chuckle at Nora's outburst with a fond roll of his eyes. 

“Yes, your Co-Captains. We don't want you to feel pressured so if you're really not up to a group excursion we understand.” Nora grumbles lightly about ‘Co-Captains orders’ but doesn't directly contradict Ren. Yang seems to find her answer breathing out a sigh before hopping to her feet. 

“You know what? I think some time with friends will do me good. Can't help my baby sister if I'm panicking.” The other three smiled at being referred to as friends. Nora of course takes it a step further than just smiling. 

“Yeah! Let's have the bestest first team hangout ever!!”

Pyrrha's eyes open painfully wide when Ruby says immortal. Obviously she was already feeling from all the other things she's heard this meeting, from both Ruby and Ozpin. The idea of a centuries old witch was scary enough, but an immortal one, terrifying.

Ruby is looking at her, sadly watching Pyrrha come to turns with the information. When Pyrrha glances at Ozpin she sees that he's gone still, he doesn't seem to even be breathing. 

“Professor?” Pyrrha gently calls out to him, at first it seems he didn't hear her, though, only a few seconds later he turns his attention to her. Looking up at his standing form from her sitting one. Pyrrha barely catches a glimpse of his eyes behind his sunglasses. What she did see caused a chill to run through her. The professor looked like his mind was a hundred years away. Based on the information she's been hearing from both him and Ruby, perhaps he was. 

“Ruby… how do you know all this?” Pyrrha asks Ruby softly, from the corner of her eyes, she notices the way Ozpin snaps his attention towards Ruby's seeming to be present once again. 

“Yes Miss Rose. It's a fantastic question. One I must insist you answer.” Pyrrha shudders at Ozpin's tone, she hears no trace of the warmness he had started the meeting with, replaced instead by a guarded coldness. Ruby raises her left eyebrow at Ozpin, not very impressed apparently with his attitude. The ever-changing demeanor of her partner still surprises Pyrrha, one second Ruby seems like she's going to fall apart at the wind, the next she's suddenly more confident than Pyrrha. One moment she's trying to comfort Pyrrha, the next she looks like she's going to burn a hole through the headmaster's eyes. 

“And the carefully constructed facade of the caring teacher falls to the side.” Ruby snarks, scoffing at the white-haired man. Pyrrha frowns at the statement. It was truly confusing, not only was Ruby a few years her junior, she, like Pyrrha, just became a student at Ozpin's academy. She couldn't figure out where the silver-eyed girl could have formed such a clear picture of who she thinks Ozpin is, especially such a negative one. 

Ozpin also frowns, Pyrrha notices the man looks disturbed by Ruby's confrontational attitude. Slightly surprising Pyrrha Ozpin removes the shades from his eyes revealing the troubled look in his brown eyes. 

“Ruby…” Ozpin starts to respond though he seems to be at a loss at what to say for a good few seconds. Ruby looks at him curiously, a heavy amount of scepticism in her expression. 

“I'm not sure what exactly you've been told about me, but I assure you I care about all of the students that come through my school.” Ozpin’s voice is a little shaky, but he sounds sincere to Pyrrha. Though his seemingly sincere statement looked to only anger Ruby. Her eyes hard as she leans forward with a slight snarl.

“Then why did you abandon us!” She half yells at him. Both Pyrrha and Ozpin recoil at the outburst, Ozpin looking especially taken back and confused. Ruby appears to come to some sort of realization as she leans back into her chair with her eyes closed and takes a few calming breaths.

“I'm afraid I don't know what you're referri-” Ruby cuts Ozpin off before he could finish, her tone resigned as she does so.

“That's because you haven't done it yet.” Understandablely Pyrrha finds Ruby's statement confusing. She expects to see the same confusment on the Professor’s face though Ozpin seemed more horrified then confused.

“So, you've seen the future.” Ozpin says matter of factly as if what he just said wasn't crazy. Pyrrha supposes it's possible someone's semblance could show the future, but she's never heard of a semblance quite like it before. Ruby scoffs, this time though, instead of being annoyed she sounds sad. 

“Seen it, no I've lived it.” Pyrrha feels a little relieved when she sees that the statement caught Ozpin as off guard as it caught her. Ruby doesn't give either of them any time to respond, instead Ruby immediately begins her tale of struggle. 

When Ruby first began her talking about having been through Beacon before but with a different team, Pyrrha wasn't if she believed her. But the Ruby spoke, the more emotions she displayed as did the harder it becomes to deny her story. 

The idea that Ruby has memories of being Pyrrha’s friend for months whereas Pyrrha only just met Ruby was hard to wrap her head around. Though nothing could have been as hard to take in as what Ruby just said. 

“I… I died?” Pyrrha says her voice barely above a whisper. If any part of her wanted to doubt Ruby, then the look of complete belief on Ozpin's face, and more importantly the the tears streaming down Ruby's face made that doubt fade away. Ruby nods her head as she furiously wipes the tears from her face.

“I didn't make it fast enough! I ran… as fast… as I could… trying to make it in time to save you but… I failed. Instead I arrived just in time to see the light fade from your eyes.” Pyrrha's heart starts to break as she listens to her partner she just met talk about witnessing her death. 

“I'm sorry Pyrrha. I should've been faster… I should've been faster, I'm so sorry.” If Pyrrah’s heart had only started to break earlier, it broke then. She couldn't stop herself from reaching over to give her a hug. She felt Ruby struggle furiously against her trying to pull away and hold on tightly to her pain. 

“Ruby, it's not your fault.” Ruby replies with of course it is, over and over again Ruby says, of course it is. Pyrrha tightens hold around Ruby's shoulder as Ozpin begins to speak.

“Miss Nikos is right, Ruby. If anyone in this room is at fault for what happened to her in the future, it's me. So if you have to blame anyone, I implore you to blame me, you blame me” Ozpin tells Ruby, practically begging Ruby to blame himself and not her. 

Pyrrha can't say she particularly agrees with his sentiment either, though considering the way the girl in her arms was shaking she decides now isn't the time to argue with the man. Ruby doesn't say anything in response, silently shaking in Pyrrha's arms. It takes a few minutes for Ruby to calm down enough to speak. When she does open her mouth though, it would seem she's moved on from the topic as she resumes her tale.

Hearing Ruby's story of the fall of Beacon, Ozpin thought he couldn't feel more guilty and like a failure. Though as he listened more to her story he found out that indeed, he could. As Ruby got to the point of her story where Oscar comes into it, of course Pyrrha had many questions that he took upon himself to explain, not wanting Ruby to force herself to speak more than necessary. 

Hearing how young Ozpin's next reincarnation was makes him sad, just another kid whose innocence he took from them. As Ruby got to the part of her tale, where he, through Oscar, takes a leadership position in their makeshift group, he despairs as he remembers her talking about him abandoning them. 

He curses this future him, as he wonders why he would possibly leave a group of children to deal with Salem, his burden to deal with. He couldn't help but feel a spark of pride as he heard about them successfully protecting the lamp from Salem’s forces. Of course, hearing about Leo's betrayal hurt him. 

As Ruby began to speak about the lamp’s ability Ozpin realized where the tale was going. Hearing about his secrets and how they made the kids distrust him and decide to use the relic to learn his history he felt cold. Pyrrha’s hug had transitioned to a light grip on Ruby's shoulder with one hand. She looks overwhelmed by the story of his and Salem's history though she appears to push those thoughts to the side so she can focus on being there for Ruby. 

Learning of everyone's reaction to the truth, all of the kids lose their faith in him, but most of all Qrow, perhaps the person who believes in him the most, loses faith. Oz understands his future self when Ruby says he vanished after that. Does he forgive his future self for abandoning their students, no but he understands him.

As Ruby tells her story she grows more and more numb, all of the emotions she felt when talking about Pyrrha's death replaced with a sense of nothingness. The emotions her memories brought with them too much for her to handle feeling. She couldn't bring herself to gauge Pyrrha or Ozpin's reactions. Ruby simply kept her eyes down on the notes she wrote on her scroll. Focusing on the written words instead of the memories is the only way she could finish her tale. 

She told them about her training with Maria, learning how to use her silver eyes. How she and the rest of the group minus Ozpin went to Atlas to team up with Ironwood. At no point during her story either her time at Beacon or her time at Atlas, did she bring up Penny, knowing for certain she'd lose it if she brought up the girl. 

Instead she focused on the wider picture, the information she thought relevant for Ozpin to know. She told Ozpin about how the weight of his death weighed on Ironwood. How despite how worn down he was, Ironwood let them in and provided them with support. How he told them all of his secrets, and how Ruby repaid his openness with secrets.

“It's ironic I along with everyone else cursed you for your secrets and yet, I did the same thing with Ironwood and in the end it broke him.” The guilt Ruby felt at that moment is strong enough to begin to rear its head through her numbness.

“Ruby…” Ozpin said her name, his voice hesitant as he tried to speak. “You can't compare your actions to mine, I have centuries of experience, you're just a kid.” If Ruby didn't feel so emotionally drained she'd feel annoyed at being called just a kid. 

“Besides you did tell James the truth, you told him everything. Should you have told him sooner, maybe. But still told himself everything, something I never would've done. In terms of trusting others, you're light-years ahead of me.” Ruby shakes her head at Ozpin's words. None of that matters, she kept vital information from the General even after everything he did to help her and her friends, and it broke him.

“You James everything because you trusted him, and he reacted poorly to the truth and he betrayed your trust. That's on James, not you.” Ozpin sounds more certain of that, than anything else he's said the entire meeting, Ruby just wished his certainty was enough to convince her. 

“The Professor is right, Ruby.” Pyrrha speaks up sounding equally assured in her words. “The only actions we can control are our own. You recognized that Ozpin's refusal to trust was a failing but that didn't mean you could afford to just throw out trust left and right…” Ruby listened to Pyrrha's conviction, trying to hold on to it so she could start to let go of the guilt, but her hold felt like it was slipping.

“No one could've expected you to handle such a situation any better. General Ironwood chose to sacrifice innocent lives you didn't, and in the end even though his plan would've made things easier on you. You still stood up and fought it, because the people of Mantle needed you.”

The more Ozpin and Pyrrha try to convince her to stop blaming herself the higher her anxiety rises. If she doesn't hold herself accountable for the consequences of her actions how can she make things better this go around. Desperate to avoid this topic she continues on to the events of the everafter that brought her to the past.

Hearing about the birth place of the twin gods was quite the experience for Ozpin. Considering they birthed this world and direct impact they had on his and Salem's life. The idea that the young girl in front of him had met their creator made him feel smaller. Honestly by the end of her tale, Ozpin felt a great of respect for Ruby, despite her age she's dealt with incredible hardships and experienced things that even with his experience he could hardly fathom. 

It's a little hard to believe but after hearing her tale, on some level Ozpin thinks that he's started to see Ruby as an equal, despite her age. After he abandoned her it feels like she alongside her team had to step up and take his place. Did things end up the way they wanted, perhaps not, but they tried while his future self cowered away in a young boy they tried. 

And now young Ruby was in the past, unlike him she had formed a team built on genuine trust, instead of being built on secrets, but now she's in the past, none of her friends no what she's been through, and even if she tells them what happened they'll have no memories of it. The version of her friends and family who went through the same things she had are gone forever.

As someone with centuries of experience and that has lost countless people in ways that no one else can understand, he feels a strange kinship form with the girl at that moment. He knows that his future self failed the girl and that'll take him much hard work to earn her trust, but he decides then and there that he will do everything he can to do so.

To say that Pyrrha felt drained after Ruby long story would be quite accurate. Though she could tell that her young partner had her beaten in the exhausted department. She didn't really no how to process everything the young girl had just shared with her. 

What she could process however, is how much trust Ruby was showing her by telling her all of this. As Ruby's team leader, knowing about the girl’s experience makes Pyrrha feel woefully unqualified to be her leader. Regardless of her qualifications Pyrrha was Ruby's team leader as well as partner, so Pyrrha reinforces her commitment to supporting Ruby. 

Ruby's intends to use her knowledge to prevent the tragedies she experienced in her original timeline and Pyrrha intends to be there every step of the way, not just to prevent said tragedies, but to make sure the weight of responsibility doesn't crush the girl more than it seems to have already done.

Chapter Text

To Be A Team.

“What do you mean, what's aura?” Weiss hissed, unable to fathom how Jaune could've been accepted into Beacon without possession let alone without knowledge of aura. Jaune chuckles unconvincingly.

“I'm just joking Weiss, c'mon obviously I know what aura is.” Weiss glowers at him, not impressed in the least at the clear attempt at saving face. 

“Uh-huh.” She stares at him with her left eyebrow raised. Sweat rolls down the side of his face. It was their first day off, Pyrrha and Ruby were gone by the time the two of them were up. 

Weiss tried to get a headstart on her studying only as soon as she sat down with her materials her blonde buffoon of a partner bothered her with the ridiculous question. At first she assumed he in fact, was attempting some kind of lame joke until she looked up to see the sincere look on his face. 

“If you know what aura is. Then explain it to me.” Jaune plastered a fake confidence on his face that lasted like two seconds before it crumbled along with his shoulders.

“Ok, I don't know. I've heard it mentioned several times in class. But the teachers and other students always talk like it doesn't need explaining.” The heiress pinches her nose in frustration, shoving down the urge to shout ‘that’s because it shouldn't need explaining you buffoon.’ The only reason she didn't shout is because she just started to drink her coffee.

“I haven't even finished my coffee yet, give me a second before forcing me to deal with your stupidity.” Weiss takes a long sip of her coffee with her eyes closed, taking a deep breath. She opened her eyes hoping he got the hint and left her alone only to find him standing there with the same dumb look he always has. 

“How could you possibly have made it through combat school without aura?” She asks the obvious question, Jaune’s eyes go wide, his gaze sliding away from her. Weiss’s expression narrows at the avoidance of eye-contact. Jaune chuckles nervously, the blonde somehow looking more lost than usual, as impressive as that is. 

“It never c-came u-u-up?” If the ridiculousness of the idea didn't give away the lie, then the way Jaune stuttered and spoke as he was asking her the question, definitely gave it away. 

“You're lying. Why?” She demands with her voice even. Jaune's eyes flicker to the door as if he's preparing to bolt. Before either Jaune or Weiss can do anything else the door to their room opens. Their redheaded leader enters, followed closely by her small mental wreck of a partner. Jaune perks up after their entrance looking relieved. 

“Hey guys! Where'd you two run off so early in the morning?” The question seems to get to Pyrrha who gets a deer in the headlights look in her face looking towards Ruby nervously, while Ruby simply looks a little annoyed. Weiss takes mental note of their odd reactions but she narrows her eyes at Jaune’s excited questioning of their teammates, of course she also wanted to know where they had disappeared, but she recognized what Jaune was trying to do. 

“Don't you try to change the subject!” She snaps at Jaune, causing him as well as Pyrrha to flinch. Ruby seemed to not notice as she appeared to be spacing out again. The heiress shakes her head, she knew that they'd have to deal with the girl's inability to pay attention to her surroundings eventually, but Weiss refused to let Jaune get away with not explaining himself. 

Jaune looks back towards her, his nervous expression returning. Pyrrha turns to look at her as well, the redhead looking annoyed. Weiss sighs, remembering that Pyrrha doesn't like it when Weiss snaps at their teammates. She pinches the bridge of her nose in frustration for what felt like the hundredth time since Jaune interrupted her studying. With Pyrrha's aptitude for coming to the defense of their other teammates Weiss now felt outnumbered.

“Look. I'm sorry I snapped, but Jaune what you just told me is quite concerning and I'd really like an explanation.” Feeling outnumbered as well as out of respect for Pyrrha as team leader, Weiss decides the lighter approach to be more appropriate for the current situation. Jaune demeanor drops slightly, his nervous expression replaced with one of guilt. Pyrrha's expression also changed quite quickly, shifting to concern as she looked to Jaune.

“Jaune is everything alright?” Out of the corner of her eyes Weiss notices that Ruby seems to join them in the present, looking towards Pyrrha and Jaune with curiosity. Jaune looks down towards his feet, looking guilty at all the attention.

“I didn't mean to worry you Weiss. It's just…” Jaune’s explanation teeters off as he looks towards Ruby with worry in his eyes. Ruby looks back at him looking confused, then all of a sudden it looks like she comes to realization of some sort as her eyes widen in what looks like recognition.

As soon as Weiss said she found what he said concerning Jaune began to feel guilty. The guilt only grew when he saw Pyrrha's look of concern. With all the guilt he was beginning to feel he starts to explain himself thinking it was his only option only to stop short when he notices Ruby looking curiously towards him.

With all that Ruby seems to have been going through since initiation, there was no way he could burden her with his dumb inconsequential issues, not when he promised his friend that he would be there for her through the tough time she was going through. 

With a new surge of determination Jaune puffs out his chest preparing to offer some kind of excuse for why they shouldn't be concerned, only to be interrupted by a loud groan coming from Ruby. Jaune tilts his head at his smaller friend who was currently looking towards the ceiling with an annoyed look on her face. He hears her mutter something that sounds confusingly like ‘I can't believe I forgot about this’. Not sure what she was talking about, Jaune tries to refocus on driving attention away from his problems when Ruby speaks up. 

“Oh come in Jaune, out with it already! Tell us what's going on.” Jaune takes a step back hurt and perplexed, hurt by her snapping at him, perplexed by the hypocrisy of her demanding answers from him when she refused to tell him anything. Pyrrha stepped towards her partner slightly in concern. 

“Ruby?” Pyrrha questions softly with worry in her face. Jaune hears Weiss scoff quietly to herself, something he couldn't begin to think about. Ruby rolls her eyes at the rest of them before her eyes focus on Pyrrha's face. The tense look in Ruby's eyes fades at the look on her partner's face. This surprises Jaune as the past few days since initiation Pyrrha's shown concern for Ruby multiple times and it didn't seem to reach her, Jaune wonders what happened between the two of them this morning.

Ruby looks towards Jaune, unnerving him as it looks like she's looking through him at something else, her eyes soon adjust, seeming to see him again. Ruby takes a steadying breath, causing Jaune to finally realize that her shoulders had been shaking. 

“Look Jaune, we're a team now. If there's anything you're keeping from us that could affect the team, then you have an obligation to tell us.” Again Jaune wonders if Ruby notices her hypocrisy. She does bring up a good point however, his focus returns to her shoulders that had finally stopped shaking. That the shaking had stopped did little to stow Jaune’s concern. 

His drive to not burden Ruby with his problems rises, but then he starts to think that if he wants her to open up to him, he probably needs to do the same. Pyrrha steps next to Ruby putting an arm on her shoulder.

“Ruby's right, Jaune. We're a team. You can trust us.” Jaune feels his resolve crumbling, he turns to look at Weiss who meets his eyes, she looks annoyed briefly, but the look shifts to an appraising one. After a moment of thinking her face softens, the hint of a smile on her lips as she nods her head presumably agreeing with Pyrrha's sentiment.

“Alright, I'll tell you guys. But on one condition. If I share my secret with the team then Ruby needs to share hers.” Ruby's eyes widen in panic as she takes a step back. Jaune doesn't feel great about it but it only seems right to him if she wants him to trust her. She should show him the same.

Ruby should have seen all of this coming but she was so caught up in thoughts of the future, her past, she was blinded to her present. She realizes now she's been subconsciously viewing Jaune as she knew him in the future not as he was, or is now, she supposes. Jaune was not always as capable as he became, he didn't have any experience prior to Beacon let alone aura. 

Unlocking his aura should've been one of the first things she took care of at least, but more than that she should've started taking steps to help him improve faster this time then he did the first go around. Her carelessness angered her, which is why she snapped at Jaune before, not that he was annoying her but because she was annoyed at herself.

On top of the list of things she should have seen coming, Jaune using his secret to leverage hers out made sense. Normally she doesn't think it would bother her, but after sharing everything with Ozpin and Pyrrha and all that the conversation took out of her, the mere idea of sharing it again and so soon caused anxiety to well within her. She started retreating backwards in panic only to bump into something, or someone. 

The comforting weight of two hands on her shoulders followed by a familiar red ponytail coming into the edge of her vision told her who it was. Pyrrha is quickly becoming her only source of comfort in the past, something both relieving and scary. Not feeling as alone was a relief but the more she came to rely on Pyrrha the scarier the idea of failing to save her again became. 

“Jaune Ruby just got done confiding in me. It was quite the… draining conversation. Let's not make her go through it again so soon.” Pyrrha accompanies her please with a squeeze of her shoulders. Ruby resists the urge to lean into comfort. She had to be stronger than this, for Pyrrha… and everyone else. Ruby steps away from Pyrrha's grasp, refusing to look back, afraid seeing Pyrrha would make Ruby's resolve break. 

Jaune groans loudly, obviously stressed out by the conversation. Ruby refocuses her attention on the blonde, who was scratching his head furiously. Finally Jaune raises his eyes to look Ruby eye to eye. Jaune smiles looking relieved.

“I got to be honest Ruby, selfishly I wish you felt comfortable confining in me. But if Pyrrha's who you feel comfortable with, I'm just glad you're confiding in someone.” Against her better judgement, the sweetness of Jaune’s statement has the emotions that Ruby is trying to suppress are coming back to the surface. Ruby clenches her fists refusing to feel vulnerable, she couldn't afford it. 

“Thanks Jaune.” Though as much as she was trying to avoid being emotional, she just had to thank him, he deserves that much. She knows she has to tell him and everyone else the truth eventually but not yet, she couldn't yet. 

“Alright fine, you guys are right. You're my team and you need to know this, so here I go.”

On any other day Pyrrha thinks hearing that Jaune lied his way into Beacon would've come as quite the shock, after everything she just heard from Ruby and Ozpin, it just seemed pretty small. Pyrrha frowns slightly at the thought, it wasn't fair to Jaune to call his problems small. 

After Jaune finished Weiss stormed out, her and Jaune tried to follow after her, but Ruby insisted Weiss just needed some space and time. Knowing how well Ruby actually knew Weiss, Pyrrha took her word for it immediately though Jaune needed a little more convincing. Once Jaune felt comfortable with leaving Weiss alone for now Pyrrha took it upon herself to unlock his aura. 

Ruby and Pyrrha both agreed that they would help train Jaune up to standard. Jaune tried to protest but after all they just talked about, he didn't seem to have the energy to argue. Ruby and Jaune left to get started on training, no time like the present after all, Pyrrha told them she'd catch up after using the restroom, which is where she was now washing her hands. 

Looking up from her hands Pyrrha gazes at her reflection in the mirror, noticing how exhausted she looked despite having only been awake for about four hours. What a four hours it had been however. Staring at the mirror her reflection flashes, replaced with herself but this time with lifeless eyes and blood dripping from her mouth. 

Pyrrha splashes water in her face, shaking the image from her mind. It took everything she had to remain strong in front of Ruby and later Jaune and Weiss. Now that she was alone however she couldn't keep pretending that everything Ruby told her, specifically and especially her own death hadn't gotten to Pyrrha. It was something no one could prepare themselves for she was pretty sure.  

Pyrrha never expected her first week at Beacon would be so trying. She was known as ‘The Invincible Girl’ after all, things like this were supposed to come easy to her. Pyrrha scoffs at the thought furiously drying her hands. She was annoyed at herself for letting the nonsense the public was always throwing at her slip its way into her thoughts. No matter what anyone else said or thought, she worked incredibly hard to get where she was. 

She of course, admitted to herself how powerful her semblance was, she knew her Polarity gave her an advantage. That didn't mean mastering it was easy however, and as good with it as she's become, keeping it a secret when fighting a particularly skilled opponent was never easy. Her annoyance quickly fades as the temporary distraction isn't enough to keep thoughts of the future away for long. 

Not only does Pyrrha's thoughts return to her death, but as well the idea of her becoming a so-called Maiden. Both the Headmaster and Ruby stressed to her the importance of the Maiden powers. That under no circumstances could they let Salem have them. Thoughts of the immortal witch has Pyrrha's knees going weak. Just another terrifying thought she'd been trying not to let overwhelm her. 

How could she not be overwhelmed though, especially now that she's alone. The redhead bangs her hand against the bathroom counter in frustration. She had to get it together, she was the leader of this team, not Ruby, or even Jaune, her Pyrrha Nikos. She couldn't let her team down. Pyrrha takes a few calming breaths. 

She begins to feel much calmer as she figures it out. Even though slaying an evil witch and saving the world was now one of her responsibilities, she couldn't focus on that. She had to focus on her responsibility as team leader, leading a team while plenty difficult, was a much more accomplishable task. Plenty of people have been successful leaders, thinking of things through that lens made things seem smaller. 

The big picture is important, but if there's anything Pyrrha learned from hearing about Ozpin's mistakes or witnessing Ruby's mental state, it's that you can only focus on the big picture for so long until it overwhelms you. That didn't mean you could ignore the bigger picture, you just had to properly choose when and where to tackle it, and right now, Pyrrha has to focus on being the best team leader she can be.

Chapter Text

Headaches

Ozpin couldn't say that reflecting on his conversation with Ruby and Pyrrha was very pleasant. Nevertheless, for the rest of the day, it was all he could do. For a man who already lived with more guilt than anyone else in history, hearing how absolutely tremendous he screwed up in Ruby's time, his future, weighed heavily on his soul as one would expect.

To think that in just a year's time, Beacon will fall, and Salem’s minion will become the Fall Maiden, all under his watch. Ozpin began to massage his temples, attempting to stave off the oncoming headache. It wasn't very effective. Ruby made him promise not to make any huge decisions without consulting her, though she made it clear she didn't expect him to actually keep it, she didn't say as such in words but her doubt was evident.

Her mistrust bothered him, but there wasn't much he could do about it other than prove her wrong. Considering that so far they've only discussed the cliffnotes of what happened, there wasn't much he could do without further discussion anyway. They would have started getting a plan together earlier if not for how much the conversation had drained all three of them. Instead, they agreed to take the day and the next to collect their thoughts and then reconvene. 

“Ozpin, are you alright?” Oz is pulled from his thoughts by the voice of his trusted right hand. Turning in his chair to face her, he finds a concerned look on her face. He didn't even notice her entering his office, too lost in thought. Checking the time, Ozpin's caught off guard by how late in the day it had become. Groaning, he realizes that he was 40 minutes late for the faculty meeting. 

“Glynda…” At a loss for words, Ozpin stares at her in silence, causing her worried frown to deepen. She moves forward, walking around his desk to come to a stop next to his chair. She had a clipboard held tightly in her hands, pulled against her chest. 

“I took down notes during the meeting for you after realizing that you wouldn't be joining us.” She hands the clipboard to him; his hands were unsteady as he took it. He notices her eyes follow his shaking hands. To his relief, she doesn't comment on them. 

“The meeting is over already?” It was surprising, Glynda usually runs the meetings meticulously, making sure to go over every detail. Her eyes stray to the right, her face looking a little strained. 

“I cut the meeting short so I could come and check on you.” The admission clearly made her a bit uncomfortable, it wasn't that showing emotions like concern was out of her comfort zone per say, but instead that when her softer emotions interfere with her work that she got uncomfortable. So both the action and admittance of ending the meeting early meant a good deal to Ozpin.

“Glynda… thank you.”

Weiss is furious. Not only did that idiot Jaune lie his way into Beacon, but Ruby and Pyrrha just accepted it without issue. Weiss is currently outside the school, hoping the fresh air would help her calm down. It was not. She could understand why Jaune did what he did. He was a buffoon. How else could he get into Beacon? She could not understand how Ruby and especially Pyrrha could excuse it. Didn't they work incredibly hard to earn their way into Beacon?

Weiss's hand instinctually finds its way to the scar in her cheek. She knows she certainly didn't have an easy road here. She almost died convincing her father to let her come here. But Jaune gets to fake some paperwork and just waltz into the most prestigious of the Huntsman schools completely and utterly unqualified? 

And Weiss is just supposed to accept this? Ruby and Pyrrha expect her to just say what? It's okay Jaune you living and cheating your way into Beacon, and it doesn't belittle all of the hard work I put into getting here. Well, news flash, it does! Weiss clutched tightly to the railing she's currently leaning over. She had stopped by the railing with the prettiest view, hoping the sight would calm her.

“Are you alright?” An unfamiliar voice kindly jostled Weiss from her furious thoughts. Her grip on the rail loosens as she turns to the source of the kind voice. The heiress’ gaze immediately finds its way to the rabbit ears atop the stranger's head. She recognized the Faunas from a few of her classes. Against Weiss’s will, the girl's presence brings forth an unpleasant memory.

“Can you put down the bottle for one moment and listen to me, you useless woman?!” The sound of her father yelling at her mother was an unfortunately familiar occurrence for young Weiss. She was 12 years old, and only two years ago, her father admitted to her mother that he didn't and never loved her. Since then, her mother only retreated further and further into the bottle and away from her and her siblings. Her father, who was never the kindest soul, only got angrier and angrier. 

“Of course, Jacques, what's on your mind dear?” The despondent voice of her mother responds, though she continues to pour more wine into her glass from the bottle. Weiss couldn't see from her hiding place in the hallway, but she knew exactly what the faces on both her parents looked like. The anger in her father's eyes and the emptiness in her mother's, all too familiar sights for the young girl. 

“I said the filthy Faunas are at it again. They attacked another mine, and this time, they got Bran.” Weiss recognized the name. He was one of her father's favorite employees, always eager to please. He always treated her and her sister well, even though he probably only did it to stay on her father's good side. Hearing of his death still made her sad. 

“I swear those useless animals were put on this planet for one reason and one reason alone. To make my life harder!” The vitriol spewing from her father's mouth had shivers running up and down her young frame. She wanted to do nothing more than retreat back to the comfort of her room, but she was rooted to her spot, cowering next to the doorframe of her family's dining room. 

“So don't you think as my wife, it's your responsibility to offer me comfort instead of sitting there doing nothing like the sad pathetic woman you are?” The tears were flowing freely from Weiss’s eyes at this point, she just wished her father would stop yelling, but she knew better, the only thing that's going to put a stop to his yelling is a quick flick of his wrist. 

“Of course, dear.” The sound of glass shattering rings out from the dining room throughout the hall. Her father must have knocked the wine glass out of her mother's hand, and against her better judgment, Weiss whimpered at the sound of it. 

“Who's there? Weiss, is that you? What have I told you about eavesdropping? Get in here!” Weiss did not, in fact, get in there. Instead, she stood there frozen as she heard her father angrily stomp towards her. 

Weiss can still feel the sting of her father's hand on her cheek. Weiss vividly remembers crying in her bed that night, cursing her fortune, and her mother for never stepping in to protect, but most of all, she cursed the strange people she'd never met, the so-called Faunas that drove her father to such fury. As she grew older, Weiss, of course, got a better picture of the situation. She understood the role her father played in the conflict.

Though understanding that her father and, by extension, her family's company wasn't completely innocent, did nothing to ease her trauma. After all, you couldn't simply logic away such a thing like trauma from an abusive father. Which is why even with all the distance she put between her and her father, despite her disgust with his business practices, he couldn't help her deep-seated distrust of the Faunas that her father so deeply ingrained in her. 

“Hey…” Again, the rabbit Faunas tries to gently comfort Weiss, this time stepping closer to the heiress. The sudden closeness of the girl has Weiss leaping back. Frustrated and far past the point of having a headache, Weiss snaps at the girl. 

“Don't stand so close! For that matter, mind your damn business!” After her outburst, Weiss lets out a breath and storms away from the girl. Far too upset at that moment to even consider feeling bad about snapping at the girl who was only trying to help her. In her angry haze, Weiss finds herself gravitating towards the training room. She is looking to blow off steam. She's surprised when she finds the other three members of her team already there. 

She hangs around the doorway, watching them but not approaching. She looks on as Jaune stands across from Ruby, his legs shaking. She sees Pyrrha offer what Weiss assumes were some words of encouragement from the side. Jaune advances towards Ruby, and Weiss doesn't try to restrain her smirk of satisfaction at watching Ruby knock him on his ass without so much as drawing her weapon.  

To her surprise, before Ruby could finish offering him her hand to help him stand, he was already on his feet. For the next several minutes, Weiss watched on as Ruby and Pyrrha took turns laying Jaune out, only to her surprise again and again. Jaune stood back up.

She had to admit to herself that she expected far less from him. She briefly considers joining them before she remembers the reason for her prior indignation. Her scowl returns. It'll take more than one training session for him to earn her forgiveness. Determinedly, Weiss turns around and leaves the three of them to their training so she can enjoy having the room all to herself.

Ruby has been feeling surprisingly good since she and Pyrrha started training Jaune. Ruby thinks that part of the reason she's feeling good is that she's started to actually take steps to making things better in this timeline. Surely, with the two of them helping Jaune, it can improve much faster this time around. Of course, the meeting with Ozpin was her biggest step. 

Now, she still didn't trust the man of reincarnation. However, she did believe that he wanted to stop the Fall of Beacon as much as she did. At the end of the day, in the first timeline, he gave his life protecting the school. So while Ruby fully expects him to lie to her and keep secrets, at the very least she believes he'll try to prevent the Fall and with his resources he's got a much better chance than she does. 

While her feelings of progress are a part of her good mood, she knows it's not the only reason. Her eyes shift to her partner Pyrrha, and for some reason, being around Pyrrha makes Ruby feel at ease. Ruby thinks that Pyrrha knowing the truth is part of it, but she doesn't think that's all there is the redheads' calming presence. Perhaps it's because Pyrrha being alive reminds her that things can be better this time around. 

Whatever the reason for the relaxing effect Pyrrha has on her, Ruby finds herself instinctively seeking it out. Ruby smiles lightly to herself, looking at Pyrrha out of the corner of her eye.

Entering the cafeteria, Yang tries to keep her anxiety under control. The outing with her team the other day did wonders for her mood, but knowing that her team would be having lunch with Ruby's team has her anxiety returning with a vengeance. She couldn't handle her little sister shutting her out anymore. She knows Ruby's in pain right now, and it's her responsibility to be there for her. 

As Yang and her team approach their table, Yang notices Ruby smiling for the first time since they started Beacon. The sight warmed her as well as gave Yang some hope that Ruby won't reject her attempts at connection today. Yang and the rest of Team LNBY take their seats across from Team PARS. Yang makes eye contact with Ruby, her warmest smile on her face, though as soon as her sister sees Yang, her expression falls. 

Hurt wells within Yang as for the first time she contemplates that maybe Blake was right when hinted that Yang was to blame for Ruby's attitude change. After all, why else would Ruby be in a good mood only for it to sour immediately on locking eyes with Yang? Yang began to feel guilty. Worse of all, she was not sure what exactly she's feeling guilty for, only that she seemed for some reason to be causing her baby sister pain.

Ruby tensed up the second Yang sat down at the table, and she could tell her older sister noticed, by the hurt look on the blonde's face. It makes Ruby feel guilty, but she couldn't help it. Being around this younger version of her sister just felt wrong. It felt similar to being around the younger versions of Weiss and Jaune, but the feeling was infinitely worse when it came to her sister. 

Being reminded that the friends she went through so much alongside didn't know her anymore hurt. But it was so much different with them than with Yang, because as far as they were concerned they just met Ruby more or less, they realized that they don't know her. Yang, though, believes that she's been there for Ruby's whole life, understandably, so Yang thinks she knows Ruby, but she doesn't, not anymore. 

Part of her can't wait to tell Yang everything and bring her sister into her circle of trust, but the other part of Ruby doesn't want to burden Yang with the mess her little sister has become. 

“Hey Rubes…” The sound of Yang's voice gently brings Ruby's attention back to her sister. Yang had an uncertain expression on her face, eyes roaming all over Ruby's face. 

“Do you think you'd be up to a private chat, just the two of us?” Ruby feels her anxiety brimming up to the surface. Her breath starts to quicken. It must show on her face as Yang starts to look panicked. 

“Ruby?” Pyrrha's soft voice grabs Ruby's focus, the silver-eyed girl turning towards her partner. Unlike Yang, Pyrrha looks calm and understanding, and Ruby calms slightly at the sight. Once again, Ruby is astonished by the effect Pyrrha has acquired over her. She briefly wishes her silver-eyes granted her magic to shrink Pyrrha so she can keep on her person at all times like she did Little. Ruby chuckles a bit at her internal joke before taking a calming breath and returning her gaze to Yang.

“Ok Yang… Let's talk.” Ruby holds on desperately to the calm Pyrrha had provided her as she and a hesitant Yang made their way out of the cafeteria. As they neared the exit, Ruby spies something happen out of the corner of her eye that stops her dead in her tracks. Velvet had dropped her tray, but that's not what shocked her. What stopped Ruby dead in her tracks was that Cardin Winchester of all people stopped to help her clean it up. 

Ruby's left eye begins to twitch as she watches Cardin give Velvet a warm smile as she walks away, his expression clearly genuine. Was this because of her? What could she have possibly done to affect Cardin? Head blaring in pain, Ruby wonders again if this wasn't some elaborate hallucination caused by The Tree. Her heart swells with the now quite familiar panic. First the Grimm in the Emerald Forest and now this?

Does Ruby's experience of the future mean nothing? Is she flying completely blind? The idea that none of what Ruby knows matters because anything and everything could be different regardless of her influence was terrifying. For the second time that day, Ruby loses control of her breath, her whole body shaking. Familiar arms wrap around her shoulders, and for the first time since she found herself in the past, Ruby remembers why Yang was her rock while she was growing up. 

The warmth of the sun with none of the burns. Despite the conflicting emotions she was feeling about her sister, the warmth of Yang's hug silenced the voice of dread in Ruby's mind. Her rapid breathing slows as Ruby nuzzles closer to the sun. 

“I'm here, Ruby. I don't know what's wrong but I'm here.” Ruby's ears hone in on Yang's words, preferring them to the words in her mind. If Ruby's brain was less clouded, she would consider that the whole cafeteria was witnessing her breakdown. Instead, the only thing on Ruby's mind was taking advantage of Yang's warmth.

They sit there a little while longer until Ruby finally starts to feel somewhat back in control. Ruby softly pulls away from Yang, wiping softly at her tear soaked cheeks. Ruby raises her eyes to make contact with Yang's, to Ruby's satisfaction and Yang's visible relief, Ruby manages to look at her sister with trust. 

“Thanks, Yang. I really needed that hug.” A bittersweet chuckle punctuates her sentence as Ruby gives a small smile. Yang's expression of relief holds for a few moments before one of worry slides back into its place. 

“Ruby… What's going on?... Please, talk to me.” Yang is gentle and slow with her pleading, but the hurt at having been shut out for so many days seeps through her words. Guilt clawed at Ruby's heart once again, but now, having found a better sense of emotional equilibrium, Ruby is able to push it away and focus. 

“Yeah, okay, let's find a private spot to talk. Just the two of us.” Yang lets out a sigh of relief before she nods, signaling for Ruby to lead the way.

Weiss realizes she had found herself gripping her fork tightly as she watched the sister finally exit the cafeteria. She notices Jaune and Pyrrha, as well as the rest of Team LNBY, relax all. Pyrrha, in particular, sits back down. She had stood up the second she noticed Ruby had started to have a panic attack. Her doing so is what had brought the rest of the tables attention to the scene. 

Jaune let out a purposely loud sigh of relief that was obviously designed to bring attention to himself. The grip that had loosened on her fork by the sisters leaving returned with full force as Weiss’s attention was brought to her all-time least favorite blonde. The liar is giving her an apologetic look. Weiss holds nothing back in the glare she gives him in return. 

“Look, Weiss, about what I told you yesterday…” Weiss raises her eyebrow questionly, looking back and forth between Jaune and Team LNBY. Jaune gives her a helpless shrug and a pleading look in his eyes. Her nostrils flare, how dare he try to beg her to stay silent. He's lucky she hasn't already gone straight to the Headmaster with his secret. 

The only reason she hadn't is that she's never heard of a three-person team at Beacon before. Unwilling to let a failure like him negatively affect her career, Weiss decided to stay silent and excel so much that no matter how pathetic a partner she had, she would succeed at Beacon. Then, as soon as she graduates, she can spill his secret, and he can finally get the punishment he deserves. 

Her sense of righteous fury dims slightly as she remembers the training she had witnessed in the gym. Weiss shakes her head vigorously. She refuses to let herself lighten up on him. She levels him with an even darker already than before, one he wilts at. 

“Weiss…” The disappointed voice of her team leader grabs Weiss’s attention. Weiss gives Pyrrha a more neutral look, but a hint of the fury remains. Up until that point, Pyrrha, being upset with Weiss’s attitude, had made her feel chastised. Such was her respect for that champion. But her respect for Pyrrha has dimmed since the redhead seemingly absolved Jaune of his crime. 

“Pyrrha please, let me handle this.” Jaune interjects softly, bringing Weiss's gaze back to him. He surprisingly maintains eye contact, with dare Weiss say a confident look in his eyes. Curiosity overrides anger as Weiss slightly tilts her head, waiting to hear what he says next. 

“Weiss, I get why what I told you bothers you. I really do.” She doubts that, but the blonde speaks with such conviction that she couldn't help but let him continue. 

“But you're wrong about me. I'm going to do everything I can to prove myself to you and earn your forgiveness.” His declaration is given resolutely without a hint of nervousness. Competitiveness rises in the Heiress, taking his statement as a challenge.

“Is that so?” Weiss questions tauntingly, a smirk finding its way to her lips. 

“It'll take more than a few trips to the gym to earn my respect.” Jaune straightens his shoulders.

“Whatever it takes.” His staunch response brings a cruel tint to Weiss’s smirk as a great idea comes to her mind. 

“If you want me to even begin to consider…” She pauses to create tension as well as take in the confused expressions on Team LNBY’s faces

“Overlooking your transgression, you'll need to do more than just excel physically. You'll need to excel academically as well.” To Weiss’s satisfaction Jaune’s confidence falters slightly at the mention of academics though to his credit, he finds it again quickly, nodding his head affirmatively. 

“So in addition to you continuing your little physical training sessions with Ruby and Pyrrha…” She enjoys the look of surprise on his face at her, revealing her awareness of his training with their other teammates 

“You'll be doing weekly one on one study sessions with me.” Under most circumstances, the idea of spending more time with the blonde failure would make her nauseous. But the idea of Jaune buried in textbooks and overwhelmed by her academic prowess was just too sweet. Besides, if he accepts it’s not like she'll have to suffer the one on one time with the idiot for long, as he surely won't have it in him to not quit. 

“Deal!” Jaune didn't even hesitate before accepting, matching Weiss's challenging look with a look of determination.

Yang walks alongside Ruby, slightly behind her younger sister so she can lead the way. Watching Ruby have a panic attack obviously sucked, though the pain at seeing her little sister suffering was weakened slightly by relief that she let Yang comfort her. Yang hopes she can manage to maintain Ruby's regained trust in her. 

Whatever trouble she's going through, Ruby can share with her, and Yang will make sure her little sister never forgets that again. Ruby turns right down the hallway only to come to a full stop. Yang jogs to catch up as she also rounds the corner and finds that her sister had come to a stop in front of Headmaster Ozpin. Yang's eyes narrow as she notices the way Ruby's shoulders tense, the blonde steps closer, giving Ozpin a cautious once over. 

“Ah Miss Rose… just who I was hoping to run into.” Ozpin chuckles unconvincingly as he looks between the two sisters, his eyes lingering oddly at Yang. Yang grips her fists tightly. Was he upset that she was here with Ruby? What did he want with Ruby that Yang's presence would be a bother? 

“Miss Xiao-Long, a pleasure to see you too, of course.” Yang finds herself a little impressed at how genuine he sounded there. He even managed to school his expression. Though she still knows what she saw. Ozpin gives Ruby an apologetic look. 

“I know I said that you could take the next couple of days to collect your thoughts before our next discussion, Ruby, but I really need to speak with you.” Once again, he seems genuine to Yang, though judging by Ruby's response, her sister doesn't buy his regret.

“Breaking your promises already, Professor?” She bites out her reply with more venom than Yang had ever heard come out of her sister's mouth. Ozpin flinches at her biting response. Yang's confusion only grows, and so does her protective streak. What is going on with her sister? How is Ozpin connected to it, and why does she have a seemingly confrontational relationship with him? The uncertainty of these questions compounds on top of her worries for her sister to give Yang a massive headache. 

“I am sorry, Ruby, but this is important and shouldn't wait.” Yang finds herself sporting a similar glare to Ruby. Important, can't wait, sounds an awful lot like the conversation she was about to have with her younger sister to Yang. Yang notices her sister glare fall, Ruby turning to give Yang a sad look. Yang's shoulders slack, knowing what her little sister was about to say. 

“I'm sorry, Yang. I really am, but we'll have to talk later, okay?” Yang starts to panic a little at this point. Ruby has been avoiding her for days. What's to say that after whatever conversation she and Ozpin were about to have, she wouldn't go right back to doing it. Yang calms when she feels Ruby's hands wrap around her left. 

“I promise Yang.” Ruby tries to smile, but it falters slightly. Her sister eventually falls into a more neutral expression, though sincerity shone in her eyes. 

“I'm going to hold you to that Rubes.” Ruby full smiles at that. Ruby throws her arms around Yang's neck, hugging tightly. Yang returns the gesture. After a moment, they part. The half sisters give each other shaky smiles and nods. Yang tries to ignore the lump in her gut, as she  watches her sister walk off with the enigmatic Headmaster of Beacon Academy.

Chapter Text

Bad News!

Ozpin is far from oblivious to the tension that grips Ruby's body as she walks next to him towards his office. In fact, he can hardly stop his eyes from observing her stiff shoulders or how her eyes never meet his. It bothers him, but knowing what he now knows about her past and his potential future, he can't blame her. 

He wishes he could have given her the time to decompress that he promised her, not only because she could use it, but because keeping his word is an important step to regaining her trust. What he just learned, however, is too important not to share with her immediately. It's a calculated risk going against his word so soon, but he believes that by sharing important information as soon as he learns it, he hopes to change her idea of him, that he keeps the important truth from those close to him. 

It's a hard thing to accomplish since she's right. Keeping information to himself is his first instinct, after all. As much as Ruby has been through in her young life, the betrayals she's experienced, his future self included, she couldn't fathom just how much betrayal he's experienced in his many lives. According to Ruby, apparently, he can already add Leo to that long list, and if he's not careful in the near future James might also join that list. Though even with all of these reasons for him to keep the truth to himself, he couldn't blame her for being angry. 

Even if his future self had, in his own opinion, good reasons for not giving her his full trust, Ruby had given him hers, and he broke it. So he couldn't begrudge her anger or her lack of trust in him. Though with all of her knowledge and experience of Salem’s plans, he couldn't afford under any circumstances, not having her full cooperation, which is why he needs to take the proper steps to earn her trust. So as hard as it is, as much as it goes against his every instinct, he's going to be up front with her, that's the purpose of this meeting.

They arrive at his office, instead of sitting in his chair, Ozpin comes to a stop in front of his desk, leaning his back against it with his cane gripped in both hands. If asked, he'd probably keep it to himself, but he couldn't bring himself to sit down; he was much too anxious. He's had a hard time sitting down for long periods of time since Ruby shared her story with him. Her story of the future felt like a direct assault on his greatest secret, the secret of his fear, of how terrified he is of the idea that he can't defeat Salem, that all his plans and preparation were meaningless in the face of her immortality. 

Ever since he founded Beacon he's feared Salem destroying it. Up until a few days ago the fear felt more instinctual than rational, so to have Ruby tell him that the fear was actually prophetic shook him. Not for the first time he finds himself empathizing with his future selfish decision to hide in the recesses of his next selfish mind. Of course, as the only mind in his current form, he didn't have that luxury, though even if he did, he'd like to think he wouldn't give into fear the same way his future self did. 

His future self undoubtedly felt like he had failed beyond repair following the destruction of Beacon and the betrayal of Leonardo. As of right now Beacon still stands, so he can still save it, and Leo still lives, so perhaps Oz can still reason with him. These hopes are what he has to hold on to, to fight back the fear, to fight back the urge to run away, and prove Ruby's lack of faith in him correct. 

The girl responsible for his mental unrest stood across from him with her crossed defensively, her left foot anxiously tapping on the metal floor of his office as she glared at him. Her posture and facial expressions served to place a wall between them. A wall that only grows with the words that come out of her mouth next.

“So I noticed that you didn't invite Pyrrha to this little talk. Is that cause you're trying to form some tight personal bond with me or something?" The raised eyebrow accompanied by a sneer told him what she thought of that idea. The anxious grip on his cane tightens at her calling him out. It was true, he was hoping that some time with just the two of them could help foster some trust.

Of course, what he forgot to take into consideration is that Ruby is not the inexperienced girl he thought her as when he first invited her to his school. It was a silly mistake that wasn't much like him. Ozpin sighs, he really has been out of sorts ever since he heard about the future. Threading his fingers through his silver hair Ozpin lowers his gaze from Ruby to the floor.

“Ruby… your view of me… isn't entirely … inaccurate. You told me Jinn showed you my past. You know that I've lived many different lives, and in all of that time, I've given trust and had that trust broken more times than you can fathom. “ Ozpin kept his eyes on the floor, unable to bear the look of contempt he imagined she sported at what she probably considered his excuses. 

“Those betrayals taught me to hold people at a distance and view every conversation as a step in my plans instead of a chance at genuine connection. I thought that no one but me could handle the whole truth, there were people I trusted with some of the truth, but I always only shared what I thought they could handle…” Ozpin half expected Ruby to cut him off at some point but to his relief, she seems willing to hear him out. 

“And I've felt that the way I did things was right. I felt that humanity couldn't handle things the way I could. Your story of the future, which I'll admit, I'm a little surprised that I believe, taught me that I'm not as prepared or special as I liked to believe.” Honestly, Ozpin wasn't sure why he didn't doubt that she was from the future, perhaps it's because deep down he always feared or even knew that he couldn't protect Beacon from Salem. So maybe he believed her so easily because she forced him to face the fear that he had been ignoring. 

“So yes, Ruby, this conversation, being just the two of us, was a calculated decision to grow closer to you, to earn your trust. That's just how I've always operated, but after hearing your story I've come to understand my approach has been flawed. So I apologize for treating you as a chess piece, both in your future and the present.” After his apology, Oz waits several seconds with his head bowed. Ruby doesn't respond so eventually Ozpin raises his head to look at her. She looks conflicted, he can still see her annoyance, but it seems tempered with, perhaps resignation. 

“Whatever, can we just get to the point of why you wanted to talk to me so bad?” Understanding that moving on was the best he could hope for in the current situation Ozpin responds.

“The reason I needed to speak with you, Ruby, is that I just received a rather urgent message from… General Ironwood.” 

Pyrrha can't say that the conversation with Weiss and Jaune went as well as she hoped it would, but at least she can say it went better than she expected it to. For now, both of her teammates who remained at the cafeteria table seem satisfied, so she'll take what wins she can get. She never imagined her first week at Beacon could be so… emotionally draining. 

Though she supposes that no one could have expected and been prepared for an emotionally devastated time-traveling partner from a near-apocalyptic future in which you're dead! So she thinks she can give herself a pass for not being ready for the past five days. Thinking about the future she heard about from Ruby has Pyrrha looking towards Ren and Nora. Apparently, if Ruby hadn't come back to this time, she would have been on a team with them. 

They both seem nice, if a little crazy in Nora's case, the most appealing thing about them to Pyrrha is that they get along. She thinks being on a team with them and Jaune would've involved a lot fewer headaches. Of course, if Ruby hadn't come back, then Pyrrha would've died in a year, so Pyrrha believes she can deal with a few headaches. Speaking of potential headaches, Pyrrha notices Yang returning to the cafeteria, without Ruby, and looking troubled.

Worry for Ruby, a feeling already quite familiar, wells in Pyrrha as she leans forward as Yang approaches. Out of the corner of her eyes, she notices Blake also leaning forward in concern, though Pyrrha gets the feeling she's more concerned for Yang. The blonde sits back down at the table, a faraway look in her lilac eyes. 

“Where's Ruby?” Pyrrha inquires, trying her best to sound casual to avoid exacerbating Yang's clear discomfort. Yang turns to look at her, though it takes a few seconds for her eyes to actually focus on Pyrrha. 

“Our talk was interrupted by Headmaster Ozpin.” Pyrrha narrows her eyes at that. Ozpin had agreed to give her and Ruby the day, so they could decompress after their stressful conversation yesterday. To not only not give Ruby the day, but to cut Pyrrha out of the conversation. The worry Pyrrha feels only continues to grow. 

“Which shouldn't have been that weird, but Ruby had seemed… disturbingly uncomfortable around Ozpin.” Pyrrha notices the entire table leans closer at that, a concerned look on all of their faces. Pyrrha definitely felt a little guilty being the only person there with an idea of what's going on. Pyrrha awkwardly cleans her throat before speaking.

“I'm not sure if this'll make you feel better or not Yang, but I'm aware of what's going on between the two of them, and I assure you the worst thing that would be going on with them right now is an argument.” After Pyrrha speaks Yang's worried expression turns to an expression of hurt. 

“So Ruby told you what's going on with her before she told me huh…” Yang looks down briefly, before shaking her head, planting her hands on the table, and sitting up, staring at Pyrrha intently. 

“What's going on with my little sister?” She demands eyes flickering red. Pyrrha gives her a sad look in response. 

“It’s not my secret to share Yang.” Yang seemingly takes her point, closing her eyes and sitting down with a sigh. By the time she opens her eyes, they've returned to their normal color. Pyrrha's heart wrenches at the resignation on Yang's face. When she has a chance Pyrrha's going to talk to Ruby about potentially telling Yang the truth. It'll be best for both of them, Pyrrha believes.

“That’s fair. It's just that… she just met you. I'm her sister. I could've sworn she knew that she could tell me anything.” The defeat in Yang's tone didn't suit her, though Pyrrha isn't sure what she can say in this situation. Before she can try to say anything Jaune beats her to it. 

“Uh, I don't want to speak for Ruby, but… as someone who grew up with multiple older siblings, sometimes I felt like I had to prove to myself I didn't need to rely on them. Perhaps that's what's going on with Ruby? It doesn't necessarily mean she doesn't trust you.” Pyrrha can't help but smile as Jaune talks. She hasn't known him for that long. In the short time she's known him he's almost always nervous and unsure of himself. Even so, when it comes to being there for someone in need he doesn't hesitate, it's something she can't help but admire about him. 

“Yeah, I mean I get what you're saying… but…” Yang trails off, seeming to get lost in thought. This time it's Blake who speaks up. 

“But understanding that doesn't really help, does it?” Yang shakes her head with a rueful smile. 

“Personally. I think Ruby should be more of an open book. Like me!” Interjects Nora, a proud smile on her face as she puffs out her chest. An unexpected smirk adorns Yang's lips. 

“Can you really be called a book when you can't read?” The barb has Nora's eyes widening, a mock offended look on her face. 

“I can too read. Take that back!” She bites back. Instead of Yang it's Weiss who responds, a scoff comes out of the white-haired girl's lips. 

“With grammar like that. I highly doubt it.” Weiss practically whispers the insult though it still travels across the table. Nora's head whips back and forth between the two of them, the energetic girl surprised at being teamed up on. 

Despite the insults coming from both sides of the table, the proud smile on Nora's face remained. Looking at the smile adorning the once distraught face of Yang. Pyrrha gets the feeling that perhaps there was a bit of intention behind Nora's seemingly random outbursts. The lighter atmosphere of the cafeteria table helps Pyrrha with her own worry over Ruby and what Ozpin is telling her.

“A message from General Ironwood?” Against her wishes Ruby's blood runs cold at the mention of Ironwood. She understands that the general of this time is not the same as the man who left Mantle to burn but the wounds were still too fresh to be ignored. Ozpin seems to understand this if the hesitant look on his face was any indication. 

“Yes… an urgent one.” The idea of an urgent message from Ironwood that Ozpin believes Ruby should hear brings a whole different anxiety. The first place Ruby's mind goes is that the changes in this timeline are even bigger than simply making Cardin Winchester not a bully. 

“Apparently a top secret military project suddenly vanished six days ago.” Six days ago, meaning initiation, the day Ruby arrived in the past. Ruby's understanding must be showing on her face judging by the knowing look Ozpin is giving her. 

“I even asked James if he had the exact time this project of his vanished. He did and I referenced it with our footage of initiation. It was mere seconds after you arrived in this time and the Grimm in the Emerald Forest vanished. A connection that can't be ignored.” Having her fears confirmed is just about the luck Ruby has been expecting. The task of creating a better future than she came from was daunting enough when she knew what to expect. Now her arrival in the past has apparently caused seemingly random changes all over Remnant? 

Has she already made things worse? She's barely done anything yet, but apparently by simply arriving in the past she's made Grimm vanish, Cardin change personalities, which she doesn't really care about but is still weird, and now she's caused one of Ironwood's projects to vanish? A terrible thought has chills run down Ruby's body. 

“Ozpin, did the general say what exactly went missing?” Ruby asks hesitantly, her mind having gone to one secret project in particular that she knew of. 

“No. I asked, but he said that's too sensitive to discuss over scroll.” Not the answer Ruby was hoping for. She's not a big fan of the idea of being vulnerable around Oz but in this situation she figures she might have to. 

“Please Oz, press him. I need to know.” She pleads, her eyes soft, her shoulders slumped making herself smaller. She's well aware how much Ozpin wants to establish a rapport with her, so she figures he might respond better to vulnerability than the wall she's been putting up around him. 

“I will… see what I can do. But you know James… he can be quite stubborn.” Despite her worry Ruby rolls her eyes at that, understatement of the century she thinks. 

“As soon as I know what projects he's referring to, so will you. Would you feel comfortable sharing with me what answer you're so afraid of?” His question has images of orange hair and green ideas flashing through her mind, tears welling up behind her eyes that she refuses to let fall.

“Not really Professor, no.” 

Two days later, Pyrrha and her team find themselves in Professor Port's class. Pyrrha finds her attention falling in and out of his lecture. One, as it was quite dull, two as her eyes traveled to her partner sitting beside her. Ever since her private conversation with Ozpin, Ruby has been as distant as she was before she shared her story with Pyrrha. 

Every time Pyrrha asks what's wrong Ruby gives her a shrug and a faraway look. Poor Yang thought she had finally gotten through to her little sister, instead she had to resort to asking Pyrrha about her. Unfortunately the only answer Pyrrha had for the blonde was, sorry Yang she won't talk to me either. Pyrrha decides then and there that after class she was going to try again and this time she wouldn't take no for an answer.

Ruby was making progress in relying on others before whatever conversation she had with Ozpin and Pyrrha couldn't let one talk set her back this much. As soon as the rather boring lecture is over Pyrrha turns towards Ruby only to see the girl on the other side of the classroom. To her confusion Pyrrha finds the sight of Ruby talking to a boy Pyrrha believes is named Cardin Winchester. 

Odd considering as far as Pyrrha knew Ruby and him had never interacted, at least in this time, Pyrrha reminds herself. The redhead briefly wonders if there was something about Cardin in Ruby's original timeline that the time traveller had kept to herself. Pyrrha's eyes narrow in concern as whatever Ruby is saying to him makes Cardin shrink into himself, a look of fear on his face. She had never interacted with him herself but as far as Pyrrha could tell he seems like just a quiet well behaved student. 

Concerned and confused she makes her way over to the conversation with a steady pace. She trusts Ruby but with her inconsistent mental state Pyrrha isn’t if now's a good time for her to be having whatever conversation she was having with Cardin. Before Pyrrha can make it close enough to hear what they were talking about Cardin gets scared and runs off. Ruby throws up her arms and lets out a loud grunt of frustration. 

“Hey… Ruby…” Pyrrha greets her frustrated partner hesitantly worried she might snap with all the tension visible in her shoulders. Apparently Ruby was really caught up in her thoughts since she turns towards Pyrrha quickly with a startled look. Her face goes from startled to nervous eyes darting towards the exit of the classroom.

“Hey, partner…” She lets out an awkward laugh as she says ‘partner’ clearly trying to act as if she hasn’t been avoiding Pyrrha. Taking a bit of a risk Pyrrha lightly reaches out and puts a comforting hand on Ruby’s right forearm. 

“Ruby… What's going on? We’re in this thing together. You can tell me what’s been bothering you since you talked with Ozpin.” Ruby looks to the ground, her nervous energy fading away to be replaced with resignation. 

“I know, I trust you Pyrrha. That’s not what’s going on.” Ruby laid her left hand over Pyrrha’s hand that rested on Ruby’s forearm. 

“Okay. Then tell me what is going on.” Ruby opens her mouth as if to respond only for the sound of her scroll receiving a message to interrupt. Ruby gives Pyrrha a remorseful look before she checks it. Her eyes widen, and her hands holding her scroll start to shake slightly as she reads the message. 

“It’s Ozpin. He wants to talk.” Pyrrha’s heart lurches at the fear that creeps onto Ruby’s face. Whatever Ozpin wants to talk about with her must be important. It’s clear as day that Ruby will need support for whatever talk she and Ozpin are about to have, which is why Pyrrha is going to do everything she can to get Ruby to agree to let her come. 

“You should come with Pyrrha...” Pyrrha lets out a sigh of relief. With how Ruby had been avoiding her she thought for sure she’d be resistant to Pyrrha’s support. “If you come with it’ll make explaining what’s been bugging me lately easier. Plus, I could probably use the company.” Pyrrha gives Ruby an understanding smile and nods her agreement. 

Ruby stands in front of Ozpin’s desk with Pyrrha by her side and a lump in her throat. According to Oz’s text, Ironwood had finally told him what had gone missing, at least Ruby desperately hoped it was a ‘what’. Out of the corner of her vision she noticed Pyrrha giving a very worried expression. Ruby appreciated her concern. She really should've just told what’s wrong earlier, but she just doesn't have it in herself to talk about Penny, the wound of her death is too fresh.

“Are you sure you’re ready for this conversation Ruby?” Ozpin asks gently, his face mirroring the worried expression on Pyrrha’s face. Ruby isn’t close to ready… but she has to know. 

“Please Ozpin. Just tell me what the General told you.” Ozpin’s shoulders slump and he nods. Pyrrha steps a bit closer to Ruby, her worried expression sifting to a confused one before settling on a comforting one. Ruby gives her a nod and a grateful smile before turning towards Ozpin with a determined gleam in her silver eyes. 

“Apparently for some time one of James’s scientists has been working on putting a soul in an artificial body…” Ruby stops hearing Ozpin there as her worst fears are realized. His voice faded away as the sound of her heart began to thump in her ears. She hasn’t even been in the past for a month, and yet… Penny’s vanished. 

Chapter Text

The Day Ruby Arrived In The Past

For many people, shoveling dirt in the sun sounds like hell. For Oscar, it’s his day-to-day; it’s what he knows. It’s what he’s going to do for the rest of his life; not everyone gets to go to a Huntsman academy to become a hero. Oscar understands this, and he has learned to accept it.

He does have the occasional dream of going on adventures and being a hero saving people. But he’s sure every kid does, and his quiet life with his aunt is better than what many other kids have. Aunt Ferna is strict, but she’s kind, and she’s provided him with so much. Ferna raised him all on her own, and he owes her everything.

Oscar’s blood runs cold as the sound of his aunt screaming tears through the air of their farm. Without much thought, Oscar grips his shovel tighter in his hands and rushes to the sound of his aunt’s voice. It takes Oscar about a minute of running before he sees his aunt’s figure in the distance. The sight that greets him has his heart threatening to beat out of his chest.

Right there, with her back against a tree, is his aunt staring down a Grimm he’s only read about: a Deathstalker. He can hardly understand it; Deathstalkers didn’t show up at his farm. Small Grimm that he could take care of with a shovel or an axe show up at his farm.

A terrifying screech has his gaze flying towards the sky. His blood runs colder than steel at the sight of another equally monstrous Grimm soaring high in the sky: a damned Nevermore. He wouldn’t have been surprised if his young heart had given out right there. There are two of these absolute monsters? It didn’t make any sense. Did they just materialize out of thin air? Where the hell did they come from?

The sound of his aunt's whimpering draws his attention back down to her and the Deathstalker. Oscar can see blood running down his aunt’s right arm. The sound of his heart in his ears overpowers his ability to think. His entire body shakes, and time seems to almost slow down as the Deathstalker raises its stinger to pierce his aunt.

“Aunt Ferna!” Before his conscious mind realizes it, he’s sprinting towards his paralyzed aunt. Oscar leaps forward, tackling Aunt Ferna out of the way just as the Deathstalker's stinger crashes into the tree she was leaning against. After tumbling for a few seconds, Oscar begins to fully realize what had just happened and what he had just done. Quickly adjusting himself to a standing position, he gives his aunt a quick once-over.

“C’mon, we have to get out of here.” Oscar reaches down to help her up, only for Ferna to shake her head wildly.

“Oscar, run!” Oscar finds the idea of leaving her insane; he makes to tell her so, only for her to interrupt with a point and a shout. “Look out!”

Oscar turns in the direction his aunt is pointing just in time to see the stinger flying at his face.

If Penny is being honest, she'd admit that many things confused her. One of the things that confused her was that humans and faunus couldn’t get along. The thing that confused her the most, at least at this very moment, is how she got… wherever she is. She was having a meeting with her father, Pedro Polendina, and General Ironwood about her progress when all of a sudden, she was in a field in an unfamiliar climate.

She’s spent her entire life in the colder climate of Solitas, and judging by her temperature sensors and the look of the grass and the trees, she would guess she currently finds herself on a different continent. As far as she can recall, there wasn’t so much as a flash of light or anything to herald her apparent teleportation to another continent. Without a scroll, Penny didn’t have any way to determine her exact location.

As an android, some might think she could mimic a scroll's many functions. Sadly for her current predicament, she could not. Unable to spot any landmarks or anything other than trees from her location, Penny decides to leap on top of a nearby tree to get a clearer grasp on where she is. Upon reaching the top of a nearby tree, she is greeted with a sight that makes her gasp.

“It’s so pretty here,” she thinks, so used to the metal walls of Atlas or the occasional snowy mountain with cloudy skies. Penny is caught off guard by how bright the sun shines and the way the light reflects off the trees she sees around her. She spies a few mountains in the distance. The snow atop them sparkled brilliantly in the sun.

So enamored by the sight before her, she briefly ponders taking her time finding her way home. Her life thus far has been so much of the same, spending time in her father’s lab or spending time training to be a huntress in General Ironwood’s school. Of course, she loves her father, and she loves training to be a huntress. Helping others is the only thing she's ever wanted to do; the pull of new experiences is strong regardless. Images of her wandering through the fields and talking with cute animals play through her mind as she imagines what she can get up to if she takes her time.

Penny shakes her head and slaps her metal cheeks, the image of her smiling with animals replaced by the face of her worried father. As much as she longs to explore the excitingly unfamiliar world before her, she couldn’t bear the thought of her doting father wrecked with worry waiting for her return. Any further thought on the subject is put on hold by the distant sound of a woman screaming.

Her protective instincts have Penny kicking off the top of the tree towards the scream instantly. She doesn’t know who, but someone needs help, and she’s going to give it. That’s the purpose her wonderful father created her for, after all.

Oscar isn’t sure why, but the stinger stops inches away from piercing his right eye. The beating in his chest had stopped for a second as his apparent death approached. His short thirteen years of life flashed before his eyes.

“Are you okay?” The concerned voice of a girl has his heart resume beating. Turning his gaze slightly to the right, he finds himself face to face with green eyes framed by bright orange hair belonging to a teenage girl. Blinking a few times, Oscar finally takes in the sight before him, realizing why the Deathstalker’s tail hadn’t skewered him.

The girl, who Oscar theorizes couldn’t be that much older than him, had apparently caught the massive stinger. Disbelief courses through him as he stares at the thin arms wrapped around the deadly appendage five times their size. How could those tiny things possess such strength, he wonders, a wonder that escapes his head somehow.

“How on Remnant?” The whisper escapes his mouth almost involuntarily. The look of concern on the green-eyed girl’s face morphs into a confident grin.

“I’m combat-ready!” Oscar feels like his eyes are going to bulge out of his head as the girl throws her arms, sending the Deathstalker’s stinger flying back with such force that it has the entire Grimm tumbling onto its side. Before he can even begin to try to process that fact, Oscar once again has his vision drawn to the sky by the screech of the Nevermore above.

“It’s circling, preparing to attack.” The assured voice of the girl rings through his ears. He brings his eyes down toward the girl, finding her own staring back. “Can you move?”

“Y-y-yeah.” Oscar stutters his response, his frazzled brain not comprehending why the amazing girl is deigning to speak with him. Her eyes travel from him to his Aunt Ferna, causing guilt to rise up as Oscar realizes he had momentarily forgotten about her.

“Then please help her get to safety. Leave the Grimm to me.” Oscar finds himself nodding immediately; as crazy as it might seem, he actually has no doubt that the incredible girl before him will be fine. Reaching down and grabbing his aunt’s uninjured arm, he throws it over his shoulder, helping her to her feet.

“C’mon, let's get out of her way.” Oscar says to his aunt softly as he helps her walk away.

“Yeah.” The tired and pained nature of his aunt’s response breaks Oscar’s heart.

Tearing her eyes from the two retreating civilians back to the Deathstalker, Penny finds it still incapacitated on its side. With her advanced hearing, Penny clearly hears the sound of the Nevermore’s descent. Staring up at the descending beast, Penny activates Floating Array, her trusty weapon coming out of her backpack in its singular form before splitting.

Bringing the spinning circle of swords in front of her via the strings connecting them to her backpack, Penny points the tips of the blades at the Nevermore, activating the dust in them. Green energy crackles between the swords before coming together into a laser and blasting through the sky. The Nevermore dodges the beam at first, flying right, down, then left, deftly avoiding its demise.

It only takes a few moments of observing the creature's movements for Penny to adjust her aim and cut the Grimm in half. Penny deactivates the energy fueling the beam as the green light fades from the sky alongside the black mist of the Nevermore's corpse.

“Watch out for the Deathstalker!” The startled voice of the boy brings Penny’s attention back to the Grimm on the ground just in time for her to leap out of the way of its stinger. She flies high above the Deathstalker with Floating Array spinning beside her, grinning. The feel of combat is exhilarating; as dangerous as it is, she can’t help but find it fun.

Quickly bringing her arms up, then throwing them downwards, Penny sends her blades piercing through the Deathstalker’s many legs. Falling down through the air, Penny once again wraps her arms around its stinger as she lands on the Deathstalker’s neck. With no small amount of force and in one single movement, Penny rips the stinger off the tail and plunges it into the monster's head.

Penny hops off the quickly disintegrating head of the Deathstalker as Floating Array comes closer to spin protectively around her. Quickly scanning her surroundings for more Grimm, Penny finds none. Floating Array returns to its single blade form and back into her backpack. In her search for more enemies, she notices the boy and the injured woman hiding in some bushes.

Putting on the most reassuring smile she can muster, Penny marches toward them. Tension lines both their shoulders, their expressions understandably shaken. Penny doesn’t yet have any experience comforting traumatized civilians, but she’s certainly been trained for it.

“Hey. It's safe now,” Penny informs them as she comes to stand in front of them. The tension fades from the boy’s shoulders. Though the woman’s shoulders stay tense, probably because one of them is bleeding, if Penny were to guess.

“Do the two of you live nearby? Or better yet, is there a town with a doctor nearby? We need to get that injury taken care of right away.” The two of them share a look between them before nodding at her. The woman with the injured shoulder does her best to stand taller.

“Our farm is nearby. I can patch myself up there. There is a town a little way away with a small clinic we can go to if need be. Thank you so much for your help. The two of us should be able to manage on our own from here.” The woman’s every word drips with pain, every breath a clear struggle. She’s clearly in much more pain than she wants to let on. After the traumatizing event she just went through, Penny gets the feeling that she’s trying to regain some control.

“No, no, that just won’t do!” Penny’s impassioned declaration seems to catch the woman off guard. Penny understands the desire for self-reliance, but the woman is in clear pain, and there’s no way in good conscience Penny can leave until she knows she’s okay.

“You’re still hurt. I can’t just leave you alone until I see your wound bandaged up for myself.” Her words seem to make it through to both of them, as the boy and who Penny guesses is his guardian smile gratefully at her.

Tyrian Callows is a simple man with simple thoughts. He serves his glorious queen in all her desires. So, when he finds himself randomly teleported from aboard the Monstra to the middle of nowhere, he is unconcerned. After all, everything is as his queen wishes. She may not have told him so, but there’s no doubt in his mind that his relocation is part of her plan; it had to be.

Tyrian finds himself cackling at the thought of serving Salem. There is no greater calling on this planet. He can just imagine the look of pride on her face after he accomplishes whatever task she sent him to this place for. The fact that she trusted him enough to not even tell him his goal before sending him on this mission makes him even more giddy.

Tyrian is knocked from his reverie by the sound of a Nevermore screeching in the distance behind him. Turning around swiftly, he catches a glimpse of the creature before a green ray of light chops it in half.

"Oh ho ho, well, if that’s not a divine sign, I don’t know what is." Once again, Tyrian finds himself cackling with glee. Surely, the ray of light is the universe's way of showing him the way to go to please his queen. Everything is as his queen wishes, he tells himself, as he makes his way in the direction of the ray of light, his cackles giving way to quiet chuckles.

Oscar can't help but watch the girl, whose name is Penny, he’s since learned. The three of them have returned to the farm, or to be more specific, his aunt’s house. Oscar himself lives in the attic of their barn. Penny walks around Aunt Ferna’s rather plain and boring living room with a sense of wonder. 

If he were to go by the look on her face, he’d think they were in some kind of mansion, but no, it’s just a dusty room with a couch and a few shelves and tables with a couple of pictures. Oscar finds his attention traveling from the girl’s face to her clothes. Now that he thinks about it, her clothes are pretty nice; perhaps she actually lives in a mansion, and that’s why she’s so interested in the drab space.

Ferna is in the bathroom tending to her room. It took a great deal of convincing, but eventually, Penny reluctantly agreed to let her aunt do it herself. So now Oscar sits on the stiff couch, watching his embarrassingly cute savior examine his aunt’s living room. 

Oscar keeps having to push down his urge to speak, his mind racing with all sorts of questions for the girl. Though he shoves them down, he is terrified of being rude and pushing away the girl who saved him and his aunt’s lives. Penny is obviously a Huntress, or, well, given her age, perhaps a student. Though the idea that a mere student is capable of what she did astounds young Oscar. 

“Soooo…” The soft voice of Penny brings Oscar from his thoughts. “You and Miss Ferna are farmers?” 

Oscar stares at the wide-eyed expression of curiosity on the girl’s face. He’s a little confused since he’s pretty sure that the answer was obvious and didn’t really need to be questioned. Though he supposes that maybe she was more asking about what being a farmer is like. 

“Yeah, pretty much.” Oscar instinctively winces at his own answer. What did he mean by ‘pretty much’? That’s exactly what they are. Apparently, Penny didn’t make as much notice of his stupidity as he did, as she let out an amazed gasp. Oscar finds himself narrowing his eyes in confusion at her. Seriously, this girl controls flying swords, throws Deathstalkers around with her bare hands, shoots freaking laser beams, and she's amazed by him being a… farmer? 

“I assure you my life as a farmer is far too boring for an actual hero like you.” Penny let out another gasp; this time, though, instead of amazed, it sounded horrified, like Oscar just said he hates puppies or something. Faster than he can comprehend, Penny is standing directly in front of him, firmly grasping his shoulders. If he was honest, her grip sort of hurt, but he doesn’t doubt that she didn’t mean for it to. 

“Don’t say that, I don’t believe that for a second…” Oscar stares at her wide-eyed, sure he has a truly baffled expression. Penny is talking with such determination on her face and in her words that it leaves him stunned. To his utter embarrassment, he feels his cheeks heat up being this close to her face, but she’s a girl, and a pretty one at that; what is he supposed to do? 

“Farmers are an important part of society. At least that’s what my studies have taught me. So please don’t talk down about yourself or you and your aunt’s profession.” For not the first time today, Penny has left Oscar slack-jawed. He could hardly believe it; how could someone so powerful be so… so sweet or innocent? Oscar’s not entirely sure the best word to describe her, but regardless of the word, he couldn’t quite believe it. 

Any further conversation is interrupted by the unusual sound of someone knocking on the front door. Oscar furrows his brows; he and his aunt live pretty far from any neighbors, so visitors weren’t very common. Giving Penny an apologetic smile, Oscar makes his way to the front door.

Upon opening the door, Oscar comes face to face with a man who has long brown hair braided into a ponytail and narrow yellow eyes, wearing a long brown trench coat. Now, Oscar doesn’t have much experience with other people, but even he can tell there’s something not right about the man before him. There’s just something about his eyes that screams insanity.

Against his will, Oscar feels his body seize up in fear. If fear is indeed something that can be smelled, then Oscar is sure that the man standing in front of him can smell his, if the way the man’s lip curls into a cruel smirk is any indication.

“Excuse me, little man, you wouldn’t happen to know what might’ve caused a big green ray of light in the sky earlier, would you?” The unrestrained malice dripping from the creep’s lips must have alerted Penny to the threat, as she appears at Oscar’s side with a stern look on her face.

“Excuse me, mister, but… I think… I think you should leave!” Penny advises the man sternly, but to Oscar’s concern, she stumbles over her words slightly, indicating to him that even she finds the creep unsettling. The creep makes an exaggerated show of folding his shoulders in mock disappointment. Oscar takes that as his cue to close the door, only for the door to creak loudly as the man’s hand comes up to grip it, forcing it to remain open.

“Oh, I simply must insist you answer the question, boy… or perhaps maybe… you could… girly?” A shudder runs down Oscar’s entire body at the way he stresses "girly." Oscar’s heart begins beating quite loudly once again in his ears as he notices that the man’s yellow eyes have turned purple. Like seriously… is everything about this man bred to be terrifying?

“We really must insist you get off our property!” the stern voice of his aunt demands from behind Oscar and Penny. Turning his head to look at her, he finds his aunt gripping a shotgun tightly, which she makes a show of pumping in front of her. Anxiously, Oscar turns his head back to the stranger; to his horror, he finds the man giving his aunt an amused and very unfazed stare.

Slowly, the strange man’s eyes travel from Ferna to Penny, where they linger for an uncomfortably long time. He seems to find what he’s looking for in her eyes because he backs away from the door and starts to walk off. Oscar closes the door behind him with a loud sigh of relief; the creep is gone. Though unfortunately, Oscar’s gut tells him that it's not the last he’ll see of him.

Once again, Tyrian is cackling maniacally as he walks away from the house. It truly amuses him when humans think they can threaten him with their pathetic toys. He nearly lost it earlier when he saw the wounded woman pointing her little shotgun at him. Oh, he’s going to truly enjoy watching life fade from the wrench's eyes.

Now’s not the time, however; it was plainly obvious which of the three in the house was responsible for the ray of light. It was the ginger-haired girl with emerald eyes that reflected the color of the beam she used to cut a Nevermore in half. Tyrian covers his mouth in a failing attempt to stifle his laughter, but there’s simply no way he could contain his joy at the thought of the girl.

She was clearly why he was magically brought here to the middle of nowhere. Obviously, she was destined to be a great gift for his mistress. But since he didn’t know what exactly she was capable of, he shall wait and stalk from the shadows, observing his prey before eventually striking!