Chapter 3
Ruby reckoned she fell asleep, not that she could remember actually going to sleep. But her mind came back to her slowly and surely, and she found herself looking up at Oscar.
She could bet, by the way his head hung, and by the way his eyes were closed, that he was dead asleep.
Ruby really didn't know how long she laid there, staring up at the boy she swore to protect at the start. She had never really seen the boy sleep before.
Though how she got onto his lap, she hadn't a clue.
She hoped she hadn't somehow crawled all over him in his sleep.
That would be embarrassing.
Or how the wind that swayed the trees around her didn't touch her, until she noticed her cloak was tucked around her once she was able to stop staring at him for a hot second when she got too curious.
He had probably tucked it around her, in hindsight for the dropping temperature.
Now, looking back up at him, what she couldn't resist in doing, was desist in her rising urge to poke him.
Her hand reached up, unbidden, and poked him, just under the chin.
She tried, she really did to hold back her back-throated giddy snort, when he reacted by grunting and looking down at her in surprise.
"Hello, Miss Ruby!" He greeted happily, and not at all annoyed at her for poking him.
…Had he ever been annoyed at her?
Not that she could recall.
She didn't exactly want to move, and he hadn't nudged her.
"Sorry that I fell asleep on you." She apologised, with a small, tired smile.
Oscar just shook his head. "No. I'm sorry for making you cry like that again." He told her; his tone tinged in hurt.
"No," She said, shaking her head vehemently. "You don't need to apologise for that. I'm glad you told me, though." She answered.
Oscar smiled at her gratefully.
Ruby figured it was time to move, and reluctantly got off him and stretched, missing the concerned look he gave her.
"How long was I out?" She asked.
Oscar cocked his head and automatically looked to where the sun was in the sky for reference.
"A few hours, looks like it's past lunchtime." Oscar told her.
Ruby just whined grumbly. "Great! We missed lunch!" She whined.
Oscar was just helpless to chuckle at her.
Ruby turned to him. "I have a question for you. …And I'm not sure of it." Ruby started.
Oscar frowned at her in more concern. "What's wrong?" He asked.
"I know between now and when I woke up in Patch that Weiss was taken to Atlas by her father. …Should we stop that?" She questioned.
Maybe not actually asking Oscar, but more so the echo only he heard in his head.
Ruby saw the automatic turn of his head to his shoulder. A sign she knew by heart was caused by him listening to Ozpin speaking.
Perhaps you should ask Miss Schnee her opinion on the matter? Ozpin voiced quietly, fizzing in and out as he spoke.
Oscar gave a mental whine in concern, before looking back to Ruby.
Ruby edged forward eager to listen.
"Oz says to ask Miss Weiss if she wants to go back to Atlas, or not." Oscar mimicked softly.
Ruby nodded. "Well, that makes sense!" She replied as she hopped off the bench and stretched her arms up further. "We better start looking for her, then!" She exclaimed as she heaved as her arms pulled back down.
Oscar got up as well while he nodded.
"…Not that I have any idea where she could be right now…" She grumbled in annoyance.
Oscar didn't seem to mind. "Perhaps we should ask around?" He questioned.
Ruby nodded and headed off towards the cafeteria hall.
People were bound to be there at any time of the day, food being served or not.
/
/
Coming into the cafeteria hall, Ruby found team JNPR, but no one else.
"Jaune!" Ruby called.
She bounded over to him, happy to see a familiar, if a little younger and less jarring face then she remembered seeing only two days ago, but she was happy nonetheless to see him.
Oscar, meanwhile, immediately scanned the room for who they were looking for, and for anything else that could harm them automatically.
All of team JNPR turned when she called out for Jaune.
"Hey, Ruby!" Jaune greeted back, and she and Oscar came up to them.
They all noticed the harder gleam in the younger one's eyes, and the fact that one hand was shifting to his back defensively as he eyed his surroundings for possible danger.
"Are you okay now? You seemed pretty upset before." Pyrrha questioned gently and in full concern.
Oscar immediately flinched hearing her speak, as well as her words.
But Ruby nodded.
They saw her eyes flick to him minutely in concern before they were back on them. "Yeah! I'm good!" She started. "Hey! Have you seen Weiss around?" Ruby was quick to change topic as soon as she saw Oscar's mood change.
Ruby watched as they all looked to each other, with various lengths of frowning.
"…I think I saw her with her team over at the open field we're using as a practice field?" Nora babbled impressively.
Ruby just found herself blinking. "…And that would be…where?" She asked, completely confused.
Ren moved forward. "We'll take you there." He replied, his team nodding along.
Ruby bounced on the souls of her feet happily and gratefully that she wouldn't get lost.
"Thanks!" Ruby said.
/
/
They came into the field they were using to practice on, to see that team RWBY, was indeed still there, and indeed practising with team-friendly blanks and dust manipulations.
Team JNPR hung back a little way away, way too curious as to why this time-traveling version of Ruby Rose wanted Weiss.
"Yo! Weiss!" Elder-Ruby yelled, waving her arm up in the air to get her attention.
It worked in spectacular fashion, as all the team members ended up misfiring their various weapons in surprise, while Weiss herself nearly tripped over thin air.
Team RWBY looked over in surprise. Not exactly expecting the other version of their leader to call out unexpectedly for their teammate.
"…Better see what she wants…" Ruby ended up muttering, her teammates nodded, and they made their way over.
Seeing them come over, Elder-Ruby smiled at them in gratitude.
"What's up?" Yang was the first to ask, finding her mouth first.
Elder-Ruby smiled at her. "Since I was out cold the first time, so I'm not totally sure of the timeframe here. But Oz here," Herein she pointed her thumb over her shoulder at Oscar, who poked his tongue out at her. "Said I should ask, since Weiss does get forced back to Atlas by her father…" She paused, seeing Weiss flinch at the meaning.
"I'm asking if you actually want to go back. From what I was told a year later, and saw, Weiss was stronger. But that was then, and this is now." She raised her hands to lay them at her hips, unknowingly giving a stern impression as she looked at Weiss directly.
"I didn't have the chance to ask before, a bit preoccupied with the whole Grimm Invasion of Haven thing. What do you want to do?" Elder-Ruby asked, trailing off with a frown.
Weiss looked towards her teammates to judge their reactions.
Blake still had that guilty-ashamed look on her face, no matter what her friends did or said about the whole thing.
Ruby looked the most devastated that there was a situation in which Weiss was forced to leave their side.
Yang had that silent simmering angry expression on her face.
Weiss, herself, was simply confused, not that it was Elder-Ruby's fault. She hadn't been around the first time.
"And how do you think you could change my father's mind?" She asked curiously.
"We could kill him." Oscar said suddenly.
They noticed that even his version of Ruby looked at him incredulously.
And even he looked a little startled by what came out of his own mouth.
"…That actually wasn't me…" He muttered.
Again, reminding them that he had Ozpin at the back of his head.
Elder-Ruby shook her head, then ended up chuckling lightly. "I don't think we should kill him, Oz." She somehow reprimanded, and Oscar responded by shrugging noncommittedly at her, then went back to glaring at the surrounding forest.
"How 'bout we hide her?" Ruby asked, with a half shrug.
Elder-Ruby looked to herself. "How would that work?" She asked curiously.
She then fully shrugged nervously. "…Better than killing him?" She asked timidly.
Elder-Ruby just blinked. "Well, sure. But how long do we hide her for? I don't exactly know when he'll come to try and take her." She reminded them.
They were all startled when Oscar suddenly threw up his arm to point towards the sky. "Better do it fast!" He told them.
"Shit!" Ruby near yelled, making Yang look to her incredulously. "Time to decide Weiss! Hide or go!" She rushed urgently.
"I'm not going anywhere!" Weiss hissed back in panic at the mere thought of being forced to leave her friends.
"Good!" Elder-Ruby shouted, then burst into her Semblance, and just as fast as she was gone, so was Weiss.
Oscar just put up his hands immediately in defeat when they looked to him for answers.
"Don't ask me. Don't look at me. Pretend you don't know where Miss Weiss is? And I'll try not to kill Jacques. No promises, though." Oscar told them.
They all looked to each other in disbelief.
Weiss' father was apparently named Jacques.
And Oz wanted him dead.
/
/
Seeing the President of the Schnee Dust Company descend from his plane in person made them all aware how much they could hate someone on sight.
Oscar, as soon as the plane landed, curled his hands into fists and even snarled when the first thing the man demanded was his daughter from both Ozpin and Ironwood.
Both of whom looked surprised to suddenly not see the Schnee Heiress by her teammates.
Qrow suddenly appeared behind Oscar and thumped down on his head. "Where's the Ice Princess?" He asked.
Oscar blinked and looked up, completely unphased by how Qrow was suddenly behind him. "It was decided that Miss Weiss didn't want to leave with Jacques." Oscar stated.
Qrow blinked down at him in surprise. "Who decided that? You?" He asked.
Oscar shook his head. "Miss Weiss decided. And from what I can recall from Oz about Jacques, and what I've been told happened to her while in her father's custody, personally. I didn't see fit to return her to him at all." Oscar said, his tone going stern.
It was sudden, the steel tone in his voice, surprising at all that the boy had steel in him at all.
Again, reminding those who heard, and Qrow himself, that this boy was Ozpin's successor for a reason.
Qrow just ended up shrugging. "So, where is she? We can't steer him wrong if we don't know where you've hidden her." He said.
Oscar shrugged. "Miss Ruby was the one who took her, not me. I have nothing to do with this." Oscar said unhelpfully, and clear face, with only a hint of a smirk.
Qrow just groaned painfully. "You're gonna make my life hell, aren't you?" He questioned.
Oscar suddenly beamed at him mischievously. "That's the third time you've said that to me!" He crowed.
Qrow opened his mouth to ask, but then shook his head. "Nope…" He muttered, all too tired with him already.
Oscar found himself gaining extreme amounts of satisfaction from just watching alone, at how angry Jacques was becoming when he couldn't get answers out of Ozpin.
Ironwood, the snitch, had gone off to search for Weiss, like the helpful little General he was.
Ozpin, on the other hand, took one look towards Oscar, who shook his head minutely and immediately understood not to let this man anywhere near his daughter. Ozpin proceeded to steer him wrong at every turn.
On the fifth same demand, Ozpin just sighed. "How do you know she hasn't left for Atlas already? With the Tower down, we cannot contact her. And if she perceived Beacon, Vale, to be unsafe, wouldn't she go home at the first chance?" Ozpin asked.
It made Jacques pause and consider his daughter.
"You have not seen her?" He questioned, again.
Ozpin shook his head. "Not since this morning. I cannot be everywhere at the same time. Jacques, you know this, surely." Ozpin continued.
Oscar flinched when he heard Ruby gasp, as if she had just gotten an idea.
And before he could call her back, to tell her whatever she had thought of was probably an extremely bad idea, she was off and suddenly standing next to Ozpin, trailing rose petals behind her.
Alarmingly close to Jacques that Oscar swore he heard alarm bells split off inside his head.
Both Ozpin and Jacques jolted when she was suddenly there.
"Are you Weiss' father?" Ruby started, ignoring that both men had startled at her being where she now was.
Jacques stared at her in startlement. "Who are…?" He questioned.
"I'm the leader of team RWBY! Weiss is my teammate." Ruby told him as she bounded on her toes.
Oscar couldn't help the whine he let loose as his skin started to crawl with unease at any version of Ruby being so close to Jacques. He strode over to stand next to her, all the while his hand was on his concealed cane in case Jacques acted out.
With a small look to Ozpin, he noticed that even he was on guard, same with Qrow, and the rest of her two teams she had left behind her.
Ruby wasn't exactly ready for the glare Jacques levelled her with, and she would have stepped back wearily from the man if she didn't feel Oscar at her side, radiating a death glare she didn't even need to see to know it was being aimed at the man's head.
"And I suppose you know where Weiss is?" Jacques asked sternly.
Jacques couldn't tell the girl was nervous.
"Yep!" She nodded. "She let me know this morning, that she would be heading back to Atlas, so I'd know I'd be a member short. With the Tower down, she would be out of contact reach if I needed her. She wanted us to come with her, she said she figured Atlas would be safer, and I told her I would come help when I could…" Ruby started to babble impressively for thinking on her feet.
Jacques just ended up holding a hand out to stop her from talking.
He didn't notice how on edge it made Oscar more than anyone else, who clenched his teeth so hard they started to grind.
"Fine. Fine," He waved her off, not seeing Ruby jumped in surprise that the action caused Oscar to start growling menacingly in his throat. "Did she say how long she would take? Or the route she was going to use?" Jacques asked.
Ruby was thrown off and blinked in confusion as she looked to Oscar. "Wait. How far away is Atlas?" She asked.
Unaware she was broadcasting just how naïve she was about Remnant at large.
Qrow just ended up face-palming as he groaned.
Something in Oscar finally snapped. He couldn't stand her standing that close to Jacques any longer. He took her arm gently, getting her attention.
Ruby stalled seeing that his usual fond expression that was always aimed at her, was now warped into something she could see as frantic alarm.
She let him guide her back and behind him, even allowed him to place himself in-between her and Jacques for good measure.
Even if she didn't understand the need for him to be so defensive, his reaction made her wary enough of the reason.
Jacques just ended up sighing in annoyance. "I thank you in any case, Miss…?" Jacques stalled to ask.
Ruby stalled in answering when Oscar growled again as his grip tightened on her arm slightly. "…Ruby. Ruby Rose…" She answered nervously.
She could easily pick up on Oscar's hatred for the man, based alone on how defensive he was.
Recognition flashed briefly in Jacques' eyes. "I see. Thank you, Miss Rose." He then looked over to see Ironwood returning. "Coming, James?" He questioned dangerously.
Something flickered within Ironwood, but he nodded, nonetheless. "I'll be along soon, Jacques." He intoned tiredly.
Jacques nodded and strode back to his ship, not waiting for clearance, or for Ironwood. It wasn't long before the ship powered up and left the ground.
./.
Ruby looked down to the boy next to her as soon as the aircraft left her vision.
"…Oscar? Are you okay?" She asked nervously.
"Damn I hate that man." He cursed quietly, still glaring at where the ship last was.
Ruby, and especially everyone else were extremely surprised to hear the boy curse aloud.
Ozpin seemed the only one to understand, ironically.
Ruby watched in confusion as Oscar looked her over as if to inspect her for any injury, he hadn't seen mark her.
Then, quite suddenly, his mood shifted, and he smiled gently at her. His fond expression returning.
Then just as sudden, was he starting to whistle.
They watched as the air around them slowly became tinged crimson, then filled out into rose petals.
It wasn't long before Elder-Ruby reformed out of the haze.
"He's gone?" She asked immediately.
Oscar nodded. "He is under the impression that Weiss is on her way home." Oscar told her as she let a dizzy Weiss down off her back.
Ruby looked to Weiss in confusion. "…Just how far away is Atlas, anyway?" She asked.
Everyone just blinked at her, while Ironwood looked to Ozpin, clearly disgruntled. "Why on Remnant did you make her leader?" He asked, his tone seeped in sarcasm.
Ozpin happily shrugged his shoulders, but in typical fashion, did not answer while Oscar growled at Ironwood protectively.
./.
It wasn't long before Ruby looked back to Oscar.
"Is it okay that we go back to training now?" She asked him.
Oscar looked a little startled at her asking him in the first place. "Sure…" He answered over his surprised she asked for his permission.
Ruby then immediately lit up and bounded over to her teammates. "Let's get back to it!" She yelled, then ran off back towards where they were on the training field.
Elder-Ruby heard the muffled questioning whine come from Qrow and turned to him.
"I'll watch them." She voiced to Qrow.
Qrow's shoulders sagged in relief.
Ozpin looked to Oscar. "Are you staying?" He asked.
They all watched that as Ozpin spoke, Oscar cocked his head to listen.
Then flushed when he realised the voice that he was listening to didn't come from within him. "I'll stay…" He muttered through his mortification.
Safe with knowing the two would stay, the adults left them to train.
Ruby turned and pointed to Jaune.
"Hey. You." She called.
Jaune blinked at her and pointed to himself. "Uh. Yes?" He answered.
"Let's see you practice." Ruby suddenly demanded as she drew her version of his weapon.
Before anyone could blink, she came at him in a haze.
Jaune yelled as she sent him flying.
Ruby stood there a little stunned.
"Oh. Wow. My bad!" She yelled to the crater. "You normally block that. Whoops." Ruby rushed to say.
She was mildly shocked to see how far she had sent Jaune flying.
Oscar was snickering. "Be a little bit gentler, Miss Ruby." Oscar reminded as he chuckled.
Ruby nodded absentmindedly and waved a hand at Pyrrha.
"Yeah. My bad. Hang tight Pyrrha." She noted Pyrrha's concerned look, then dashed over to help Jaune up out of the crater he found himself digging.
"Where you come from, I can block that?" Jaune asked in awe.
Ruby nodded happily. "Yep! Let's get you blocking like that again!" She cheered.
As soon as Nora got bored with everything, she dragged Ren away to train.
Leaving Oscar alone with Pyrrha.
Not that he had noticed, specifically. As soon as the adults had left, he had resumed automatically looking for danger.
Something felt wrong in the air, and he was annoyed neither he nor Oz could pin it down, as to what or why the air felt heavier and wrong.
Perhaps Ruby had sensed the change, and training Jaune was her response to not knowing what she was sensing.
/
/
The air slowly got heavier and his expression melted away from frowning into glaring when the feeling didn't trigger any emotion or memory from Oz.
Just a sense of foreboding.
As the sun gave way, the air felt dense, and he ended up baring his teeth at the unknown.
"…Are you alright?" Pyrrha finally asked him nervously.
Oscar jolted hearing her, coming out of his trance to look at her and shake his head.
"The air feels wrong…" He told her, trying to explain what he didn't understand.
Pyrrha noted that his hand had drifted towards his concealed weapon at his back.
"I have no memory of this. And it's not triggering anything…" He ended up snarling at the air in annoyance.
Pyrrha held onto her grimace when his words reminded her of how much they had changed, her life had been in their hands, literally. And they chose to save it. And Ozpin. Ozpin, who for Oscar, had become the voice inside his head only he could hear now.
She looked back to the forest the boy seemed so fixated on.
"I can't sense what you sense." She said, feeling nothing wrong in the air.
He looked alarmed. "Then it's bad…" He told her, then looked back to the forest. "What is this…?" He muttered.
Ozpin had no answers for him, alarmingly.
./.
They watched as both versions of Ruby got carried away while play fighting and ended up backing up towards the tree line.
Oscar took a step closing in worry. "Miss Ruby Rose is getting too close…" He stressed.
It wasn't hard to notice his concern.
"You care a lot for her." Pyrrha noted.
Oscar's thoughts were thrown out as he jolted, and swung to her, fully surprised, and stared for a few seconds, before he turned contemplative.
"…I guess I do." Oscar stated. "…I'll apologise to her one day…" He muttered to himself.
Pyrrha looked to him and frowned.
Apologise for what?
"Why would you need to apologise?" She asked in confusion.
Oscar just shook his head and didn't elaborate, far too concerned about the woods Ruby nearly threw herself into.
Oscar's whole body shivered from head to toe.
This feeling…
Oscar cocked his head. "Hmm…?" He voiced aloud.
Pyrrha turned to him and saw his eyes blew wide in sudden terror.
Get them away from the woods! Now!
Oscar immediately reacted by whistling hard.
Elder-Ruby immediately stalled, hearing him whistle, gathering herself and Jaune up and in the next second was reforming next to Oscar's side.
"Get your teams away from the woods!" Oscar was yelling before she had a chance to ask.
Elder-Ruby spent no time in asking, and was gone in the next second, racing over towards her former teammates.
She gathered them up, as well as Nora and Ren, and was back before Oscar could unfurl his cane.
"What's wrong?" Pyrrha asked, her tone going alarmed even more so when she saw his weapon was out.
She stalled in surprise when her teammates dropped out behind her, and Elder-Ruby then remerged from her Semblance next to Oscar, and immediately outstretched Crescent Rose.
Elder-Ruby stalled seeing the hand movement Oscar gave her to halt. "No. Go get the others." He demanded as he shook his head.
Elder-Ruby glanced at him, sparingly and with worry, before she was wrapped up in her Semblance and the haze was racing back off towards the encampment.
Ruby raced up to Oscar in concern.
"What is it? What's wrong?" She asked.
Ruby wasn't the only one to warily note the darkened scowl on the boy's face.
It was menacingly protective.
He gave her a once over that she didn't understand before he went back to scowling at the nearby forest.
"Something is coming. I don't know what, but the air feels foul." Oscar told her truthfully.
/
/
The air got heavier and heavier until they could all start to sense it.
Pyrrha and Ren were the first to tense up, feeling the air first.
Many of the children jumped in surprise when people suddenly started to drop out of the sky around them, out of a red petalled haze as Elder-Ruby returned and zoomed about the now battlefield, running back and forth to collect and drop people around her old teammates.
Qrow nearly buckled when he was dropped suddenly where he wasn't. "The hell?" He mumbled out.
He didn't need an answer, seeing Oscar with his cane out, and the oppressing air he suddenly found himself dropped into.
Ozpin, himself spent no time asking questions. He knew himself well enough to know there would be a reason.
Oscar noted his Ruby raced ahead as soon as everyone she could gather was around him.
He watched cautiously, sizing up how far she went over the forest before she doubled back and dropped herself next to him.
"Horde." She complained.
Oscar cursed loudly, ignoring that the distant echo in his head scolded him.
Elder-Ruby was moving around gathering her scythe out into its sniper mode.
"Rangers! On my mark!" She yelled as she eyed into her scope to line up to the forest.
She had automatically taken control, and people automatically followed her lead: those who had ranger weapons, were suddenly taking mark, ready without blinking about who was ordering them.
Oscar found himself reacting to her order, nearing her side defensively.
They had this drilled down in the months prior to Haven being breached that it came second nature for him to find her side every time, no matter where she was, or if there was someone closer.
It was ironic that she felt like the safest person to him.
She eyed him for a second, just to make sure the presence by her side was her charge, and no one else.
"Don't die on me." She stressed.
She was way to protective that she freaked out over a cut, she didn't quite know what she would do about him dying.
Oscar looked at her, with a small frown. "Wouldn't dream of it." He gripped back.
Elder-Ruby was momentarily distracted when several yelped out when the ground started to rumble, and even the most non-sensitive could start to feel the Grimm horde's oppression.
"Steady!" She called, putting her eye back at her scope to wait for moment she could feel.
"Rangers! Mark!" She yelled immediately as soon as she could feel their intent, even if there was nothing to see.
They did as she commanded and by the time their shots landed off across the field towards the woods: the first load of Grimm appeared and fell in the same moment.
She reloaded her gun, and Oscar pressed in closer.
Heavy in reminder.
"Rangers! Again!" She called, and many reloading of weapons sounded off around her.
Some were picked off by those who held range types as they unloaded into the Grimm.
Some made it past that range of field, and those were already halfway onto the practice field.
"Mid-range!" She shouted.
And those with mid-range in their arsenal, joined in on hunting Grimm down.
"Shields!" She added, seeing Grimm cross her closeness threshold.
Those like Pyrrha and Jaune readied their shields in front of themselves and those around them.
"Close Range! Ready!" Elder-Ruby called.
She went silent, calculating distance while still maintaining her scope on Grimm in the far range.
As soon as the Grimm were too close for her comfort, she nudged Oscar.
"ALL OUT!" She yelled.
Those Huntsmen and Huntress' that had one-on-one weaponry were in firing range of Grimm, and they joined the fray with glee.
The field rapidly descended into chaos, with more and more Grimm falling and fading into ash with no Human or Faunus injury.
Oscar made sure to stay under Elder-Ruby's radar, pinning down nearby Grimm that she had managed to miss in her scope, but never venturing far from her side.
It was an effective strategy that many others were quick to adopt, seeing as they duo balanced out their weakness with the others strength.
/
/
Sooner, or later: Huntsmen were likely to run out of either stamina, dust, or Aura level if the battle dragged on for too long. Something Ruby knew all too well about. She blinked seeing a sudden opening she could use; she shoved her Crescent Rose at Oscar. Oscar grunted in surprise, not expecting to suddenly have control over the bigger-than-him scythe.
Oscar could only wield it, if it were stationary, having been giving a crash course in using it, by Ruby herself, days prior. He was the only one who could. Crash course, or not.
She pulled out her version of Crocea Mors, making sure it was in its broadsword mode, and flung it like a boomerang at the oncoming line of Grimm.
Elder-Ruby stumbled when, in its wake: several familiar-looking people appeared from its air current as it swung into Grimm, and back into the hands of its original owner.
All of them didn't even seem to notice the battleground they were on had just changed, they just saw Grimm, and went for the nearest.
"That was unexpected." Elder-Ruby huffed in surprise.
She wasn't about to kick a gift in the mouth.
Elder-Ruby quickly came back to her senses, hearing her own weapon being used to dispel Grimm, and gently took it back from Oscar, as her sister rounded up on Jaune's now flared out shield and thundered down on a nearby Grimm.
He turned to her and waved one arm up high, as Yang ran off.
"Thanks for that!" He said, grateful to have his sword back on him again.
Elder-Ruby bowed. "Totally didn't mean to!" She yelled back, momentarily distracted by her younger running in front of her and zipping off the cull three Grimm.
"I'm not gonna ask why there's two of you!" He yelled at her.
"Yeah! Well!" Oscar launched at a nearby Grimm and gave her a warning glare telling her he had just covered her. "Don't look now! But there's two of you!" She added, pointing across the field.
He blinked and turned to see, only to stumble back in fright when an Alpha jumped, and with the help of Ren, who, as usual gave his leader a once over, and deciding he was well, launched after his girlfriend who, by now, was cackling in glee.
"Not gonna ask…" He ignored seeing two versions of Nora cackling in glee. "Not gonna ask." He ignored the same resigned sigh mirrored on two versions of Ren.
He was focused on the next Grimm, until he completely blanched, alongside his team members when, suddenly like a ray of hope, Pyrrha ran onto the field, around them quickly taking out the Grimm creeping up on then, and within the same flash, she was gone.
Elder-Jaune immediately paused to turned to Ruby.
"RUBY ROSE!" He yelled frantically, and his eyebrows rose when both versions actually flinched.
But he noticed the next Grimm and changed his broadsword back into its shield mode to launch a now running-at-him-gleeful Nora as he ducked to launch her up. She was hurled through the air, evilly cackling as she went.
Pyrrha was on the other side of the battlefield!
"MY BAD! TOTALLY MY BAD!" Elder-Ruby yelled back, her tone changing into complete panic when she needed to yank Oscar back by his shirt to help him avoid a bad swipe.
Both versions of Nora were still gleefully cackling as they took down Grimm.
Elder-Ruby angrily took out the Grimm that tried to take a swipe at Oscar, she growled as it disintegrated into ash, then looked back to Elder-Jaune triumphantly.
"ONE HUNDRED AND FIFTY-TWO!" She yelled.
Oscar started to honestly giggle humorously.
Elder-Jaune just glared at her.
"HEY! NO! THAT'S…! THAT'S CHEATING! YOU WERE HERE FIRST!" Elder-Jaune yelled at her while he redirected Ren's bullets with his shield.
Now it was Ruby's turn to cackle at him.
She stalled when several massive sized Nevermores' started swooping.
Ruby turned to Oscar, who was already nodding, with him aware of what she was going to do, she flipped her scythe around herself, with the trigger pulled, she was off into a red haze of rose petals, zooming upwards to fight the Nevermores'.
Oscar seeing her go, joined the fray among his peers, helping to take down Grimm around him as he weaved in and out around them with his cane out, whacking and pinning down Grimm as he went.
"Not gonna ask. Not gonna ask…" Oscar swore he heard Jaune mutter as he wound around the older boy, who barely had the presence of mind to ruffle his hair as Oscar rounded him.
He was probably counting as he took Grimm down.
"One hundred and ten." Oscar reported proudly to him.
Elder-Jaune paused to stare at him. "How. Just how." He glared at him playfully.
Oscar grinned and took down a wayward Grimm that crossed his path. Then looked back to Elder-Jaune, grinning proudly.
"Don't. You. Dare." He warned, knowing exactly what Oscar was about to do.
But Oscar just grinned. "One hundred and eleven." He muttered loudly to him, then scampered.
Laughing as he went when he heard the man curse him at his back.
/
/
A massive flash of light above them had Oscar freezing in terror but couldn't help but look upwards in that same fear he knew from his nightmares.
Oh, Brother's, where is she? Is she looking up or down!?
He couldn't help but yelp seeing the solid forms of the Nevermores' Elder-Ruby was fighting with gave way to gravity and start to hurl back down dirtside.
They slammed into the dirt around them all, soon followed by Elder-Ruby's war cry as she followed and slammed into one with her scythe, making sure it was dead.
Elder-Jaune, alongside with the rest of his team, rushed to the other Nevermore to dispatch that one as quickly as their Ruby was able to.
Oscar immediately focused on his Ruby and saw her collapse onto her knees heavily. "Ruby!" He yelled in concern as he rushed over to her.
With a flash that large made by a Silver-Eyed Warrior's rage: the remaining Grimm would flee back into the shadows.
He dropped to his knees in front of her as he eyed her for damage, only to see her worn out from using her eyes.
The rest of RNJRWBY came together to make sure they last Nevermore was turned into its own ash.
"I'm…I'm good…" She panted to him.
"Ruby!" Elder-Yang was yelling, running over to her, with their teammates not far behind her. "You okay?!" She continued to say frantically as she settled next to Oscar in front of Elder-Ruby to make sure her sister wasn't hurt.
Elder-Ruby just nodded. "I'll be good." She told them with a grateful smile.
Elder-Nora quickly became more concerned with the outsiders she could see lingering in her peripherals like lingering ghosts now that Ruby was alright, and the Grimm gone.
"Well, great. Wanna tell us where we are? Because this doesn't look like Haven." Elder-Nora asked.
The ghosts around her had form and they were alive.
Elder-Ruby held one finger up and she breathed heavily. "Take a good guess." She panted.
Weiss was the one to click her tongue disapprovingly-like as she strode forward to yank her leader up back onto her feet.
"What have you been up to, huh?" She asked gently as she pointed her sword to dematerialise her Arma Gigas Great Knight, seeing that it was standing idle beside them, of no more use. And seeing the stares she was getting from everyone, including herself.
"We might be in the past presently." Elder-Ruby told them.
Oscar went forward seeing her slight wobble to wind her arm around his shoulder and both of them saw the astonished stunned looks they were receiving from their teammates.
Aside from Nora, who looked like she suddenly had all the pieces to her puzzle.
"Oh…!" She started. "See. That actually explains a lot of things!" She told them all brightly.
Elder-Ruby looked to Elder-Jaune.
"How long have we been gone, anyway?" She asked curiously.
He shrugged. "Not long. Not even an hour, at best even." He remarked.
She looked down to Oscar in amazement.
"Why? How long have you been here?" Elder-Ren stepped forward to ask as he aimed a glare at his girlfriend.
Nora simply pouted and crossed her arms in response to getting glared at.
Oscar shrugged.
"Two, maybe three? Days? At least." Elder-Ruby pondered.
Elder-Jaune just shrugged and flicked Oscar in the head in familiarity.
"This got something to do with you?" He asked curiously.
Oscar quickly shook his head. "Never happened to me before!" He was happy to quickly assure.
It made him nod and look to Elder-Ruby calculatedly. "…How far back?" He asked strained, as if not daring to hope.
They could all easily ignore the medics now running around to see if they were needed.
"We appeared during the last fight of the Vytal Festival. We've been…helping…out since." Elder-Ruby replied, hearing, and understanding the strain in his voice.
She patted Oscar on the head for his help, and for him to know he didn't need to hold her up anymore.
She was a little surprised to see him eye her to make sure she wasn't lying.
After all, Oscar needed to make sure his wayward now-recognised-as-a-friend wasn't pushing her luck.
"I do have one favour to ask of you, Jaune," Elder-Ruby started, gently, getting his attention.
"Because of what we've changed so far…we have directly affected Pyrrha, Penny and Oscar okay? …Don't hurt Ozpin for the choices he hasn't been forced to make." She asked as gentle as she could of him.
Oscar tried not to flinch at her meaning. He could remember all too well what happened afterwards Qrow made sure he told them he had Ozpin's memories.
…Jaune had reacted the worst over time.
It had taken a long time for Jaune to see Oscar wasn't exactly Ozpin and wasn't to be blamed for any previous actions he had grievances with.
Jaune had only just recently gotten to that point with Oscar.
He really didn't want the glaring to come back at his every step.
…Rightly deserved, or not.
Elder-Jaune twitched but ended up sighing. "I'll…I'll try, alright? No promises." He said dejectedly.
She responded by nodding happily, and she was probably the only one who noticed Oscar's relieved slump.
"Best I can ask!" She told him happily, then turned to her sister. "Yang!" She yelled as she launched at her.
It was a nostalgic sight to see.
/
/
It took no time at all for teams RWBY and JNPR, and even their professors to realise they were looking at their future.
The future that Ruby and Oscar came from.
There were changes in how they acted, and how they were: Yang's elbow joint stood out a little too much in colour to hit home how much the two had changed from the minute they got dumped into their time zone.
Elder-Yang's grin wasn't quite as large as it usually was, as she corralled her sister under her flesh-side armpit easily.
"Are you taking good care of her?" She asked Oscar, ignoring the muffled cries for help her sister made, and the whacking.
Oscar blinked in concern for Ruby's flailing. "She's been taking care of me." He insisted on correcting.
He frowned at the knowingly soft smile she gave him.
"Yang!" Elder-Ruby huffed, her voice muffled from under Yang's arm. "Can't breathe!" She tried to say loudly.
Hearing her, Elder-Yang immediately let her go, eyeing her to make sure she hadn't taken it too far, still the ever-protective older sister.
She blinked at the tap she heard but didn't actually feel straight away. "…Needs tuning…" Elder-Ruby mumbled awkwardly.
Elder-Yang could only just roll her eyes in good nature. "Ever on the go." She scolded playfully.
/
/
They ended up back in the cafeteria hall.
They all set up around each other awkwardly, with the two teams from the future sitting at one table, taking a moment to recover from the multitude of battles they had found themselves in recently.
Elder-Yang tossed her arm at her sister, who yelped and barely caught it in alarm.
"Have a hand, sis." She told her.
Everyone else around her groaned woefully.
They noted that no one else volunteered to help.
Probably too fearful of Yang.
Aside from Oscar, who sided up against her, worming his way in from the start, from who knew when.
Possibly due to the fact as soon as the boy met her, he stuck to her side like glue: orders from Qrow (and warnings from Oz) regardless.
"Okay…" Elder-Ruby started, ducking her eyes to maintain on her sister's arm, knowing exactly how many awkward and ongoing stares she would likely be getting from her previous teammates and teachers from the time she crash-landed into.
She made sure to flick the lens over her one eye, fixating the laser at the joint of the yellow metallic arm where she had heard the metallic crunching come from before.
She again nodded gratefully to Oscar when he sighed softly at her and took the other tool from her mouth.
"…So, most of you guys were here the first time. Weiss, you might have just been taken by your father — I'm sorry I didn't punch him one." She apologised, then eyed Blake a second before returning her focus back to her repair job. "Blake, were you still…?" She questioned.
Everyone immediately saw that Elder-Blake had flinched, her showing Faunus cat-ears folding into themselves guiltily, so flat that they nearly hid amongst her hair.
Elder-Yang was the one who patted her on the back in reassurance, ignoring that Elder-Blake stared at her incredulously.
But Elder-Yang was grinning. "Yo! Weiss! You owe me money! Told you she'd freeze!" Elder-Yang cajoled happily, patting her friend as she went consolingly.
Elder-Weiss just seemed to grumble in annoyance that she had been coerced at the start into making a bet in the first place.
"Um. No, I, uh…I had left already…" Elder-Blake muttered.
Elder-Ruby nodded as she switched tools with Oscar when she saw him glaring at her when she went to hold one in-between her teeth.
"I'm trying to understand the timeline between the Fall, and when RNJR started up." She explained.
Ruby blinked when apparently that made sense to them.
"RNJR?" She asked, staring just as much as her teammates.
Elder-Nora snorting caused everyone to look at her, while Elder-Ren just rolled his eyes at her.
"Don't mind them, it just took us a while to form a name." Elder-Jaune told her, he stalled when he heard Elder-Nora mutter something and glared at her for it.
"Still not a colour." Elder-Ren reminded her, and she just slumped over the table on her back in loud defeat.
"To answer you, I…can't remember much time being spent here…" Elder-Jaune looked to Elder-Ren, who shrugged, and they all heard the annoyed huff Elder-Nora gave out, and he looked back to everyone else. "But I do remember Weiss leaving with her father, it wasn't long after that we got that message from you asking us if we wanted to come to Mistral with you." He explained softly and calmly.
Aspects not readily seen in team JNPR's leader unless you looked hard enough.
Everyone saw that this made Elder-Ruby flinch.
"Yeah…Sorry. I'm still really bad at telling how far away anything is." She apologised.
Elder-Yang snorted. "How long did you think it would take?" She asked highly amused by the lack of any geographical sense her sister didn't have.
Elder-Ruby groaned. "Do you want your arm back or not?!" She yelled indignantly and angrily.
"She thought it would take less than two weeks." Elder-Ren helpfully informed.
Elder-Ruby was suddenly screeching and throwing her tool at Elder-Ren's face.
"SABOTEUR!" She yelled over her sister's indignant squawk at the tool being thrown about.
It wasn't hard for the current team JNPR to understand that RNJR was formed out of what happened to their versions of JNPR and RWBY.
So many of their teammates were no longer fit for duty as they were now.
They all had scars, some more literally shown than others.
"…Why couldn't Uncle Qrow come back as well, he would know…" Elder-Ruby muttered in annoyance, unknowingly gaining everyone's interest again.
Elder-Yang shrugged, not that her sister could see, since her eyes were focused back on repairing the metal arm in her lap.
"I'm pretty sure he was still trying to make Raven talk." Elder-Yang said casually as she tossed the tool back towards her sister.
Elder-Ruby just threw up her arm to catch the tool without looking up.
"I am so glad you didn't get that aspect from her. You're way easier to talk to." Elder-Ruby said as she exchanged tools with Oscar.
Those among them who had the misfortune to have met Raven, and flee from the woman and her portals, nodded in gratitude.
They could deal with stubbornness.
They all anxiously noticed the smirk on Elder-Yang's face as she got up closer to her sister.
"Missed me that much?" She asked in snark.
Elder-Ruby, who hadn't heard her sister come in closer, yelped at the sudden closeness, and her training automatically kicked in, reflexively going to punch the person too close to her, and her body leaning to cover Oscar protectively.
Oscar grunted in surprise when he nearly fell off the bench when he was forced to move when his guardian physically entered his space.
Elder-Yang was nearly punched in the face and would have been had she not anticipated the move, blocked it, and laughed the entire time, way too happy to cause chaos.
Yang looked to Blake, who wasn't alone in staring still.
"Is, uh, is anyone else confused?" She asked.
Most, if not all her teammates nodded, looking as confused as she felt.
She looked back at them. She took in the concerned look Elder-Ruby was giving Oscar, having realised she had nearly knocked him off the table. Oscar was smiling at her happily, seemingly forgiven her in a second flat.
She noticed that her other version was making sure her version of Blake wasn't being left out, as well that she was acknowledging every flinch her friend made, to make sure of its reason.
"Is Raven…?" She asked, trailing off to watch them.
Yang didn't see her uncle flinch: but she did find her other-self looking to her with a weird mesh of a thoughtful look she had seen in the mirror.
She tried not to feel her skin crawl.
Elder-Yang reached into one pocket only to throw its contents at her thoughtfully.
Yang caught it and unfolded a familiar old looking team photo of team STRQ.
It was folded around an empty red dust cartridge before Qrow literally snatched it from her hands.
"Where the hell did you get this." He asked, nearly demanded.
Everyone else quickly found something else to focus on.
Elder-Yang blankly looked at him, before one brow rose slowly.
"Dad gave it to me when I left Patch. After he asked where I was going." Elder-Yang explained as calmly as if she still expected him to blow up at her again.
Yang looked back between her and her Uncle in confusion. "Where you…were going…?" She echoed for her to elaborate.
Elder-Yang nodded, knowing even if they weren't looking as if they were listening, she knew better by now.
"He wanted to know where I was going, once I left Patch: to go after my mother or go after Ruby." She explained.
It dawned over Yang that she had the right Raven.
There was a path in her future that led to her mother. And the cost of it was leaving Ruby behind.
Ruby took a step forward.
"Where did you go?" She asked curiously.
Elder-Yang immediately followed her voice and looked to her, suddenly brightening up.
"Holy crap, I forgot you were this small!" She cajoled happily as she gathered up the younger version of her sister, quite easily into a one-armed hug.
Ruby could feel it was by no less any different in strength, just in placement: with only one arm to hold her up, Ruby squawked a little in fear when Elder-Yang's remaining arm wrapped differently around her waist and lifted her up off the ground.
"Saboteur…" Everyone heard Elder-Ruby mutter indignantly.
Oscar chuckled and she poked him in the side.
He huffed a quiet laugh as he dramatically moved to the side, as if her poking him had that much weight.
"Let her breathe, sis. Seriously, I was just as surprised." Elder-Ruby added.
Elder-Yang nodded, and gently put Ruby back on the floor, trying to let her go with minimal jostling due to her other arm still being repaired.
"Sorry, sis." She apologised. "You, you dummy!" She poked Ruby's forehead, sending Ruby rocking on the souls of her feet, looking stunned.
"Of course I went after you!" Ruby's look turned incredulous. "—What kind of sister would I be!?" Elder-Yang ended, just as incredulous as Ruby's expression.
Elder-Yang was dumbfounded that her sister, any version of her sister(!), didn't realise she came first. "I may have gotten lost along the way, but I was still looking for a way to you!" She insisted heatedly.
They heard Elder-Ruby's derisive sniff.
Everyone saw the concern Oscar took at that, quickly followed by Elder-Yang's.
"Still surprised the hell out of me…" She muttered.
Elder-Yang stared, her face going slack with surprise, before she gave way to frowning.
"Yo, Oscar." Oscar perked up hearing his name. "You're closer: whack her one." Elder-Yang ordered.
Oscar near yelped in alarm. "I would very much no like to do that, Miss Yang!" He said quickly as he shook his head.
Elder-Yang rolled her eyes softly.
"Must have forgotten how soft you are with her." She muttered.
Maybe Oscar and both versions of Ruby hadn't heard, but everyone else certainly did.
Elder-Yang went over to her sister and whacked her herself.
Elder-Ruby yelped out indignantly, nearly dropping Yang's arm when both hands rose up to ward off future attacks.
"It will always be you, sis. Before anyone else." Elder-Yang reminded.
"But she's your…" Elder-Ruby tried.
Oscar gently took the tool she was gripping weakly, afraid she would drop it and break it.
Elder-Yang burst and ruffled her hair causing Elder-Ruby to yelp in confusion.
There was a sudden whirling noise from the arm Elder-Ruby was repairing which made a triumphant smile appear on her face.
"Here, Sis!" Elder-Ruby called happily, then she tossed the arm back. "So! What you're saying is that no one here has any clue what happens next?!" She asked her tone incredulous.
Everyone else was watching Elder-Yang curiously as she tucked her arm underneath its joint to hold it.
Then she gathered her sleeve out the way, yanking them up and holding them out the way with her teeth, revealing the joint and its attachment mechanism.
She expertly grabbed the arm and attached it with a turn.
Once attached the mechanical arm made a sound and its digits wiggled around, as if she was searching for fault, making sure the shift lock still worked for the gun mode, eyeing it to make sure it was still fight functional, since it was the gun locking that was jammed in the first place.
"Yep. That's what we're saying." Elder-Ren informed her.
Elder-Ruby just groaned and following Elder-Nora's example: slumped backwards over the table in defeat.
Oscar jerked slightly in surprise when she moved, glancing at her to make sure he hadn't missed an injury.
Feeling him jerk, she reached out and pat him on the arm consolingly: he wasn't at fault.
"How do we even plan if we don't know…?" She muttered up to the ceiling despairingly.
Elder-Yang went over to Qrow to retrieve her photo to put it away safely.
Elder-Nora held up her fist. "Sup." She uttered tiredly.
Elder-Ruby returned the gesture, just as suddenly tired.
If anything, Oscar looked the more confused, looking between the people he knew, and his guardian slumped over the table.
"What we do know is what will happen in Mistral." Oscar tried to help, wanting to be helpful, even if he had been more observant than talkative until now.
He looked back to Elder-Ruby when he heard her groan. "Well, sure. But that doesn't take place for, like, over a year from now." Elder-Ruby griped.
They saw his expression turned expectant, and a little imploring. "Miss Ruby, we might be taken back, any minute." He reminded softly.
Elder-Ruby took a second more to glower up at the ceiling, his words swirling around in her head as a heavy frown settled on her face.
Oscar put a hand on her knee. "You can't be responsible for everything, Ruby. Please, take this as advice from someone who understands." He told her solemnly.
She suddenly made a noise of a mix of sadness and annoyance and ricocheted back into sitting at his tone.
"So, where was I?" She asked as she looked to her teammates. "I was telling them what we changed," Elder-Ruby added, so they could follow along. "Maybe you guys could tell them what happened to you, so they know what they can change before Mistral happens…" She suddenly trailed off nervously but lit back up when her teammates nodded.
Elder-Weiss scoffed and came over to her leader and whacked her over the head.
"Dolt. That statement doesn't help us when you haven't told us what they know already!" She exclaimed.
Elder-Ruby ducked her head in embarrassment. "Sorry! Sorry!" She hastily said to Elder-Weiss, who shook her head disparagingly.
"…I was kinda basic, since we all weren't able to talk properly to catch up when Mistral decided it would like to become a battleground for every nearby bandit and Grimm." Elder-Ruby explained.
Elder-Weiss looked thoughtful, then curious as she looked over to her younger self. "Do you know how to summon yet?" She questioned.
Weiss mutely shook her head.
"…I'll teach you later." She promised, then stalled seeing her leader's incredulous look. "I wasn't able to do much else under house arrest." She reminded stiffly.
Elder-Yang slung one arm over Elder-Blake to pull her more into her side.
"What'chu say about us?" Elder-Yang said as she grinned, pointed to herself, and patted Elder-Blake's shoulder when she felt her friend flinch because, despite everything that had happened, Yang was still so casual with her.
Elder-Ruby shrugged a little. "Again, not much. Hard to talk to everyone when we're all being surrounded by Grimm. I did say that Blake went to Menagerie…" She blinked then looked to her.
"What actually did happen? What made you decide to leave?" She asked curiously as she lent forward, "You…don't need to say, if you don't want to…!" Elder-Ruby backpedalled quickly, knowing their friendships were fragile.
Elder-Blake looked between the two sisters, Elder-Yang grinned back and nodded.
"Um. No, it's—it's fine! Because of what happened at…at Beacon… I, um, left. And went back to Menagerie. I have family there. …Sun followed me." Elder-Blake almost smiled when Elder-Yang celebrated next to her that she was contributing.
"Is your family alright?" Elder-Ruby questioned in concern.
Elder-Blake nodded. "They're fine. Despite what happened." She told her.
Everyone saw Oscar frown and hop down off the bench.
"Despite what happened?" Oscar asked as he stepped toward her.
He was genuinely concerned, he could faintly recall who her parents were, and how important they were politically to Faunus-kind.
Elder-Blake nodded. "The White Fang didn't take kindly to us, that's all." She replied.
They waited for her to continue and nearly all of them balked when she didn't elaborate.
"Blake! Come on!" Elder-Yang whined. "You can't just stop there!" She added heatedly, slumping into her friend as she whined.
Elder-Blake stared at her astounded. "Um. Are you okay…?" She asked her dangling friend.
Elder-Yang abruptly moved to stare eye to eye with her. "No! You need to continue!" She insisted loudly causing Elder-Blake to lean back in surprise.
"Okay! Okay! Fine!" Elder-Blake called.
Elder-Yang whooped in joy a little too closely and a little too loudly near her cat ear, which caused it to twitch and pull away from the noise.
"Spill!" Elder-Yang called brightly in excitement.
"Once Adam took over the White Fang entirely: those under his lead decided that pacifist Faunus were just as bad as Humans, for not seeing that their way. And if they didn't convert to their way of thinking, there were expendable and in league with the old White Fang that while in power, causes many Faunus to be enslaved or killed by Humans under their watch." Elder-Blake explained.
Elder-Yang immediately scowled.
"I never did get to punch him in the face…" She snarled.
Elder-Blake blinked at her. "You probably could still do that — it's not like he's dead, or anything…" She said to her.
Ruby herself frowned. "But that…" She started, stuttering a little nervously, and looking a little horrified.
Everyone looked at her.
Oscar cocked his head at her, hearing her tone.
"He would have caused many innocent people harm…? It's not right!" She insisted.
Both versions of Blake stared at her, once they both realised that she hadn't discriminated: giving both Human and Faunus the right of being called a person.
Elder-Blake stood to attention when Elder-Ruby looked at her with a glint of determination.
"Do you recall when all this started? If we can stop Adam before this happens, no one will be hurt. Well, I guess aside from Adam…" Elder-Ruby pondered.
Elder-Blake nodded. "It started a few months after the Fall of Beacon. But Adam won't fully take over for about a year afterwards…" Elder-Blake explained.
Elder-Ruby gave Qrow, and Oz, a dead-eye look, and noted that they had taken note.
Then she lit up as if she had just remembered something.
"Oh, yeah! Lionheart is compromised too!" She stated brightly.