Satisfied, she brought up another device over the fixture, that opened up like a Scroll, with a screen of some kind that showed the under workings under the newly regenerated skin.
Elder-Ruby moved the Scroll-like device around as if searching for any fault in her work, or something she missed.
"Did you miss something?" Oscar asked curiously.
Elder-Ruby clicked the device off, and lifted the one over her eye, with it she shook her head.
"I must have done these enough times with Yang's." She answered.
Oscar notched his head. "It does help that she doesn't let anyone else work on her arm." He told her.
Elder-Ruby chuckled. "That is true." She said, happily.
Yang, who finally had enough of not understanding, of her name being mentioned, having no idea why, had stood up from her seat, and picked up the device that had her name on it.
"Okay. What?" She started out angrily.
Everyone noted that Elder-Ruby flinched then hissed out at getting snuck upon.
"I'm normally better than that!" She hissed.
Oscar looked to her. "Are you okay? You tired?" Oscar steamrolled into asking.
"Using my eyes twice properly has always been the limit, but using it on the Grimm Dragon and Cinder? That was overkill." Elder-Ruby muttered.
Oscar nodded as if he understood. "You need to rest." He told her.
"Yeah. When I'm allowed to." She muttered, noting that Yang was getting annoyed she quickly gathered up the other tools and snatched the one Yang had at the same time to stow them away from prying eyes.
Yang blinked at her, then crossed her arms in annoyance.
Elder-Ruby only sighed tiredly.
"We have changed a few things by being here," Oscar started.
Ruby could have kissed the boy right there and then for starting to explain things for her.
The whole room looked at each other. "Really?" Most said, curiously.
They both nodded.
"One of them being that because of the Fall of Beacon Miss Yang had lost her arm." Oscar informed sadly.
Yang blinked, one arm coming up to the other in protective horror.
Ruby noted Blake's flinch.
"That guy that went after Blake?" Yang questioned, angrily.
Elder-Ruby nodded. "He is one of the White Fang, he has a violent history with Blake, that even I'm not fully knowledgeable of the entire story. Blake was crying at the time when she apologised." Elder-Ruby told her.
Yang crouched down curiously to her sister that apparently now knew time travel as she buckled her backpack back up under her cloak.
Weiss was frowning to her teammate who was hiding her face. "Why?" She questioned.
"Probably because she ran off to Menagerie." Elder-Ruby said, shrugging.
"More like because she feared Miss Yang would hate her because it was Taurus who did it." Oscar put forth, looking at Elder-Ruby oddly.
Elder-Ruby stretched her arms upwards. "That too." She put forth truthfully.
Yang blinked from Elder-Ruby, then searched for her Faunus teammate, who had hidden her face.
"Huh. What happened? Did we meet up again from where you're from?" Yang asked curiously, not taking her eyes off Blake.
Elder-Ruby nodded. "Yeah, you did. Blake apologised for leaving, she said she left because she believed she was protecting us from her bad luck." Elder-Ruby then gave out a long-suffered groan.
"—Ugh. You're just like Uncle Qrow, Blake!" She called, a little irritated.
Qrow startled. "Whoa, hey, why're you bring me into this?!" Qrow asked, stunned.
Elder-Ruby rolled her eyes. "Because your Semblance is attracting bad luck? Duh." She said
Oscar snorted in laughter, once he was sure no one had noticed his flinching.
"How do I know…?" Elder-Ruby started, he nodded. "That would be when we were on our way to Haven. On our way through Oniyuri," Only she then saw Ren flinch making her start to ramble faster.
"Tyrian had finally caught up to us, by orders of Salem to take me back with him, you ended up getting poisoned from his stinger—"
"—Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa!!" Oscar near on yelled, making Elder-Ruby stall as he grasped her shoulders and making her look to him while Ozpin wasn't the only professor to stand up in the same alarm.
"You never told me this!" Oscar near yelled.
Elder-Ruby reared in surprise. "Uh. You never asked?" She questioned, alarmed at her companion being angry.
She had never seen him angry before.
"Yes, I did!" Oscar smouldered angrily. "Several times! I asked what happened between your time from when you woke up in Patch to meeting you at Mistral! You never mentioned Qrow got hurt! or that Tyrian had found you! or Salem knew about you!" Oscar started to rant angrily.
Elder-Ruby blinked at him stunned. "…Your Ozpin is showing." She told him, softly and uneasily.
He stood up. "Don't care!" He said angrily.
She quickly followed to stand in equal alarm as Yang backed away just as quickly and wisely.
"I thought Qrow had told you…" Elder-Ruby muttered, not at all comfortable with him showing anger.
Oscar shook his head. "No! And I'll whack him one for not telling me when I get back! This is serious, Ruby!" Oscar told her.
Ruby knew it was serious when he used her first name only.
"I know this is serious. I know who Salem is, Oscar." Ruby told him gently, trying to get him to calm down.
It didn't work as the youth started pacing, subconsciously and automatically unfurling his cane, whacking air angrily as he went, hissing to himself.
Elder-Ruby stood aside from her companion as she watched nervously, her arms up as if she wanted to placate him, but wasn't sure how, or if it would be welcomed presently.
She had never seen Oscar angry; she had no idea the boy could get angry.
At least, not at her.
Oscar seemed to come to a conclusion within himself and turned back to her.
Elder-Ruby almost looked startled when he did.
"What else do we not know about? Start from the Fall of Beacon and leave nothing out!" Oscar ordered in a hiss.
How such a youth could order her around, most had no clue.
When she hesitated, he brought his cane down in an arch beside himself, making the air sound out around him harshly, she quickly complied.
Elder-Ruby slid down the glass panelling on the ship, to sit down, looking as if she suddenly bore the weight of the world.
Oscar, on the other hand, did not move, too keyed up to move, in two mind frames: one to get information, the other trying to get himself to calm down because he could see he was frightening her.
"How far back do you want me to go? Penny being killed?" Elder-Ruby asked, not noticing everyone aside from Oscar flinched at the change.
Oscar just nodded.
"Because of Emerald's semblance, it caused Pyrrha to perceive more than just Penny's usual number of blades," Herein Pyrrha flinched. "Penny's death caused the more heightened emotions that Cinder used to attract all nearby Grimm into Beacon and nearby areas. The battle for Beacon started there." Elder-Ruby started.
Oscar nodded as if he were following along.
"That was where Oz asked Miss Nikos to be Fall, and Cinder became Fall instead. Oz fell." Oscar mimicked.
"I heard that later, but that happened then." Elder-Ruby nodded. Oscar made a motion for her to continue.
"It would have been around the same time that Adam felled Blake and Yang, the same time Grimm Dragon was let loose." Elder-Ruby continued. "I was with Weiss when I got the call from Jaune saying Pyrrha had gone up against Cinder alone—"
"She did WHAT?! I told her not to!" Oscar burst out angrily, sending a quick glare out to Pyrrha, who flinched, albeit in confusion, before returning his attention back to Elder-Ruby.
His use of pronouns wasn't lost on the professors.
Elder-Ruby flinched away from him, not remotely used to seeing or hearing Oscar, or hearing Ozpin through him so angry as they had been in the past five minutes.
Seeing her rear away frightened, he breathed, trying to expel out his anger.
"I apologise." He muttered.
No matter how angry he was, he never wanted Ruby to be scared of him.
It hurt too much to think she could be.
The cost would be too great.
She nodded wearily.
"Weiss and I tried to make our way to the broken tower, Weiss used her glyphs, like the time she did in our initiation." Elder-Ruby summarised.
Oscar nodded along as if he understood the reference that she gave him for comparison.
Before she could continue, the pilot announced their descent into Vale, wherein they would have a safe place to sleep for the night before making their next moves.
Oscar noted that Elder-Ruby was pushing away tears.
"Perhaps you can continue tomorrow…" He offered, trying to console her with how harsh he had been.
Elder-Ruby nodded and sniffed.
She knew that Oscar needed to know, but now it wasn't just him that needed to know, her two teams, as well as her old teachers, needed to know so they could steel themselves for what was to come.
Chapter 2
Chapter 2
As soon as Oscar had given her permission, Ruby clammed up and deterred immediately from saying anything else that could be about the Time Travel Back Story.
"Please leave her alone, we were too hard on her today," Oscar had mimicked the echo in his head, when people had tried. "We will not be going anywhere tomorrow." He added when they looked apprehensive.
Ozpin, ironically, seemed the be the only one who seemed to understand. And followed Oscar's sentiments, and scolding, when the others looked like they wanted her to keep telling her tale.
The sun rose the next morning, found teams RWBY and JNPR, alongside their teachers, coming into the hall that the evacuees from both Vale and Beacon were using as a cafeteria.
They found that either Oscar or Ruby had pushed aside all tables and chairs haphazardly off to one side: piled up together, on top of each other, some clinging to the sides of tables, and benches piled up on top of each other so high they were starting to lean off to one side.
Seemingly so that they could spar.
"No. No. No." Ruby started as she came over to Oscar, seeing something wrong with how he faced her. "There," She started, nudging his forward foot with one of her own. "And there," She nudged his back straighter by playfully tugging up his shirt collar.
"Don't forget to put your front foot forward!" Ruby told her smaller companion, playfully nudging his boot with her own.
He groaned at her. "You, Mister Jaune, and Miss Nikos all make this look easy!" Oscar said woefully.
She just giggled at him happily. "Well, you can't always rely on Oz to help you, you know this. Yang found this out the hard way, remember? And Jaune learnt by having insomnia after the Fall, and with one video on repeat for months. So, if he can do it, so can you!" Ruby told him encouragingly, and completely unaware of her audience she had acquired in the past five minutes.
Oscar groaned again at her, his shoulders slumping a little more as he seemed to mutter over his shoulder at something no one else could see.
Ruby stepped back out of his space respectfully, and turning around she brought up, surprisingly not her scythe, but Jaune's modified Crocea Mors left it in its scabbard mode.
"You're going to make me black and blue, Miss Ruby Rose." Oscar just muttered as he readied himself.
He may have stalled a little when she giggled at him happily. "I'm not gonna hit you that hard! Oscar! You're my friend, not my enemy!" She reminded.
Oscar stumbled when Ruby moved about him, bringing down her modified sword for him to practice against. Even with his startle, he fluently blocked the attack with his cane, and got out of dodge quick enough when he saw her swing the opposite side when he couldn't counter, and again when she switched sides a little too fast for him to move to counter quickly.
He went to pin her seeing an opening but found himself freezing when all he could see was the last time they had practised back in Mistral, and all he could see was her falling over the edge of the training field of the house they were staying at.
The moment past, he felt himself slump in gratitude, she zipped out of the way of his aborted swing, which meant he wasn't able to hurt her again.
This wasn't time for him to reflect. Ozpin scolded him; he knew he did.
Oscar hissed at himself and bolted after her. He didn't want her to think he was weak. That she needed to coddle him more than she already did.
But, again, he felt himself freeze when he heard her laughing, probably at him, then in a move, he couldn't see or predict, she suddenly had her borrowed Crocea Mors at his throat.
He immediately froze, a strangled pitched of scattered surprise broke out of his throat in alarm she had gotten him that quickly.
Ruby smiled politely and put away her borrowed sword. "Okay, now practice using your Semblance." She told him.
Everyone could see that Oscar immediately stalled, and urgently shook his head, furling up his cane just as fast as he took a step away from her in panic.
No one really understood her patient smile.
"I'll hurt you." He muttered, but it echoed around him loud enough for them all to hear him.
Oscar knew he had a point, one that he knew she knew about. He could take down Grimm without using his Semblance with his cane alone. He wasn't about to put Ruby in harm's way, him excelling at being useless with his own weapon, be damned if it came to harming her.
Even Ozpin was hesitant to harm her too much, for reasons he didn't want nightmares about!
Ruby cocked her head but nodded understandingly. "Even so, we can't let that get in the way. Oz may be used to using the cane, but you are not. You need the body you have present to know the reflexes it needs." Ruby told him gently.
He hissed. "You're quoting both Qrow and James at me, I hope you know." Oscar groaned.
Ruby chuckled but nodded. "In any case, you need to come at me like you want to strike me." She reminded.
Oscar reared back in alarm at the mere idea of that. "I very much wouldn't like to do that, Miss Ruby Rose." He told her, his tone stark with fear.
Ruby looked thoughtful, then sighed in what sounded like understanding frustration. "It's not like I can get Oz to teach you, he's in your head and not compat—" Ruby looked beyond her companion to see the audience she had gathered and brightened considerably once she saw them. "Professor Ozpin!" She near shouted in relief and raced up to him happily.
She ignored the flinch Oscar gave at her shout, and him looking over his shoulder.
"Oh, Brothers, now there's two of them — shut it, you're not helping!" Oscar hissed to himself as Ruby passed.
She ignored that too. It wasn't a conversation she was privy to.
Ruby bounded up to Ozpin and bounded on her toes in front of him happily. "Can I borrow your cane? Promise to give it back!" She added, forming half of a pleading sign with one hand.
Ozpin looked bewildered, but he relented his cane over to her, and she bowed before racing back to Oscar.
"On guard!" She yelled at him happily.
It was only then, with the change of weapons, that Oscar relented, and started to spar properly.
/
/
They watched as Oscar became more and more like a blur over time, aiming to hit Ruby, but never quite managing to land a proper bruising hit on her person, only on her borrowed weapon.
Ruby never once went for him.
They quickly realised she was getting him to practice, as if she were probably the only one fast enough to dodge each and every fatal pin of the old weapon Oscar held aimed in her general direction.
They had seen more than once the previous day that he was able to take down Grimm fast enough to rival Ruby or help in assisting taking them down.
With a jerk move few barely saw, Ruby tossed her cane back to towards Ozpin, as she twirled around Oscar, she reached for her borrowed sword, only to switch to its broadsword mode, and with a flick, she sent Oscar backwards.
Oscar was launched backwards, and at the speed she sent him back, made him slam the cane down into the dirt to save himself from hurtling into their spectators.
Ruby saw his counter move, his shielding and immediately celebrated that he had done it.
"Woohoo!" Ruby immediately crowed happily, throwing her borrowed weapon into the dirt flared out into its shield mode so she had had her hands free to jump up into the air.
It's unfamiliar, yet familiar golden inset shimmered, caught in the rising sun.
"I did it that time!" Oscar said happily and in awe as his electric green shielding faded away. He had reached out to it unconsciously, but at least he knew where to find it for when he needed it again.
Ruby continued to dance happily, making Oscar laugh at her merrily.
She did a final twirl back towards Oscar. "Are you hungry? I'm starving!" Ruby admitted.
Oscar sided his head at her openly, before he nodded, and she zipped away towards where the food was being offered up.
Ruby left her borrowed sword flared out in its shield mode where she wedged it into the dirt, having no need to recall it.
It glimmered innocently in the sun where it was left on a tilt.
"Impressive." Ironwood remarked, still as stoic as usual, not concealing his confusion.
Oscar rounded to him and beamed. "Thanks, James!" He said happily.
Ironwood blinked at him blankly causing Oscar to flinch.
"Ironwood…" He muttered to his shoulder. "Sorry, Ironwood." He corrected himself sourly.
Oscar's good mood completely vanished.
Ruby reappeared at Oscar's immediate right side, holding out a plate for him.
She only sat when he took it from her.
"You name-calling people again?" She asked simply.
Ruby, by now, could pick up Oscar's change on mood swings even before Oscar could.
Oscar nodded glumly. "It's hard." He mumbled as he sat down next to her, his shoulder's slumping in defeat.
Ruby just nodded in sympathy and patted his head.
/
/
"I suppose we should continue from last night…" Oscar started, painfully awkward.
Ruby just grumbled and pushed her half-eaten plate of food away from her as she lost any appetite she had left at his words.
Oscar's words caused everyone else to perk up from their meals and regard the time-travelling companions with more interest than their food.
"Where even was I…?" Ruby asked Oscar with a frown.
"You getting to the top of the tower…" Oscar reminded her gently.
Oscar was hugely aware that she had gotten upset before. He hated to be the source of her crying.
He had a feeling he would always hate it.
Ruby blinked, then looked as if she remembered. "Right! You'll have to bear with me because that entire part is hazy," She warned. "But Cinder was there, Pyrrha too. Qrow told me afterwards that this awakened my silver eyes. I froze the Grimm Dragon in place, made Cinder flee. I've hurt her badly, apparently. I think I heard her screaming." Ruby noted. "…Maidens are easily harmed by silver eyes…" She added mutely.
Oscar frowned as she talked, then blinked. "Wait, hold on. What happened to Miss Nikos?" He asked, a fearful tone creeping into his tone.
Ruby went completely silent.
A silence that became heavy and soon covered them all.
They all watched as Ruby hung her head, and tears slammed onto the wooden tabletop beneath her.
"I couldn't get there fast enough…! I wasn't able to…!" Ruby hissed through frantic breath painfully.
They watched in unbearable silence and Pyrrha looked away in crushing guilt for causing her friend such pain because of her actions.
Oscar rubbed her back consolingly. "As much as I told her not to, Miss Ruby. She knew what she was doing when she faced Cinder. She must have known she would have been no match. But she did it anyway. I cannot guess what Miss Nikos was thinking at the time, but she might have been thinking what I was: that even one person would be worth the pain if they could stop her." Oscar told her gently.
It just caused Ruby to sob. "She would have known…?" Ruby asked, quite easily forgetting where she was, and that at the very least she could have asked Pyrrha in person herself.
Oscar nodded, and continued to move his palm in circles on her back.
She just cried. "Then she willingly left Jaune…!" Her hands came up to slam themselves against her eye ridges in an attempt to stall her tears. "Nora and Ren…!" Her hands were of no use to stem the tide as she sobbed harder. "All of us!" She cried.
Her words hit hard and hit home with team JNPR, as the gold set into Jaune's modified shield shimmered in the sun's glow as if it bore itself innocently on its wielder's memory.
Oscar could only nod and continue to try and console her. "She must have thought the pros were better than the cons. If she could delay Cinder even a moment, even if it did cost her, her life." He told her.
Ruby was suddenly yanking herself up to stare at oscar. So fast that Oscar's hand was thrown off.
Everyone stalled at the tear stains staining down her face, the sudden desperate gleam in her eye.
"Just like you?" Ruby asked.
Oscar was helpless to nod.
Her nose scrunched up distastefully. "But that's different!" She yelled causing Oscar to blink and rear back, looking stunned. "You can come back!" She insisted forcibly, not seeing Oscar flinch painfully. "Pyrrha, Penny! They can't! They never can!" Ruby cried.
Something snapped inside Oscar seeing her that worked up, he pulled her by her arm and held her close.
"I apologise, Miss Rose…" They all heard the boy mutter strangely.
They watched as Ruby's arms folded around him and clutched him hard.
"I can't change what you personally remember, but here we have changed the past. Miss Poledina is not offline forever. Miss Nikos is not harmed in a way you remember. The version of you here in this universe does not know that pain. And hopefully, they never will." Oscar told her sagely.
Ruby pulled back to wipe her tears and nod.
His words made her remember where they had found themselves, so she straightened up and looked around the room to see the devastated eyes of her two teams.
"There is more to say…" Oscar reminded her gently.
Ruby nodded and breathed in unevenly.
"I'm… not quite sure of the timeframe between me freezing the Grimm Dragon, and when I woke back up in Patch." She started uncertainly. "But with the Tower smashed into smithereens, the entire communication system went down with it. As I'm sure it's like right now." Ruby watched as all the adults around her silently nodded.
"Yang wasn't in a very good place at the time, and she wouldn't be for a while," Ruby recalled, making Yang flinch. "Weiss was forcibly taken back home by her father," Weiss flinched. "Blake fled to Menagerie, fearing the whole situation was her fault." Ruby added.
Oscar notched his head thoughtfully. "Do you believe this?" He asked, his tone curious.
Ruby who by now had her head resting on her upturned splayed hand shook her head. "It would be silly to blame Blake for the actions of another. It was not as if Blake had ordered Taurus to strike them both down. It is not her fault that he decided to take his anger out on her and Yang because of their past together. All for it, I'm proud that Blake had the will to see what was happening and quit the White Fang in the first place when she had enough sense the faction had changed for the worse, and she had enough courage to face him again. To face all of us again and apologise." Ruby said easily.
Blake was the first to react, standing up fast. "How can you say that!" She near yelled.
Ruby blinked and lifted her head off her hand to look at her. "You were three seconds faster than before," Ruby remarked. "And before you pull the whole: I should have done more! bull-crap on me, know that I've met Taurus, I've fought him, I know he's a master manipulator and a devious tactician. But he's also a big bully because of it. You near on bolted when you saw I got nicked in the leg because of him. Yang had to hold you down, so you'd explain. Now, Yang doesn't have the extra strength here but damn it, I will make her sit on you again!" Ruby hissed righteously.
Everyone noted the small proud smile Oscar had, even if Ruby missed it.
Blake flinched at her words. "But why…?" She muttered, unable to understand the amount of word praise thrown at her from Ruby.
"Because you've protected us in times that have mattered. You told me you protected Yang after her arm was cut off, with your own self! Taurus wasn't averse to attempting to slice your head off when you so happened to get in the way of his katana." Ruby added.
Both Blake and Yang flinched in reminder.
"You returned when it mattered, when you chose to leave Menagerie with Sun, consented to fight by my side once you met up with us, alongside Jaune, Nora and Ren. You explained and apologised for leaving, while we were getting shot at, mind you. I've never blamed you. Yang never did, either. Though she was pissed at you for leaving. She was never pissed that you came back." Ruby told her truthfully.
"Sun was with her?" Yang asked.
Ruby nodded. "Blake described it as more of a stalking with good intentions thing." She told her.
Blake snorted. "Of course he did…" She muttered, easily understanding her own words being tossed out from Ruby.
"So, Blake came back. How about before that? You didn't say what happened between then and you leaving Patch." Oscar bit out, clearly frustrated that his Ruby had gone off on a tangent.
Ruby blinked at him in surprise. "Sorry!" She remarked. "I left Patch once I was stable enough with Jaune, Nora and Ren. We headed towards Haven. We had info that the enemy was there." Ruby told them.
It jolted those who were mentioned and made the adults mentally markdown to talk to Lionheart when they could get a message to him safely.
Weiss was frowning. "They just up and went with you? No-one stopped you?" Weiss asked, clearly confused.
Ruby shrugged then nodded. "I wanted to help. And to help, I needed to go to Haven. I couldn't have very well dragged Yang along. She wouldn't leave her room. So, I asked Jaune if he wanted to come along, and he consented. Nora and Ren as well." Ruby told them, then thought of something else and snorted. "We were so unprepared…" She muttered; her tone seeped in self-depreciation.
Alarm jolted through more than just Oscar.
"What? Why? Why do you say that?" Oscar asked quickly in a panic.
Ruby raised an eyebrow at him.
"You do realise I grew up on Patch, right? As in, on an island? Do you think I had any idea how long it would take to get to Haven from Patch? With the entire system down?!" Ruby asked.
Oscar looked pale. "You…You walked…?" He asked faintly.
Ruby nodded. "Don't worry, Yang scolded me for it already." Ruby told him brightly.
Oscar then looked disgruntled. "I'm about to scold you now!" He hissed.
"To be fair!" Ruby waved her hands around defensively. "We were going to places known to have airships. We just had to get there. But because of the blackout, even when we got there: there was no transport in those areas. All airships were for military use only. And even then, they weren't safe. Even the boats weren't. Blake told me she ran into a huge sea dragon!" Ruby said.
She then paused and frowned then looked to Oscar calculative. "Though, Oscar, you got to Mistral by train, didn't you?" Ruby trailed off.
Oscar just groaned, he slammed his head onto the wooden tabletop and waved her on to continue.
Ruby giggled at his antics but left him be.
"On our way to Haven, we helped villages as we went along, trading Huntsmen work for house and board, or restocking and smithy." Ruby said, faintly recalling her memories, and a nod to the modified broadsword still glinting in the sun.
"Jaune had his changed with what was left of Miló and Akoúo̱," Ruby added, aware of the flinches Jaune and Pyrrha made. "As I said previously, and you freaked out over, we did go through Oniyuri. Where Tyrian found us. He wanted to bring me back to Salem alive. That was when Qrow appeared out of freaking nowhere and took the hit! He ended up being poisoned because of it, but I managed to cut off Tyrian's stinger which made him flee." Ruby told.
Qrow flinched.
Oscar huffed and crossed his arms. "I'm still annoyed I wasn't told this previously." Oscar stated.
Ruby looked to him nervously, hearing the tone change slightly, and knowing she was seeing less Oscar and more Ozpin through him.
"I swear I thought Uncle Qrow would have told you! Seeing as you went to him first to get your cane back!" Ruby said in frantic panic, fearful he would be angry with her.
Oscar looked to her in clear confusion. "Breathe, Miss Ruby Rose. I am not angry with you." He told her calmly.
His words allowed her to breathe in several times so she could try and attempt to calm down.
Once she had her breathing under control, she shook her head.
"Qrow was poisoned, but he was able to tell us about who Salem was, the Maidens, and the old religions that Oz had told him about." She paused when she saw that her teams looked confused, aside from Pyrrha who only now looked a little confused.
Ruby looked to Ozpin and Qrow. "You guys need to be the judge on whether or not you tell them this time around. Jaune got pissed at Qrow, still might do, so brace yourselves for that can of worms." Ruby warned.
Jaune looked at her. "What? Why?" He asked insistently.
Ruby just shrugged and motioned Qrow and Ozpin with her thumb. "Their choice, not mine." She reminded.
Ozpin regarded her and she shrugged again. "We will tell them later." He said to her.
Ruby immediately snorted when she felt Oscar flinch next to her.
"…So, after Oniyuri, Uncle Qrow just kept getting worse, until he wasn't even conscious half the time, and we had to carry him. And since the stretcher wouldn't make it up the mountains, we had to split up to see if we could get help. Ren and Nora took the path through the mountains to find help. While Jaune stayed with me to take the flatter road through Kuroyuri." Ruby explained and stalled knowingly to let Ren and Nora flinch at the locations she talked about, and she gave them both apologetic looks.
"Kuroyuri?" Weiss asked seeing as no one else would.
"…It was a village near Mistral…" Ruby told her awkwardly.
They all caught on to her use of the word was.
"However, us being there woke up the Grimm hoarding those lands. …I think Ren called it the Nuckelavee…? If I said it wrong, I apologise, I was too busy trying to shoot it." Ruby remarked.
Oscar turned to stare at her, in what almost looked like awe. "You took on that thing!?" He asked, sounding incredulous, he then noted the very confused faces around him. "It's a Grimm that is a monstrosity cross between a horse that has its rider growing out of it. And everyone's version of what hell's nightmares might look like." He explained.
Ruby nodded and bounced in her seat. "Yeah! And we beat it too!" She crowed happily.
"Uh, how?!" Oscar was faster than anyone else in screeching.
Ruby conceded. "It was hit and miss for a while. Because it went after Qrow and everything Jaune suggested we do, kinda didn't work, or backfired against us, since it would only change its attack pattern as soon as we thought we had it locked down. And with how heavily affected Ren and Nora were at the time. But we did manage to slam it down by taking out its stupid stretchy arms. Ren beheaded it with a dagger." Ruby informed, trying to give out information, while also being polite about the shared history Ren and Nora had with it.
It was not a story for her to tell for them.
Ruby took a second to look across to them and noted that they were all staring at her in awe.
"It was then the ships came from Mistral and took us there. Qrow got better. And then I met a boy who near on shouted my eye colour at me." Ruby continued, snickering at the boy next to her.
Oscar suddenly glared at her. "That was one time, damn it!" Oscar hissed back.
Ruby burst out laughing. "Once was enough! I cracked up so hard afterwards!" She said through her mirth.
Oscar soon crossed his arms and ignored that she pounded on the table as she laughed. "You're not helping." He hissed to himself as he pouted.
Qrow was the first to start waving his hands in confusion. "Okay! So, hold up!" He burst out. "We're actually saying this pipsqueak here, is actually Oz?" He asked, actually pointing to Oscar.
Oscar's nose immediately scrunched up. "I should throw my cane at you!" He hissed, then looked to the side as if hearing something no one else could. "Stop laughing!" He hissed to himself.
Ruby let out a snort but then shrugged. "You were the one that kinda gave him Oz's cane in the first place." Ruby told him.
Oscar, by now, was crossing his arms again. "I asked for it back, damn it." He pouted.
Ruby looked to him with a frown of surprise. "You're acting like a kid." She mentioned.
Oscar looked at her. "Uh, head's up, I am a kid?" He asked, completely confounded why she brought his age up.
Ruby then looked sheepish. "…Right. I forget sometimes…" She muttered.
Oscar just groaned at her and gently whacked her shoulder with the hilt of his cane.
Ruby cried out in surprise. "You just hit me with the oldest weapon in existence!" She yelped.
"And I'll do it again, too!" Oscar scolded playfully as he raised the hilt of Memoria Pertuli scoldingly as he ignored the old Wizard laughing in his head.
Ruby, by now got he was playing, yelped, and raced up into the rafters, trailing rose petals in her wake.
Everyone found themselves looking upwards to where Ruby clung, glaring down at Oscar.
Oscar just snorted as he rolled his eyes. "Get back down here, you're not finished!" He said up to her loudly.
She widely shook her head. "No more hitting me with ancient weapons!" She yelled back.
Oscar just shrugged. "No more hitting. Get your butt down here, Rubrum, I'm not explaining this by myself." He told her.
Ruby just nodded happily, then she was suddenly reappearing next to him in a second flat in a haze of red petals.
"…You've gotten faster…" Weiss muttered.
Ruby looked to her old teammate and looked proud at this fact.
"Okay, so, Yang and Blake followed you up to Haven. What about the future me?" Weiss asked, curious to know why she had been left out.
They all watched as Oscar stalled for some reason, then lent up to Ruby and whispered something to her that they didn't hear, but Ruby turned to him and nodded.
"She is, currently." She replied.
"Oh…" Oscar responded, sounding a little miffed. "Will she understand?" He asked.
Ruby shrugged. "I'll explain as much as I know!" Ruby said merrily.
She then looked back to Weiss. "Weiss did come back, as well. She told me as we fought invading Grimm together that she had to pay her way out of Atlas, once she fled her father." Ruby started.
Yang and Blake both stood up in surprise, nearly toppling over the table, making several of the other children yelp in surprise and race to make sure they weren't hit by a flying wooden table.
"She did what!" They both yelled in surprise.
Ruby nodded, not at all phased by their behaviour. "She did." She quipped.
Yang threw up her arms. "Woohoo! Go Weiss!" Yang celebrated.
Weiss glared at her teammates. "Why is this a good thing!" She said in a panic, then turned to Elder-Ruby. "Why did that happen!" She insisted.
Ruby finally went back to leaning against her palm again, looking a little tired. "Hmm." She voiced thoughtfully. "From what I managed to gather, Weiss was under house arrest for speaking out against her father, and about how Atlas had become too self-concerned." Her looked hardened.
"Your father isn't a very nice man, Weiss." She quipped, ignoring Oscar's scoff to her side. "I've never met him, and I don't want to. He literally threw her away into her room, grounding her and lied to the media of Atlas about her whereabouts. Stating she was still highly affected by the Fall of Beacon, and hereby declares herself to step down from the Schnee name until such a time wounds heal." She herself then scoffed.
"Which basically in Dad Speak means that Weiss is grounded until I can control her. I'll punch him for you if I ever see him. Your brother too, I swear." Ruby intoned angrily.
The entire place went silent.
Weiss suddenly looked lost.
"That…That would mean I would be homeless. Nameless…" Weiss muttered, lost.
"When I personally met you, you just referred to yourself as Weiss. You corrected me when I called you by your last name." Oscar told her, putting forth his own commentary.
Weiss frowned at his wording. "Okay, personally? Previously?" She asked, looking around, seeing she wasn't the only one confused and looked back to Oscar. "This is getting confusing. Look, I've never seen you before in my life." Weiss told him.
Oscar suddenly blinked and turned to Ruby as his shoulder's slumped. "I did it again." He pouted sadly.
The teachers remained silent in their curiosity.
While Ozpin watched on to see how they would proceed, if they would try and explain.
Ruby looked sympathetic. "It might be easier…?" Ruby trailed off, looking to Ozpin, who gave out a small curious shrug. And she felt her shoulders slump a little in disappointment. "Ugh. You're no help…" She muttered.
Oscar pointed to Ozpin. "See! You see?!" He near screeched indignantly. "That's what I have to deal with! On a daily basis!" Oscar yelled, as if on pain of death.
Ruby snorted indignantly at him.
When neither version of Ozpin made no move to help them, Oscar groaned.
"Ugh! Fine! Fine! I can't exactly show you at the moment, but I can still, hopefully, retell it…" He muttered to himself.
He glared at his Ruby when she giggled at him.
"See. Um. In our…" Oscar awkwardly started and motioned to himself and his time-travelling companion. "…Timeline. Ozpin was taken out by Cinder…" Oscar started, trying not to flinch at how awkward he knew he was being.
Everyone nodded since Ruby had explained that in passing before.
"So, because of that. …Everything that made him up, was transferred to me. All his memories. All he has ever done. All he ever was…" He moved to thumb his forehead. "All here." He told them.
Apart from his Ruby, they all stared at him with varying emotions and expressions.
"I can't begin to tell you how weird it is to see him here, and hear him, but when I look at him, he's not the one speaking." Oscar's mutter echoed around them.
It was one contributing factor as to why Ozpin had tried to not be as vocal around Oscar, could he help it. As he himself would be as confused and as frustrated as Oscar was if he were ever to meet a past version of himself.
"So…when I say I've seen you previously, or have memories of the current you, they're Oz's memories and feelings, and when I say personally, I am referring to when I — the boy you see in front of you — met whoever I'm talking about for the first time. It is why I knew of Ruby but couldn't get out more than bursting out: "Silver Eyes! You're the Silver Eyes!" when I first met her. It just kinda bursts out of me, and all I end up doing is apologising for it." Oscar said.
"It's beyond weird and confusing when you first meet Oscar, especially if you knew Ozpin before him…" Ruby openly commented, mainly because she could, and she privately enjoyed seeing Oscar squirm as he failed to explain things.
"Because he will end up calling you whatever Ozpin called you, and attempt to change the moniker once he realises, he's called you whatever Ozpin called you, or referred to you by your largest trait that comes to his mind first from Oz, and you appropriately freak because you don't know this kid." Ruby giggled when Oscar hid his head behind his arms against the table.
"Like with me, it was my eyes, seeing as it was the first thing Ozpin noticed, it wasn't a stretch it was the first thing Oscar noticed. Oscar backtracks fast, apologises, and tries to figure out what to call you from therein, he doesn't always get it right, doesn't always switch easily. But he tries. It sometimes ends up being a mesh of both new and old." Ruby commented, patting Oscar's back when she heard his embarrassed whine.
Ruby just shrugged. "I've been around Oscar for a year already, maybe longer. I've trained with him, even fought beside him. And I've gotten used to him calling me several names." Ruby added, running her hands through Oscar's hair absentmindedly when she saw his ears turn red from her speaking about him.
It was only because he had several names for her and whichever name that at the time, he chose to call her, told her what his emotional state was. It all depended on which he called her. And told her straight away who exactly was at the forefront and who was speaking to her.
He rarely ever called her by her birth name since he seemed to use that when he was fearful for her life.
Sometimes he even called her a word she didn't understand, and that was the only one she couldn't figure out what he was feeling at the time. But it was a mix of fear, regret, and pained acceptance that she completely hated whenever it burst out of him.
Ruby turned to Ironwood. "It's why he calls you James, because Ozpin called you that. It's how he knew who you were at Beacon." Ruby remarked. "He'll refer to anyone by the name Ozpin gave them at first." She added.
While she liked seeing him squirm, this conversation, her defence had gone on long enough. She knew how they were all confused when they first met each other.
It wasn't something she wanted Oscar to have to repeat, could she help it. And she wanted to help in any capacity that she could.
If she could explain something better than Oscar, then Ozpin could, then she would.
She knew from experience that Oscar, that Ozpin as well wasn't very good at explaining things in simpler terms. Or at all.
Oscar turned his head in his arms to look at her.
"I apologise. It's getting harder to sort out who I know personally…" Oscar apologised.
Ruby looked to him as her nose scrunched up. "But it's not your fault?" She asked.
Oscar sat back up and shook his head. "Maybe not, but it feels like it is." He said sorrowfully. "I know when Qrow looks at me and tries to see Oz through me. I can't switch over much anymore. I can't help him when he's sad and wants to talk to Oz directly. He lost him. And I can't replace him for him." Oscar said painfully.
Qrow wasn't the only one to flinch painfully at his words.
Ruby suddenly looked panicked. "Sorry…If…If I ever made you feel like that…" She ended awkwardly.
Oscar looked to her with a sudden smile. "You are forgiven, Miss Ruby Rose. You've never done it." He told her. "I can't replace him, and he apologises for leaving again." He added.
Ruby just nodded awkwardly, knowing that Oscar was relaying an echo, and patted his head uncomfortably.
/
/
Their time using the hall was suddenly over when refugees from Vale started pouring in, wanting to eat something for breakfast.
Seeing that they had been there at least an hour, most were amazed that they had talked this long without interruption previously.
Ruby looked sheepish and trotted off to collect her borrowed Crocea Mors that was still stabbed into the dirt, blocking the refugee's path to food. She fixed the weapon out of the dirt and onto her back above Crescent Rose.
By the time she flitted back up to Oscar's side, he noticed her critical look at him.
"What's up?" He asked as they made their way outside the hall.
Ruby shrugged. "I need to make sure you practice enough that you don't rely on remembering what Oz did to move, or your legs giving out. Since you actually suck at this, and Oz's memories don't help you one bit." Ruby rambled out, faster as she spoke once she realised, she was actually rambling. "And if you've forgotten, I'm one up on you now since I learnt how to use Jaune's weapon and hand-to-hand!" She reminded cheekily because she could gloat.
It was her turn now since Oscar had learnt hand-to-hand, failed in learning his own, and fluked on working hers in a pinch when they were thrown out of the house by an explosion. She had yet to see if he could master her weapon, or if it was a onetime thing.
Oscar blinked at her. "Shouldn't we help RWBY and JNPR as well?" He asked curiously as he ignored everyone eavesdropping on them.
Ruby looked curiously thoughtful and hummed. "True. But they can get goodish by themselves. Yang might need Dad; I'm not getting whacked six ways to next week. You, on the other hand, need my help. We need to be ready in case we get thrown back to where we were before we came here. I swung Jaune's sword at that Maiden for a reason, damn it!" Ruby reminded.
Oscar just shrugged. "I'm not adverse, just making sure." He told her, privately snickering at the many confused, and alarmed looks everyone around him had.
Ozpin's expression was exceptionally hilarious, and he could think that and get scolded for it.
It was well worth it.
Ruby noticed Qrow, and him gesturing to Oscar, and paled. "I think you have a visitor." She muttered to him, gesturing behind him, and then was off like a shot.
Oscar turned around and paled as she had, seeing not just Qrow, but Glynda, Ironwood and Ozpin coming up to him. "You have fed me to the wolves." He muttered.
He could hear his Ozpin snickering at him.
He could stop that whenever he liked.
He then zeroed in on the Alive Ozpin's smirk.
Yep. Wolves. Fed to.
He was so screwed.
They just ended up standing around him awkwardly as he shuffled his feet while trying not to shout at his Ozpin to stop laughing.
"…You seem to rely a lot on Ruby." Qrow was first to spit out.
Oscar, for all his worth, violently flinched. "…Yeah. Um. I probably shouldn't…?" He sounded confused. "But she helps ground me. I'm…pretty sure she's a friend?" He ended off trailing was a confused frown.
The adults all frowned.
"Why wouldn't you know if she was your friend or not?" Glynda asked.
Oscar flinched noticeably.
Silver-eyed or not, there was like a billion other factors to compete with why he had no idea if she thought of him as a friend or not.
"Um. Because I've not had actual friends before? I mean—I know Oz had friends, not quite sure if I should count them as mine. …And…And Miss Rose knew Oz first, so…" Oscar stumbled, getting more and more confused.
He might be Ozpin's successor, but that didn't mean he wasn't awkward in every other aspect. In just about everything else he tried to do.
Growing up on a farm doesn't exactly scream social conductivity! in any terms.
He knew by now he had confused them all as well.
"Are you going to be alright? With your changing things like this, this won't happen to you so soon." Ozpin reminded.
Oscar blinked at him as he immediately cocked his head to one side to listen, like he usually did whenever his Ozpin talked to him.
Then looked a little sheepish when he realised which was talking to him.
"I did make a good farmhand; you were the one to point out it wasn't the thing I wanted to do all my life. If it hadn't been for you, I wouldn't have known that then." Oscar told him truthfully.
"What about Miss Rose? You won't know her." Ironwood questioned curiously.
They all watched as Oscar automatically turned to search for her, only calming down when he found her off to the side, looking up to the sky reminiscently. He mentally flinched when he recalled another of his Roses who used to do the same thing.
He looked back to them and shrugged helplessly.
"I will miss whatever days I won't have with her because of this. But Ozpin knew her, so I'll still know her regardless." He said, with a little smile. "Besides, I … would rather her not cry like that ever again in my lifetime. If the price for it is that of my memories with her, then I'll accept it." He told them.
They all stared at him with varying degrees of disbelief.
"Are you sure you are taking her feelings into account?" Glynda asked gently.
Oscar cocked his head, but still had that small sad smile lingering. "She doesn't need me." He said softly.
Qrow was the one to loudly snort, causing Oscar to look at him in confusion. "That's a load of bullshit! And you should know it!" He cried. "You might not understand, or want to understand that you are friends with her. But she's friends with you." Qrow hissed. "And that's not based on whether or not she knew Oz before you. She sees you as a friend? She'll protect you as much. She'll miss you as much." Qrow gripped.
Oscar blinked at him, then found Ruby again, only to watch her a little as she interacted with her younger self, talking about something that caused her to smile.
They all watched as the boy in front of them started to frown.
You'll need to make sure Miss Rose understands that changing my being alive affects you. She needs to understand that because of this, she will, in most likelihood, never know you until the Ozpin aside her still, dies once more.
Oscar flinched at what Ozpin wasn't saying. "…I don't look forward to reminding her, if she doesn't understand already…" Oscar replied, and to others, seemingly to himself. But his tone was full of pain.
He then looked to the adults surrounding him.
They all looked confused.
"If you don't need me further, I need to go talk to Miss Ruby." He told them.
And when they didn't say otherwise, he nodded and made his way towards Ruby.
"What was that about?" Qrow asked, stumped, and confused about the sudden 180° the kid did in mere seconds. Going from unsure to making his mind up midway.
"I believe he's putting her feelings first." Ozpin reiterated his own thinking. "…They've probably only just realised that Miss Rose's memories will change, aside from their own." He added.
Qrow scoffed. "So, it suddenly matters because it's her memories that get changed?" Qrow then snorted. "That totally makes sense, Oz." He added in slight.
Ozpin watched.
"Try and look at it from his perspective. Everyone he's ever met since his Oz died, has known him first. He's bound to see himself in second hand." Ozpin voiced, making them flinch.
Oz knew he had.
"He'll naturally question everyone's ties to him. He'll naturally be unsure of any ties with people who knew his predecessor." Ozpin reiterated softly.
It's why it was so much easier when there was no one left behind from one cycle to another.
But he was content to watch from afar in silence.
/
/
Oscar could remember the last time he felt this nervous: It would have been over a year or so ago. When Oz told him to approach the back of a man at a bar in that loud voice of his that he doesn't have anymore.
Maybe it was just this family in general, that made him so nervous of their respective reactions. Of what it would do to him if their reactions to him were negative.
The younger Ruby saw him first, and quickly paused in whatever she was saying to silently stare at him in awe. For what her awe was for, how he had garnered it in the first place, he wasn't sure.
Her going quiet made his Ruby turn around, and once she saw him, burst out into a happier smile.
"Oscar!" She greeted happily, happy to see him again after bolting on him. "Finished with the meeting?" She questioned, curious to know whether Oscar had actually talked or wormed his way out of another meeting.
Oscar nodded, and shifted nervously.
Ruby immediately picked up on it, and it caused her to falter nervously, and her smile to falter.
"…Are you okay…?" She asked, her tone slowly flooding in concern.
Oscar frowned. "I'm not sure how…?" He struggled knowing he needed to tell her but didn't want to cause her pain at the same time.
The two girls looked to each other in the same concern.
"It's okay!" The younger was quicker to try and placate. "We'll wait! Get it out!" She cheered.
Oscar flinched, making them realise her approach hadn't worked.
Elder-Ruby then immediately bent down a little to meet his height and clasped his shoulder in worry.
"What's wrong?" She started, her tone going steely. "What could be so wrong to warrant such an expression from you? Who died?" She asked, actually looking around to see if she had missed something.
It had been that way for so long, that any bad news was that someone had died, it was her automatic go-to for anything bad. Who had died this time? Who did she need to bury? Who did she need to say goodbye to this time?
Stranger things had happened then for someone to likely die in the five minutes she had spent staring up at the sky.
She knew Oscar after all.
During how much time she spent making sure the kid didn't go and die herself, she got down pat to a single word out of his mouth, to know which was speaking, which was at the forefront, which was speaking to her directly or indirectly.
She'd have Qrow know that thanks muchly. She took her mission with vigour because she was damned if he died under her watch.
Oscar shook his head. "Opposite, Miss Rose." He muttered.
And she immediately knew she was talking to an echo more than the boy she saw directly in front of her.
"Do—Do you understand that because Oz is still alive…?" He stalled and flinched painfully.
His Ruby stared at him for a full minute, he could see the gears in her head turn, because she froze with stark realisation dawning over her face that made her eyes grow wide.
"I won't know you…" She muttered, her tone was a mesh of several emotions, so many overlapping, Oscar couldn't pin down any outside rising terror, alarm, and pain.
The younger Ruby turned to her elder. "I'm sorry, what?" She asked in rising confusion.
She looked from her then back to the boy that she'd like to be friends with, yet not knowing how to extend that olive branch exactly.
It was nice to see she could become that close with someone outside of her family.
Elder-Ruby just sighed as her shoulders slumped. "It's because Oz died early that I even met Oscar. Because we've changed that, you won't meet him when I did." She scrunched her nose up. "He won't need to fight so soon; he won't know who he will be until Professor Ozpin passes away." Her breath seemed to hitch out of her unevenly. "I won't have all those conversations with him… I won't have all those spars… All those jokes… Those campfires…" She trailed off, with a sob wrenching out of her unexpectedly.
No one was really as startled as she was when tears started to run down her face.
Oscar blinked in surprise. "Ruby…" He tried.
Whatever else he was going to say, died in his mouth, silenced like the rest of his mind when she loudly sobbed and keeled over, holding herself up as she crossed her arms around herself.
"I won't know you!" She cried out in a heavy pain that it made her stumble the few small steps towards Oscar to latch onto his shirt, to hold him close.
Ruby watched as her elder cried out painfully, holding the smaller boy in such a tight embrace, her pain emulating across his face, and reaching back to her.
It wasn't nice to know that there was a friend she could know, but had a higher chance of never meeting, because of a path she never took.
She had no wish for Ozpin to die, just so she could meet Oscar.
…But it was painful to know there would be so many moments in shifted time she would ultimately lose that would be that powerful, enough to cry over.
It was a strange thing, to mourn a friend you never met, but could have, if circumstances were different, if another road had been taken.
But Ruby found herself doing so in silence as she was on with the knowledge, she had never cried that hard over anything in her life, as much as her elder did as she clung to Oscar as much as she could.
Oscar by now had buried his face into her hair, as if to comfort himself in that split moment, to grieve over the same thing, but be thankful at the same time that they were still there, and that he could still hold her.
Elder-Ruby only started to quieten when she suddenly slumped more into the boy.
Oscar moved to see that she had fallen unconscious, then looked to the other Ruby.
"I may need your help in moving her." Oscar asked her.
Ruby nodded silently and came in closer to help move her legs so that Oscar could carry her.
They weren't able to move her far, seeing as she had somehow latched onto Oscar's shirt, fisting the black material between both her hands hard enough neither of them could get her to loosen her grip.
But they found a nearby bench where she could lie down, even if she were still half on top of Oscar, he didn't need to keep her weight suspended, and he could sit down next to her gently.
/
/
Seeing that it had been quiet for some time, Yang felt like it was safer to come up to her sister, who by now was silently drowning in muted confusion.
"Hey, sis. Why was she crying before? Never heard someone could cry so much they cried themselves to sleep!" Yang admitted, her tone concerned for her sister that was now older than her, and more jaded than she could ever think Ruby could be.
Ruby just nodded as she watched on. She could understand mourning for something she never had. It was surprisingly the same pain for as mourning for something lost before its time.
"It's a little sad…" She muttered.
Yang just looked to her and sided her head. "Huh?" She questioned for her sister to elaborate.
Ruby looked to her. "I think because of what they changed, because Ozpin is alive. …She recognised she wouldn't know Oscar when she did." Ruby tried to explain.
Yang frowned in confusion. "But that makes no sense? Won't, when they get sent back, nothing changes for them because this didn't happen for them?" Yang questioned in confusion.
Ruby just shook her head a little. "That doesn't change the fact that there is a universe that she created that there is a friend that she will never meet. And that to me, sounds awful." Ruby replied sadly.
Yang suddenly understood a little better.
She knew her sister: Ruby made friends for life, with almost everyone she met, even if the person never knew, or held the same regard to Ruby, as she did for them.
No wonder she had cried as if she had been at a funeral. In some weird, twisted way, she had been. Just with the person, she had sentenced to darkness, trying to comfort her.
In a weird twist of irony, Yang understood mourning someone who was still alive, yet not in your life. Mourning the time passing that was spent apart.
She could sympathise with her sister crying her heart out for that.
Yang looked to her sister critically and realised she understood her elder's feeling more than she did.
"…Well, even if it's gonna be painful to never meet him again, why not make some memories now? That way it might not be so hard to say goodbye when they need to go back to where they came from." Yang suggested.
Ruby just nodded.
Just because her immediate future was a different future then what her elder lived, and that might mean she couldn't meet Oscar when her elder did … it didn't stop her now, and until he needed to leave to, make as many memorable memories with the boy whose fond expression stayed the same and unchanged whether which Ruby he was looking at, she realised.
Even though she had only known him for one day, she knew she already liked him.
Would consider him a friend in a heartbeat.
Seeing her elder cry over her knowledge knowing she would miss out on so many fond memories, made her want all the more to know him more.
Ruby made up her mind that she would take as much time as she could spare, to talk to him, to get to know him as much as she could, with whatever time they had left in her timeline.
There was such a difference between the boy who still held her elder close, and the man she respected as her headmaster, that it came as no surprise she jolted every time she remembered they were linked somehow.
She wanted to be friends with Oscar, for as long, or for as little, time remaining.
/
/
Ruby looked around and found that her sister had long deserted her.
She was left alone with Oscar for the time being.
That fond expression was back, as he made sure to maneuverer her elder's tattered cloak around her in lieu of a blanket.
"Has she ever done that before?" Ruby asked, probably way too curious for her own good.
When he looked to her, she noted his expression didn't change, even when he shook his head gently, making sure he didn't jerk her.
"No, and I'm rather glad she hasn't. It felt horrible. I don't want to be the cause of her crying, ever again. I've managed to make her cry, twice in one day. A record I never wanted to hold." He told her softly.
Ruby bounded on her toes. "You must be good friends." She said quietly, and a little in grief.
Oscar blinked. "Truthfully?" He asked, and she nodded. "I hadn't thought she would consider me her friend—" He paused seeing her expression morph from polite to incredulous, so much he gave out a puff of laughter. "Yeah. Never making that mistake again. In my defence, I've never had friends before she came burrowing into my life. …As well, everyone I know knew Oz, and I'm a little unsure who they see me as…" Oscar told her.
Ruby's nose scrunched up. "Damn!" She cursed under her breath, as if she just remembered something.
Oscar blinked at her in surprise. "What's wrong? Are you hurt?" He asked in concern.
Ruby then looked a little ashamed, her hand going behind her head in her embarrassment. "I, uh… I totally forgot about Professor Ozpin being in your head…" Ruby mumbled out in admittance.
Oscar stared at her. "…It's normally the first thing people actually remember about me." He told her.
Ruby shook her head widely. As she bounded up and down on her feet. "Nope! Not me! Totally forgot! I just see you. And I don't even know how old you are, but I kinda don't think that matters? Sometimes you act older, do you have an older sibling, maybe? I get told I act older than my age a lot. And when I say I grew up with Yang, they look as if they understand…" Ruby babbled, faster and faster.
Oscar stared at her in amazement.
Suddenly, the comment Ruby had made about forgetting about Ozpin, forgetting about his age so many times before, made more sense.
He didn't think he could be more awed by Ruby Rose. But there she went again, amazing him once more.
He just ended up chuckling softly. "I guess you can kinda say Oz is my older brother in those terms." This made Ruby giggle. "As for the age thing, it's something you forget a lot, but again, I'm not much younger than you." Oscar reminded.
Ruby blinked at that information, finally(!), someone younger than herself!
…Not that he acted like it much, though. Too much like her in that respect, she could assume.
Especially with Professor Ozpin in his head.
But, in the end, it just caused her to smile happily at him. "I would very much like to meet you again, Oscar. I have the feeling you'd be a particularly important friend to me." She admitted.
Oscar couldn't help the surprised gasp that tore out of him without his consent.
Or the explosion of tears welling up in his eyes at her comment.
"That is—that doesn't…!" He tried, trying to form words around the sudden lump in his throat, he tried to clear his throat, but just ended up smiling at her helplessly.
"I would like that very much, Miss Ruby Rose." He told her finally.
His smile widened that little bit more when his words caused her to grin happily.