Once upon a time was a very little girl – not in age but in height – with pink and brown hair and just as mismatched eyes, who called herself Neopolitan. On this cold day of Christmas Eve, she was in the middle of the streets of Vale, trying to sell matches to get through the winter.
Normally, she would steal what money she needed to survive, her parents having left her only debts after their demise, but these recent days were too cold for her fingers to stick to anything, forcing her to attempt some kind of legal venture to earn her keep.
However, today she hadn't found a single customer, not one person in need of what she was selling. For several days now, she had been on this dry spell, and at this point she needed some kind of money to get enough energy to pass the night.
The sun set, and the evening turned to night, yet Neo was still without a dime. Shops closed left and right, while parents happily went back home to their children, ready to have a wonderful dinner with their family.
As the streets emptied, Neo had to admit that she wouldn't be able to sell any of her matches, and she set off to find a place to stay. With her one thing, her best friend, Roman, dead, she was alone and without a home.
She found a small grocery store not too far from where she was. She still needed to eat, and if she couldn't be stealthy enough to steal in broad daylight, breaking and entering was still within her capabilities, maybe.
Neo made her way to the back door, finding it locked. This wouldn't deter her, as she had taught herself how to pick those a long time before, but her hands were too frozen for the kind of precise work she needed to do, and her aura had long been drained from protecting her from the cold.
So she took out a match and lit it up, keeping it close to her hands in hope the small light would warm them enough for her to pick that lock.
The small, short flame did little to relax her fingers, but as she lit the second one she felt a warmth surrounding her. Now, she could see a campfire in front of her, and she huddled as close to it as she could to warm herself up.
As the second match died, however, the fire disappeared as well, so Neo lit up a third to make it come back. Now, a large feast filled her eyes, with a large turkey, foie gras, caviar and a Yule log, like she used to have every year when her parents were alive. Even with Roman, they used to steal enough groceries to make a similar feast.
In a flash, the match died and the feast disappeared, making Neo lit up a fourth without even a second thought. She then found herself under the Christmas tree, filled with presents all under her name. She fought off a weary smile, this would be the first Christmas she would truly spend alone.
At that thought, the tree left her sight and instead she saw someone. Someone she really, desperately, wanted to see. Roman.
Neo lit one match after the other, always making sure at least two would burn at the same time so the vision would never fail. She wanted, she needed to keep Roman alive as long as she could.
Another person soon entered her field of vision. It was her, but with only brown hair. It surprised her at first, but once the vision started trying to pull her away, she ignored it and went back to Roman. His smile, his cocky attitude that would have been annoying if in reality he was able to do anything without her.
Roman reach his hand towards her, slowly, and so did Neo to meet him halfway.
Then a third person arrived, and that one she didn't want to see. Ruby Rose, the one that had caused Roman's death, the kid that had caused them so much pain recently.
"You shouldn't stay here," she said, trying to grab Neo's hand, "You're going to freeze."
Neo hesitated, her eyes lingering on Roman for a moment, but as Ruby touched her she blew off the matches quickly. Even if it hurt to let Roman go, she didn't want to see the red-hooded girl at all.
However, as both Roman and the light faded, Ruby stayed. She didn't disappear, she wasn't an illusion, she was real.
"I know we're, like, the opposite of friends, but I don't want to let someone else die. Not when I can do something to help," said Ruby as she removed her cloak and put it around Neo's frigid body, "I'm on my way back home, do you want to come with me? For tonight at least."
Neo looked up, what anger she had for her turned to confusion as she stared at Ruby's open hand. She was a criminal, so why was she helping her? Why wasn't she acting like all those other cops and Huntsmen convinced they were an irredeemable cancer to society with no worth of their own? Had she… misjudged her?
"Will you let me help you?" asked Ruby, her hand still waiting for Neo to grab it.
Neo turned her head to her side, where her old self still was. Her fully brown haired self nudged her towards the open hand.
Turning back, Neo looked up at Ruby and finally grabbed her hand.
Behind her, her old self smiled, and disappeared.
Ruby Rose brought Neo on the last ferry towards Patch, the warmth of the inside of the boat enough to bring back some colors to the multicolored girl during the trip. Once on the island, the two girls took off, skipping through the woods as Ruby led them towards her home.
It didn't take them long to make the trip, the Xiao Long-Rose cottage being not too far from the coast, even if it was in the middle of the woods. They only made a short stop once because Ruby found some Hellebore flowers and wanted to pick them up.
Once they arrived, Ruby opened the door and Neo quickly rushed inside, still cold due to her clothes not being best suited for this kind of weather, even if her aura had regenerated a bit during the trip on the ferry.
"Nobody's home," said Ruby as she closed the door behind them, "Dad had to bring Yang to the hospital because she fell down the stairs with her aura deactivated. That's where I was coming back from, he told me he preferred if I got back on the last ferry and spent Christmas eve home, even if he and Yang wouldn't be there."
Neo turned her head, confused. How did that blonde manage to hurt herself like that? She was predictable, but she still was a decent fighter, not one that could be defeated by a mere set of stairs.
"Yang lost her arm," explained Ruby as she found a vase to put her flowers in, "And, well… she reflexively tried to grab the guardrail with her lost arm."
Neo chuckled, which earned her a glare from Ruby.
"Anyway, do you want to eat?" she asked, "We have food prepared for four and we're two short, so we've got plenty."
Neo quickly nodded until she realized something didn't fit in Ruby's explanation, but before she could ask what she meant by four there was a knock on the door.
"Oh, that must be my uncle Qrow," said Ruby, "Speaking of, do you think you have enough aura to disguise yourself? My uncle can react a bit fast sometimes, so I'd rather explains things to him before he tries to kill you."
Neo grinned and changed her appearance, becoming the black haired and green eyed girl she had been throughout Beacon.
"Not that one," amended Ruby, "Anyone on Cinder's team is a no go, it'll only make him more suspicious."
Neo rolled her eyes and changed again, this time going for brown hair and blue eyes, and having regular civilian clothing.
"Great, thanks!" said Ruby as they heard the knock again.
"I'm coming, I'm coming!" she shouted as she went to unlock the door, "Sheesh, uncle Qrow, you need to be a bit more…"
She was interrupted by a fireball hitting her in the stomach as soon as she opened the door. Taking a few step backs, Ruby saw that the one at the door wasn't her uncle Qrow, but a disfigured Cinder Fall.
"I knew I did the right thing by coming to this little island," taunted Cinder, "When I saw you picking those flowers I couldn't believe how good my luck just got."
Ruby unfolded the scythe she had strapped behind her back the entire time and faced Cinder, who had created another two balls of raging fire in her hands during that time.
"I will make you suffer for what you did to me back there!" shouted Cinder as she threw her attacks.
Ruby avoided both of her fireballs and swung her scythe, hitting Cinder on her right side and cutting off her arm. That it was cut off so easily surprised her, but that was nothing compared to her confusion when she saw that it was a grimm arm and not a human one.
"You little prick!" shouted Cinder in rage as her arm simply reattached itself, "Just stand still quietly and die like the worthless excuse for a Huntress you are!"
"I won't let you hurt anyone again!" shouted back Ruby, "You've taken far too many lives as it is!"
Two swords made from molting rock were created in Cinder's hands and she lashed out at Ruby who was struggling with her scythe inside the enclosed space of her house. In a few short moments, Cinder's swords hit Ruby on her chest and sent her flying into the wall, taking out her aura.
"Why are you doing this?" asked Ruby as she tried to stand back up, "What do you gain out of this?"
"The only thing I ever needed," answered Cinder as she was about to cut Ruby's head off for good, "The power to do what I want."
Her swords cut Ruby's head neatly off, who broke off in shattering glass. Cinder stood there in utter disbelief for a moment, long enough for Ruby to reappear behind her and slash at her hip, sending Cinder towards the kitchen's counter and taking out her aura as well.
When Cinder looked up, she saw Ruby facing her, while Neo was closely behind, her disguise dropped as her aura flickered off as well.
"Why are you helping her?" asked Cinder with a growl, "She killed your boss, didn't she?"
"I was only trying to stop Torchwick!" argued back Ruby, "It's a grimm that killed him!"
Neo's eyes lit up and she prepared herself to join in the fight, the questions she was asking herself ever since Ruby saved her from freezing to death finally having some beginning of an answer.
"Fine!" shouted Cinder, "If you want to help her, then you can die along with her!"
Her power started to surge, wind and flames surrounding her as she slowly started tearing the place to shreds. Neo and Ruby shared a scared look, not knowing how to get through the flaming tornado that she was creating.
"What the fuck is going on here?" asked a new voice.
Turning towards the source of it, they saw an unkempt man in his forties, with a dark red cape and wielding a broadsword.
"Uncle Qrow!" shouted Ruby in glee.
Cinder charged towards the newcomer, identifying him as the biggest threat and still believing she could take them on all at once thanks to her powers. However, she had skipped on her training under Salem to come here, and this meant she was nowhere near ready for it.
Qrow's sword swung so fast she didn't even see it or attempt to dodge it, and she was cut in half, the raging winds and flames dying down with her.
"Die…" she tried to say as the top half of her body weakly attempted some threatening gesture towards Qrow.
In another moment, she let out her last breath as the power within her took off to the skies.
"Sorry to have shown you that kiddo," said Qrow as he took away Cinder's corpse and cleaned off the remains, "Didn't actually expect her to take the hit."
"No problem, thanks for saving us uncle Qrow," said Ruby while Neo was getting behind her and tried to hide herself.
"Don't worry," said Qrow, "I'm not like the paranoid general, I can guess you were helping Ruby, so I won't harm you."
The sentence seemed to make Neo relax a bit, but she still stayed safely behind Ruby, for now.
"You two do have some explaining to do though," he added, "but that can be done over dinner, if there is any left after that disaster."
"It was already in the living room, so it's safe," explained Ruby, "We probably need to heat it up though."
"Let's hope the oven survived this then," joked Qrow.
The trio heated up the dinner, and Neo got a small taste of something she had never done before in all her years, helping preparing the festivities with people. When she was young her parents always had someone else do it for them, and Roman was the one doing the cooking on his own once they stole the food they wanted.
For once ever since Roman had died, she genuinely smiled as they all sat down around the table and the other two cheered.
"Merry Christmas!"