AN: Surprise! Well, for anyone who hasn't seen my profile update. In case you haven't, I'm now updating this story twice a week. Normally, this will be on Tuesdays and Fridays, but as previously stated, Friday this week is busy for me so it will be Thursday. Also this is the double upload I promised last chapter so enjoy two chapters!
Gordeau led Roman back to his room. Roman was confused, "Ok, Greeny, why did you need to talk to me? In case you didn't realize it, I have a lot of shit going on right now."
"That's why you're here, Roman," Gordeau sighed, "Nothing I say leaves this room, except to Neo, ok?"
Roman raised an eyebrow confused, "Okay, what's going on?"
"The real reason you all are here. After we watched the first part of this universe, I got a message from another watcher. They told me one of us has gone rouge, and is actually trying to devour your universe."
Roman's eyes went wide, "So, they're eating the universe? Why only tell me?"
Gordeau continued, "Because of what else the message said. When we save the universe, and we will, everyone's lives will reset to a certain time. You will retain all memories of the original timeline and your time here. The moment in question is the 'From Dust till Dawn' robbery."
"Wait," Roman stopped him, "We can change the future?! I can live?"
Gordeau nodded. Roman rolled with it but continued to ask, "So again, why tell only me? Red will be there too, and if she remembers I want to help her now we can stop everything together."
"Because everyone in that theater has a roll to play, Roman," Gordeau explained, "We will need everyone's help to save the universe, but everyone there has problems. Everyone has a lesson to learn and, according to his message, we can change what happened. But we have to get every person in that room to help. Including Cinder and Adam. That is why, until those two have a change of heart like you have, we can't tell anyone else. If they learn about it and haven't changed, well you can guess what they would do."
Roman nodded, "I understand, I'll let Neo know when she and I have our talk."
Gordeau nodded, "Thanks, Roman. Honestly, you agreed to help a lot sooner than I anticipated."
Roman shrugged, "Well, Red said she would have saved me. I like surviving so it really wasn't much of a choice." Roman finished as they went to rejoin the group.
Neo had no idea what to do. She didn't want to be with Cinder anymore. That was a death wish waiting to happen. She hadn't known about Salem or anything else, and all that was way above her paygrade. Roman wanted to help the Hunters. Neo liked this idea, but she also liked being free to do what she wanted. The question was, what did she want?
Her thoughts were interrupted when Roman and Gordeau found her. "Hey kid," Roman started, "we need to talk."
Roman proceeded to explain what Gordeau had told him in the bedroom.
"I can't believe it," Neo whispered, "You're going to be alive again?"
Roman laughed, "That's what the man said! It's hard for me to process too, but I think we can work with this. But the question becomes, what do you want to do?"
Neo blinked for a few seconds before responding, "Well, if we're going back that technically makes you my boss again, so what I want doesn't matter."
Roman shook his head, "You said I'm your father figure, right? Well, I think of you like the daughter I never had. And you're nineteen now, seventeen if we go back. I think you can make your own decisions."
Neo was, ironically, dumbstruck. Roman stood up, "I'm going to help Red and the others. If this Salem thing happens, none of us survive, let alone the two of us. You can choose whatever you want. Stick with Cinder, stay a criminal, or help me and Red save the world, and I know how strange that sounds coming from me. Just take your time and think about it."
Roman left and headed to the theater, leaving Neo alone with her thoughts again.
What she realized was that she needed to talk to someone else, but someone on the fence. Unfortunately, the only people she knew that weren't really on a side were the Devil Woman, and after the train incident she wasn't talking to her, and Bully Boy. There was no way he would talk to her. Then she caught a streak of brown hair headed for the theater.
Sun, Ilia, and Blake had gone to Sun's impromptu bed room to talk. Yang had started with them, but Weiss and Ruby had pulled her off to the side to talk separately. Blake was confused as to why she was here with two of her best friends.
Sun sighed before starting, "So, how long have you and Yang been a thing?"
Blake was even more puzzled now, "What do you mean? We've been partners since the second day at Beacon."
Sun shook his head, "No, Blake, that's not what I meant. How long have you been dating?"
"Dating?!" Blake asked in shock, "We're not dating! We just started being friends again. I left her, my best friend who already has abandonment issues, and you think we're dating?"
Ilia stood up, "Well, she obviously thinks something else is going on! She grabbed your hand early on and never let go until we separated the two of you!"
Blake sat stunned. She didn't know how to respond to that. Yang held my hand the whole time? Thinking back on it I guess she did. Blake got lost in her thoughts trying to figure out what was going on.
Ilia was still mad though, her entire body turned red as she yelled snapping Blake out of it, "I can't believe it! All this time I had convinced myself, 'Oh, she's just into boys, that's why she never noticed you.' Now I find out it wasn't that. Now I find it was just me. I wasn't good enough."
Ilia turned blue. Blake suddenly remembered what Adam had said on the cliff, "No! Ilia that's not it at all." Ilia's eyes widened as Blake continued, "I was just blinded by Adam and his passion."
Ilia looked confused. This was not the response she expected. Blake sighed and continued, "I told this to Sun once, but have you ever met someone and thought to yourself, 'They are the personification of this word?' To me, Ruby is purity, Weiss is defiance, and Yang," Blake stopped herself, the word she used to define Yang by still held true. Yang was still strength, but for some reason she felt like more than that now. She shook her head and continued, "Yang is more complicated now. I don't know what word I would use. Sun is earnest. At first, I like most in the White Fang, thought Adam was justice, then when we got together, I thought he was passion. And that passion blinded me to a lot of things, the horrors we committed, the lives we stole," She paused and looked Ilia in the eyes, "The people who actually cared."
Ilia went pink as Blake finished, "Then I realized Adam wasn't any of those things. He was spite. I realize this even more now, since he hunted me down for what we did at Haven. Yang and I killed him, but not before he said the same thing you just did!"
Ilia went wide-eyed again, Blake continued softly, "Ilia, don't let this turn you into spite too. Do you want to know what word I see when I see you?"
Ilia nodded, not knowing where Blake was going with this, "Passion."
The word came out and Ilia's world fell down. Blake thinks I'm passion? She thought that about Adam when they were together! Does that mean…
Her internal thoughts were stopped as Blake finished, "I see the passion to help the Faunus the right way, but I also see how passionately you care about me. Ilia, in another life, this could have worked."
Ilia couldn't believe it. It could have worked? Why can't it work now? She looked right at Blake and quietly whimpered, "So, why can't it work now?"
Blake didn't have a response. She tried and tried but she couldn't. She knew she didn't feel that way about Ilia now, but didn't have a good reason. The awkward silence filled the room for what seemed like eternity before Sun finally spoke up.
"Because of Yang." The two girls turned to him both with a look that said explain before we kill you. Sun held his hands up in surrender before continuing, "Look guys, it's fairly obvious to me that Blake is in love with Yang, even if she can't see it. Blake the word you used to define Yang by used to be strength, so why did that change." Sun and Ilia looked at Blake, but she couldn't come up with an answer so Sun continued, "Okay let's go further back, at Beacon when you almost killed yourself trying to find Torchwick, who pulled you out of that funk."
Ilia was shocked, but Blake calmly responded, "Yang did, but I spent the dance with you!"
Sun stood up, getting angry at how dense Blake was being, "Yeah, but you saved the first dance for Yang! Blake, you dancing with Yang was the happiest I've ever seen you. Up to that moment and since. I didn't see it at the time, because I was too focused on how beautiful you looked. Then the Fall happened. Adam stabbed you, he was going to kill you, and who was it that lost their arm trying to save you, huh Blake? It wasn't me; it wasn't Ilia; it was Yang! Yang lost a part of her body to save you!"
All this new information was a lot for Ilia to take in, "That's how she lost the arm? Trying to solo Adam?"
Sun nodded, "Yeah, she was kinda reckless back then, but I'm not done! I followed you to Menagerie after you ran because you needed a friend. I thought it was about the White Fang and getting revenge, but no, it was you running from Yang because you felt like it was your fault. We don't need to have this conversation again, Blake. We had it already after Ilia stabbed me."
"Hey," Ilia interrupted, "I said I was sorry about that."
Sun continued, "And I forgive you, but that's not the point. The point is during that conversation we both brought Yang up. And each time you almost teared up like you lost everything!"
Sun had finally finished and sat back down, "Today, I saw that bond with Yang for the first time, and I realized that I never had that with you. I love you, Blake. And I know you love me as family. But the way you look at Yang, that's love on a whole different level. I just wish you could see it, so you can be happy."
Ilia nodded, she hadn't known about the duo's past, but now that she did, she could see just how much they meant to each other, "I agree, if Yang makes you happy, go for it. I just want you to be happy."
Blake sniffled, to know that her friends cared enough about her to sacrifice their own happiness was too much for her, "But what about you? I don't want the two of you miserable because of me."
Sun shrugged, "Eh, there's plenty of people trying get with the leader of Team SSSN!" He exclaimed as he posed triumphantly. He deflated a bit before continuing, "I'm sure I can find someone out there." Blake nodded at Sun's response, but Ilia saw deeper. This really hurt Sun, but he was willing to try to let her go. She guessed she had better do the same.
Ilia sighed, "I don't know. You're the only person I've ever really had feelings for Blake. There was this one cute girl from an Atlas Academy when I was younger, but she turned out to be racist."
Blake thought for a moment before she had a solution. "Why don't you try getting to know some of the other people here?" Ilia looked at her quizzically as Blake continued, "Everyone in that front row, along with some of the others are really good people. As far as I know, none of them, not even Weiss, are truly racist. Unfortunately," she shook her head, "Very few are single. Ren would kill you if you tried to get with Nora. Pyrrha's already dead and in love with Jaune so no go there. We just spent eternity talking about Yang and I. That leaves Weiss and Ruby, and while Weiss isn't racist, I doubt the Schnee name excites you, and Yang would kill you if you flirted with Ruby. I would still suggest trying to make friends with them though."
Ilia sighed, before perking up and asking, "Oh, what about that ice-cream girl? Neo, I think? She's kinda cute."
Blake stared at Ilia, "Maybe? She's thinking about joining us, but just so you know, she is a criminal."
Ilia gave Blake an 'are you serious?' look. "Okay, yes we were too," Blake admitted, "Just make sure she's on our side first, okay?"
Ilia nodded. Both she and Blake now had goals for the rest of this viewing. Find out if Neo was joining up. See if Yang was interested enough in them to actually start dating.
Ruby, Weiss, and Yang sat in the meal service area. Yang was wondering why she had been pulled aside. Unseen by the trio, a raven sat on the railing watching and listening.
"So," Weiss started, clearing her throat, "do you know why we pulled you aside, Yang?"
Yang had no idea, but being Yang, thought up a joke, "Probably because you two wanted some time to Yang out with me, right? Guys?"
Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose and Ruby groaned. In the halls they heard Gordeau yell, "Godsdamnit, Yang." And Tai yell from the theater, "That's my girl!"
Ruby recovered first,though she had no idea how those two had heard the terrible pun, "No, Yang. We're here to talk about Blake."
Weiss nodded in agreement and Yang narrowed her eyes, "We're fine, guys. We killed Adam. It was traumatic, yes, but the two of us are fine. We're friends again, and there is no bad blood between us anymore."
Weiss shook her head, "No, Yang, we don't mean that."
Yang raised an eyebrow, "Then what are we talking about? Cause I'm really confused by all of this."
Weiss sighed, knowing that she would handle this part better than Ruby, she started, "Yang," she looked at Ruby for support, the reaper nodded so Weiss continued, "What is the happiest memory you have from Beacon?"
Now Yang was really confused, "I thought we were discussing Blake?"
"Answer the question Yang!" Ruby ordered, not forcefully, but it was still an order.
Yang startled backward before thinking out loud, "Well, there's the airship ride there, when I realized Rubes would be there with me, getting Blake as my partner, seeing Ruby become a leader, finding Blake after she ran off, the food fight, dancing with Blake, and the first round of the Vytal Festival." She listed off quickly.
Weiss huffed, "Well, while I'm a little upset that I was nowhere to be found on that list, you hit the one I wanted you to notice. Yang, what do you remember about the dance?"
Yang thought again, "I remember you showing up without a date, Ruby complaining about 'lady stilts,'" Ruby let out a huff as Yang continued, "Blake showing up and dancing with me, then Jaune showing up in a dress."
Ruby nodded, "And then I left to chase Cinder, and Neptune found and apologized to Weiss."
Weiss nodded, "Yang, three of the four of us went to dance without dates. One," she pointed to Ruby, "Didn't want a date, I was turned down for a reason still unknown to me, but you," she paused and pointed at Yang, "You used the excuse you were too busy planning to find a date. And all three of us know that that was total bullshit!" Weiss raised her voice as she finished, causing both Yang and Ruby to gasp when she swore.
Ruby, when her shock subsided, continued, "Yang, we know what you wanted. Weiss told me that after your dance with Blake, you just sulked around making small talk to everyone else. Yang, you wanted to go with Blake."
Yang went wide-eyed. Had that really been what she wanted? Was that the reason she didn't actively look for a date that night?
Weiss looked at Yang softly, "Yang, if Blake was truly just your friend or school partner, would you really have sunk into depression at her leaving? And would you have been so quick to take her back in if you didn't have feelings for her?"
There it was. The bombshell that burst open the gate into Yang's emotions. Weiss was right. Blake left, and she had been angry, but overall it had just filled her with depression. And when Blake showed back up? All that mattered was that she was there. It hadn't mattered why she left, or even that she left at all. All that mattered somehow was that they were together again.
"Oh," was all Yang could spurt out.
Ruby looked at her sister with loving eyes, "Yang, did you realize you were holding Blake's hand for most of the viewing so far?"
Yang nodded, "But only after Ilia pointed it out to me."
Weiss smirked, and both she and Ruby stood up, "Talk to Blake, Yang. Even if she wants to date Sun instead, getting the feelings off your chest will feel better."
Ruby smiled and walked away, but Yang caught a small sigh that escaped Weiss's lips. Time for a little pay-back. "Hey, thanks Weiss. I needed that, but," She smirked as she got up and whispered to Weiss, "practice what you preach."
Yang had meant it as a joke, but as she examined the heiress's face, she noticed it twist in embarrassment. "What? No," Weiss tried to defend, badly, "Ruby's just my partner, and she could never see me that way. She just see's us as besties, as much as I hate it."
Yang was shocked, the girl who just scolded her about emotions was bottling her own up, "Okay, Weiss, I was joking. Do you really have feelings for Ruby?"
"I… But you… Of all the…" Weiss stuttered out a few times before storming off.
"Well, that was a thing!" Yang said out loud to herself, before she finally noticed the raven. "Mother."
It flew to the ground and turned into Raven. Raven began to speak to her daughter, "I see it too you know."
"Oh great," Yang said sarcastically, "My second favorite person in the world."
Raven sighed, "Look, I know we don't see eye to eye Yang, but you helped me realize something about myself. I was a coward. I ran away from everything to try and save myself. Now I want you to realize something about yourself. You're afraid too."
Yang wanted to interrupt but Raven stopped her, "You're afraid that if you get too close to someone, or let your feelings out you'll turn into me and leave when things get hard."
Yang gulped; her mother had hit the nail right on the head. Raven continued, "But you're not me, Yang. You are so much better than me. Summer raised you right and I can't fault her for anything she did. I've seen how much you care about, Blake was it?" Yang nodded, "I've seen how much you care about her and I think you're in love with her."
Raven got up to leave before turning back to her daughter, "Just think about it will you?"
Yang sat in silence for a few minutes before getting up. If it was so obvious her deadbeat mother could see it, she really needed to talk to Blake, but how to start that conversation?
Pyrrha hadn't moved from her chair in the theater. Jaune was trying to talk with her and explain why he was mad but she wasn't listening. I'm so stupid. I opened my mouth and showed everyone how hypocritical I am. I just lost all my friends in one fell swoop. I should just go back to being dead. No one would miss me.
Gordeau, Weiss, and Ruby walked back in to see the scene in front of them. Gordeau sighed. He knew the champion would take certain things hard. This was not one of them.
Gordeau cleared his throat to get everyone's attention, "Pyrrha can I show you something? I think it will help with your dilemma."
Pyrrha nodded. Gordeau walked up to Oscar and touched his head before pulling out a memory. He threw it up on the screen and everyone watched.
(Volume 5 Chapter 5 Section with Oscar and Ruby talking about Pyrrha and Penny)
When the screen died down again everyone was smiling at Ruby except for Pyrrha and Team CME. CME found it overly sappy and couldn't care less. Pyrrha however was crying.
"But that's not why I fought," She spoke for the first time since her slip up, "I might have said that but, in reality, I thought it was my duty. Ozpin told me that I was the next Fall Maiden, so it was my job to stop Cinder."
Jaune yelled, "But you didn't have to do it alone! We would have helped! Ruby and Weiss were close by and I would've helped if you hadn't pushed me away! I love you, Pyrrha, but you can't do everything alone and neither can I. I need you, even if it's just for these viewings, I need you to be the Pyrrha Nikos that I wore a dress to a dance for. Not the Pyrrha Nikos that shoved me into a locker to go do her so-called duty, okay? I know you believe in destiny and all, but you know what? Fuck destiny. You always have a choice Pyrrha."
Pyrrha broke and cried into Jaune's shoulder for a while. When she finally stopped, she looked up and responded with a slightly broken voice, "You know how people say they don't have any regrets? Well I do, and my biggest regret is not telling Ozpin no. It's following my 'destiny' instead of my heart. I agree with you Jaune, fuck destiny."
The pair smiled at each other and leaned their heads together. Both thought a few things were left unsaid, but this was enough for now.
Winter cleared her throat, getting the attention of most of the room, "I know what we watched was very emotional, but I feel like I need to clarify something." She looked directly at Ruby before continuing, "Miss Rose, when we retook Amity Arena, we recovered what remained of Penny. What we found was that Miss Niko's attack had missed both Penny's memory unit and her Aura Core, which is essentially her heart. Her father, Dr. Polendina, built her a new body and transferred those parts into it."
Ruby cocked her head, but tears were forming in her eyes, "What do you mean?"
"Ruby," Winter started in a tone no one but Weiss had ever heard from her before, "Penny is alive, and she remembers everything. She wanted to leave and find you as soon as she was rebuilt, but we needed her in Atlas."
Ruby broke down, Weiss and Summer moving to comfort her, "Penny's alive? And in Atlas? That means I can see her when we land!" The reaper cried tears of joy into Weiss's shoulder.
Qrow walked up to Winter, she tensed expecting the usual fight, but instead he just placed a hand on her shoulder, "Thank you, Winter. She needed a better win than what we've been experiencing."
Winter was shocked at the expression of thanks, but what shocked her more was the lack of stench coming off of Qrow. "Are you sober?" she asked incredulously.
Qrow chuckled, "Yep, only had small drinks since we started coming to Atlas. And, if I'm being honest, I like it better this way."
Both returned to their seats and this time it was Winter who was shocked. Maybe I misjudged the man.
"Hey," Neo shouted out to the brown streak, "Can I talk to you?"
Ilia stopped. It's her! Why does she want to talk to me? Ilia cleared her throat, "Sure, Neo, was it?"
Neo nodded before properly introducing herself with an outstretched hand, "Neo Politan."
Ilia accepted the handshake, "Ilia Amitola. What did you want to talk about?"
Neo got an embarrassed look on her face, "You have a different air about you than the other 'heroes.' Why is that?"
Ilia chuckled, "Probably because I'm not really one. Up until a few months ago I was part of the White Fang."
Neo's eyes went wide, "You're a Faunus?"
Ilia nodded, "Chameleon. My skin changes color with emotions."
Neo sighed, "So, why do you hang out with the goody two shoes then?"
Ilia realized what Neo wanted now. She wanted someone who's situation was close to hers. "Well, Neo," Ilia started, she wanted to help but didn't want to make a bad first impression. "I thought I had lost the one thing I had in life." Neo's eyes widened again as Ilia continued, "She left and I just couldn't believe she would do that without me. Then she came back and I was confused. She wanted to help me get out of the Fang. It took me a while to realize that she wanted what was best for me, I was just too blinded by anger to see it. I wasn't really on the Hunter's side until today. This Salem thing is bigger than all of us, so I decided I needed to work with the team not by myself."
Neo smiled; Ilia had answered her question perfectly. "Thanks, Ilia. You've made my decision easy."
Ilia turned slightly pink, "You're welcome."
Ilia wanted to talk some more, but Neo interrupted her, "I need to go talk to Roman, I'll talk to you later okay?"
Ilia nodded, though a little dejectedly, "Sure friend, I'll see you inside."
Neo stopped, "Friend?"
She nodded, "Yeah, I think we're friends now."
Neo looked down, "I've never had a friend before besides Roman." Then she ran off not giving Ilia time to respond. Never had a friend? Okay, then I am determined to be the best friend I can for her. I'll see if she wants to sit next to me in the theater. Ilia walked away determined in her next move.
AN: Slightly long break, but I needed to air out some grievances here. I'll take each conversation one by one.
Gordeau's plan is revealed but only to Roman. Seems weird right? There is a method to this madness so please be patient. Roman accepts it quickly because he's always been a roll with the punches kind of guy.
Neo needs to think about what she wants. Yes, she's going to talk to Ilia about it.
Sun and Ilia talk to Blake about feelings she didn't know she had. The part with Sun explaining it using the past was always planed, but Blake talking to Ilia about why she wasn't with her was not. I seriously don't know where that came from it just did. Also teasing NeoxIlia, a ship I thought about but I haven't seen anyone actually pursue it. We'll see how it goes.
Weiss and Ruby have known since Beacon that Yang wanted Blake. How could she be so blind? And then Yang accidentally discovers Weiss has feelings for Ruby! How did that happen. Then Raven gives advice through her you give me one I give you one mentality.
Pyrrha gets a, in my opinion, much needed reality check. There was really no reason she couldn't have waited for at least Ruby and Weiss to get there. I know she thought she was doing the right thing and I hate that she died, but with the benefit of hindsight there was no reason not to wait. The Relic of Choice still isn't found so time didn't matter.
Also had to add the Penny reveal here. Ruby talks about her in the flashback and I feel like Winter would see that she cares.
Ilia gives Neo advice, and Neo makes a decision. Last conversation is a short one before we resume Uncharted.
I updated the cover art. That is what Gordeau looks like.
Also, if you haven't read the reviews, please read the one Lukenhaft wrote on the last chapter. It's not so much a review but a skit based around why Gordeau didn't get involved in the Salem v. Ozpin war. I want to state that because it made me laugh so hard, while the conversation isn't cannon, a good portion of the events now are. Salem bribing him with the dragon, it eating his pet Pegasus (BTW Lukenhaft, if you're still reading this please give me a name for the Pegasus. I think it is hilarious that he had one,), Oz trying to hook him up with the maidens (though their personalities are not cannon), and Blake being a terrible cook are now officially cannon to this story. Thanks again for writing something that made me laugh so hard.
