Guest- please enjoy my non-cannon writing. And thanks for reviewing

Seriouslazy-Yes

'bold' sentences are flashbacks.

Neo could hear humming outside her room as she stretched satisfactorily in her very pink cloud of a bed. The guy she had didn't stay the night, so it couldn't be him. Her twin brother hadn't had anyone over the past few days either. Perhaps Junior or one of her brother's goons? Although this was their apartment...not one of their numerous safe houses. She let out a breathy sigh and straightened her bright pink nightgown, there was only one way to find out. She rested her parasol on her shoulder and strolled out of her bedroom.

Neo dropped her weapon while her smug confidence died. Even her dreams weren't this deranged. Roman, her brother, still in his PJs making breakfast and ever so softly singing.

Truly only death was the proper explanation. Maybe that one-night stand last night sexed her to death?

Her brother turned at the sound and genuinely smiled at her. "Are you fighting in that?"

Okay sassing her...that's normal. She gestured at his whole person.

He glanced at the clock, "I guess I am running a bit late today." He shrugged, "I just been sleeping so well, it's been hard to get moving."

She huffed and gestured at her throat.

He furrowed his brows, "Is it bothering you? It's been months, but I can-"

Neo stomped and pulled out her scroll, -What is with the humming?-

"I was humming?"

-You've been weird since you were slightly gallant to that brat!-

"Weird? I've been...lighter." He thoughtfully scratched his throat. "I haven't felt like this since…" He looked ashamed and she knew he wasn't going to be honest, "I had to take over." Neo picked up her umbrella twirling it menacingly as she stormed back into her room.

She would have confronted her slut of a brother, but his sudden change of personality terrified her. She needed to do some recon of the source. Besides spying was what she did best.

Neo disguised herself as a student in Beacon Academy, tucking herself between bookshelves in a library.

Her target was harassing a librarian. Red, "I cannot believe you do not have Characterization of Materials! How am I supposed to know what to cross-section as I am developing alloys for my weapons class!"

The old tired woman behind the counter, "You are welcome to put in an order request, but I am afraid that with the new encyclopedias of Grimm it just isn't in the budget."

Ruby grunted frustratedly and she was writing on a slip of paper.

The librarian was annoyed, "This is a school for hunting Grimm"

Pounding her little fist into her palm, "Weapons. Beat. Grimm."

Well at least she was a nerd like her brother...maybe he was trying to make a friend? He was bad at that. Although that wouldn't explain why little Red would cause him to lose complete interest in bedroom guests. Red wasn't sexy or even beautiful, she was a ball of chaotic energy.

Her brother appreciated a dark sense of humor, poise, being calm in all circumstances. Neo was astonished he hadn't gotten Cinder in the sack. He was 18 years old but he had been an adult since their mother died.

Ruby was a child.

It didn't make sense, it couldn't make sense. Neo committed to watching further. She found herself following the brat into the Emerald Forest with her classmates. There was a blonde dunce who did not seem to have a gun [sacrilege]. Neo stayed perched on a tree, she illusioned herself to blend into the forest. Her bi-colored eyes centered on Red, the girl was all bubbles and flitted around like a magpie. She likely was only a serious damage dealer because of the scythe. Without it, Neo smiled wickedly, the girl was easy pickings.

"A!H!H!H!H!H!H!"

Startled by the blonde dunce sailing past her, she nearly fell off her perch. She scoffed, if he could not survive the first year at Beacon then he did not deserve to live at all. Then a floral bullet whirled past, so Neo as the heroic spy, gracefully hopped from branch to branch to stalk little Red.

When she caught up, Neo swallowed hard at the sight.

Crescent Rose's blade arched heavily into the earth. Ruby balanced on the handle, not awkwardly nor rigidly. She stood with grace surveying the beowolves around her and Jaune.

The dunce stammered and squawked, his shield held. Ruby opened her mouth and Neo's blood ran cold.

"Jaune, leave it to me."

Neo spent years observing and waiting for her opponents to give away their next move. An old man thought her Semblance was 'Preflexes' like some ancient Huntress. With her seemingly perfect ability to read her opponents, Neo had no idea how Ruby launched herself into the air while kicking out her weapon. The scythe spun and cut down three opponents. The handle in her impossibly small hand she moved with it like a dance partner that she would strike out with precision.

Jaune did something with his shield.

Once safe Red raised her hand to the blonde hair to flick out the ash. Her voice is calm and all the bubbling anxiety is gone. "You're better with the shield. Try holding your sword like so." She adjusted the grip.

Blondie blushed, "Thanks, Ruby." He nudged her with his elbow, "You're the best."

Ruby slid back into her jittery girlishness and stuttered a response.

Neo clutched her chest and she saw what her brother saw in the young huntress.

He was fucked.

And Neo couldn't save him from himself.

XXX

Oscar didn't know what to do, in these moments, he turned to Ruby, Ozpin, and Neo. All three of them were alive and well in this timeline. Ruby...he couldn't explain this to her, that she wanted him to kill her at 15. He gritted his teeth, he hated how they parted.

"Rubes you can't expect me to do this. Kill you? There has to be another way!"

Her eyes were tired and all the silver gone, swallowed by black ash. "Oscar, there isn't. I pushed my team to be reckless and pursue Torchwick and the White Fang. I caused the Fall of Beacon. I have to be stopped. You are the only one who is healthy enough to do it."

Oscar shook his head, "You're not thinking of this straight. Blake pursued the White-"

"Oscar!" She erupted into a coughing fit, her eyes bugged out as she tried to wheeze for air. He rushed to get an inhaler to bring temporary relief. She only knocked it aside and glared at him.

She ground out, "I deserve this. You have to protect that disgusting man. Killing me is the best option. Then you can work out how to stop Salem and prevent this disease."

Oscar stared at the device, "Roman is the best contingency plan we have." He nodded, Ruby had to be right about this. She led them to protect Haven, to return Ironwood to sanity, and ultimately to defeat Salem. She was always unflinchingly brave and he aspired to be as strong as her. Trusting her was wise and after he buried his son and wife he knew his thinking wasn't the best.

She gently wiped his tears, "Now Bestie...Go."

Oscar snuffed out his dying cigarette and pulled out a fresh one. Ozpin… had chosen to pass over after Salem's death. They had no clue what was brewing then. The idea of looking the man in the eye...Oscar shook his head. He felt the endless depth of the old codger's empathy and understanding. The mere idea of seeing that loving gaze made Oscar want to find oblivion. Instead, he pulled out a second cigarette to smoke simultaneously.

While Neo was alive and well, Roman took care to make sure no one knew of her. Oscar's wife had died before time travel became an option, so he couldn't ask her about her exact whereabouts. Oscar didn't know how to find Neo as he walked through the city of Vale.

He ran his fingers through his black hair, Vale, it was late and it was teeming with life. It unnerved him to see all these people alive and careless. Ruby and Neo both spoke of it fondly. They had glared at each other when they realized they shared a favorite pizza place. He couldn't bring himself to buy a slice as he stared blankly at the menu in the window. He had a mission and he needed help.

Who would be more motivated in keeping him alive? Oscar cringed, recalling the psyche profile on Roman Torchwick. It led you to believe he was a charming psychopath with a shallow range of emotion...if any. Ruby bitterly confirmed that assessment.

Seeing how much Roman's death pained his wife he occasionally asked. Neo merely shrugged and tenderly touched her bowler hat or the neck scarf that was once her brother's.

Oscar sat on a bench nursing a cup of coffee and a cigarette. He sighed at the thought of those two.

"Oscar, how can you trust her!" Ruby pulled at her hair.

Neo rolled her eyes and adjusted her grip on her weapon.

Oscar wedged himself in between two very violent women. "She saved me, she got me out and away from Salem when she realized that woman is only after destruction."

Neo pointed to Oscar and nodded.

Ruby ughed loudly, "she worked for Cinder, she tried to kill you, tried to kill me! And before that, She was Torchwick's what? puppy? lover? And he...he!"

Ruined her childhood? Traumatized Ruby to stay stuck in her childish belief that the world was black and white? There were only heroes and villains and all the things that build up in a person do not add to shades of gray?

Neo typed on her scroll -try twins-

Both Oscar and Ruby blinked in surprise. He saw Ruby's lip curl cruelly and he spoke before his best friend said something she could not unsay. He grinned, "obviously identical twins, how did we not notice?"

Neo shimmered into a form with green eyes and orange hair and blew a kiss at Red.

Ruby threw up her hands and stormed off.

Oscar could see behind the cocky smile a sorrow. He gripped the small woman's shoulder. "It's okay to be sad and I'm here if you want someone to listen...or read."

Her lip quivered when she placed her hand over his.

He itched to look at a photo of her, but he left that in his shitty apartment. Safer there.

"It's a bit late to be drinking coffee." A man with swept-back bright orange hair sat down next to him on the bench, annoyingly close.

Oscar shrugged, "I work strange hours." He looked the man in the eyes. "I'm curious, and likely none of my business. Is it weird to wear only one colored contact?"

A pair of green eyes blinked slowly not revealing any thoughts. If Oscar wasn't so used to Neo's favorite illusion of looking like a Torchwick, he would have had to do a double-take. No wonder the police couldn't find him.

Oscar didn't realize Roman's hands moved until the ginger was flipping through his notebook.

"Hey!"

The taller man stood to move closer to a park lamp. "You've been on my tail a week longer than I thought."

Oscar gritted his teeth to stop himself from voicing his thoughts, I know I had to start wearing the same outfit for you to realize it. Which how didn't Neo notice, what the fuck is she up to?

Amused, "seems like I'll need to change my schedule a bit."

Oscar didn't want to fight him, Torchwick would have intent to kill, he couldn't. Oscar's stomach knotted as he heard the steel in the thief's voice.

"You're not supposed to know who she is."

Oscar flinched, I'm so stupid.

A drawing, a pencil one, of a woman with an ornate umbrella, and maybe you could convince yourself that it was a bad sketch to make her hair dark only on one side. Oscar couldn't draw hands, but hell he could draw that perfect hair. He felt Roman study him and Oscar probably looked like a chain-smoking creep.

The farmer took a puff and tried to steady himself, "trust me she's a fan." Oscar paused and was disappointed to not see a response as Roman continued to flip through the book, "oh so you're not the protective brother type. I do wonder who is technically older." It was Neo, she was the older twin.

Wow, he is good, that didn't phase him.

Oscar, still sitting, leaned back on the bench, "while you are debating killing me or not. Flip to the back and I imagine you'll want to offer me a job."

Bank account numbers. Oscar copied them from memory, Neo had precious little of her brother and he wrote a few of those down for her before he was arrested. The only thing she had of his handwriting. She kept it taped to the inside of their fridge. Oscar saw it whenever he went to get butter.

Oscar genuinely had no idea what to do with random bank account numbers, other than to scare.

Still, Torchwick's face was impassive.

After a light puff, "And yes all this for a job interview"

There was a long pause and Oscar assumed Roman carefully weighed his options. Slowly, "I want you to tail someone."

"Ruby Rose I assume." Seemed logical and besides he ached to see his best friend happy and well. All of his Beacon friends really. He couldn't even remember what Blake looked like with all of her ears.

And for the first time, Roman reacted, his cheeks pinked and Oscar barely managed to keep himself from throwing lukewarm coffee at the psychopath.

The flush disappeared and Roman drawled, "No little Red she is swee- " There was a tense line in his jaw.

No reaction to a guy potentially trying to prey on his sister. But 'Red' got him to slip up. Actually, that made sense, Roman assumed no one could one-up his sister. He had no idea that Oscar Pine had centuries of combat experience drilled into him. Oscar swallowed at the bile rising in his throat at the mere idea that Ruby might end up in a horrifying situation with this psychopath.

Even with all the training from Neo, he never could keep his emotions from his affect. Sourly, "Then who?"

"Ozpin, the Headmaster at Beacon."

Oscar pinched the bridge of his nose and angrily threw his cup in the trash.

You gotta be shitting me.