This Chapter is Written from Neo's Perspective for the first two sections, not our normal Narrator.

Neo liked her name, it felt like it fit, after trying to express her approval of it, the woman gave her a glass of water. Neo drank from the tall glass, but didn't speak. Instead she gave a bright smile, and continued to dig in to her food.

The woman watched Neo and ate her own food along with her, Neo wasn't sure she fully trusted the strange woman, but she had let her sleep on this soft thing, and had taken her somewhere where there was no sand. So she would try her best to not mess this up.

"So Neo, How old are you? Do you know?"

Neo thought about it, trying to remember how old she was. Neo brought up her hands and looked at them while concentrating, she started raising fingers and lowering them, then after a bit, she nodded to herself and held up one hand with all her fingers extended. The woman's face contorted into a grimace, and she asked, "You're 5?"

Finished with her food Neo looked up from her now empty plate over to the woman, and wondered, if my name is Neo... What's hers? Opening her mouth to speak, she got out a raspy "W-w-w-hat-s" and broke into a coughing fit. The woman seemed concerned, and scooted over on the bed to hold her, she then offered the glass of water again. Neo drank from the glass again, and tried to speak again, "M-m-me Neo, y-yo-u?" she asked before breaking into another coughing fit. The woman looked concerned, but answered, "My name is Ruby, but my friends call me Aurum."

Neo was confused. The woman had shown her this tub with a bunch of water in it and told her to wash herself. She understood the water part, but what was she supposed to wash herself with? There was no paper or rag, there was nothing here to wash with. Neo just tilted her head in confusion and looked behind her to the woman standing expectantly in the door, she blinked at her and her eyes swapped color again. The woman sighed and said in a defeated tone, "You don't know how to wash yourself do you?"

The woman sighed and asked Neo to take her rags off and get in the tub, Neo didn't see an issue with that and so did as told. Ruby then washed Neo's hair while Neo splashed around in the water, once she was done she poured some body wash on a loofah and gave it to Neo, she then said "I need you to rub this all over you got it?" Neo nodded and did what Ruby told her to do.

Once they were done giving Neo a bath, Ruby gave Neo some clothing that wasn't tattered rags, and had sat down on the couch. Neo didn't have much to do, and so walked over and climbed up onto the couch as well, Ruby watched this adorable scene and sighed, "I'm not gonna be able to let you go aren't I." She mumbled to herself.

The woman turned to Neo, and said "Okay Neo, I'm gonna give you a choice, You can either stay here with me, and I'll figure something out for you in regards to food, clothes, education and whatnot. Or, if you really want, you can leave."

Neo gave it a few seconds of thought, and pounced at Ruby, trapping her in a hug. Ruby simply embraced the small girl and sighed.

Over the next three days Ruby took care of the essentials, like getting Neo her own bed, and multiple sets of clothes, Neo's voice steadily improved over the few days, to the point where one word sentences were fine for her to speak, but anymore than that and her voice would start getting raspy. Ruby decided that she was going to take care of Neo, she had originally planned on just trying to stop Neo and Torchwick from meeting, but when she saw that Neo was just a little kid, she couldn't help herself from helping such a sweet girl.

Ruby also introduced Neo to Theodore and Rumpole, though the meeting with Theodore was more business, discussing things like citizenship, and documentation, as well as tax forms, Rumpole was extremely surprised to find a 5 year old girl in Ruby's apartment while visiting for a chat. But quickly fell in love with the girl and would visit quite often in the coming days.

Ruby also still had to keep up with training, so as to keep in shape and to keep her skills sharp, so, the day before classes were supposed to resume, Ruby was practicing some katas with her weapon, when she spotted Neo out of the corner of her eye, she girl looked entranced by Ruby's movements, staring at her with a starstruck look on her face.

Ruby Smiled and decided to give her a show, calling upon her magic, Ruby added fire and wind blades to her attacks, while curving lightning around her blade. This had the effect of making her kata look more like a dance, as she weaved her scythe around her body in motions practiced millions of times, she decided to use her semblance to speed up the blade just a small amount, giving it a trail of yellow rose petals, taking her blade through the last passes, she finished her kata, and looked over with a smirk on her face to Neo, who was staring at her with wide eyes and her jaw dropped.

Ruby walked over to Neo and said, "You like what you see?"

Neo nodded and said, "So Cool!"

Ruby gave a hearty chuckle, and said to Neo, "Well If you want, in a few years I can start teaching you how to do that, would you like that?"

Neo's face lit up, and she said "Really!?"

Ruby nodded, "Yep, I started learning how to fight at 11, though I wanted to learn how way before that, I could teach you if you wanted."

Neo rapidly nodded her head, and Ruby chuckled, "Okay kiddo, But when you're older. I wouldn't want to teach a 5 year old anything violent."

Neo let out a small cheer and hugged Ruby, the latter smiling at the innocence in her former enemy.

That night, after tucking Neo into bed, Ruby went to her bed and laid down, before she went to sleep she opened her scroll, staring at the contacts page.

SUMMER R. MSG? CALL?

Ruby stared at it, finger hovering over the call button for 13 minutes, but ultimately, she took in a deep breath, sighed, and closed her scroll. After setting her scroll down on the nightstand she sighed, rolled over in bed and pulled her blankets tight.

"One day." she whispered to herself.

Later that night

"Ruby?"

Ruby woke to a voice at her door, she sat up in bed to see Neo standing in the door.

"Neo? Whats wrong kiddo?" Ruby asked

"I had a Nightma-" Neo tried to say but broke into a fit of coughing.

Ruby sighed, then patted the bed, "C'mere, you can sleep with me tonight if you want."

Neo padded over to the bed and crawled in, Ruby picked her up and sat her in her lap, pulling the blanket up to Neo's shoulders, Ruby asked, "Do you want to hear a bedtime story?"

Neo turned around in Ruby's lap to look her in the eyes, then tilted her head. Ruby held back tears, A five year old that doesn't know what a bedtime story is?

"Just Listen." Neo sat back into Ruby's lap, "Once upon a time, there was an old Wizard, he lived alone in a cabin off the beaten path." While telling the story, Ruby started using her magic to give visual aid, using illusion magic to show Neo the scene, and she told the whole story of the seasons, from start til finish. Once done she looked down and saw Neo had fallen asleep sometime during her story. Smiling, Ruby relaxed and closed her eyes, whispering to herself, "One day."