Neo was enjoying the student exchange, classes for Beacon had yet to start, it was on a Friday that the Grimm horde stopping the students from Vacuo from joining their fellow Huntsmen and Huntresses finally cleared, allowing Neo and her Classmates to make the relatively short journey to Vale.
Also accompanying the Students, for the first time in Vytal Festival history, was a teacher, sent along to "provide security, and to instruct the students in a new manner" Aurum Lazuli sat in her luxury seat on the plane destined for Vale, ready for anything. Using her legs as a pillow was a teenage Neopolitan Lazuli, using her multicolored cloak as a blanket, dressed in a pink hood-less sweater that faded to white at the bottom, slightly baggy brown sweatpants and a pair of regular tennis shoes. Her long hair was slightly unkempt and flowed down into her mother's lap.
In sharp contrast to her casually dressed daughter, Aurum had her combat outfit on, though not quite the same one she decided on all those years ago. Aurum wore her signature dull gold cloak with a bright blue undercoat, though unusually it was not wrapped all the way around her, instead she wore it just along her back, letting it flow down instead of around her, along with that, she wore her brown combat boots with blue highlights and her loose fitting blouse. The differences from her old outfit were apparent on every other portion of her body, forgoing her short shorts, she instead wore a pair of dusty brown combat pants, a baby blue design on the right leg looked like a fractal pattern of some kind, like those seen in snowflakes, and on her left leg was a red and green design, a floral pattern of thorny vines going all the way down to her boot with roses dotting along the way.
On her arms, at the end of her short sleeves from her blouse, an undershirt could be seen, the sleeves of which had the same floral pattern as her left leg though with various leaves instead of thorns, this time dotted in deep purple belladonna lilies along her right arm, and bright yellow sunflowers along her left. Aurum's weapon was also leaning against the wall in front of them. One of the security guards at the airport had attempted to take the weapon from her, but Aurum had simply refused, nearly making a scene until their commanding officer had noticed the ruckus and came by. After realizing exactly what was occurring the senior officer berated the guard who had attempted to confiscate the weapon of a double X ranked elite huntress.
Aurum had assured it was no issue, and had actually begun to pull out her scroll to inform the guard of her huntress status. Unfortunately, once the senior officer had mentioned her rank a crowd began forming, many many people wanting autographs and photos. Most of them just wanting to speak to one of the 6 Double X Hunters in history.
The rest of the boarding process was a nightmare.
Aurum looked out the window to the passing clouds, idly thinking as she combed through her sleeping daughter's hair. In a short while she would be back... Beacon, where it all went wrong. Catching sight of something off on the horizon Aurum gained a slim smile and gently shook her daughter awake.
"Neo... Wake up Neo~"
"ughghh, whaa?" Neo murmured in her sleep
"Neo we're almost there."
"I donn wanna..." Neo once again mumbled to herself
Aurum sighed softly and redoubled her efforts, "Come on Neo~ don't you want to see where your Mom grew up?"
Neo stirred slightly, and tried to roll over... only to fall off the seat, "Imm tireeooOOahHH OOF... dangit."
As Neo rolled herself off the seat she quickly realized what she was doing and panicked accordingly, once on the ground, Neo looked to her mother, a flat look of uncaring on her face, "Why mother, Why did you wake me?"
Aurum burst out laughing, startling the nearby passengers, who quickly realized the situation, giving a few some small chuckles, but most just a hum of indifference. Aurum continued laughing for a short while, during which time Neo got up and dusted herself off, sitting down in the seat next to her mother. Neo reiterated her question once her mother had stopped laughing, though with a slight smile on her face, "Seriously though why did you wake me up? I was having a nice dream."
Aurum simply waved to the nearby window, Neo looked out and saw the sprawling metropolis of Vale, the massive lake separating the campus of Beacon from the city, and the small island off the coast of the Kingdom, she also noticed the large tower at the top of the cliff on the edge of the lake. Beacon Academy loomed in the distance, the rising sun illuminating the tower from behind. Looking out on the picturesque landscape Neo spoke, "Woooww, So this is where you grew up? It looks so different to how home does."
Aurum smiled at her daughter, who was still oohing and ahing at the different intricacies of Vale, "Its different yes, in some ways better, in some ways worse... but its where I grew up... speaking of which, are you excited to meet your Grandad?"
Neo snapped her head to her mother, her whole face lighting up, "I get to meet Grandpa Tai?"
Aurum chuckled, "Heh, thought you'd like that kiddo, hey maybe you'll meet mini-me and your aunt."
Neo thought about that for a short moment, "Hmmmm, what would my relation to present you even be? Is she my mom too? Or like, is she my Aunt too, like Yang is... hrmmm this is weird to think about."
"I agree... they wont know who you are anyways, so don't go calling Yang Auntie any time soon, nor my younger self any type of alternate name."
"Got it mom."
Neo had her hands in her pockets as she walked down the dirt road, while whistling one of her favorite songs, she had come alone to meet her grandparents, though she had never been to patch, nor Vale. She and her mother separated at Vale's airport, her mother heading straight to beacon to talk to her new temporary boss, and her heading off to patch to go to her mother's childhood home. As she idly walked she started deviating from the path towards the Rose-Xiao long household, and just as she begun walking in the wrong direction Rose spoke up from inside her head Wrong way, you should have gone left back there. Neo stopped and turned around, making her way back to the fork and choosing the correct path.
Neo walked the path for another couple hundred feet, and then she crested a hill, and another 150 feet ahead of her was a small wood cabin. As she walked up to it she saw a white cloaked woman watering the flowerbed out front, walking over to the woman, she spoke, "Hi Granny Summer, How are you?"
Summer looked up from the flowers she was watering and a smile grazed her face, "Oh! Neo, What a surprise, what brings you here huh?"
Neo, finally reaching Summer, embraced the slightly taller woman in a tight hug, "I Missed you... You don't come around often enough you know that?"
Summer chuckled, "I know Neo, I promise I'll visit more often. Why don't you come inside?" she said as they ended their embrace.
Neo nodded with a short, "Sure" and followed Summer inside.
"Hey Tai, Come down here, there's someone you have to meet!" Summer called out as they entered the living room.
"Oh yeah? Who's this Sum?" Tai said as he came down the staircase.
Neo, suddenly very sheepish, scratched the back of her head and replied, "uh Hi, I'm um, N-Neo uh... I'm your Granddaughter?"
Tai looked confused for a short moment, then shortly after reaching the bottom of the stairs it clicked in his mind, "Oohhh you must be my time traveling daughter's kid... hmmm, thought you'd be taller."
Summer watched the exchange, her face going flat at Tai's last comment, which seemed to have upset Neo. Showing no emotion, Summer walked slowly over to Tai, and in one quick chop to the back of the neck, sent shivers up the spine of her dunce of a husband.
Neo chuckled softly behind her hand, and said, "Its okay Granny Summer, I know he didn't mean anything by it."
Tai rubbed the back of his neck and looked to Neo, "Sorry, im sure you're the Cream of the crop."
Summer bit back a laugh, that was not funny, and she would not laugh at her husband's horrid puns.
Neo on the other hand smirked and replied, "Man I sure expected a Sweet reception, too bad this one is such a Drag-on, I expected this to be a treat, not something ice cold, but you sure Rose, to the occasion."
Tai's eyes lit up with stars.