Neo wasn't sure where she was.
The last thing she remembered was falling down an abyss while trying to kill Red, then she was pushed away and after a moment opened her eyes to see that she wasn't falling anymore but instead standing at a beach.
She was facing away from the clear blue ocean and in front of her was a dense jungle followed by a cliff. Behind that cliff, she could see an extremely large tree that seemed like it just came out of a bad fairy tale. On the beach itself were several starfish. Curious, Neo stepped forward a poked one with her foot.
She flinched back when the starfish suddenly snapped shut. It seemed this place wasn't as hospitable as one might think at first glance.
Neo frowned. Her parasol was nowhere to be seen, and she was going to be pretty much defenseless without it. Looking around, she found something red and ran towards it. If it was Ruby, she wanted to kill her before she could get hold of her weapon.
It wasn't Ruby. It was her scythe, stabbed into the sand. Neo grabbed the oversized weapon and found she had a hard time wielding it, but after making it fold down she decided to bring it with her anyway. If there was any more dangerous fauna around she would be better off with a weapon she could barely swing around than without any weapon at all.
Strapping the folded scythe behind her back, Neo took a deep breath and walked into the jungle. Finding and killing Red was still her priority, but she'd better find some food and water unless she wanted to die before achieving it. Now would've been a really good time to remember those survival videos she watched when she was a kid.
Neo ended up being surprised by how easy it was to find a water source, but soon realized that there were quite a lot of them near the bottom of the cliff. They were all sparkling clear and fresh water, so after drinking her fill she quickly cleaned herself. After all that activity back in Atlas she was feeling sweaty, and on top of that this place was very hot. She really didn't want to leave the shadow of the jungle without her parasol to protect her from the sun.
After finishing her bath, Neo decided to focus on food next. Her stomach was already rumbling, and she wanted to be in top shape for when she found Red again. Thing was, she wasn't sure what exactly was edible. None of the fruits she found looked anything like the ones she was used to, and she wasn't able to hunt any animals with Red's scythe.
Eventually, though, she settled on a rainbow pear that looked quite appetizing. She bit into it, and was pleasantly surprised to find that it tasted very sweet. In a couple minutes, she ate a good seven of them.
Now on to find Ruby.
Ruby walked around the jungle.
She had found Neo's parasol near where she had landed, but no sign of her scythe, much to her dismay. She didn't really know how to fight with Neo's weapon, and was starting to regret not spending more time training her hand to hand combat, but she took it anyway as it was better than nothing.
The food didn't look like anything she knew, but she did find some plants she knew, one of which could be used to treat food poisoning if it came to it. She was glad that she had been paying attention in Mrs. Peach's class, because it allowed her to directly avoid any poisonous looking fruits. As long as it was bright and colorful, that was a sign that it was full of poison.
She wished that she could find her sister and Blake soon. If she had landed here, then so would they, along with the civilians that fell with them.
That was at least the one good thing about their current situation. Now they would be able to save and bring back the civilians that Cinder made fall into the abyss, if they found a way back.
Ruby tried not to think too much about the fact they might be trapped here forever, and went back to exploring the surroundings. Cautiously.
Then, she heard some groaning. It didn't sound like an animal, but more like someone was in pain. She focused on the source of the sound and ran towards it.
Ruby found Neo there, curled on the ground with her hands wrapped around her stomach, clearly in pain. Looking around Ruby found the clearly poisonous rainbow colored pears and signs that some had been eaten.
She reflexively grabbed the pouch she had put the medicinal herbs in before stopping. Neo was an enemy, she was working with Cinder, she wanted to kill her, should she really save her?
Ruby looked down at Neo twisting herself in pain, too feverish to even notice her, then finally grabbed the pouch and took out a bunch of the herbs.
She didn't care, she wasn't going to let her die, not after failing to save so many people. Moreover, Cinder tried to kill Neo as well, so they probably weren't allies now.
This was a risk worth taking.
Neo woke up on a makeshift bed of leaves. She slightly remembered being force fed some concoction that made her puke while she was hurting so much from eating the pears, but she couldn't remember who had saved her.
Pushing herself up, the fabric covering her fell down, and she noticed it was a red cloak… No, it was the red cloak, Ruby's red cloak.
A shiver ran down her spine and she reached a hand behind her back, only to find that the scythe she had picked up wasn't there. Of course, there was no way Ruby would have let her keep her weapon if she had been the one to find her.
But then, why had she helped her? They were enemies, she had tried to kill Ruby and Red must have been just as eager to kill her back, so why save her then?
She was pondering this when Ruby stepped in the small clearing she was in, holding a bunch of leaves around some fruits, which Neo guessed was to protect them from touching the ground.
"Oh, you're awake?" asked Ruby, "Nice timing, I just finished gathering food."
Neo stared at her while she put the fruits down in front of her. Now that she was looking closer, Ruby had her scythe strapped to her back and her parasol at her waist. She was glad to find her weapon again, even if she wasn't holding it, at least it wasn't lost.
"Don't worry, I've tried them, they're safe to eat," said Ruby, pointing at the fruits.
Neo looked back at the fruits then back at Ruby with suspicion. How would she know they were safe? And even if she knew, why would she trust her?
Then, Ruby picked one of the fruits and bit into it before giving it back to her.
"See, it's perfectly fine," she said.
Neo was surprised by Ruby's action, and a bit disgusted by the trail of saliva trailing on the part she had bitten, but ended up taking the fruit after her stomach grumbled again. Of course she would be hungry after puking out her last meal.
Ruby sat next to her and watched her eat with a smile.
"I'm glad you're ok," she said.
Neo turned her back on her. Damn, why was she making it so hard to hate her?
Ruby let her be for a moment while she ate, but afterwards she walked around and sat in front of her.
"He meant a lot to you, didn't he?" she asked while handing Neo Roman's hat. Realizing it wasn't on her head anymore, Neo quickly grabbed it and held it close to her chest. She would have never forgiven herself if she had lost that too.
"I'm sorry," said Ruby, "I wanted to stop you both from hurting people, but I never wanted it to end that way."
Neo lifted her head and glared into Ruby's eyes, before softening as Ruby looked down.
"You meant a lot to him too, I realized that," she said, "When I sent you flying, he was so angry, so hurt… It made me realize I actually might just have killed you there… I'm glad you're safe."
That surprised Neo even more than what she had said before, even more than the fact that Ruby actually understood their relationship better than Cinder did, despite only having met them twice, in a fight.
"I lost a lot as well that day," said Ruby, "Not just my friends, but my hope as a Huntress, and that fight. It still hurts sometimes."
Neo watched as Ruby rubbed her left arm. She guessed Roman had beaten her after that?
"While he was beating me, a grimm landed behind him and ate him…" said Ruby, "I think we were both just as surprised that it ended this way."
Tears started filling up Neo's vision. Knowing Roman was dead was one thing, but hearing about his last moments from the one that was there, someone that seemed just as hurt from the events of that day as she was, it hit differently.
"I always wonder if I could have done something different to save more people that day, even one, even if it was Roman," said Ruby, tears starting to fall as well, "But… I just… can't find any way I could have saved anyone. I'm a failure as a Huntress, I'm sorry."
Neo broke down crying and grabbed Ruby's dress, letting herself fall on her lap and cry there, while Ruby gently hugged her back.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry…"
Neo huddled closer to Ruby.
She was sorry as well.
Neo quickly recovered under Ruby's care, and the two grew quite close, at least enough for Ruby to give Neo her weapon back as soon as she felt good enough to stand up and walk around. However, because she knew nothing about how to survive in the wild, Neo found herself doing little more after her recovery as Ruby was still the one doing all the gathering and hunting.
She could still do the cooking, and clean up the small hut Ruby had built while she was sick, but she hardly appreciated feeling like a housewife, especially when she didn't have the slightest idea of how to survive on her own.
One day, as Ruby was getting ready for the day, Neo grabbed her cloak and pulled to get her attention.
"What is it Neo?" asked Ruby.
Neo pointed outside and grabbed her weapon, standing up next to Ruby.
"You want to help?" asked Ruby, to which Neo nodded, "Are you sure? It didn't go that well last time you picked some food."
Neo pouted, remembering the time she had first helped out gathering food the day after she had fully recovered, only for Ruby to throw away most of what she had spent the day picking up. At least she hadn't tried tasting any of them this time.
"You know, I could teach you how to recognize stuff," offered Ruby.
Neo immediately got on guard, fully expecting Ruby to ask for something in exchange.
"I'm offering!" argued Ruby, "I'm not trying to get something out of you, I promise!"
Neo narrowed her eyes, still suspicious, so Ruby eventually relented.
"How about I teach you survival skills, and you teach me how to fight like you do?" offered Ruby, "Would that be fair?"
Neo thought about it for a moment, then nodded. This was acceptable.
"Perfect then, I can't wait!" cheered Ruby.
For the weeks that followed, Neo and Ruby would learn from each other, Neo drinking the words coming out from Ruby's mouth about how to recognize what was edible and what wasn't based on the native animals' behavior, while Ruby would strictly follow Neo's training routine no matter how painful the large stretches were or how exhausted she was by the end.
They explored the island as well, but couldn't find anyone else, at least on their side of the island. The cliff was cleanly blocking them out of most of the island, at least that was they thought given the map Neo had made that showed the small arc of a circle of cliff that surrounded them.
It wasn't that bad. They had each other, and they had found a lot of different things that could replace resources they knew of from their old world, notably for making clothes after their current ones slowly tore from the overuse.
They had tried making a raft to go around the cliff, but they had almost drowned on their first, second and third attempt from the strong currents, and afterwards Neo had refused to help for any more attempts. Ruby had still tried to climb the cliff, and even make her way around it at the edge, but the strong winds would blow her off whenever she tried.
She eventually gave up, admitting that they were stuck on their little part of the island with no way home after Neo insisted she stay safe with her.
In the end, the two didn't mind too much about their new life together.
It was their little piece of paradise.
It had been ten years since Weiss, Blake, Jaune and Yang had fallen down into this weird world, and still no sign of Ruby. They were pretty sure that she was on the other side of the cliff, but couldn't be sure that she was safe, especially since they hadn't found any trace of Neo as well.
They had somehow managed to get around, although taking care of all the civilians that had fallen as well didn't leave them a lot of time for themselves, as they couldn't help with the gathering due to the dangerous nature of the fauna around the island.
At least they had cut a fair bit of the jungle to make temporary housing, as they all hoped to be able to go back to Remnant one day, and that left some place for some rudimentary farming that helped alleviated the Huntresses' work, but that was hardly enough, especially since they kept on trying to get to the other side of that damn cliff to find Ruby.
Then, one day, Yang was surprised to see Raven open a portal right in front of her, as she and Qrow stepped out of it.
"Damn, you took your time," she seethed.
"I'm so glad to see you kiddo!" said Qrow as he suddenly hugged her, "I hope those ten days weren't too rough."
"What do you mean ten days?" asked Jaune, "It's been ten years!"
"Wait, you've been here for ten years?" asked Qrow while Yang pushed him back.
"Yes," answered Weiss.
"Oh, that explains why you look all so old," he joked, before biting his tongue as he realized it wasn't appropriate, "sorry, it's only been ten days back on Remnant, so I'm guessing this is another world where time isn't going at the same pace."
"I guess…" said Yang, "Has it really been only ten days?"
"Yup," said Qrow, "Let's all go home now. I'm seeing you have quite a lot of company."
"Yeah, quite a few civilians fell, and they had the free time to bang," added Yang.
"You know, I would normally berate you for using me as transport," chimed in Raven, "But given how long it has been for all of you, I guess you can get a free pass."
"Geez, thanks Raven," said Yang.
"Where's Ruby?" asked Qrow.
"We don't know," answered Weiss, "We think she's on a part of the island we can't get to, but we haven't been able to get in contact."
"What's the problem?" he asked.
"Strong currents and strong winds, neither makeshift boats nor Weiss' summons can get through," answered Blake.
"Raven, think you can get a Bullhead through?" asked Qrow.
"Fuck you, but yes," admitted Raven.
They brought the civilians to the other side of the portal, and once they were all gone Qrow piloted a bullhead through a larger one, and they all left for the other side of the island.
The winds nearly blew them into the cliff, but they managed to get around and safely land on the beach, where they found three kids playing next to the carnivorous starfishes.
"Your turn Ro-Ro!" said one of the two girls to the boy that looked like the oldest and was getting himself ready.
"This'll be easy!" said the boy, before jumping on the middle of the starfish.
"NOOOO!" shouted Yang as she dashed in and caught the kid mid-air, landing on her back further in the sand to protect him.
"Hey! What gives!" shouted the kid.
"You lose Ro-Ro!" laughed the girl.
Everyone ran in next to them, where the boy was removing the sand from his clothes while the oldest of the two girls was laughing at him. The youngest was silently looking at all of them, her head tilted to the side.
"Do you have any idea how dangerous that could have been?" scolded Yang, "Where are your parents?"
"Oh yes Ro-Ro, lets go find mom to tell her how you totally lost at jump the starfish!" said the oldest girl.
"Can it sis!" said the boy, "That crazy woman stopped me, it doesn't count!"
"Wait what?!" shouted Yang.
"Calm down Yang," said Blake, "Say, how about you three bring us to your parents?"
"Sure," said the oldest girl before leaving in a sprint, "Last to the house loses their cookies!"
"Cheater!" shouted the boy as he started running after her, while the youngest was already running far ahead of him.
Looking at each other, the group ended up following them with a shrug.
"Doesn't that girl look familiar to you?" Qrow asked Raven.
"I'm glad you're not already blind," scoffed Raven.
The oldest girl, who was seven, had indeed looked familiar to them, as just how Ruby had looked like a miniature Summer when she was small, the girl that was running back to her home was looking exactly like a miniature Ruby. The boy, who looked like he was nine years old, had one eye hidden behind a strand of hair, but the two of them were clearly brother and sister from how they looked, on top of which they had brown hair as dark as Ruby's was. Their eyes, too, were silver, so they had kind of an idea as to who the mother would be.
The last one, however, was the weirdest by far. They could have swore the five years old's hair was pink and brown with red tips at first, but after a moment looking at them it turned blonde and white, seemingly copying Weiss' and either Jaune or Yang's hair color, while by the time they noticed her eyes they found that one was blue and the other red.
As they were following the kids, they soon reached a small cottage in the jungle in a large clearing, next to what looked like a large field filled with crops. There, they noticed a large red scythe planted in the ground in the middle of it.
"Mom! We're home and we found people!" shouted the girl as she opened the door.
"I'm second!" said the boy as he had caught up and ran past the youngest girl while on their way.
"So you're last!" teased the girl.
"No, Charlotte's last!" objected the boy.
"She can't be last, remember," whispered the girl, so low that only Blake could pick it up, "Or do you want to have nightmares for a week?"
"Fine, I'm last," admitted the boy, "I'll give my cookies to Charlotte."
The young girl beamed and hugged her brother, who slumped in defeat.
"Already home?" asked a voice coming from inside.
The woman that came out was exactly who everyone was here to find, Ruby Rose, ten years older and looked more like her mother than ever.
"Yang, guys, uncle Qrow!" she shouted, dashing with her semblance and wrapping all of them in a hug, "I've missed you all so much!"
"Seems like we missed a lot as well," noted Qrow, "I'm guessing you're a mother of three now."
"Yup," chirped Ruby, "Meet Roman, Summer and Charlotte, our bundles of joy – and worst nightmares."
Qrow held a chuckle, while the rest of the group noticed the names and were starting to ask themselves some questions, before they saw someone else at the door.
"There's Neo!" shouted Yang, "We have to protect the kids!"
"Stop!" shouted Ruby as she ran to get in her sister's path, "She's not an enemy!"
"What do you mean she's not an enemy?!" shouted Yang, "After everything she did to us!"
"She's… she's their mother too, isn't she?" asked Weiss.
"What do you mean?" asked Jaune.
"Think about it," explained Weiss, "The boy's named Roman, why would Ruby name him that way if Neo wasn't related?"
Yang couldn't believe it, and it was hard to swallow for everyone else – except Raven, she hardly cared – although Blake was interested in something else.
"How did you have them?" she asked.
"Oh, well, funny thing," embarrassingly said Ruby, "We found a weird mushroom that… kind of… let us get them?"
"Give me your whole stock," said Blake.
"Wait what?" asked Yang.
"Now, let's talk about that kind of thing later, first we have to tell Ruby that only ten days have passed on Remnant since you all disappeared," interrupted Qrow.
"Wait, really?" asked Ruby, "Does that mean…"
"We still have the end of the world to stop," joked Qrow.
"Oh then!" started Ruby, only to stop as Neo tugged her cloak, "Wait a minute guys, could I… ask you to wait here? I need to talk to Neo a bit."
"Sure kiddo," said Qrow.
Ruby and Neo walked back inside with the kids, letting the three grab the cookies while they went to their room.
"We have to go Neo, we need to stop Salem from destroying the world," said Ruby.
Neo shook her head, hugging Ruby tightly and refusing to let go.
"I… I still need to go," said Ruby, "You know I've always wanted to help people, and this is it, stopping Salem, so nobody has to lose the people close to them again."
Neo's eyes slowly teared up, and Ruby just as slowly wiped them away.
"I understand if you don't want to fight," she said, "My dad has this nice cottage on Patch, do you want to go there with the kids? It'll be safe."
Neo buried her head in Ruby's chest, gripping her clothes tightly and not letting go.
"I'll be back, I promise," said Ruby, "Just stay safely on Patch, and I'll be back before you even notice I'm gone."
Neo slightly pulled back before kissing Ruby passionately, her tears falling down to their locked lips, letting Ruby taste the salt as they made out. Eventually though, she let go, and Ruby stood up.
"Thank you Neo," she said as she planted a soft kiss on her lips, "Let's go back to Remnant now."
Neo nodded, and they left. This was their paradise, away from everything, but she had to admit that it wasn't meant to last. Now they were going back to Remnant as it was falling apart.
Holding their children close as they met their grandfather and Ruby left to fight, Neo could only hope for one thing.
That Ruby would be able to make it back, and that they would find their little piece of paradise in this world as well.
The end.
Since this is a one-shot, any answer to your reviews will be after this sentence.
DeAdWrites : If so, then don't wake up ;p
Mooniecat : That's bound to happen, the real question is if the kids names will all be cat puns or not.
