~ Based off of an excerpt from Chapter 7 of A Shepherd's Rest:
- "You're [Snow/Summer] a lovely woman. Perhaps in a different timeline."

. . .


. . .

Robin and Summer Alius, the owners of a small villa on the tiny island of Patch, were proud to say that they had a wonderful daughter. At the age of seven, she unlocked her Aura on by her lonesome. By the time she was twelve, she unlocked her Semblance, one that was hereditary and inherited from Summer. And at the age of fifteen, she was accepted into Beacon Academy, which had an age requirement of seventeen.

How did she get accepted into Beacon two years early? The answer is quite elementary. She simply -

"You fought the criminal, Roman Torchwick, on your own?! What were you thinking?!"

Their daughter, Ruby, flinched from her mother's scolding tone, and Robin raised an eyebrow in mild surprise. It was very rare that Summer would raise her voice, but he understood why she did so.

While yes, it could've been said in a gentler tone, Summer wasn't entirely wrong. Torchwick may not be a huntsman, but he was still a very skilled and cunning fighter. Ruby, on the other hand, was still in combat school in Signal, and was very much inexperienced. And yet, she was able to push the thief back without bringing harm upon herself or the civilians around her.

With this in mind, Robin gently placed his hand on Summer's shoulder. "Now now, all's well that ends well, right? Ruby's safe. That's all that matters."

"But - "

"No no, none of that." Robin cut her off and began playing with her high-ponytail with his hands. "Ruby just got accepted into Beacon two years early, so why not celebrate? Tai messaged me earlier to see if we wanted to visit before Yang departs for Beacon. It'd be a good time to tell them that Ruby will be attending Beacon this year."

Ruby's face, which was downcast from Summer's reprimanding, lit up instantly. "We're going to their house?!"

"That's right. We're going as soon as you're ready, so get changed quickly, okay?" Robin smiled.

He wasn't even finished speaking when Ruby vanished, leaving behind nothing but a fading trail of rose petals. As the last of the petals vanished, Summer let out a sigh.

"I'm worried for her, Robin," she admitted. "What if she's not ready for Beacon?"

"Ozpin is the headmaster. I don't think anyone is ready for his…antics. Not even Glynda," Robin said. He was still playing with her hair.

"But what if she gets hurt?"

"That's to be expected, isn't it? Beacon is a combat school where the students train to fight Grimm at a higher level."

"What if she doesn't make any friends? What if her teammates are less than desirable? What if - "

"The world is full of 'what if' scenarios, Summer. While being cautious is really never a bad thing, too much worrying can be," he calmly said. "And besides, she's our daughter. What could possibly go wrong?"

Summer shook her head and laughed. "Robin, there wasn't a single week that our team wouldn't get in trouble, mainly due to you and Tai."

"In my defense, it was because of Tai that we kept getting caught," Robin grumbled. "That guy has the grace and stealth of a drunken Goliath, and I think we both know how a drunk Grimm acts, all thanks to yours truly."

He received a light punch to his chest in return.

"You laugh because you weren't the one that had to explain to Glynda why a herd of Goliaths uprooted half the trees in the Grey Forest," Summer frowned, only for his grin to widen.

"You're right. I laugh because you were the one that had to tell Glynda why a herd of Goliaths uprooted, correction here, by the way, only forty-eight percent of the trees in the Grey Forest. It could've easily been much worse. Besides, in doing so, I revolutionized the studies of Grimm! Who knew that soulless beings can get intoxicated?"

Summer punched him again. "Why did I marry you…"

"Good question. When you figure it out, do let me know so that I know the answer as well," Robin playfully replied. "Now, come on. I hear Ruby running down the stairs and you know how she gets when she's eager to meet Yang."

. . .

The news barely made it out of Summer's mouth before Ruby was assaulted by a bear hug from the daughter of the Xiao-Long family.

"I'm so proud of you, Rubes!" Yang squealed as she tackled Ruby in a hug. "You get to be in my year at Beacon!"

Due to her being a bear hug while also carrying the weight of a running Yang, the smaller and lighter Ruby was sent tumbling off the porch instantly. The two of them landed in the clearing in front of the Xiao Long house, and right in front of Robin, who simply laughed as the cookie that was originally in Ruby's mouth comically flew through the air.

"Puah!" With great difficulty, Ruby pushed herself away from her assaulter and took in a deep breath. "It's not that big of a deal, Yang. I'm sure a bunch of people got accepted into Beacon early!"

"Actually, no. You're the first student in history to be accepted early, much less get invited by the headmaster himself," Tai corrected as he leaned against the porch railing. "It really is something to be proud of."

"That's what I've been saying, but she just refuses to hear it," Robin chuckled, ruffling his daughter's hair. "At this rate, she'll surpass both me and Summer before we know it!"

Ruby let out a string of incomprehensible mumbles and pulled her hood low over her face in an attempt to hide her embarrassment. As she did so, the house door opened as a woman with flowing, dark hair stepped out. She glanced at Ruby before walking over to sit down by the porch table with an amused expression on her face.

"It's like seeing Summer in her first year all over again," Raven quipped as her eyes landed on Ruby once more.

"I know, right? I guess there's no need to worry about their relationship!" Tai laughed.

"What?! I wasn't that bad, was I?" Summer asked, taking a seat next to Raven.

"Oh please, you were worse. You couldn't go two sentences without your voice dying down to a squeak." Raven rested her elbow on the table and smirked. "And don't even get me started on that hood of yours. Never down unless you were taking a shower or sleeping, and there were times when you'd sleep with that hood on."

Summer's face turned the color of her daughter's namesake. She then looked to Robin for help. "Robin, say something!"

"I mean, she's not wrong," Robin said with a what-can-I-really-say look on his face. "That hood of yours was up for more than half our time at Beacon. It wasn't until the last few months of our second year that you started occasionally taking your hood off when you were around us, and it was almost halfway into our third year that you began openly walking around without your hood."

"W-Well, the same could be said for you and that coat of yours!" Summer countered, desperate to shift the attention away from her. "You wore that thing almost every day! You're even wearing it now!"

"In my defense, it's all I had on me when I was found by the Branwen tribe." Robin shrugged as he straightened out his trademark coat, causing the golden lining to glint in the sunlight, despite its faded color. "Also, it's really comfortable. Like, really comfortable."

"He's not wrong," Raven said, mirroring her half-brother's words from less than a minute ago. "It is really comfortable. We all ganged up on him to try it on before, remember? And you fell asleep in it more than a few times. I still have the photos," she added with a teasing grin.

"Wha - !" Steam could be seen rising from Summer's head. "R-Raven! You said you deleted those! I even saw you delete them!"

Raven's shit-eating grin only grew wider as she whistled, "Something called a cloud drive, Summer. I might've erased them from my scroll, but the cloud data still has all of them. All. Two. Hundred."

Summer could only let out a defeated squeak as her face dropped onto the table's surface, causing the other three members of STAR to laugh.

And then it happened.

All four members of STAR shot to their feet. They didn't know what it was, but something was off. Over a decade of combat had sharpened their instincts to a razor's edge, and right now, their instincts were warning them about a powerful presence within their midst.

"Kids, behind me, now," Tai firmly said.

Yang and Ruby didn't know what put their respective parents on edge, but they obeyed without a word. Just as they reached the front of the house, there was a deafening crack, not unlike glass shattering, and a tear formed in the air itself in the clearing. The tear then began to grow, splitting into branches as white light seeped through the cracks.

"Summer, Raven, keep the girls safe," Robin said, his voice calm and resolute.

Although he couldn't deny Raven and Summer's fighting skills as they've beaten him more times than he won against them in a spar, none of them had their weapons with them in a foolish choice to leave their weapons in their respective homes. The two women of STAR could beat the men of the team anytime with their weapons, but when it came to hand-to-hand combat, Robin and Tai stood a head above the rest.

Which is why when Robin and Taiyang stepped forward to place themselves between their family and the spacial crack, no one objected.

"Any idea as to what this could be?" Tai asked Robin, settling himself into his posture. His legs squared out and his fists were raised in front of him, looking similar, but not exactly like, a standard kickboxing stance.

On the other hand, Robin stood with his back almost straight. His body was angled sideways with his right foot forward, and his left arm was raised in front of his neck. His right arm was loose by his side, but still ready to snap up in a fraction of a second.

"Your guess is as good as mine," Robin replied. He flexed his fingers and activated his Semblance, causing lightning to flicker at his fingertips. "I'm thinking Chrome. You?"

A small grin appeared on Tai's face. "I was thinking Golden Spark myself, but yeah, Chrome sounds better in this situation. You lead?"

Robin nodded as he shuffled forward a single step. Shard of near-invisible air fell away, giving them the feeling that whatever was coming through the spacial crack would be coming soon.

Then the crack shattered and a hooded figure came stumbling out of it. This much, Robin expected. What he didn't expect, however, was for a powerful gust of wind to accompany the figure, which pushed both him and Tai back halfway to the porch and knocking them both off balance.

"Did I make it? I really hope I did…"

Judging from the voice, the hooded figure was a female. Her cowl was pulled low over her head, covering most of her face, and what little of her features was only her dark hair. Her head moved around as she took in her surroundings until her gaze finally landed on Robin.

"Who - ?"

That one word escaped Robin's lips before the woman seemingly vanished. Not a second later, something crashed into him and threw him onto the ground. It took him a moment to realize that the woman had tackled him.

"Robin!" "Dad!"

"It worked!" The woman sat on his stomach and had an ecstatic grin on her face. She threw her arms up into the air in joy. "Ahahaha! It worked! I can't believe it actually worked!"

"Uhh…what?"

Robin blanked. Evident by the strange look on his face, so did Tai.

Then the woman then looked up and her eyes landed on the rest of his family. In an instant, she was no longer straddling Robin, but was instead crouching down in front of Ruby, who let out a startled squeak. The only reason why Robin knew that the woman didn't teleport was due to the few leaves that were blown into the air, creating a path of sorts from Robin to where she was standing now.

"So this is mini-me, huh? Can't really blame the teasing I got about my height, now that I look at it," the woman offhandedly said. "Really was short back then. Or…now, in this case."

Raven got over her surprise before anyone else and placed herself between the stranger and Ruby. A fraction of a second later, Summer hurriedly pushed Yang and Ruby behind her, while Tai helped Robin to his feet. The two of them cautiously approached the woman from the back as her attention was on Raven.

"Heya, Auntie Raven!"

With those two words, the floor was pulled out from underneath every member of the Alius and Xiao-Long families. Not even Raven was able to keep her composure, and in that brief moment of vulnerability, she suddenly found herself being hugged by the stranger.

"A-Auntie - what?!" Raven managed to gather herself and pushed the woman off her. "Who are you?"

"Oh, right, haven't introduced myself yet. Woops!" the woman sheepishly laughed and scratched the back of her head.

The woman pulled back her hood, and Robin's breath got caught in his throat. For a moment, he thought that he was looking at Summer, but that thought was quickly discarded upon seeing the few streaks of white in the woman's hair. Her hair was also shorter than Summer's, falling just past her shoulders.

And then the woman's words finally clicked in his head.

"You said "mini-me"… And "Auntie Raven"… Plus, the way you moved from where you were before to there in a blink of an eye…" Robin's eyes slowly widened as it all came together. "You… You're telling me that…that you're…"

The woman gave Robin a bright smile. "Figures you'd be the first one to get it. You were always thinking a few steps ahead, and your insight was always second to none. Would you like to do the honors?"

Robin shook his head. "If you're truly who I think you are, then you should be the one to tell them your identity. You always liked telling Summer and me any new reveals with fervor."

"Ahaha, yeah, that part hasn't changed much," the woman laughed. She then turned to the others. "Hey, guys. To you, I might just be some strange person that came out of an interdimensional portal-slash-crack in the air, and you'd only be half right. In fact, you know me quite well, for you've been interacting with "me" - " She made air quotes in the air to emphasize her point. " - a lot. To me, however, you are all faces that I haven't seen since…ten minutes ago?

"Where I'm from, I go by Morgan Alius Rose. Here, on the other hand, I think you would know me better as Ruby Alius. Or the future version of the little one standing right over there…" She pointed at fifteen-year-old Ruby behind Summer. "…just about eleven-ish years from now."

. . .

After the initial shock of having a time-traveling Ruby in their midst, the two families, time-traveler included, took the conversation inside the house. They were mostly quiet as Robin prepared drinks for everyone, and the only talk that was going on was from Present-Ruby to Future-Ruby.

"I get really tall in the future," Present-Ruby said with starry eyes.

"Well, I wouldn't say really tall, but taller than average," Future-Ruby laughed.

"And you're not even wearing heels!"

"Hm?" Future-Ruby looked down at her feet. "Oh, yeah. I used to wear them a lot, but after a while, I started wearing boots. Can't really explain it, but there's just something about combat boots that just feels…nice, y'know? Also, heels kept getting caught in things, like grates and tree roots. Not the best thing to happen when you're in a fight."

"How'd you get your white hair?"

"Was born with them, little-me. I'm surprised that you actually don't have any white in your hair. Maybe it's a super recessive gene."

A plate of cookies was set on the table alongside a drink for each member seated. As he sat down in an open chair next to Summer, Robin gave Future-Ruby a curious look.

"So, Ruby."

"Yeah?" "Yes?"

Both future and present Ruby turned their head to look at him, and Robin felt the beginnings of a headache form. Fortunately, that problem was nipped in the bud immediately.

"Ah, I see how this could be a problem," Future-Ruby laughed. "You can call me by my other name, 'Morgan'. It's what I went by a lot in the future."

"I actually have a question about that. Earlier, you introduced yourself as 'Morgan Alius Rose'," Tai recalled. "Can I ask why you changed your name, including the family names?"

"Oh, that? It's nothing big, to be honest. During my enrollment at Beacon, I might have sort of accidentally messed up on the name part and wrote 'Morgan' in the first name box and 'Ruby' in the middle name box. Then I also wrote 'Rose' instead of 'Alius' in the last name box, so…yeah." Morgan scratched the back of her head and sported a sheepish grin. "So after four years of most people calling me 'Morgan Rose' and a lot of my papers having 'Morgan' written on it instead of 'Ruby', I kinda got used to that name."

"Ozpin didn't bother to change - actually, that actually sounds like something he'd do," Robin grumbled. "Insufferable old man."

"And messing up your application definitely sounds like a Ruby-like thing to do," Yang laughed.

Both Morgan and Ruby's faces turned the color of their namesakes as everyone else laughed. Just as the laughter began to die down, Morgan jumped as if she remembered something important.

"Speaking of things that people do, you guys wanna hear about the really stupid thing that Dad does in the future?" Morgan gleefully asked.

With the exception of one Robin, everyone in the room nodded in agreement. Ruby nodded as well, if only to get the attention off of her.

"What did my idiot brother do?" Raven asked with a shit-eating grin on her face.

"What did the idiotic future-me do?" Robin asked as well, only his voice was laced with dread.

The grin on Morgan's face only grew wider as she leaned forward a little. "So, get this: in the future, only a couple of years after my graduation from Beacon, some sailors find an uncharted island way south of Vacuo." Her grin faltered for a second. "Well, calling it an island is a little unfair since the drones showed it to almost be the size of Menagerie, but I digress.

"So, as I was saying, finding a new land was a pretty big deal, and everyone in the world was going crazy about it. A week later, you know what Dad does? He causes the land to vanish into nothing. Poof. Gone."

It took a few seconds for what she said to click in everyone's heads. When it did…

"He what?!"

"GAHAHAHAHAHAHA! ARE YOU SERIOUS?!"

"Daaaaaadddd…"

"Robin! How - Why would you do such a thing?"

"Only you would do something like that, Robin. Only you."

Unlike the others, Robin was rendered speechless. His mouth opened and shut like a fish, and his brain worked overtime to formulate a response.

It didn't work.

"That - That's absolutely brilliant!" Tai said in between gasps of air. "That definitely tops any prank we pulled at Beacon!"

"Robin!" Summer glared at her petrified husband. "How did you get rid of an entire continent?!"

"I - I don't… What… How?!" Robin sputtered. "How did I manage to wipe a continent off the world?!"

"That's what I'm asking you!"

"And I'm asking my future-self - wait…I can't do that…" Robin turned to look at Morgan. "How did future-me wipe out an entire continent?"

"Knowing you, it was probably a prank-gone-wrong," Raven teasingly smirked. "Wouldn't be too far fetched as an answer, nor would it be for Tai to be involved."

"Don't try and keep yourself out of this. The only innocent one in our team was Summer, who was too afraid to get caught," Tai said. "You were the one behind a good portion of the pranks starting our third year, Ray."

Yang's jaw dropped to the floor. "Wait wait wait, what? Mom pulled pranks?"

"Of course. Where do you think you got your pranking genes from? Your father?" Raven scoffed and flicked a lock of hair over her shoulder. "Your father couldn't pull off a good prank if his life depended on it. His best one is worse than an average prank of mine."

"Not wrong about that," Robin chuckled and leaned back in his chair. "Raven made more than a few first years cry throughout our second year, and a rumor started going around about the Red-Eyed Demon of the West Wing."

Yang let out a low whistle as she looked at her mother, who was sporting a proud and smug smile, with newfound respect. "Damn, did not know that. Gotta step your game up, pops!"

Tai began grumbling about something under his breath. Evident by the icy glare that Raven sent his way, it was not something pleasant.

"So, how did Dad get rid of a continent?" Ruby asked her future-self, steering the conversation back on track.

"That's just the thing: no one knows how it happened," Morgan said. "A bit of backstory to set things up a little. Since no one really knew what kind of danger was on the continent, a few of teams were sent to scout the landmass, the teams being STAR, HRTH, my team, and another team from my year. Not to brag, but we were the top huntsmen teams of the time."

"Ooh! What team was I in?" Ruby suddenly asked. "Who were my teammates? Are they nice? Did they have really cool weapons? What was my team name?"

Morgan simply smiled and shook her head. "That would be spoilers, little me. What I can tell you, however, is that your teammates are some of the best people you'll meet in your life."

Satisfied with the answer, Ruby leaned back into her chair and took a cookie from the table. Her sixteenth one.

"So, Dad's team and my team began scouting the area while HRTH and J - the fourth team set up a supply zone and camp. We didn't see any Grimm while we were scouting, which was really weird, and after a few klicks of walking, there was this really big tree in the distance. Like, really big. Like, taller-than-the-clouds big. Strangely enough, there was a winding staircase built into the tree itself, so we decided to climb it.

"It took hours to reach the top of the tree. And when we got there, there was this - actually…" Morgan reached into her pocket and took out her scroll, which looked a lot sleeker and much fancier than the latest scroll model that was released last month. Truly something from the future. "…I've a photo of it."

Morgan set her scroll onto the table and a series of holographic images popped up in the air above it. Some photos had a giant tree as its main focus, showing the sheer size of it, and Robin estimated that it was at least four or five times the size of Beacon. The other photos displayed a vast and magnificent garden. Flowers of every color were in full bloom in a sea of lively grass, and the sunlight that shined down gave the garden a warm and natural filter.

"It's beautiful…" Summer softly gasped.

Yang nodded in agreement. "Hard to believe that was on the top of a tree."

"Didn't expect that, did'ya?" Morgan grinned. "There's more, by the way."

"More of the tree or more of what we didn't expect?" Robin asked.

"Yes", was Morgan's reply.

There was a chuckle from Tai. "Don't think we can be any more surprised. We have a time-traveling Ruby in our midst and we just found out that there's a yet-to-be-discovered continent on Remnant that has a tree the size of a friggin island on it."

With a knowing grin, Morgan swiped her finger across her screen, causing the images to change. The tree and garden vanished, replaced by the ruins of a temple. Time had taken its toll on it, evident by the number of vines and foliage and covered the majority of the walls and floor.

"…I stand corrected," Tai said with a miffed expression.

"A lost ruin that still stands against time… Oobleck must've lost his mind upon the news," Robin said.

"Oh, he did. And cried," Morgan immediately replied. "As in he legitimately bawled his eyes out when you made the continent vanish. Kept going on about how it was a tremendous loss to the world, both figuratively and literally, and went on a two-year expedition to find any more uncharted lands that bore no fruit.

"But anyhoo, as to how Dad managed to make that continent vanish…" A new image was pulled up: a large, stone archway with strange characters engraved into it. "…We found this not far into the temple. When Dad approached it and placed a hand on it, the markings on it began to glow a bright blue. Then this weird, milky veil appeared out of nowhere in the archway, and that's when we realized that it was a gate of sorts."

Everyone leaned forward in their seats to look at the photos. After a moment, Yang asked the question that was in everyone's mind.

"A gate to where?"

Morgan shrugged. "Don't know. It vanished almost right after appearing so we never really had a chance to look at it closely. Though, just before it actually vanished, we saw a ghost.

Silence fell upon the entire table. Even present-Ruby looked confused.

"What."

"Yup."

"No, don't just "yup" like it answers everything. What do you mean by a ghost?" Raven practically demanded. "Actually, you know what? I somehow find that easier to believe than my time-traveling niece from the future."

"Heh heh, you had that same reaction to the ghost-lady in the future, Auntie Raven. But yeah, ghost… I mean exactly that," Morgan answered. "The woman was see-through and floated off the ground. I threw a rock at her and it just went whoosh, right through her! What's that if not a ghost?"

"Son of a mother, it's like I'm listening to Summer," Raven exasperatedly said.

"No, I'm a daughter of a mother."

Raven, in turn, pinched the bridge of her nose. "And now it's Robin…"

"To be fair - " Robin started.

"Shut it, Robin." Raven cut him off instantly.

" - I am their daughter," Morgan finished with a grin. "Best of both worlds, right?"

There was the scraping sound of chair legs against the wooden floor as Raven stood from her seat. Without another word, she left grabbed her sword and walked out of the house, and despite her excellent poker face, everyone, sans one Ruby, knew what she was going to be doing.

"Guess we'll be getting more firewood soon," Yang said as the front door slammed shut.

"Good thing that winter is only seven months away, right?" Tai jokingly added as he got out of his own seat. "I'll see if I can calm her down."

Robin's eyes widened as he hurriedly said, "I highly advise that you do not attempt to calm her, Tai. We both know how Raven can get, and didn't you learn from the previous dozen times that you tried to do so?"

"Eh." There was only a shrug of Tai's shoulders. "I'm her husband. What's she going to do? Kill me?"

"I'll make sure to put that line on your gravestone as flavor-text," Robin vowed as he slowly waved his hand across the air. "It'll read, 'Last words spoken by Taiyang Xiao Long: "What's she going to do? Kill me?"' I'll even make sure to add a little note that it was your wife that's the subject in that sentence."

Tai flipped up a single finger at Robin before stepping out the door to follow his wife. Not a second after the door closed behind him, eyes turned to Morgan again, giving her the silent message to continue.

"So yeah, the ghost," Morgan said as she pocketed her scroll. "Didn't get to take a picture since I had my scroll away the time, but she was really pretty for a ghost. Looked like some sort of princess since she had a tiara. Had green hair and wore a red, one-piece dress. Oh, and a cape. She had a pink cape. And pointy ears. Can't forget the cute, pointy ears."

"A faunus?" Summer guessed.

Morgan shook her head and tilted her chair back on its back legs. "Nope. She said that she was a mana…mana…mana-something. It started with "mana", but I kinda forget the last bit."

"I see…" Robin made a mental note to look into that at a later time.

"But yeah, the pretty ghost-lady seemed to know you, Dad," Morgan added. "And I say that as in she personally knew you."

"Oooh, Uncle Robin~" Yang slyly wagged her eyebrows. "Are you seeing someone else?"

Summer turned to look at Robin with a look of complete betrayal and hurt. With a hesitant and weak voice, she uttered a single word, "Robin?"

"What?! No! Of course not!" Robin exclaimed.

"Don't worry, Mom. You and Dad are practically inseparable in the future. Joined at the hip, so to speak," Morgan reassuringly said.

The married couple let out a sigh of relief as Ruby inconspicuously leaned over to Yang.

"Hey, Yang? What did you mean when you said that Dad might be seeing someone?" Ruby whispered.

The future 'Y' of 'RWBY' feigned ignorance as she stuck her tongue out. "Who knows, little Rubes? Maybe when you're older."

"But I am older," Morgan cheekily said, causing Yang to sputter in response. "Anyhow, Dad, as I said before, the ghost-lady seemed to know you. Her words to future-you, in verbatim, were, "It has been some time, Robin. It does me well that you've finally found what you've been searching for…and at peace.""

Robin's brow furrowed at the words. "Found what I've been searching for?"

"Any idea what it means?" Summer asked.

"Nope. None at all." Robin shook his head before frowning. "But, really? Did she really have to say 'at peace'? Makes it sound like I died or something. I'd like to think I'm very much full of life, not some weird revenant!"

"Hehehe, imagine if Dad was from a different world," Ruby brightly grinned. "That'd make us like heroes of a story, wouldn't it? Ooh! Do you think we have some sort of magical powers?"

Morgan laughed at her younger self's antics. "No magic for us, little me. The closest thing we'll ever get to that are Semblances, and even then, elemental ones like Dad's are extremely rare. Speaking of Dad's Semblance…"

The moment Morgan trailed off and began to raise her hand, Robin's eyes slowly widened.

"…No…" he half-whispered and half-gasped.

In turn, Morgan gave him a knowing grin. "Yes." She looked back at Ruby just as lightning sparked to life at her fingertips. "We're Dual-Semblance wielders, you and I."

"Say what?!" Yang's mouth was a perfect circle. At the pace that her eyes were moving back and forth from Ruby to Morgan, one would've thought that she was watching a tennis match.

"Two Semblances…" Summer whispered in awe. "The last time someone had that…"

"The last time someone wielded two Semblances changed the tide of the Great War," Raven finished, having returned just in time to see Morgan's display. Tai was right behind her, sporting a red handprint on his cheek while wearing a sheepish look on his face. "It's the reason why the Warrior King of Vale was able to win, although the history books like to say otherwise. Despite what you were taught, the Warrior King had one person that he considered to be his brother-in-arms, which is how and why he was able "single-handedly" take down countless men."

"Ray, that's just your own theory," Summer tiredly said. "Most historians and scholars say that it was due to Vacuo's weather patterns and the fact that Mantle didn't know desert warfare at that time."

"They can believe what they want, just know that they're wrong," Raven huffed.

Before Summer and Raven's little argument escalated, Morgan butt in. "Anyhoo, little me! You should try and get your second Semblance up and active ASAP! Trust me on this: the first time you activate it, it'll make you super tired."

"It does?" "It did?" Robin and Ruby asked respectively.

"Yup! Almost knocked me out when it happened to me, and I was in my third year!" Morgan replied more to Ruby than Robin. "Eheh, it was really embarrassing. It activated in the middle of my second Vytal Festival during the doubles match. Thank the small miracles that it was able to take out my opponent's Aura so that Bla - my teammate didn't get ganged up on."

"How did you activate it?" Ruby brightly asked.

Morgan scratched the back of her head. "Weellll, I don't know. It was kind of a in-the-moment sorta thing, y'know? Tensions were a little high since we were up against a team that my team was friends with, and we really, really didn't want to lose."

"Ha! I get that!" Tai laughed, nudging Robin on the shoulder. "It's like us and Hestia's team!"

"Did you win the festival?" Yang asked.

"Pfft. Obviously," Morgan lightheartedly scoffed in response.

"Niiicee," Yang grinned. Her grin then turned into a frown. "Wait, what about my team? Did my team ever win?"

There was a look of contemplation on Morgan's face before her lips curled upward into an impish smile. "If I told you, "No", what would you do?"

"WHAT!? NO WAY!" Yang slammed her hands onto the table. "I lose to Ruby's team?!"

"I will neither confirm nor deny that."

"Your brat beat my brat?" Raven asked Robin, who gave her a shrug.

"I guess I got the superior genetics," Robin smirked.

"I will hurt you."

"I don't doubt that you will and would, but that doesn't change the fact that my daughter has two Semblances and beats Yang in the Vytal Festival," Robin said. His voice bordered on the line between pride and arrogance, and Raven's hand inched towards her sword.

Just like how Morgan did earlier to diffuse a potential argument, Summer cut in to save her husband from being attacked by Raven.

"Back to the story that keeps getting derailed," Summer hastily said. "Morgan, how did Robin make a continent vanish? You never got to that part."

Morgan's brow furrowed for a second before widening. "Oh, right! The story!"

"Heh, I guess that forgetfulness part of Ruby is still the same even in the future," Yang grinned.

"You'd be surprised at how little one changes despite having changed a lot," Morgan replied. "A bit of an oxymoron, but it's true."

Jaws dropped upon hearing Morgan's sagely response. Of all the things to come out of her mouth, words of wisdom were the least expected, which further proved her point.

"So, anyways, after the pretty ghost-lady talked to dad, she faded. Then Dad, being Dad, runs up and tries to grab her vanishing form, misses and ends up running into that weird-looking arched gate I talked about earlier. One of the stones got knocked loose, the gate crumbled, and then the entire tree started to vanish like the ghost lady. Like, the ground started to become see-through and everything.

"Since none of us were really really keen on falling from however high up we were, we ran down the winding stairs as fast as we could. It was like a video game, y'know? Like the ones when you gotta run away from something and you're on a time limit?" She let out a short laugh. "I remember Mom and Dad yelling at Auntie Raven for not having been able to use her Semblance with anyone back at camp."

Robin burst into laughter at that. "HA! That definitely sounds like something Ray would do, given her personality. Avoid making friends and all."

"Hmph. That's because there's hardly anyone worth my time," Raven scoffed.

"That's the same exact answer she gave in the future," Morgan said with a wide grin. "But yeah, Mom and I used our speed Semblances to go ahead of everyone else and then Auntie Raven used her Semblance to bring the rest of the group to camp through us. Then we all got onto the Bullhead as fast as we could and took off as the land vanished."

"And there was no sign of the strange land?" Summer asked.

"Nope!" Morgan replied, popping the 'p'. "The ocean returned to normal within a minute too, like the entire landmass never existed. I think Doc was going on about how a continent vanishing in a blink of an eye would've ruined the ecosystem and all, but honestly, I wasn't really paying attention.

"So yeah, after we returned to the mainlands, we couldn't really keep the news of the island vanishing a secret for that long. The solution that Ozpin and Ironwood came up with was to put that area as another Dark Zone, and the only ones that would ever have clearance to enter would be if they got permission from the both of them."

Robin nodded. "Smart. Only a handful of Huntsmen have the clearance to enter the Dark Zone, so barring the mystery island as another would deter most people from even wanting to go near it. Discouraging the curious, given how dangerous the DZ is."

They sat in silence after that. Not an awkward one, but one that was just content with how things are at the moment. The only sounds that were heard were from Ruby, who was still munching away on the final cookie that was on the plate.

"By the way, Morgan…" The silence was broken by Summer, who threw a curious glance over to her time-traveling daughter. "How do you plan on going back to your time? If you plan on going back, that is."

"Oh, that?" Morgan dismissively waved her hand as she took out a metallic disc from her pocket. "My friend and teammate built this transponder as she worked on the time machine with a few others. Theoretically, it should be able to pinpoint my exact location through some really complicated mumbo jumbo that is time travel. It was on this entire time, so I'm pretty sure that my friend - "

The disc in her hand started to beep, stopping all talk in an instant.

"Speaking of the devil…"

Morgan tossed the disc across the room where it clattered onto the floor. A moment later, the top of the disc opened, revealing a bright light that shot into the ceiling. As everyone watched, the light seemed to solidify in front of their eyes until it was a milky vortex of light-blue.

"Huh, so I guess the portal is a success," Morgan nonchalantly quipped. Contrary to her calmness, everyone else was looking at the portal with awe and surprise. "If everything works out correctly, which in theory, it should, then you'll be meeting my team from the future, and by extension, little-me's team."

Voices started making their way through the portal. It was faint at first, not unlike a whisper, but as time passed, the voices sounded clearer and louder. When the voices seemed as if they were in the same room as everyone else, one could only wonder…

"Are…. Are they arguing? About colors?" Yang asked incredulously.

"Seems like it," Raven said.

Morgan released a tired groan into her hands. "Not again… I thought they would've gotten over this by now…"

A few more seconds passed until three women stepped out of the portal, one of them looking very familiar.

"And I'm just saying, it would've looked a LOT better if it was yellow with an orange outline!"

"How many times must I tell you for it to make it through your thick skull?! I don't get to choose what color it is! It just came out as that light-blue color and there was nothing I could do to change that!"

"Oh, but you could change the initial light color to be anything you wanted, right?"

"This and that are two different things, you complete and utter dunce! One is something that I was able to control by adding a colored lens onto the top, and the other is completely out of my control!"

"Well, why not add a colored lens onto the portal itself? Maybe that could've changed the color of it instead of that baby blue color."

"Because I can't touch the portal!"

"Hey, you might want to stop arguing. We're here."

The two arguing time-travelers looked at their third companion, who wasn't even looking at them. At this, Morgan got off her seat and took a step forward.

"Really? Arguing even though everything's been done with?" Morgan shook her head with a frown marring her features. "I thought the two of you would be more mature than that."

One of the arguing two rolled her eyes as she placed her hands on her hips. "Just because Ice Queen refuses to admit that she's wrong. Besides, it's not as if we're meeting new people. We're meeting our old selves and younger versions of our parents. Which reminds me…" She turned her head and waved at Raven and Taiyang. "Sup, mom, pops."

Raven and Tai both had their jaws on the floor while Yang pointed at the time-traveler.

"That's… You're…me?" Yang asked.

Future-Yang grinned at Present-Yang. "Correct in one, little-me!"

"Holy crap, I'm HOT!"

"Damn right, we are!"

With a roll of her eyes, Morgan faced everyone in the 'present'. "Everyone, I'd like to introduce to you, my team. I'm sure you've figured it out already, but this is Yang."

"Yo," Future-Yang said, waving her hand.

"Hold up, that means that Ruby and I are in the same team!" Yang exclaimed, hugging her smaller girl.

With a smile on her face, Morgan gestured at the one that Future-Yang was arguing with, a woman in a pale-blue dress and snow-white hair that was tied into a ponytail. "Weiss Schnee, the CEO of the newly reformed Schnee Dust Enterprise, or SDE for short."

Weiss curtsied. "Pleasure to meet you all, despite the fact that we've met in our past, your future."

"Wait a sec, Schnee?" Tai's eyebrows shot to the roots of his hair. "Like…the SDC Schnee?"

"The very same," Weiss said with a nod. "I believe at this moment in time, the current-me is only the heiress to the company that I would claim from Jacques Schnee in a few years' time."

"You're also a stuck-up brat at during this time, but don't worry, little-me, little-Rubes," Future-Yang smirked and placed a hand on Weiss' head. "She'll warm up to you sooner or later."

A bit of red appeared on Weiss' cheeks as she shook her head in exasperation. "Quite. As much as I wish to deny that, I must admit that I was…hard to deal with in the past." She looked at Ruby and present-Yang. "I hope that you do not take the younger-me's words to heart when you inevitably meet at Beacon."

"Uhh…sure…" Ruby and Yang replied simultaneously.

"And with that, here's our last teammate!" Morgan beamed and gestured over to a black-haired faunus with cat ears. "Blake Belladonna, once ex-member of the White Fang and now the leader of the twice-reformed White Fang!"

Robin raised a brow. "Twice-reformed?"

Blake nodded at Robin. "As I'm sure you know, the White Fang was originally a peaceful group that was founded by my father, Ghira Belladonna. After he stepped down, the position was claimed by Sierra Khan, who turned the White Fang into a violent group, which is what it currently is right now. After leaving Beacon, I was able to take leadership of the White Fang."

"I see. And what is the White Fang in the future?" Raven asked.

"The White Fang accomplished its goal of equality between humans and faunus after years and with the assistance of many friends," Blake answered. "We were able to achieve that through peace, much like the goals of the original White Fang, and we now operate as a black ops group alongside some of Atlas' Specialists to quell the scattered resistances left from the war."

Almost everyone stiffened after hearing that last word.

"War?" Summer quietly gasped.

"I thought you said it was done through peace?" Raven asked, her voice heavily laced with skepticism.

"Not a war between humans and faunus, but against the Queen and her Grimm," Weiss answered. "It was - "

Weiss was interrupted by a shadow that suddenly engulfed the room. The shadows quickly receded to one corner, where it pooled into an ovular shape and a woman stepped out. She was dressed entirely in black that looked more like a second layer of skin than clothes, almost like shadows, accentuating her killer body, and her black hair flowed down her back like silk.

"Hey, Robin, I've got another job - " The woman paused as her ivory-colored eyes scanned the room. She then uttered a curse under her breath. "Shit, wrong timeline. I blame you four." She pointed at the four time-travelers in the room, who all looked at the woman in confusion. "I'm going to kick Time's ass when I see him again, letting other people mess with his domain. Does he know how much more annoying he makes the job of my Reapers whenever he makes alternate timelines like this?"

Everyone glanced at one another, unsure of what to make of the strange yet absolutely gorgeous woman in the room.

The woman snapped her fingers and the shadows started to move again, gathering in a circle at her feet.

"Oh, just saying…" She pointed at Robin and Summer. "You two look damn cute together. Maybe I should try setting Robin up with Snow in that world."

Before anyone could make sense of what she said, the woman melted away into the shadows, leaving behind ten perplexed hunters.

"Well…that happened…" Robin muttered.

Future-Yang, on the other hand, slyly grinned at him. "Damn, Uncle Rob! You're damned lady-magnet, aren't you? And she was an absolute bombshell at that!"

Summer looked at Robin with her pained eyes. "…Robin…?"

"I swear I have never met her before in my life!" Robin hastily said. "Morgan even said that we're together in the future, didn't she!"

"True true." Morgan shrugged. "But that didn't stop other women from longing after you. You just drew women to you without even trying or wanting to. Mom had to fight the others off more often than not, and lemme tell you, she can be absolutely terrifying when she's fighting over you."

"I can see that," Raven smirked. "You should've seen him at Beacon. The dense idiot didn't even know that he had like seven other girls vying for his attention. It's a wonder how he and Summer even got together."

Summer's face turned beet red as Robin did his best to defend himself from attracting other women in the future, causing everyone else to laugh at their expense.

. . .

The shadows rippled as Death stepped out of her portal. The moment the smell of coffee hit her nose, she knew that she traveled to the right timeline. The familiar interior of his lounge even confirmed it.

"Hey, Robin!"

"I'm not in!" he yelled from the second floor.

With a roll of her eyes, she willed herself into Robin's room. As the shadows peeled away from her form, she was hit in the face by something soft. That 'something' revealed itself to be a pillow as it fell to her feet with a foof.

"Robin."

"Go away."

The cafe owner was currently in his bed with his covers pulled over his body. His eyes, while looking very sleepy and tired, still managed to convey the feeling of annoyance and irritation, but that could easily be from being woken up at four in the morning.

"I've got a job."

"No."

"…Do you want to take it willingly or do you want me to force it on you?"

"It's not even going to be willingly because it's nothing more than an ultimatum," Robin glowered from beneath his sheets.

Death let out a sigh. "Don't make me get into the bed with you."

"Try it," he dared.

Robin realized his mistake the moment the words left his mouth. Before he could stop it, not that he could, Death climbed into the bed next to him with a grin that was most definitely not evil on her face. Then the grin dropped immediately and her eyes widened in wonder.

"It is…surprisingly comfortable in here…" Death said as she gently sank into the mattress.

She suddenly felt extremely drained and tired, as if the bed was sapping her strength by the second. It was no wonder that Robin didn't want to leave this comfortable heaven. She pulled the silken blanket tightly around her, not caring about the annoyed grunt that came from Robin as his arm was exposed to the air. That problem was solved when he snapped his fingers, causing a second blanket to drop down on him.

"Didn't you want me to go on some job?" Robin yawned.

"Mm…later…" Death lazily murmured. "Too comfy right now."

The last thing she heard was another annoyed grunt from Robin before she fell asleep right next to Robin.

And which was how they were found a few hours later by Snow, who was more than eager to take a photo of the two sleeping side-by-side.

. . .


. . .

Had this chapter in the works for a while now. Almost right after starting this fic, in fact. It was originally intended to be a completely different fic entirely with Robin as a Beacon student during Team STRQ's era, but I was waaaaaay too lazy to think of original ideas for the plot and OC's to accompany it. So I put it on the back burner until I started writing Ch.7 of Shepherd, and I changed the original idea into this chapter.

Another idea for this chapter was for Ruby and Morgan to be twin sisters, but once again, my laziness was like, "Screw that, that's a lot of work to think ways to make it flow smoothly," and Ruby becoming 'Morgan' due to a mishap in her application came into mind.

But yeah, this is more of a celebratory chapter as this is the tenth chapter of A Shepherd's Rest, and also as a "thank you" to all of you. Every time I think that this story capped at the number of favorites/follows, all of you manage to prove me wrong.

As for the questions that some of you may or may not have:
- Where's Qrow, you might ask? || Doesn't exist in this timeline for…reasons that I'm too lazy to think of. Robin is Qrow in this case.
- Why's Raven still with her team and family? || Because I wanted a happy story.
- Why's Raven a little OoC? || Because she never left and, in
Awakening, Robin's Supports with characters can change mindsets a little. Who's to say that living an entire life with Robin wouldn't change Raven's mentality, even if it's just enough so that she wouldn't leave her family? Also because I wanted a happy story.