"It is a curious thing, the death of a loved one. We all know that our time in this world is limited, and that eventually all of us will end up underneath some sheet, never to wake up. And yet it is always a surprise when it happens to someone we know." ― Lemony Snicket, Horseradish
Chapter 21-
The room was deadly quiet after Mizu's statement while the other girls except for Winter were in shock it was Neo who recovered first.
"Everyone out." Neo said calmly but everyone could hear the threat laced into the tone.
Everyone but Mizu and Winter left the room, quickly wanting to get away from it while Weiss had hesitated but felt that she shouldn't be there as well as getting over the shock of having a half-sister.
"You knew as well? Of course. It's why you were getting closer to Ruby because you knew she was your half-sister." Neo accused Winter as her gaze moved onto her.
"I only found out a few days ago, I didn't know until I found mother crying with Ruby asleep in her arms." Winter defended.
Neo just shook her head in response as she just said, "Get the fuck out." Neo spat out harshly but Winter only stood her ground prompting Neo for the second time to draw her weapon, "Get out!" She said more forcefully.
"It's alright Winter, go." Mizu said gently.
She only hesitated for a few seconds before she turned and left the room leaving the two women alone together.
"You have thirty seconds before I run my blade through you for everything you caused Ruby." Neo said darkly, her blade staying in her hands.
"There isn't much to explain, I gifted Summer with a child and she vanished as I married my awful husband. I didn't even know it was a success until Qrow told me but I guessed when I saw she was a wolf." Mizu explained calmly, ignoring the threat.
"You could have searched for her, you should have searched for her and not left her alone. When her mother died if Qrow wasn't around or the White Fang she would have easily died." Neo stated.
"I tried, every year I tried to find Summer but she clearly didn't want to be found. I scoured that forest where we spent so much of our time together for clues that she was there or where she could be but I never found her. And what are you talking about the White Fang helping Ruby?" Mizu asked, sadness evident as she spoke about her hunt.
"The White Fang gave her an enemy, something to go towards stopping and giving her a purpose with her mother gone and Qrow was simply someone that always stood by her to support her through it. I didn't meet her until three years after her mother passed." Neo said, lowering her weapon and parasol to the ground but still within easy reach.
"I know I missed out on so much with Ruby and it's a regret I'll take with me to the grave but surely you understand that we need to try and save Ruby, if she's truly dying as you say." Mizu begged.
Neo's eyes softened for the first time and Mizu noticed they were no longer the vibrant colours they would change to but instead a pale blue. "She is dying, it was something she told me about a year after we met. The same time I proposed to her or rather we did to each other but we didn't really make it official until we were sixteen. She always said she knew her time would be short and that she wanted to make sure she had either completed her mission or given the best students she could find her training she had and the same purpose. We discovered about a year ago that Ruby was getting worse a lot faster than we expected." Neo explained.
"So we started hunting, looking at students. With Qrow being a headmaster of a school it made searching a bit easier but we struggled. In the end when Ozpin offered Ruby that chance we took it, using finding her father as a front although it was true all the same. We did that and Ruby begun training them all and hopefully they'll finish what she started with her mother." Neo informed her calmly, her gaze going back to Ruby as it changed to both pink eyes.
"Why didn't she try and do something about the illness?" Mizu asked, taking a seat on the opposite side to Neo as she took Ruby's hand into her own.
"She dwells with beauty, beauty that must die. And joy, whose hand is ever at his lips. His soul must taste the sadness of her might. And be among her cloudy trophies hung. Darkness will come to the roses as the moon will proudly watch the roses die." Neo responded calmly but Mizu noticed the fresh tears forming in her eyes.
"What does that all mean?" Mizu asked, confused at what Neo had told her.
"Ruby said that to me when I asked the same question, you wouldn't believe me entirely but it means this. Ruby is beauty and in the end she will die but joy will taste the sadness of her might before she passes. At least that's how Ruby first explained it but now it's more like joy will taste the sadness of her might through her death." Neo replied as she went to answer the second part.
"Darkness refers to the Grimm, and when Ruby stopped the Grimm in the tunnel that was the darkness coming to her and when we arrived the moon was shining only on her body." Neo finished answering.
"Where did you learn all this? Who came up with this crap?" Mizu asked failing to stop herself from laughing.
"The Angel of Death, Maya told us of this prophecy if you wish to call it that." Neo answered bluntly.
Mizu could only laugh again at the comment, "You're telling me an Angel of Death visited you to tell you that Ruby was set to die and how it would happen?" Mizu asked.
"The Angel of Death and it's true, it doesn't matter what you think but it is true and Ruby wholeheartedly accepts her fate which is why she doesn't want anything done. She knows nothing can be done for her. The disease is the only known case, the doctor said she'd likely live for a year, two at most. That was six years ago, we know nothing can be done for her. It's too late. " Neo said plainly which actually stopped Mizu's laughter.
"This is true isn't it?" She asked.
"Of course, I wouldn't lie about this." Neo answered.
"So what's going on now? She's still alive." Mizu asked gently, not wanting to sound negative.
"She's in limbo, I don't know what she's doing. I don't even know if she'll wake up again or not." Neo said, her voice breaking as she let out a strangled sob before burying her head into the bed as she held Ruby's hand tightly.
Mizu watched as the woman in front of her broke down sobbing, moving to the other side of the bed she took Neo into her arms to offer what little comfort she could as she cried for losing her love.
While Mizu herself cried for the daughter she never could meet as mother and daughter instead of just allies or maybe friends.
Ruby found herself in a bright white corridor at one end while the corridor as it extended in front of Ruby. She stood just on the edge of the threshold as if she was waiting for someone to tell her to move forward.
A tall, beautiful woman seemed to walk up beside Ruby to stand next to, she wore a long reaching black dress that covered her whole body while she had dark grey angel wings extending from her shoulder blades.
"Hello Angel of Death." Ruby said softly, causing the angel to flinch.
"You know I don't like that name." She replied back but her tone held no malice.
"I apologise Maya, I guess it was time. Could you at least tell me if I stopped the Grimm?" Ruby asked.
"How about I do one better?" The woman asked with a smile, "I can give you three days back in the world of the living to make your peace with the world before I have to take you to the other side." Maya told Ruby.
"You can do that?" Ruby asked, surprised.
"I can. Normally I don't allow it nor do the others but for you I will give you the full time to make peace. However you won't have full movement of your body, from the waist down you'll be immobile, I'm sorry." Maya informed her mournfully.
"It's fine. You've done a lot for me and giving me extra time to make peace is even more than I could wish for, so please don't apologise." Ruby replied looking towards the long corridor.
"You better return, use all the time you can before I have to see you again." Maya stated.
"But I thought you liked me." Ruby teased.
Maya just laughed at Ruby's actions as she said, "Go, I'd rather not see you for a long time but we both know the truth. Enjoy the time Ruby." Maya stated.
"Thank you Maya." Ruby said before she was enveloped by bright white light as she vanished from Maya's side, "I'm just sorry I couldn't do more Ruby." Maya said sadly to the empty air.
"How did you two meet?" Mizu asked after Neo had calmed down enough to talk.
Neo laughed humourlessly, "You'd better get the others in at the same time, I'd rather not tell the story multiply times." Neo said, knowing the interest in their history.
It was easy enough to get WWBY back into the room as they seem to crowd the seats, while they all acted like nothing had happened previously.
"So Ruby and I didn't meet in school, or rather she wasn't in school anyway and I was when we met. Originally I'm from Patch, the same as Ruby but she never attended the school and it was sort of a rumour around the school that something other than Grimm inhabited the forests surrounding Patch, particularly the school though it depended on who you asked what it was that lived in the woods." Neo explained.
"Anyway the majority of the forest itself is actually safe as Mizu can attest to, so the teachers to punish bad students would send them to walk through a small area. Because of the rumours it scared them to death to do it but they did." Neo said with a smile on her face.
"But surely the headmaster wouldn't allow that? Would he?" Weiss asked.
"Well it is a school for aspiring Hunters and Huntresses but also the headmaster was Qrow, he knew who the rumours were about and seemed to coordinate the punishment. They largely went unhindered walking through the forest it was just more the thought of doing it and they all accepted the risks. I think I messed up somehow or managed to piss someone high up enough that they decided when I went through the forest it would be time for my semblance to unlock itself." Neo explained, smiling back on the memory.
All those in the room understood the problem, sometimes people would have their semblance unlocked at birth and was just waiting to be used when their Aura was strong enough for others though, it would arrive later in life for whatever reason and normally it was rather calm with a little scare of actually finding out you had some power but in a small one percent of the time it was rather explosive and intense how they learnt.
"Ah Neo, come in and hello." Qrow said from behind his desk, paperwork sitting on top of it.
"Um is something wrong sir?" Neo asked, walking into the room slowly. She was still the same height, having reached the tallest at ten years old, and her hair was shorter but her clothing choices were the same.
"No, nothing's wrong or rather nothing important. I know you're going through the forest today as part of punishment for…" Qrow said, pausing as her read a piece of paper, "stealing someone's wallet and putting a fake one that you made in its place. And giving that money to a local charity for orphaned Faunus." Qrow said in amusement.
"Well he was always flaunting his money around everywhere and rubbing it in my face that he had more money than I'd ever make. So I wanted to see him lose that money. At least it went to a good cause." Neo attempted to defend herself. Also knowing the kid himself hated Faunus made it even better.
"I've already read the reason you told the teachers, that's not why I called you up here. It's rather cold out there at the moment and I know you don't have sufficient clothing to protect against it." Qrow said as he stood up from his desk to take something from a hook.
"This should protect you from the elements and I must stress that you are not to go away from your path." Qrow said, handing her a large red cloak with a hood.
"Um whose is this?" Neo asked holding the warm, soft material in her hands but she could feel something else in the cloak.
"Oh it's my nieces, she forgot it last time she visited me. Don't worry it's fine for you to wear. I believe you're supposed to meet a teacher by the edge of the forest now aren't you?" Qrow said lightly, going back to his work.
Neo didn't response as she walked away from the office and towards the forests edge, as soon as she got outside she felt the biting cold and immediately put the cloak on to try and combat the cold.
Immediately she started to warm up as the cloak sat around her shoulders but she heard a clicking sound when she put the cloak on as well as she thought she heard a voice say something but it was too quiet that she couldn't barely hear it.
Speaking briefly with the teacher he just told her to stay on the path laid out in her map and just told her to start.
The forest was peaceful as she walked through it with only the howling wind as a companion but the cloak seemed to block all of it out leaving Neo rather warm despite the cold, she wasn't looking forward to giving this back.
Not paying attention to where she was going Neo tripped on a branch and was about to fall face first to the ground, hands held up in front of her and her eyes closed but as she expected to feel impact she felt something else through her body.
Suddenly instead of falling onto her front she fell onto her back and as she opened her eyes she saw that instead of the snow covered trees she was next to before now the trees in front of her had no snow covering them but instead just blackened branches.
"What the. Where am I?" Neo asked to herself, looking around the forest with no snow on the ground or anywhere else.
Getting up Neo walked up to a tree to touch it but as she did it just shattered into pieces in front of her, causing her to jump back in shock and into another one which shattered again causing Neo to move somewhere else.
"What's going on?" Neo asked aloud trying to find a way out of wherever she was, growing scared as she recognised nothing around her. But as she thought back to the snowy forests she felt something change inside and suddenly she was in the snowy forest again but this time as if jumping in the air while unprepared she fell to her knees.
Running up to one of the trees Neo hesitantly touched it only to watch it shatter again in front of her alongside more of the trees as well.
Scared and confused Neo just crouched down and curled in as she looked around scared, unsure where she was and what was going on around her causing her to cry softly.
"Shh. Just relax. Calm your body than clam your mind." A softly spoken but firm female voice said to her.
Looking up Neo saw a woman who looked no older than her, dressed in black trousers, corset, shirt and combat boots crouched in front of her. But her eyes looked as if she was much older than just ten years old, at least double that if not more. And had seen horrible things in her life.
"Who are you?" Neo asked, her voice breaking a little.
"This is your semblance, you have two. Not many people have that so be proud of it. You can teleport and create illusions, that's what this is now. It's all an illusion your mind has created, relax your mind and think back to where you were when this all happened." The girl explained calmly, ignoring Neo's question.
Neo didn't reply back as she shut her eyes attempting to focus back on the forest where she had last remembered and with the girls gentle encouragement she was able to focus.
"The trees all around are covered in snow, there is a howling, biting wind but the cloak is protecting you from it. There is nothing around except for trees and wind." The girl quietly told her, getting her mind to focus on this.
When Neo next opened her eyes she found herself still crouched on the floor with the cloak wrapped tightly around her body and a group of teachers all standing in front of her looking out to the forest.
The first to notice her was Qrow who rushed to her side to check her for any problems but Neo only looked confused which he quickly understood.
"You've been gone for over four hours that walk takes about ten, twenty minutes at most so you can understand we got a bit worried. Could you tell us what happened?" Qrow explained.
"My Semblance unlocked, I can teleport and create illusions but I got trapped in one." Neo explained.
"How did you get out?" Qrow asked.
"Um." Neo said, unsure how to answer the question as she didn't know if that person was just a figment of her imagination or actually a real person.
"Someone else was there weren't they? Did they wear all black with black and red hair?" Qrow asked.
"How did you know?" Neo asked but she received no reply.
"Alright let's get you to medical to get checked out. Oh and well done on unlocking your semblance, it's rare for people to have two so be proud of that, keep the cloak as well." Qrow said.
"But isn't it your nieces?" Neo asked.
"It's fine, trust me." Qrow said before getting other teachers to take her to the medical room on campus.
Over the course of the next few months Neo wore the cloak constantly as it helped with the cold of the island but also she found some odd comfort in the cloak. But over this time she had also seen this girl who helped her multiply times.
It would only be a glimpse around the school or outside, it'd be a flash of black hair or clothes, even silver eyes but whenever she attempted to follow her she discovered she had vanished from sight and no one around seemed to notice the girl.
It got to the point where Neo started to believe it was all her imagination or her semblance messing with her or trying to tell her something but she couldn't work it out, especially as no one could enter her illusions unless she allowed them to, which only made her question this woman's identity even more.
In the end Neo managed to follow the apparition as she started calling it all the way from Qrow's office and through the school however students seemed to act like she wasn't even there, even the teachers were the same.
Following the girl she hesitated for a moment as she watched her go into the forest but chose to follow after her anyway regardless.
Neo followed the girl as she walked through the forest without a problem but after a twenty minute walk through the forest she suddenly lost sight of the girl with no idea where she was.
Neo searched around for the girl for almost an hour to no luck but what she did end up finding was a large pack of Beowolves hunting around and they decided Neo was easy prey.
Neo backed away quickly upon spotting the Grimm but struggled to get away from the fast moving creatures and without a weapon she couldn't defend herself. She hadn't picked a weapon yet and used what the school had during training as practise and an idea of what she would prefer using but she wasn't allowed them outside the training hall like others who had their own weapon. That and she couldn't afford anything that she liked.
As the first one was about to attack her she held up her hands in some form of weak defence but she knew it wouldn't work, and she felt death creping ever closer to her now.
A/N
So some information thrown at you here, and Ruby and Neo's first meeting. Also about the Goddess/Angel of Death. Name is completely made up, if there's any relation than please share but I couldn't find anything about it.
Also yeah, another story with the Gods involved. I rather like using them as it's quite easy to do but also is a rather simple way for me to incorporate them in.
Not much else, next update will be Saturday this time it's only because I felt like it.
That's about it, so until next time. ^_^
(Oh and still looking for prompts so send any in.)