"Yang, be honest with me, should I retire as a pokemon trainer?" Ruby's eyes pleaded for an honest answer.

"What? Where the hell is this coming from?" Yang asked, taken aback by the question.

"Look, compared to you I'm just second rate. During the few times where I've been able to snatch the crown away from you the people loathe my reign and eagerly await your return. No matter what I do they can't even pretend to tolerate me. It's pretty obvious by now how they feel! As far as the title of Unova League champion goes, it's clear that you're the heir apparent. You're the only one who can fill our mother's shoes. In the eyes of the people the title is your's and I just look stupid trying to wrestle it out of your hands," Ruby explained. These were feelings that she had kept secret from her sister for so long. Ruby feared that she may reject her for voicing her feelings in earnest, but to her surprise Yang replied with this,

"Geez! You're talking about our mom like she's already dead. She's proud of both of us. You know that right?"

"Right, sure, of course she is…"

"I'm serious. Champion or not, you mean the world to her. The two of us could be nobodies and she would still love us," Yang droned on like that for several minutes, spewing platitudes to the lesser sister. Ruby hated this part more than anything. Losing was bad, but having someone tell you that you, in fact, weren't the loser and were actually a sweet little snowflake was even worse.

The two sisters, the golden champion and the scorned reaper, walked the streets of Lacunosa town. The older, the golden champion, was in high spirits. However, the reaper, the younger, found herself lost in thought. She could not help but comb over the details of the battle that had happened earlier. What could she have done to force a different outcome? Was her strategy, perhaps, too aggressive? Was the composition of her team simply not tailored properly to the fight she had signed up for? For her whole life, she had been cautious about adding new members to her team. This was partially born out of a belief in the tactical advantage of a smaller, close knit team. Fewer pokemon meant more attention could be given to each individual member. As a result, the levels of her pokemon were somewhat higher than that of her sister, but that wasn't enough. Level wasn't everything. It was only a rough approximation of a pokemon's general strengths. Though it could be used as a rough measure of a pokemon's expected performance in battle, the reality of things was often much more complicated. This was especially true of battles between experienced trainers like Yang and Ruby.

Perhaps her issue lied not in the composition of her team, per se, but rather in the amount of pokemon she had. Ruby had a limited number of options in battle because she chose to only train four pokemon. Maybe the secret to defeating her sister could be found in broadening her horizons. Complex and dower were the thoughts that occupied the Reaper's mind. Fireworks popped off in the distance. The first flashed with two distinct colors: gold and silver. The next was red, blue, and green, but each one glittered like a gemstone. The shimmering dust lingered in the night sky long after the colors themselves had faded. They filled the air with faint white glints and the air itself soon began to resemble diamonds and pearls. Several stands had been set up by merchants peddling their wares. One such stand that had caught the attention of many children quickly found itself empty as the little ones scurried to catch the shining dust. "Oh! Sorry, Ma'am!" one of the children said, bumping into Ruby. The contact had snapped her back to reality.

"Don't worry about it," she assured him.

"You're the old champion right?"

"No…"

"Don't deny it! I know for a fact you are. I can tell, you have those eyes. Eyes like a fierce dragon pokemon! You gotta be Ruby Rose!" He said, practically jumping up and down for joy. Ruby was embarrassed, to say the least. Being acknowledged by the child only served to remind her of the match she had just lost, a fight she fought to reclaim the title that she had held only briefly. However, in spite of her shame and embarrassment she could never lie to a child. After all, a proper pokemon league champion sets a good example for children and is always willing to consort with fans.

"Sorry, it must have slipped my mind. Come to think of it… I actually am the woman you're talking about! I'm Ruby Rose. Nice to meet you." She grinned. The child's eyes went wide with excitement.

"I KNEW IT! I KNEW IT! You're a real tricky champion, you know? You almost fooled me!"

"Well… You don't get to where I am without learning how to lie a little…"

"So cool!" As he said that a woman, presumably his mother, came up behind him.

"Don't run off like that, Timmy! Quit bothering that woman and let's go," She said, turning to Ruby and Yang, "I'm sorry for the trouble he caused you."

"No worries," Yang replied.

"NO! Mom, Wait!" He flailed. Timmy whispered something in his mother's ear.

"My son is too scared to ask you this, but can he have your autograph? He's a really big fan. Again, I'm really sorry about this,"

"Oh, of course. Always happy to help out a fan," Said Yang as she prepared a pen, "What does he want signed?"

"Actually, he wants your sister's autograph. He's a really big fan of the red reaper," She said as Yang, without missing a beat, handed the pen to Ruby.

"Ah, right, makes sense," Yang tapped her forehead with her pointer finger, "Ruby's fanbase has been getting a lot bigger lately." Yang gestured for her sister to take the pen and Ruby hesitantly took it. She signed a trading card for him. He was ecstatic, talking about how all of his friends would be jealous of him for owning a signed piece of merchandise. The trading card was, apparently, for some kind of game centering around pokemon. A trading card game about pokemon, who would have thought? There were a number of cards in the game that featured various famous trainers and, according to Timmy, players were meant to use those cards to gain advantage and get closer to the ultimate goal of winning. Ruby did not remember ever giving the Pokemon League license to use her likeness, but she didn't really care because Timmy was happy. They thanked Ruby and left. Yang put an arm around Ruby's shoulder, "See what I mean? There's still a lot of fans of the Red Reaper out there. So stop giving up on yourself. Cuz' when you give up on yourself you give up on them," Yang's words were as warm as ever. Though Ruby was the one who resembled their mother the most, it was Yang who had inherited her demeanor. Forever burning, they forbade the cold from ever reaching the people they loved most of all.

"You're right," Said Ruby, almost crying "I can't give up! Not yet!"