Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.

Minutes After Cackletta Was Finally Destroyed

"Woo! We finally did it!" Ruby cheered as she cheerfully skipped over to Queen Bean's castle once Cetacea landed just in front of the castle.

"I don't know about you, but I could use a nap after this…" Blake said.

"Agreed." Dimitri said, still wincing from the loss of his eye from Cackletta.

"You okay?" Edelgard asked.

"I'll be fine… it could've been a lot worse." He chuckled.

"I think we could all use a nap." Hop chuckled. "I plan on snoozin' when we get on that plane."

"I doubt that's very comfortable." Marnie said.

"Ah, let him nap. We all deserve it." Gloria giggled as everyone walked inside… but Yang wasn't. She was staring at her cheerful sister striking a conversation with Xena and Byleth, while Luminary was talking with Weiss about Cetacea.

"Something wrong?" A voice spoke up, snapping her out of her thoughts as she turned to see Erik walking up to her.

"Oh… nothing."

"You sure? You look like you have something on your mind."

Yang let out a sigh. "Well… the thing is, I… haven't really been the best sister to Ruby."

"Ah… sibling trouble, I take it?"

Yang looked down. "I guess you can say that."

"Well, what's troublin' ya?"

"We're not actually… blood related, Ruby's kinda my half sister. I'm a XIao Long, she's a Rose… different mothers, basically."

"Heh… and to think either you or Ruby dyed your hair a different color to stand out." Erik chuckled, causing Yang to snicker a bit. "So, I hate to pry but… something going on between you two? I've a feeling it's a bit of a strained relationship."

"It all started when we were fighting Hades' forces… though, then we didn't know who Hades was so we just thought it was Medusa at first. There was this one moment when this thing called the Mirror of Truth made exact mirrors out of all of us. Evil mirrored clones, basically."

"Huh… okay…"

"Dark Ruby… she tormented my sister to the point where she gets nightmares over it and a little bit of PTSD… then she gets her soul ripped out by the Chaos Kin, sacrificing her own life to protect Palutena. I… think she's over the Chaos Kin? I'm not exactly sure… but Dark Ruby… she's been haunting her for a long time." She clenched her fists. "And I haven't been there for her!"

"Oh…"

"To make matters worse… I've been ignoring her ever since I found out K. Rool was admitted to Smash. What did I do? I kept taunting him… and I have a PRETTY good idea that the events at DK Island was all my fault."

"So you've been ignoring Ruby ever since this… K. Rool showed up?"

"She's probably been reaching out to me… wanting me to give her some sisterly loving. A family member close by… and said family member was out doing her own thing. Now what happens at DK Isle? My aura gets taken away, my pride gets shattered and tossed out the window and on top of that, I get thrown into some robot and then I get blown up by a mega laser of death powered up by a Smash Ball."

Erik grimaced. "Oh… and something tells me that didn't humble you."

"Nope! Because here I was, trying to master the Hadoken and Ruby's been sitting in the sidelines suffering from nightmares belonging to freakin' Dark Ruby! Of course, I cheer her up after I rescued everyone once I had my revenge with K. Rool… but what do I do after that when we all head home? I decide "Hey, Ruby needs some therapy" so I ask Byleth to watch over Ruby while I do my own stuff!"

Tears started forming in her eyes. "I've been watching Ruby… she's been hanging out with Byleth more than me… Ruby's been kinda avoiding me…" She started to sit down on a low wall. "And at this point… I'm beginning to wonder if Byleth is more of a better sister to Ruby than I am to her. I want to help Ruby… but… I've been so consumed by everything else… it just… when will it stop?!" She pounded the wall in frustration. "Am I ever… gonna stop doing what I do and just… give Ruby a massive hug and spend time with that broken rose?!"

"Now hold on a second. Do you actually believe that?" Erik asked. "Surely, there was good intentions over you thinking Ruby needing therapy after all the crap she's been through, right?"

"Yeah… but… I… haven't been the best sister. I've done things I'm not proud of and yet… here I am, doing everything else BUT comforting my sister. I'm not the greatest person ever… at what point do I finally stop doing all this crap before it's too late?"

"Mmm… you're talking to someone who's a thief." Erik said. "I've been stealing things back in Erdrea with my sister all the time, just to survive."

"You… you have a sister too?"

"Yeah, her name's Mia. Not only did we steal your typical essentials to survive, we were also treasure hunters… stealing any valuable treasure we could find. Diamonds, rubies, anything valuable… you name it." He chuckled. "…And then one day… something happened."

"What happened?"

"Hey bro! Check this out!" Mia grinned, touching a vase that turned to gold. "This necklace is giving me gold powers! We can make a fortune off of this!"

"Huh! A necklace that can make the wearer turn everything into gold… mmm, I dunno Mia… something feels off about this."

"Oh, don't worry about it. It's not like anything'll happen to me!" Mia grinned… and then suddenly her legs started turning into gold.

"MIA!" Erik yelled.

"Huh? AAAAH!" She yelled as she reached out to her brother. "ERIK!"

"MIA!" Erik reached out to her, but by the time he did, she was turned into a golden lifeless statue. "No! No no no no! NO!" He yelled, grabbing her golden shoulders. "Mia! No… MIA!"

"For five years… I've been searching for a way to get her back. I left her where she was… hoping that I could find a way to get that curse off of her."

"You left her alone for five years?"

"We were in a well hidden location, I knew she wouldn't be pawned off to some gift shop." Erik said. "I searched for an answer to get my sister back… and then I met some Seer. He was saying I can find someone deep underground where he will be the answer to my predicament, and then I will be forgiven. That someone… was the Luminary. He helped me get my sister back after we defeated Mordegon."

"She forgave you after that, didn't she?"

"She did." Erik smiled. "Mia's my little sister, just like how Ruby is your little sister. And if Mia can forgive me for taking so long to get her back… then I have a feeling Ruby will forgive you too. You two are family… I doubt Ruby will give you the cold shoulder."

"Are you sure?"

Erik smiled. "I'm posiitive."

"So… where's Mia now?"

Erik frowned. "Back at home… while we got sucked into the portal leading to Remnant. I hope she's okay. Because the moment we rescued her, we went off to destroy Calasmos right after. I hope she didn't get into any trouble."

"I'm sure she's fine."

"Yeah." Erik nodded and then put his hand on her shoulder. "Don't beat yourself up. We all do things we're not proud of, but that's how we grow." He said and then grinned. "I'm optimistic that one of these days, you'll be able to reconcile with your sister."

He then looked at her. "So what if Ruby is hanging out with Byleth more often? She's still your sister… she probably just needs some space… but when that's over, I can imagine you'll be there for her more often."

"I hope so…" Yang said. "I just hope she doesn't do anything drastic the next time she meets Dark Ruby."

"If she does… then you do everything you can to pull her out." Erik said. "She will need all the love that she can get."

"Yeah." Yang sniffed a bit. "You're right… she's my sister." She then smiled at Erik. "Thanks, Erik."

"No problem." He grinned.

"Heeeeeeey!" A voice called out as they turned to Ruby. "Hurry up, ya slowpokes!"

"Despite you and Ruby having a strained relationship… I'm sure you'll get out of this funk that you're in." Erik said.

"Yeah… here's hoping." Yang said as she walked off, but then Erik stopped walking and looked toward the sky.

"Mia… I hope you're doing alright." He said and walked off.

Meanwhile, in the WarioWare Vault in Diamond City…

A portal opened up in the vault. "Waaaah!" Mia yelped, landing on some gold bars. "Oooow…" She groaned as she stood up. "Where am I…?" She wondered and then noticed what she was standing on. "Huh?" She wondered as she turned on a light. "Oh my goodness!" She exclaimed, staring at the treasure in front of her.

She let out a grin, pulling out a bag. "Alriiiiight! Erik's gonna be thrilled when he sees all this! …Wonder how that doofus is doing?" She wondered as she piled on the treasure. Gold Bars, diamonds, pearls, emeralds, coins… anything she could get her hands on. "So uh… how am I gonna get out of here?" She wondered as she spotted a button nearby and walked over.

"In case of being accidentally locked in, press this button." She read and pressed it where a window opened up its metal shutters. "Ooooh!" She grinned as she ran over and picked up a gold bar, throwing it across the window and shattering it, then she climbed out, but not before pulling off the metal shutter and tossing it out.

"I hit the gold mine~!" She said in a sing songy voice as she took off running with the bag over her shoulder. "First, need to find a hide out here… and then do a lot of heisting~!" She giggled.

Me while writing this chapter, a thought entering my head: "Hey, wouldn't it be funny if you included a scene at the end where Mia winds up in the WarioWare vault that you didn't intend on including?"