Some shorter parts to come. Consider this a 'breather'.
Anyways, please enjoy this chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
Light began to illuminate the sky and turned it to day. The Outcasts were all sleeping on mats in the living room, while Max was asleep in his own bed. It was a much needed rest, especially after falling through the world. Team RWBY hadn't really gotten a wink of sleep since they'd landed, so Max was insistent on it.
Ben was turned away from Ruby, having rolled over at some point during his sleep. He'd taken off his hoodie at some point and given it to Ruby so she could have some extra warmth for her. He didn't need to do that.
Especially since Ruby hadn't really slept.
The red-hooded reaper's eyes were open and staring at the chest with Crescent Rose in it. It should have brought her joy that her weapon was returned to her, that way she could really do something, fight alongside her team.
…
She kept expecting that voice to come back. For it to jeer at her, to mock her. But nothing happened. It felt…strange waiting for this spike of negativity to appear, like closing your eyes to wait for a punch to connect.
A yawn from Max's room made Ruby sit up. Max walked in, looking refreshed. He took notice of Ruby, staring at him.
"G-good morning," the reaper quickly said, hoping there weren't any bags under her eyes.
"Morning." Max happily greeted, "I was hoping one of you was awake already. Do you mind helping me do some cooking?"
"Cooking?" Ruby repeated. "Um…sure."
Max smiled, as he motioned for Ruby to follow. She stood up, deciding to keep Ben's hoodie on. As long as she had it on, there was a small sense of reassurance that warmed her heart. She followed Max to a separate part of the "Rust Hovel" where they could work without disturbing the others. Max opened up a wide window and took a deep breath, taking in that fresh air.
"When I first got here, I tried getting back to some normalcy. So, I opened up a breakfast place." Max explained.
"Like your diner back home." Ruby noted. "I get it."
Max pulled out some leaves and herbs from a zeer pot. "Not exactly 'eggs and bacon', but it works. This place is pretty much 'vegan'. No meat."
"Seriously? That's somehow the most shocking part of the Ever After," Ruby raised an eyebrow, walking over to observe Max prepping the salad. He washed the leaves with some water from a jar, set them on a ceramic plate, sprinkled the herbs and arranged some fruits she'd never seen on top.
Ruby's stomach growled. "I'm not one to select vegetarian meals as my first option, but…that looks good." the red-hooded reaper admitted.
"The Ever After has a wide selection of these fruits called 'Bastard Fruits'." Max explained. "Unfortunate name, especially since I don't really feel awful after eating it. Here, try this." He offered her something that looked like a strawberry.
Ruby curiously took the fruit and turned it over. The outside of the 'fauxberry' had patterns on it similar to a watermelon, so maybe the taste was the same. Ruby popped it in her mouth and chewed it. Her face took on a confused expression as she ate it. That taste…was that-?
"...oranges?" Ruby wondered, and Max nodded.
"That's a Pikaberry." the rusted knight answered, "Citrusy, isn't it?"
"It feels like my mouth is playing tricks on my eyes," Ruby said, gulping the fruit down. The after taste left a hint of blueberries in her mouth. "Ohhh."
Max laughed. "The Cygnets love this stuff. Good thing, too. They're pretty picky about everything else."
Ruby started to help Max with some more food prep. She'd cut up some of the Bastard Fruits and he'd set up the dishes. It was a pretty good system.
"So, how was the floor?" Max asked. "Sleep well?"
"Yeah," Ruby lied. "I…really enjoyed hearing my sister snore. Did you build this place?"
"I build everything around here." Max said. "I'm not just the Rusted Knight. I'm the Wrench."
"Fitting name." Ruby noted.
"Since I didn't know the way home, I just went around helping those who needed it. Sometimes I'd do repairs, sometimes I'd fight. Sometimes I'd sit with someone who needed to cry, before they went off to 'find themselves'." Max listed off.
Ruby stopped cutting the fruits up when she heard that.
"You…allow for Ascension to happen?" Ruby asked.
"I can't be too sure of what Ascension is." Max began, "But, I've seen the same faces in different people a few times. I can only guess it takes the pieces of themselves and makes them anew. I can't stop the process, especially if something is in need of repair."
"Right." Ruby muttered, looking back to her board…and noticing some pieces of fruit were gone. Ruby gasped, looking around and quickly found the culprit, munching down on some pieces of fruit.
"Sooooo good." Little muttered, eating more chunks of the Pikaberry. Ruby gave a slight chuckle at the sight. While Little wasn't much of a guide, they were a nice 'light' to hold onto. If Ruby hadn't encountered Little earlier, she might still be on that beach.
Alone.
Waiting.
…
Loathing.
Yet again, Ruby expected the voice. But nothing happened.
"Hey, Knight!" Little squeaked. "Do you have any cheese?"
"Surprisingly, yes." Max chuckled, reaching into a cabinet to pull out the largest piece of cheese fruit Little's little eyes had ever seen. Ruby could only compare it to one of those prize winning squashes that she'd see back in Patch.
"Woooooah." Ruby gasped, jaw slack as Max set it down on the table.
"I took up gardening!" Max beamed, "And I'm pretty great at it. Gives me hope I can cultivate some Methanosian Brew Berries whenever we get back home."
"You…really have adapted down here, holy crap," Ruby muttered, circling the enormous cheese.
"After being a puppet for so long? I think this is a much needed change of pace." Max nodded, as he started to carve into the cheese. Ruby watched him, mulling over her words.
"...how do you think the other's are gonna take it?"
"The cheese?" Max asked. "Oh, they'll probably be just as shocked as you-"
"I don't mean Ben and the others." Ruby clarified. "I mean…the others."
Max stopped carving.
"That's a question I don't really have an answer for, truth be told." Max sighed, motioning for Ruby to help keep the cheese in place, "I didn't expect to see any of you until your scythe washed up on the beach a few days ago."
"Practice on me. How are you gonna reveal yourself?" Ruby asked.
Max paused. "I suppose I'd…try to be quiet about it. Do it in small groups, so as not to cause a big scene. I don't want to overwhelm everyone." Max looked at Ruby.
"That's a good idea…" Ruby mumbled. Max should've continued carving, but he didn't.
"Ruby." Max said. "Is…something wrong?"
Ruby was about to open her mouth and answer, when a gasp cut her off. Ruby turned to see Ben, looking at the overgrown mass of cheese.
"Jesus christ." Ben loudly said, trying to urge the others to subtly wake up. Ruby turned back to the knight.
"I'm…I'm fine. Just still a bit overwhelmed." Ruby answered, "Maybe some chores around here will clear my mind."
Max didn't look like he fully believed it, but bought it enough to stop asking. Ben walked over to Ruby and pecked her on the cheek.
"Morning." Ben said.
"Morning." Ruby replied.
"That's a lot of cheese."
"So I've noticed."
Ben nodded awkwardly and clapped his hands. "...right." He turned to Grandpa. "Here. Lemme do that."
"You sure? This isn't like carving a Thanksgiving turkey." Max joked.
"I can handle it. Probably." Ben said, taking the knife from Max. Ruby watched as Ben carved, a small smile tugging at the corners of her lips. She could tell that he was trying to handle the situation without getting all giddy, he was actually doing something with his grandpa again. He probably never expected to do that in a few million years.
The Multiverse event sort of counted, but that's neither here nor there.
She should have felt the same way too, right?
No, Ruby just felt so…heavy.
Maybe she should have gotten some sleep.
It probably would've done her some good, but part of her felt like sleeping would just bring the voice back and that was the last thing she wanted. Little gulped down another bit of stolen fruit before tilting their head, noticing Ruby's lament. It might not have been much, but the small mouse did offer up one of the remaining fruits to Ruby in an attempt to cheer her up a little. The good news was that it seemed to work, as she happily took the fruit and ate it.
Even if the happiness was only surface level.
The others soon woke up, and were put to work in the kitchen. It wasn't that hard of a task to prepare the meals, like Max said, more hands, quicker work.
"That was the best sleep I've had in a while..." Emerald admitted, as she garnished some plates. "It's usually so hard sleeping with that gemstone body."
"Snores probably sounded like broken glass," Weiss said.
"What? I don't snore."
"Are you sure about that?"
"Someone would've told me sooner."
"Back to the cause of your 'change'...I gave it some thought." Blake began, "There's a chance you unlocked your Berserker Semblance. Are you familiar with-"
"I know about them, yes. Hazel...explained it to me a while back." Emerald frowned. "I think it could've been mixed with my magic, too."
"Cause not only did it cover you, it covered your weapon, right?" Yang asked.
"Yep. Instead of shooting bullets for the past three years, I've been using arrows."
"It has to be magic. How good is your control over that?" Max asked.
"Decent." Emerald answered, "But my Semblance sometimes gets fueled by my emotions."
"Yeah...I remember when you managed to create that freaky apparition of Salem when we were kids with your semblance." Ben recalled.
"You remember that?" Emerald asked.
"Of course I do. Before Beacon fell, I even brought it up with Oz. I think that was really the detail that made him realize Salem was moving again," Ben nodded.
Ruby shivered thinking about that. "Uh...let's change topics." Ruby deflected, not wanting to think about some old wounds. "So, Max. What can we do around here to help?"
"Well," Max said and reached to his belt, pulling out a massive scroll that unfurled all the way to the floor, "I have a few projects on here that are repeats and some that I could just...really use some help on."
The group's jaws collectively dropped upon seeing the massive amount of tasks before Ben took it and began reading. Of course, "Find a way home" was one of the biggest starred tasks on the list, right above "Find Ruby and any others who washed up." Though, now, that one was stricken through with a single line. Among the other chores on there were "Help the Cygnets with their catches of fish," "Protect the village from the Giant Geese attacks," (must be important if it was that high up on the list), "Repair the roof of the storage house after the Golden Goose Egg fell into it(and stop Clyde or Jinxy from selling it)," and so many more.
"Admittedly, I have been busy with other things and letting these fall by the wayside." Max admitted. "Even with the power suit, I am still an old fuddy."
Ben blinked. "So. How are we gonna split this up?" He asked the girls.
"I...don't mean to add another thing to the list but um," Blake sheepishly pulled out the broken fragments of Gambol Shroud's katana, "Should probably get this fixed while we have the time, right?"
"Metalworking? Can get that done in a couple of hours, especially since you have the other part right there. Just needs some welding," Max said.
"I can help with that," Ruby volunteered.
"Think I'll take Ben to help fix up the house. If Jinxy stops by, well, he stole my arm so I'll be able to say 'thanks' for that. Who's Clyde though?" Yang asked.
"Second cousin of mine. Don't really bring him up that often," Ben groaned.
"Which leaves me and Emerald to handle...something," Weiss said, looking to the thief in question, silently asking if she had any ideas on what they could tackle.
Emerald coughed. "Right, right..." She said, avoiding eye contact. The awkwardness was thankfully short as a Cygnet suddenly came up, looking cheerful.
"Morning, Mr. Wrench!" The Cygnet chirped.
"Morning, Kevin." Max greeted, walking over with his meal. Ruby smiled...but then something hit her like an atom bomb. That reminder of Kevin suddenly connected her to-
"Oh my god, Min!" She gasped.
Max looked confused. "Who?"
"...oh my god we never told you about Min," Ben realized.
"Give me the short version?"
"So, because we all thought you were, uh, dead...Gwen tried to hold a seance, try to talk with you one last time. Instead she summoned a chaos demon that's now Kevin's girlfriend."
And then it hit Ben.
"Wait, did...does she know you didn't die?!" Ben yelled.
"How would she know that anyway?" Max asked.
"She knows your story! Her family has this giant library with the life stories of mortals! She said yours wasn't supposed to end that way! Did she lie?! Did she know this whole time and just not SAY anything?!"
"This is just...just...just Ozpin all over again," Ruby muttered, balling her hand into a fist, "With Mom."
Max looked confused. "...what do you mean 'with mom'?"
Ruby covered her mouth, and closed her eyes. "Um. Nothing. It's...nothing."
"I can't believe this," Ben groaned into his hand, "When we get back-"
"Trust me, we'll all have words with her about it if she knew," Weiss agreed.
"I don't think she knew." Blake guessed. "Otherwise, wouldn't she tell us immediately?"
"Maybe I'm just jumping to conclusions. Maybe Ozpin's little stunt affected us more than we realized at the time and just-" Ben said, before he took a breath and tried to calm down, "No. Not now. We can...we can cross that bridge when we get there."
"Yeah, let's...focus on one thing at a time." Ruby looked more frazzled and drained. "I-I might need to lie down."
"We can give it a few minutes before we head if you need them," Max nodded.
"No, no. Don't...let me slow you down. Seriously." Ruby mumbled, brushing past Ben as she retreated back into the RV. Ben took a deep breath, and closed his eyes.
...I can't do it. He thought.
Yang looked to Ben and she knew almost immediately that look was for.
"Uh...hey Ben? Do you wanna-?" the blonde asked.
"I'm fine." He cut her off. "You should be more worried about Ruby than me."
"Believe me, I'm very concerned about her. But the-" Yang stopped herself, "Actually, hold on. You're coming with me for a minute."
Ben looked confused, as Yang grabbed his hand and led him away. The rest of the group shared a confused look, before Max sighed.
"Let's give Ruby some space. She seems...stressed." Max suggested.
"She is," Blake sighed. Weiss couldn't help but wonder if this wasn't the last little jab her father had left behind for Ruby to deal with. Sure, he might not have planned for this, but with Ruby's current mindset...it wouldn't surprise her that Ironwood's words echoed in her head.
Gwendolyn raised her head when she heard the door of the Rust Hovel open and close, before catching sight of Ben and Yang walking away so that their conversation wouldn't be overheard.
"Rubes is probably better at reading you than any of us, but I know that look. Something heavy's on your mind, and I don't just mean everything that happened...what, a few days ago now?" Yang explained, "So, out with it. Ruby's already bottling up her emotions, not gonna let you do it, too."
"...I think I'm gonna hold off on proposing." Ben said.
"So the dagger-?" Yang asked.
"It's staying a secret between you and me for now, yeah. It doesn't...it doesn't feel right. If I ask her now, it'd just...it'd just feel shallow," Ben explained.
"I can see why you think that." Yang sighed. "Right now, I think Ruby needs time to heal and process everything that's happened. Besides, you need...a good moment. And right now?"
"There's no great time to do it." Ben sighed, taking a seat. He rubbed his hands across his face, trying to soothe this headache that was forming.
"I'd say that working on the house might get your mind off things," Yang began, "but..."
"Might work for a little bit. But not too long."
"I'm kinda shocked you were still considering it, after everything." Yang admitted. "With Vilgax coming back and all."
"Same, honestly. Seems like a shitty time to propose." Ben said. "But, as I was recovering from that stupid concussion Ironwood gave me, I thought...I need something to fight for."
"Always good to have that, that motivation," the blonde nodded.
"But now that we're here, and I have this...thing in my head that's screaming that I'm not worth it. And Ruby has it too." Ben went on. "We're...not in a good head space. It'd be toxic for us if we just rushed into the big question.
"I don't...I don't wanna sound dismissive, but this voice in your head. What has it said?" Yang asked.
"It's just screaming at me that I'm not worthy of the watch. I failed people. I'm...not a hero." Ben said. "And so on. Just some...stupid shit. It's just me beating myself up more than usual."
"I think...I think it's hitting Ruby even harder."
"What do you mean?"
"When we were following the Cat, before we almost got drugged by a caterpillar, they were talking about you...and then Ruby just lashed out at someone that wasn't there and said 'Don't you ever say that name.' The Cat took it to mean your name, but now that you've said you've heard the voice..."
"You think she was yelling at it," Ben finished.
"Yeah. Maybe it said your name or Mom's...or Max's," Yang could only guess.
"As happy as I am to see Grandpa, I don't think Ruby is all that thrilled. Like, she wants to be happy, but after Atlas? After the voice?" Ben guessed. "I think it's...trying to break her. What's it gonna do after that?"
"I don't know...but I'm not gonna let it win. After we finish up that fixing job and we give her some time...we're gonna talk to her. No interruptions, no distractions," Yang resolved.
"Yeah." Ben nodded. "We've had these kinds of talks a million times. I don't think we'll have any trouble getting her to open up, right?"
"It shouldn't be that hard...even if I've never seen Ruby this...depressed."
"Yeah." Ben said, looking down at the ground. Yang glanced over at him, eyes narrowed.
"Spill it. There's something else in your mind." Yang said. "It's that 'you're not a hero' crap, isn't it?"
"I...kinda believe it." Ben admitted.
Yang looked taken aback by the statement. "Dude, don't tell me-"
"I'm serious." Ben frowned. "I haven't been doing enough. I got taken out by Ironwood's gun, I got distracted by Vilgax, and I couldn't even save any of you from falling in- I'm not really taking the hero title in stride now."
"Ben...I think we all need to come terms with the fact that...we're gonna lose. Should've gotten that lesson from Los Solidad or Beacon...but I think because of how many times we've won, we never really considered losing...something we need to deal with. Los Solidad was a blow for you, Beacon was for all of us and so was Atlas. And even...and even the best Huntsmen and Huntresses in history have lost more than once..." (edited)
"I know. I know that. We're gonna lose. And we'll get back up. Happened a dozen times, on and off. Whatever." Ben huffed. "But...this time, it feels different. I've been called all these different things, and now, I just hate being called Savior, or Hero of Heroes, or whatever. I'm not any of those!"
"None of us have called you that. If you want to be called something different, should be your choice to figure out what it is," Yang said, hoping her words weren't making things worse.
"...I don't really know what I should be called." Ben admitted. "Nothing feels right anymore."
"Then just...think on it. If you don't want to be called something, that's fine too. All down to you."
Ben took a deep breath. "Not my top priority, but I'll sleep on it. Ruby's health is more important right now."
"Right...Ruby first," Yang said. It felt off to put one person's health over another, especially when talking about friends and family.
Ben clapped his hands and stood up. "Feels...nice to have that off my chest. Thanks for that."
"Any time," Yang said sincerely.