Chapter Text
“This is fascinating! Remnant, truly?” the Curious Cat spoke, looking remarkably like his old self, save for a small flicker of blue that ripped through his coat now, and again denoting his status as a summon.
It was clear based on how it was looking around rapidly that it was nearly overwhelmed but was beyond excited to see something new after all this time.
“Just remember to be back in time for the ceremony,” Weiss reminded it as the cat blinked, and looked at Weiss as if it had forgotten she existed, which was about par for the course for the cat when it was excited.
“Oh, yes, the anniversary of course. Wouldn’t miss it for the world, mistress,” the cat tried to placate her.
Ruby gave it a playful look as she grinned, and leaned down to pet it. “There’s some high quality catnip in it if you make it back, and behave yourself,” Ruby playfully bribed the cat whose tail went rigid with a shiver, and Ruby nodded as she stood up.
She’d learned the cat's tells long ago, and that one meant it was trying to commit this to memory, which was as good as either of them would get from it.
“Twenty five years?” Qrow asked as he pulled back from hugging Yang to look over at his other niece who waved her fingers at him looking remarkably not in her forties.
“Ever-After has killer moisturizer,” Ruby joked as her uncle grabbed her in a hug, his speed rather impressive at how quickly he’d moved from one to the other.
“I thought you were gone,” Qrow said hoarsely.
Ruby returned the hug in equal measure with a squeeze. “I knew you’d miss me too much to stay away,” she teased as the man tried to laugh through a sob, Robyn having arrived shot them both a smile as she looked fondly at her uncle.
“Forget that!” Yang interrupted as she pulled out her scroll. “Take a look at this!”
Nora barely managed to tear her eyes from her friends to the scroll. “Wait, who is that?”
“Summer,” Raven said, her mouth dry as she stared in a strange mix of awe, and uncertainty at her former team leader. “Yang, where did?”
“So we were fighting Cinder in the void, right?” Yang asked as Blake leaned into her partner, and guided her over to a bench. It was a long story after all.
“Yang’s always been good at telling stories,” Ruby whispered with a grin as the two hung back slightly. Close enough for Weiss to ‘clarify’ anything Yang got wrong on purpose, or otherwise, but not so close to take away attention from them if they could help it.
Weiss hummed in agreement as she leaned back into Ruby’s embrace. “Are you ready for everything?”
“Hm?” Ruby asked as she stopped nuzzling her forehead into Weiss’s for a moment.
“In the Ever After it was mostly just us. Sure, we had the Afterans, and a brief spat with Neo, but it was almost entirely just us. Here things will be different. I don’t want you to be overwhelmed, or try to put everything on your shoulder.”
“I won’t,” Ruby promised firmly.
“It nearly killed you last time. Be firm in your boundaries. People might expect you to lead, but…”
“I know. I have teammates, and more importantly, you, to lean on. You taught me that. It took a while to get it through my head though,” Ruby said with a self-deprecating grin before she kissed the tip of Weiss’s nose impishly.
“Where you go, I follow, Rose,” Weiss said playfully before they heard the sound of a garbage can lid hitting the ground from down below, and the cat calling out ‘I’m fine! What could be in here?’.
Ruby grappled with Neo mid air. She’d never been quite the fighter Yang was without a weapon. Truthfully, she was rather bad at it, but it turned out that when her life was on the line, like right now, against a rather stabby mute, then she could put up a credible showing.
Granted she was taking more hits than she was giving out, and her counters were all tidbits she’d picked up from her uncle Qrow talking about some of the bar brawls he’d gotten into, but it was better than not doing anything.
Neo was a trained assassin, and had no problem shifting her form to attempt to catch Ruby off guard, and had even managed it several times. Yang, Oscar, Penny, all friends, and family she’d been fighting with, and made her reactions just a bit slower, that sapped strength from her counters as theirs hurt all the more.
Then…then she’d dared to try it. Weiss was before her, but unlike before it had the opposite effect. Ruby was furious! She might be fighting with the others, but with Weiss? NEVER!
She launched herself forward with a fury that clearly caught Neo off guard if her widening eyes were any indication. She bit, clawed, elbowed, and kicked, even spat at the woman who dared to try and wear Weiss’s face like that!
Neo quickly abandoned the tactic, but her face bore the scratches, and damage her attempt had cost her, and now rather than pure anger in her eyes there was a bit of wariness as Ruby growled like a feral beast at her audacity of trying to wear her partner's face even as they tumbled through the air.
Her wariness could only hold back Neo’s hatred for so long before she came in with a right cross that Ruby willingly took so she could bite her hand as she tried to pull back.
Neo’s mouth opened in a wordless scream before a loud bang rang out like a gunshot, although it sounded closer to glass shattering.
The distraction was enough for Neo to land a kick, which pushed Ruby away from her. Ruby spat to the side as she glared at the smaller woman.
An approaching whistling noise drew both the pair’s attention as a blue white streak came towards them so quickly Ruby only barely had time to realize it was Weiss before she crashed into Ruby, and they were sent careening toward the ground.
Ruby barely had a chance to look at, and see Weiss was out cold before they crashed into the ground, and she too was knocked out.
Ruby groaned as she came to. Thankfully the first thing she saw was Weiss, and putting a hand to her neck let her know Weiss was still alive, although still unconscious.
She pulled her into her lap, needing to have her close, desperately needing the grounding influence of her partner more than anything else at the moment.
She was…she had no idea. Jungles? A forest? It wasn’t really humid enough for a jungle she guessed. In a strange twist of fate she, and Weiss appeared to have crashed into the base of a tree though.
She heard ringing? Like an egg timer, or something similar. She looked up, and on instinct caught a strange looking fruit in her hand.
The world blurred.