30

Chapter 30

The two teams walked back toward the dorms together after combat class. Jaune contemplated his fate with slowly mounting horror. Pyrrha was thinking about her upcoming spars with Ruby Rose, hoping that the younger girl would be able to give her a good fight. Weiss was still a in a bit of shock over how skilled at combat her fifteen year old team leader was. Nora was humming to herself, lost in her own thoughts. Ren was as inscrutable as ever. Blake was almost cheerful as she walked close by Yang. And Yang... Yang really wanted to get to that private talk with her younger sister.

"Hey, Rubes? You have time for that private team leader meeting?"

Ruby glanced over at her older sister and nodded. "Sure, Yang. We can use the combat room Professor Goodwitch promised us." She smiled. "I need some practice with my unarmed combat, anyway."

Yang blinked at that. "You want to spar hand to hand? With me?"

Ruby nodded. "Yup. Some of my moves are a bit rusty."

Yang licked her lips and nodded. She was more than a little curious to see what Ruby was capable of in that area herself, now.

Pyrrha looked curious. "May I join you?"

Ruby smiled fondly at the tall red-haired championship fighter. "Not this time, Pyrrha. Yang and I have to take care of some team leader business, and maybe some sister stuff. Next time for sure though, OK?"

Pyrrha gave her an honest smile. "I'll hold you to that."

Ruby smiled back. "I'm looking forward to it."

/-/

Their teams had gone back to their dorm rooms, and the sisters had made their way to the combat room Professor Goodwitch had given them access to.

Ruby locked the door behind them with her scroll, then turned to her sister. "There, we should have some privacy now."

Yang sighed. "So... lots to talk about."

Ruby nodded. "Yeah."

The two of them leaned against one of the walls, neither speaking for awhile.

Yang broke the silence. "Oh yeah, I've been meaning to ask. You had some notes about some guy called Jack Spriggan. What happened to him?"

Ruby frowned. "I guess he didn't pass initiation this time. He didn't make it in the first time either. He made it in as Weiss's partner during my second timeline though. I guess he must have landed somewhere near us in the forest... but never found a partner the first time... or this time."

Yang nodded once. "Ah. OK. Too bad, I guess?"

Ruby sighed. "He was a nice guy, I guess, but we weren't all that close. If everything goes well this time, maybe he'll come back to Beacon next year? He'll be a lot stronger by then."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "You think?"

Ruby nodded. "Oh yeah. He's really small right now... like... smaller than me. But his semblance is some kind of... super endurance semblance, and it also makes him grow faster. He was like... six feet tall by the time of the dance."

Yang blinked. "Oh. Huh."

Ruby shrugged. "I'm sorry he didn't make it in this time but... I'm glad I saved Jaune."

Yang smiled at that. "Yeah, at least nobody died this time through, right?"

Ruby nodded firmly. "Not this time. Nobody dies if I can help it."

Yang blew out a breath, then decided to change the subject. "You were amazing against Professor Goodwitch, sis. When did you learn to fight like that?"

Ruby chuckled nervously. "I've gotten in a lot of extra training in the last couple years, Yang."

Yang sighed. "Yeah, I'm starting to get that impression." She looked at Ruby with a confused, worried expression. "You're practically a different person. Where did my baby sister go?"

Ruby came forward and gave Yang a hug. "I'm still your little sister, Yang." She said softly. "I'm just a bit... older than I was." Ruby sighed. "Yang... Uncle Qrow says that a day out in the field, doing the job, is like a week here in school. I didn't just live through two years at Beacon. I also had to fight criminals, terrorists... and even a Maiden."

Yang blinked. "A Maiden?" She looked confused. "What's a Maiden?"

Ruby sighed. "You know the fairy tale about the four Seasons?"

Yang blinked again. "Er... yeah? Why?"

"Spring, Summer, Winter, Fall." Ruby said softly. "The four Maidens."

Yang's eyes went wide. "No..."

Ruby nodded. "They're real. Magic is real. There really are four women out there with magical super powers."

Yang shook her head. "OK, now you're just messing with me."

Ruby sighed. "I wish. There is a Maiden in the Vault under this school right now. She's been attacked, and they're keeping her alive, but she's not going to recover. At least, not if everything goes the way it goes in my first two timelines."

Yang held up a hand in a push away gesture. "Wait... wait. Slow down. What does that mean? What is... what's a Maiden? I mean, that story is just a... story. And even if it was real, it had to have been hundreds of years ago!"

Ruby shrugged. "Thousands, if Professor Ozpin is right. But what the story doesn't say is that, whenever a Maiden dies, the power passes to another person. A young woman. Either the last person in the previous maiden's thoughts, or, if they don't think of a young woman, the power goes to someone random."

Yang blinked. "This... this sounds crazy."

Ruby nodded. "I didn't believe it either... not at first. But it's real. Uncle Qrow knows all about it, by the way. He's part of Professor Ozpin's... secret society, I guess."

Yang's eyes were wide. "Professor Ozpin is the head of some sort of secret society?"

Ruby nodded again. "Yup. Professor Goodwitch is one of them, and General Ironwood. I guess all four headmasters, actually."

Yang looked confused. "The headmasters of the four main academies... are all part of... what? What are they called?"

Ruby blinked. "Er... I don't know if they have a name, actually. But they're the ones who have been hiding the Maidens from the world for the last few... hundred years, I guess. That's why the Maidens are only a legend now."

Yang looked dubious. "Why are they hiding them?"

Ruby wrinkled her nose. "Well... since the maiden powers transfer to whomever the previous maiden is thinking about when they die... I guess some people used to use that to steal the powers."

Yang blinked. "Steal the powers?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. Because, if someone just murdered you, you kind of would be thinking about them when you died, right?"

Yang's eyes went wide. "Oh." She thought about that. "Yeah, that makes sense. So bad people were becoming Maidens?" She shook her head. "OK, this is still sounding crazy." She sighed. "Although compared to time travel..." Yang looked at Ruby curiously. "So... what kind of powers do these Maidens have?"

Ruby grinned. "Fire, lightning, wind, ice... pretty much dust without the dust. Really powerful too."

Yang blinked. "Dust without the dust?" She looked curious. "So, have you seen one of these Maidens in action?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "I did mention I had to fight one, right?"

Yang shook her head. "Oh... right."

Ruby frowned. "Well, technically Cinder was half a Maiden. Sort of."

Yang blinked. "Half a Maiden? How does that work?"

Ruby took in a deep breath. "Well, apparently, about two weeks before the point I come back in time to, Cinder Fall and her team ambushed Amber... the current Fall Maiden. Cinder managed to somehow... steal half the power, but Uncle Qrow stopped her before she could finish Amber off, and he brought Amber here, to Professor Ozpin. She's in a life support pod under the school right now... probably."

Yang looked confused. "Two... weeks ago? I thought you were from the future? How do you know what happened two weeks ago?"

Ruby shrugged. "Because I asked them when Amber was attacked after I found out about it. We had a theory that I might be able to time travel again, so, just in case I did, I wanted to know when it happened. Unfortunately, it happens before the point I keep jumping back to... so I can't stop them from attacking Amber."

Yang blinked. "OK... so sometime in the future, we'll find out about all of this?"

Ruby wrinkled her nose. "We didn't in the first timeline, but in the second..." She looked thoughtful. "I think... I think we found out about it because of Pyrrha, actually. Professor Ozpin is going to choose Pyrrha to be the next Fall Maiden, and he'll tell her about all of this. Not for months and months, but... when things get serious, he'll come to her and tell her about the Maidens, and ask her to become one."

Yang whistled. "Whoa. So... Pyrrha gets to be one of these... Maidens? Fire and Lightning and everything?"

Ruby nodded. "In my second time line, yes. Pyrrha eventually decided to accept the offer, and she gained the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers. Although Cinder Fall still had the half she stole."

Yang looked thoughtful. "So... this... Cinder is why people were dying?" She grimaced. "Is she the one who kills... me?"

Ruby looked pained. "No... that was... that was a horde of Grimm. And it was my fault. I knew there'd be a ton of Grimm if we stopped that train, but I did it anyway."

Yang looked confused. "Train?"

Ruby blew out another breath. "Yeah... that's a long story. The White Fang had loaded a train full of Dust bombs and they were going to drive it up into the middle of Vale using the old subway tunnels from Mountain Glenn. They blew a bunch of holes in the ceiling of the tunnel as they went along, to bring in the Grimm, and the train was going to crash up into the middle of Vale, letting in all the Grimm. In the first timeline, we weren't fast enough and the train crashed into Vale, and... well, we stopped them eventually, but..."

Yang winced. "I'm guessing a lot of people got hurt."

Ruby sighed. "Yeah. So... the second time, I wanted to do better. I managed to stop the train, so it didn't crash up into Vale, but... that left us trapped in the subway tunnel with hundreds of Grimm. Everyone... I got everyone killed."

Yang gathered her sister in for another hug. "Hey. That's not your fault, sis."

Ruby swallowed, trying to hold back tears. "But it is. I was team leader. I stopped the train. If I'd let the train crash into Vale, we'd have lived."

Yang looked down at her baby sister. "And a lot of innocent people would have died."

Ruby sighed. "Maybe..." She lowered her head. "Probably."

Yang squeezed her. "Then you made the right call. Maybe... maybe there was another way to do it, but I know... I know that if you made the call to save Vale, I'd have been right there with you. I wouldn't have blamed you for it."

"You didn't." Ruby said softly. "Everyone... they said it was the right thing to do. And... we fought. We fought so hard to try and survive. It was... there were just too many, and Pyrrha was hurt... and..." She shook her head. "I don't know how to fix it. We can't let that train get started at all next time..."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "You want us to stop it again?"

Ruby nodded. "I know it'll be dangerous. And... I don't want you to die, or any of our friends, but we can't let the Breach happen again. We can't."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "The Breach?"

Ruby nodded. "That's what they called it in the news. It was a big thing. People were really upset, even though we did manage to seal the tunnel up and stop the Grimm eventually."

Yang nodded. "Yeah. Sounds bad." She looked curious. "How did letting the train break through into Vale keep us from dying, though?"

Ruby shrugged. "Well, the first time, Weiss put up an ice shield around us, so we weren't hurt much when the train crashed, and then, well, there were still hundreds of Grimm, but students and teachers from Beacon started showing up before too long, and a bunch of ships from Atlas, and combat robots. We had a lot of help. And finally, Professor Goodwitch sealed the Breach with her semblance, so that we didn't even have to fight all of the Grimm."

Yang nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, I guess everyone in Beacon would pitch in if a bunch of Grimm made it into the city."

Ruby sighed. "Yeah, if everyone hadn't come, we'd probably have died that time as well. But the second time through I just... I just didn't think about what would happen if I stopped the Breach with us on the train."

Yang shook her head. "Well... damn." She gave Ruby another squeeze. "OK, yeah. If we do that again, we're doing it better."

Ruby snorted. "We'd better. I don't want to do this whole year a fourth time!"

Yang raised an eyebrow. "That's right... you've been here three times now, right? I guess you know what every class is going to be like."

Ruby groaned. "I wish I could just take second year classes. I'm going to be so bored this year."

Yang laughed lightly. "There are worse things. You're going to ace all your classes at least."

Ruby sighed. "I did that the second time through. I pretty much know what's going to be on all the tests... what papers we'll get assigned. What everyone's fighting style is..."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "Are you going to share all this with your big sister?"

Ruby looked at her with a small grin. "What... does my big sister Yang want to cheat on all of her tests?"

Yang tried to look innocent. "No... just... maybe get some early studying in?"

Ruby snorted at that, but nodded. "Yes, I'll share. We've got to get ready for what's coming, and the less time we need to spend on schoolwork the better."

Yang frowned. "So... extra training?"

Ruby nodded back. "Lots of extra training. Some of the people we'll have to fight are... strong, Yang. Stronger than either of us right now."

Yang looked concerned. "So... there are more people we have to worry about than this... evil Maiden?"

Ruby nodded seriously. "Cinder Fall. Her teammates Emerald and Mercury. We'll also have to deal with Roman Torchwick. He works for Cinder... and the White Fang, they're working with Roman Torchwick as well. And there's this... ice cream girl that works with Torchwick sometimes. She's pretty strong, although I didn't see much of her during the second timeline for some reason..."

Yang sighed. "So... a bunch of criminals and terrorists."

Ruby nodded again. "The White Fang has a lot of soldiers that aren't very strong, but their leader, Adam Taurus... he's really dangerous." She grinned. "Me and Blake beat him last time, but... well, we were both a lot stronger at that point then we are right now."

Yang looked confused. "Wait, it sounds like you're saying you're not as strong right now as you were before? Why is that?"

Ruby shrugged. "Because I might have all my memories, but this is my fifteen year old body. I don't have the physical conditioning I had by the end... and I don't have the muscle memory either for all my new moves."

Yang opened her mouth in mild astonishment. "Oh... so... you're going to get stronger than you already are?" She raised her hands over her head. "Ruby... you nearly beat Professor Goodwitch! And you were stronger than that?"

Ruby shrugged. "Well... physically? Using my semblance better seems to follow me back. I guess because that's mostly mental. But my physical skills still need a lot of work."

Yang raised an eyebrow at that. "OK. Well... that's something we can work on, I guess." She looked curious. "I'm going to get stronger too, right?"

Ruby looked at her skeptically. "Well duh. You get a whole lot better over the next two semesters. Or you did the previous couple times, ESPECIALLY my last time through."

Yang grinned. "Sure... of course. I mean, that's why we're here at Beacon, right? To get stronger?"

Ruby nodded. "You're going to need to work on not telegraphing with your right so much... and to rely on your semblance a bit less. You'll want to practice dodging and evading as well."

Yang blinked. "I telegraph with my right?"

Ruby nodded again, seriously, backing up, then hopping into the air with a little yell and a downward haymaker. "You start fights off like that almost every time." She explained. "And the first timeline... you got your right arm chopped off at the elbow."

Yang winced, grabbing her right arm with her left hand. "Ouch! How did that happen?"

Ruby shrugged. "I wasn't there... you were with Blake... so maybe fighting the White Fang? Adam probably could have done it."

Yang looked a bit anxious. "Adam... Taurus, right? You said he leads the White Fang?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. His semblance lets him absorb hits onto his sword, and then he can release all that energy into a single powerful slice that can cut straight through Aura."

Yang frowned. "That's not very fair. He can absorb hits but doesn't have to feel them?"

Ruby shrugged. "He's really dangerous." She hesitated. "He's Blake's ex."

Yang nearly choked. "He's what? Blake? As in the girl who sleeps next to me in our dorm room Blake?"

Ruby nodded. "Yes... Blake used to be a member of the White Fang. She was born into it, actually."

Yang looked at Ruby in confusion. "How does someone get born into being a terrorist?"

Ruby shook her head. "The White Fang used to be a peaceful organization. They did non-violent protests, talked to politicians, that sort of thing. Then about five years ago, their leader... Blake's father, Ghira, stepped down because people were getting frustrated. Being peaceful wasn't changing things fast enough for them. So the White Fang started getting more violent..."

Yang looked surprised. "So Blake's dad used to be in charge of the White Fang?"

Ruby nodded. "He started it, actually. Him and his wife, Kali are good people though, and they didn't want to be part of the White Fang when it turned to more violent tactics. So they stepped down, and Ghira became chieftain of Menagerie instead."

Yang blinked. "So... Blake is the daughter of the chieftain of Menagerie?" Ruby nodded, and Yang whistled. "Wow... so she's kind of a big deal, I guess?"

Ruby shrugged. "Blake doesn't consider herself special. And... she ran away from home five years ago... so at the moment she's not exactly on speaking terms with her folks."

Yang blinked. "Wait... didn't you say that the White Fang started to become more violent five years ago? And Blake's father stepped down then? So if Blake ran away from home then...?"

Ruby nodded with a sigh. "Blake stayed with the White Fang when her parents left it. She called them cowards and stayed with the White Fang. For awhile, anyway."

Yang grimaced. "So... Blake was a terrorist?"

Ruby shrugged. "For awhile? I mean... she left them to come to Beacon. She actually saved a bunch of people from Adam as she left. He was going to blow up this SDC train, and that would have killed all the people on board, but Blake saved them. She couldn't let anyone die. Blake left the White Fang to become a huntress, because she couldn't accept how violent the White Fang was becoming."

Yang groaned, and stepped away from her sister. "Great... so she was a terrorist... but not as bad as the really bad terrorists?"

Ruby followed after Yang. "Yang... faunus really do get a lot of prejudice. Especially from companies like the SDC. They get really low wages and have to work in the dust mines... and... businesses won't serve them. The White Fang isn't exactly wrong to want to fight against that."

Yang frowned. "OK, yeah, I get that, but hurting people isn't OK."

Ruby nodded. "I agree. But so does Blake, Yang. She was OK with... vandalism, and stealing from the SDC to help her people, but she drew the line at people getting hurt. That's why she left. And, she was the first one to fight against the White Fang when they started things here in Vale. In fact, if it wasn't for Blake, we'd probably never have done anything about them."

Yang stood still for a moment. "Yeah... OK." She sighed. "And you like her."

Ruby blushed. "Yes..." She paused for a moment, her cheeks coloring before she continued. "She's one of our best friends, and she's your partner, and we can trust her, Yang, we really can!"

Yang's eyes had gone narrow. "Ruby... you're blushing. Why are you blushing...?" Her eyes went wide. "You LIKE her!"

Ruby blushed harder. "No... what?"

Yang blinked. "You LIKE like her!"

Ruby winced. "Maybe?"

Yang looked astonished. "You like girls?"

Ruby shrugged. "Er... yeah?"

Yang shook her head as if to clear it. "When did that happen?"

Ruby hesitated. "Well... during my second timeline... I kind of figured it out."

Yang looked gobsmacked. "Wow. So... you and... and Blake? Did you two... ever...?"

Ruby licked her lips and looked at the floor. "We... well, Blake and me were kind of... um... together, before the end of my last timeline. Yeah..."

Yang beamed. "My baby sister got herself a cute cat girlfriend!" Her face fell and she started frowning. "How far did you two...?"

Ruby grimaced. "Yang! None of your business!"

Yang paled. "That far, huh?" Her eyes started changing color to red. "Ruby... that girl is two years older than you..."

Ruby frowned. "Half a year, Yang. And besides, I set the... I set the pace the whole time."

Yang's eyes stopped glowing and she looked surprised. "You did?"

Ruby nodded. "You told Blake and Pyrrha that they needed to let me set the pace... and they did."

Yang looked confused, then amazed. "Wait... Blake AND Pyrrha?" Her eyes started to sparkle. "No way! My baby sister got TWO girlfriends at the same time?" She laughed. "Just like Dad, huh?"

Ruby winced. "Yeah... you said the same thing the last time." She sighed. "But no, I did not date Pyrrha and Blake at the same time." She shrugged. "We took turns..."

Yang blinked, then hooted. "Hah! Dad is going to have a heart attack!"

Ruby's eyes went wide. "Yang! You can't tell him!" She waved her hands in the air. "Besides, nothing's happened yet! Who knows what will happen this time!"

Yang blinked again, then nodded. "Well... OK. That's fair." She looked deeply curious. "So... you and Blake... AND Pyrrha. How did that happen?"

Ruby shook her head. "I'm not really sure how it started. I mean... nothing happened during our first timeline. I'm pretty sure Pyrrha was interested in Jaune Arc during the first timeline, actually. She always had that look in her eyes when she looked at him... although he didn't seem to realize it."

Yang nodded. "OK... but in your second timeline, something DID happen?"

Ruby sighed. "Well... like I said, I don't know how it started. Just... one day, it seemed like both Blake and Pyrrha started to get interested in me. And then they both asked me out. One after another. I didn't know what to do, so I ran for it!"

Yang laughed. "Wow. That's awesome..." she chuckled a bit at Ruby's angry glare. "I mean... OK, I'm sure that it freaked you out at the time, but they both actually asked you out on the same day?"

"One right after another." Ruby corrected. "In front of each other... and you."

Yang's eyes went wide. "Wow. How did that not end up in some sort of huge fight?"

Ruby shrugged. "Well... like I said, I ran. I didn't want our team to break up because of Pyrrha and Blake fighting over me... so I didn't give either of them an answer. Honestly... I didn't really know if I even liked girls at that point."

Yang nodded, leaning forward slightly in eagerness. "Sure... sure. So... then what happened?"

Ruby hesitated. "Well... you told me I should try and figure out if I liked girls or not. So... I asked Velvet out."

Yang blinked. "Velvet?"

"Oh." Ruby realized that Yang didn't know many people at Beacon by name yet. "The cute rabbit faunus in Dr. Oobleck's class? She's a second year."

Yang grinned. "Oh! And?"

Ruby sighed. "Well... Velvet likes guys... specifically Yatsuhashi, the big guy from her team." She smiled. "She was really nice about how she let me down though."

Yang nodded at that. "Well... that's good, I guess. So then what happened?"

Ruby took a deep breath. "Well, then you suggested that I ask both Pyrrha and Blake out."

Yang blinked at that. "I did what?"

Ruby chuckled weakly. "Well, I think you meant for me to ask them out individually, you know, go on a few dates, see how I felt about them... but I ended up asking them both out at the same time."

Yang winced. "That did not go well, I take it?"

Ruby smiled. "No, actually, it went great. We had a nice first date... the three of us went out to Vale, and... well, it was nice."

Yang blinked. "Wow. So... that was it? You three were a couple... or a... trio, after that?"

Ruby blinked. "No Yang. How would that even work?"

Yang started to answer. "Well..."

Ruby looked confused. "Wait... is that a thing?"

Yang hesitated. "Er... sometimes?"

Ruby looked thoughtful. "Huh." She shook her head. "Well... anyway, after our first date, we all agreed to go on individual dates to see how we felt. The first date was good, but... both Pyrrha and Blake wanted to go out with me one on one as well."

"Sure." Yang waved a hand at her sister to go on.. "So... you ended up with Blake in the end?"

Ruby nodded back. "Eventually. I mean... you suggested that we all date. You took Pyrrha on a date while I took Blake on a date, then I took Pyrrha on a date while you took Blake on a date... and finally Pyrrha and Blake went on a date."

Yang blinked. "I suggested that?"

Ruby nodded. "It was actually pretty fun. And when we'd all been on dates... and gotten to know how we felt about each other, we decided that I'd be with Blake and you'd be with Pyrrha from then on."

Yang pointed to herself in astonishment. "I... I ended up with Pyrrha? Pyrrha Nikos?" She looked stunned. "I..." Yang shook her head. "Whoa." She looked at Ruby. "Really? Me and P-money?"

"Don't call her P-money." Ruby told Yang automatically. "She doesn't like it."

Yang opened her mouth, closed it, then nodded. "OK... er... what did I end up calling her? Just Pyrrha?"

Ruby shrugged. "You called her... Babe. And Pyr, sometimes."

Yang blinked. "And she liked that?"

Ruby nodded. "Yes."

Yang blew out an astonished breath. "Whoa. Me and Pyrrha. That's... that's a thing."

Ruby smiled softly. "You two were really good together. You... you brought her out of her shell. You made her happy."

Yang smiled back at that. "I did, huh?" She thought about it. "I guess I can kind of see it. I mean... she is pretty hot." She shook her head. "I wouldn't have thought I'd have gone for a girl, but..." She looked thoughtful. "I mean... I don't hate the idea, you know?"

Ruby smiled, then sighed. "Well... who knows if things will happen that way again this time?"

Yang frowned. "Why won't they?"

Ruby shrugged helplessly. "None of us got together my first time through."

Yang nodded. "Huh. Well, I guess things must have changed?"

Ruby nodded. "I'm not sure how. I mean, I guess the big change was that Weiss was on our team the first time instead of Pyrrha."

Yang looked thoughtful. "Hmm. Maybe with Pyrrha on another team, she never got close enough to think about us that way..." she blinked. "But I wonder why nothing happened with Blake?"

Ruby looked thoughtful. "Well... Blake was kind of uncomfortable around Weiss. She's the heiress to the SDC... and their record with the faunus is... well, more than a little sketchy. Not to mention, the White Fang killed some of their board members. People Weiss knew."

Yang winced. "And they were on a team together... right. Blake was probably freaking out the whole time that Weiss would figure out that she was a faunus..."

Ruby nodded. "When Weiss found out... well, Blake kind of let it slip that she was actually a member of the White Fang... and then she ran. We didn't find her for two days."

Yang blinked. "Wow. That sounds bad. How did Weiss take it?"

Ruby grimaced. "She was really... really angry. She kept saying we should call the police, except you and I wouldn't let her. But we found Blake on the docks a couple days later, and she and Sun were fighting the White Fang, trying to stop them from stealing a bunch of Dust..."

Yang blinked again. "Sun?"

"Sun Wukong." Ruby answered automatically. "He's a transfer student from Haven. He showed up right as the Vytal festival decorations were getting put up. He's a monkey faunus, and he kind of... well, he had a crush on Blake in both timelines."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "So... he's your competition?"

Ruby shrugged. "Well, in the first timeline, Sun and Blake went to the dance together... but the second, she was with me. And Sun?" She grinned. "Sun's OK. When we told him that we were together, he backed off. He's a nice guy, really."

Yang nodded. "OK, so I don't have to give him a talking to." She looked at Ruby with a serious expression. "And... I won't have to give Blake one?"

Ruby sighed. "One... Blake barely knows me now. And even... even if we do... if she and I do... get together again, Blake is super nice. And I already told you. She let me set the pace the whole way. Every step."

Yang nodded. "Well... good. You're kind of young to be dating..."

"I'm only half a year younger than you at this point." Ruby pointed out, gesturing to her head. "Up here, anyway."

Yang sighed. "Yeah. You sure don't act much like my fifteen year old baby sister."

Ruby looked a bit sad. "I guess not." She looked at Yang in concern. "Is it really that noticeable?"

Yang nodded firmly. "Yeah. I mean... you still seem like you, but... you're really different too. You really do seem a lot older. And just a few days ago... you were..."

"A few days ago I was a year and a half younger." Ruby continued the thought with a sigh. "And I hadn't had to fight for my life. I hadn't seen anyone die."

Yang sighed. "Yeah. It... changed you, Rubes. It's not a small change. I... as much as anything else, it's the... the look in your eyes. The way you talk... even the way you move. All that convinced me you were telling the truth about this whole time travel thing as much as any of the things you predicted."

Ruby nodded. "I think I get it. For me... it happened just a little bit at a time, but for you, I changed all at once."

Yang sighed. "Yeah. And it sucks. Because... because I hate having missed all of that." She smiled weakly at Ruby. "Even if it ended up... kind of sucking, I really hate that I couldn't have been there with you."

Ruby smiled softly at her. "But you were, Yang. You were with me the whole way."

Yang sighed again. "Not this me. I'm glad I could... I could be there for you. But I wish I could remember what happened. I wish I could remember all those moments..." her face went soft. "You fell in love for the first time, and I missed it. That sucks."

Ruby shrugged. "Well... technically, I haven't gotten the girl yet. You can be there for me this time?"

Yang grinned, nodding. "Heck yeah. We'll win you your pet kitty."

Ruby punched Yang in the shoulder, hard. "Yang!"

Yang laughed, wincing. "Hey! You have gotten better at that!"

Ruby flexed her wrist. "I need a lot more practice."

Yang opened her arms wide. "Well, that's one of the reasons we came here, right?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah... but... we SHOULD decide what we're going to do from this point, first."

Yang frowned. "I guess? I mean... I guess there's a bunch of stuff you haven't told me yet?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. I mean. We need to figure out how we're going to fix things. People are going to die unless I fix stuff. A lot of people."

Yang's face grew serious. "Right. Me included."

Ruby nodded. "It's a possibility. They'll attack Beacon eventually if we don't stop them first."

"Who exactly are THEY?" Yang asked. "I mean, you told me some names... and the White Fang is part of this, but... you implied that the White Fang was working for this... Cinder Fall person?"

Ruby nodded. "I'm not sure how she recruits them, but I THINK this is all about her getting the other half of the Fall Maiden's powers for herself."

Yang blinked. "And... the other half of those powers is... under the school right now?"

Ruby nodded again. "Amber is in the Vault under the school right now. Well... probably. She'll be there in a few months... and I know Cinder attacked her two weeks ago. As far as I know Amber is in a hospital somewhere right now. But she WILL be under the school eventually."

Yang nodded. "OK, and this Cinder Fall stole half of the power from her... somehow?"

Ruby nodded. "I don't know how she did it. Professor Ozpin didn't seem to know how either, but I saw her use the powers. She has half of the Fall Maiden's powers. That's for sure."

Yang shrugged. "I'll take your word for it. And... these powers are pretty impressive. Impressive enough to be willing to do just about anything for... I guess?"

Ruby nodded again. "At half power, Pyrrha and Cinder could do amazing things. At full strength... I'm pretty sure the powers would make you stronger than anyone else."

Yang looked interested. "Stronger than Professor Goodwitch?"

Ruby nodded seriously. "Yes. They don't need dust to pull tricks like Professor Goodwitch used on me earlier. They just... do it. Once, Cinder blew you out of a fourteenth story window with just a wave of her hand."

Yang blinked. "Was that when I...?"

Ruby raised an eyebrow. "You were fine. And we beat her, actually. That time."

Yang blinked again. "You beat the other Fall Maiden?"

Ruby nodded. "The four of us. Pyrrha used her own Maiden powers in the fight, but we beat her."

Yang looked impressed. "So... did that mean Pyrrha got all the powers after that?"

Ruby shook her head. "No... we'd have had to kill Cinder for Pyrrha to get all the powers."

Yang frowned. "Right."

Ruby shrugged. "Maybe they could have used their Aura transfer machine on Cinder to give Pyrrha the other half of the powers... but... well, that might have killed Cinder too."

Yang blinked. "Aura transfer machine...?"

Ruby nodded seriously, frowning. "That's in the Vault as well. Or it will be. It's like... Amber is in a life support capsule, and Pyrrha got into another one... and it had a bunch of wires between them, and a big machine with computer screens, and it drained Amber's Aura out and and put it into Pyrrha... and Pyrrha got Amber's... well, she got the powers."

Yang looked a bit disturbed. "That sounds... wrong."

Ruby nodded. "Pyrrha felt the same way. We all thought it was... kind of... terrible, but... things were kind of desperate. If Amber died on her own, everyone thought that the powers would end up going to Cinder, and that would have been really bad. Half the powers was bad enough, but with the full power of the Fall Maiden, Cinder could have been nearly unstoppable."

Yang frowned. "OK... desperate times... I guess."

Ruby sighed. "Amber... they told us that Amber had been in a coma for months. That she wasn't going to wake up or get better. I... I don't know if that's true, but... whatever Cinder did, she seemed to have permanently damaged Amber's Aura." Ruby sighed. "I still don't know if we did the right thing, but... at the time, it seemed like the only thing we could do."

Yang sighed. "Sorry, Ruby. That must have been rough." She frowned. "How did Pyrrha handle it, anyway?"

Ruby sighed as well. "Pyrrha... she hated the idea. But at the same time, she didn't want anyone else to have to take the risk involved if she could do it herself."

Yang blinked. "Risk?"

Ruby shrugged. "Well... nobody had ever done what they did before, I guess. The... Aura transfer machine hadn't been used to take the Aura from one person and put it into another person before. Not like that. So they didn't really know for sure what it would do to Pyrrha."

Yang hesitated. "What did it do to her?"

Ruby wrinkled her nose. "Well... she changed. She kind of got a bit of Amber's personality... or her... preferences, or something. You were kind of worried that Pyrrha wouldn't... wouldn't want to be with you anymore afterwords. And... well, I guess Amber didn't like girls, or something, so Pyrrha had to really fight to be able to be with you."

Yang's eyes widened. "Oh damn." She licked her lips. "Fuck. That's... wow."

Ruby smiled softly. "But Pyrrha loved you so much, Yang. Even if... if Amber didn't feel the same way, it didn't matter. Pyrrha was still in love with you. It took awhile, but Pyrrha said that you won... that you managed to win Amber over as well."

Yang blinked. "I did?"

Ruby giggled lightly. "Apparently my big sister can win over anybody?"

Yang snorted. "Hey... I don't have THAT big an ego."

Ruby looked at her incredulously. "Yes you do."

Yang laughed. "Well, maybe. But... it worked out?"

Ruby nodded. "Pyrrha was getting used to having Amber's soul inside her. And you two were still together, so... yes. I think it did." She sighed. "Of course... we went to Mountain Glenn not too long after that. And that... well, we didn't make it out."

Yang grimaced. "OK. Right." She nodded. "Right. We'll just do it better this time."

Ruby tapped her nose. "And that is what we need to talk about tonight."

Yang nodded. "OK." She looked curious. "So... lay it on me. What do we need to do to fix things?"

Ruby frowned. "That's just the thing... I'm not sure anymore." She hesitated. "I mean... if we keep things going as they did in my first timeline, I can predict events... and the second time through, I used that to catch Cinder while she was sneaking into the CCT. The first time she got away clean. So... that worked, but then there were more strong people at Mountain Glenn the second time. Maybe because we caught Cinder?"

Yang looked thoughtful. "Like... they had reinforcements the last time, but didn't think they needed them?"

Ruby thought about that. "Maybe? I did change a couple other things. My second time through, I captured Roman Torchwick at From Dust Till Dawn. I didn't do that the first time... or this time."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "Why didn't you catch him this time?"

Ruby frowned. "Because... because I was afraid that, by catching him the second time through, I changed things to make them worse in the long run." She shrugged. "And the second time, when I DID catch him, the White Fang broke him out almost immediately."

Yang looked surprised. "They did?"

Ruby nodded. "Also, Roman Torchwick was at the docks on the day we found Blake... and he got away that time as well. But the second time through, we captured him and almost all the White Fang. Only Roman Torchwick escaped that time too."

Yang looked thoughtful. "So your first time through, you caught Torchwick twice... even if he got away later, and you captured the bad guy's leader? The bad Fall Maiden?"

Ruby nodded. "Cinder. Yeah. So I thought maybe... changing those things is why there were tougher bad guys at Mountain Glenn." She frowned. "Pyrrha got poisoned by some scary scorpion faunus... otherwise maybe we'd have been able to beat the Grimm. Pyrrha is really strong, especially with the Maiden powers, but by the time we had to face the Grimm horde, she was already really weak."

Yang looked thoughtful. "So if there aren't as many really strong guys... maybe we'd have won?"

Ruby nodded again. "That's why I let Roman go this time. I could have beaten him... but... the more I change, the less I can predict about what will happen next."

Yang nodded thoughtfully. "OK, that makes sense." She frowned. "But... you know what happens when you capture Torchwick and Cinder, right? Why not do things the way you did them the first time, but be ready for the extra bad guys at Mountain Glenn?"

Ruby shrugged. "The second time through, Jaune died. And Tuckson. I want to save both of them."

Yang blinked. "Right. And you've already saved Jaune, so things are more like your... first time through now?"

Ruby nodded. "Well, except for our teams. They're completely different this time."

Yang frowned. "Which makes it impossible to predict everything else?"

Ruby shook her hand from side to side. "Not impossible... harder. I mean... stuff inside Beacon shouldn't change what the bad guys do. Mostly. Cinder and her team don't come to Beacon until the second semester."

Yang blinked. "Come to Beacon?"

Ruby nodded with a sour expression. "They're Haven students."

Yang blinked again. "So they just walked right in?"

Ruby nodded. "Nobody knew it was them. Uncle Qrow never saw their faces when they attacked Amber. I guess because of Emerald's semblance."

"Emerald?" Yang questioned.

"Hallucination semblance." Ruby explained. "As far as I can tell, she can make any one person see whatever she wants them to see."

Yang grimaced. "That sounds dangerous."

Ruby nodded firmly. "Yeah. You fought her in Mountain Glenn, but she got away."

Yang sighed. "Yeah, if she could make me see whatever she liked, I'm surprised she didn't just kick my ass."

Ruby shrugged. "We were all a lot stronger by then. And we'd planned for you to face her."

Yang looked interested. "Oh? Why me?"

Ruby shrugged again. "Because if you managed to grab her... well, you're the strongest. If you could hold her and choke her out, it wouldn't matter what she makes you see."

Yang nodded thoughtfully. "Makes sense. I guess I'll just have to grab her before she hits me with her semblance."

Ruby frowned. "Well... she can't use it on multiple people at a time, I think. So we planned on trying to outnumber her, but at the time we actually got to fight her, she had a bunch of friends with her."

Yang sighed. "Right." The two girls were silent for awhile, before Yang spoke up again. "So... you've saved Jaune. And you want to save this... Tuckson, person?"

Ruby nodded. "He owns a bookshop in Vale. I guess he used to be a member of the White Fang too? But he's like Blake, he didn't like their violence, and he got out... and he was helping other faunus get out as well. I got dad and Blake's dad, Ghira, to help. They got some faunus out of the White Fang here in Vale and got them on a boat to Menagerie. But later, he was killed in his shop. I'm sure it was either the White Fang or one of Cinder's people who did it."

Yang nodded. "OK... save the bookshop guy. And then what?"

Ruby frowned. "Then... catch Cinder... and stop the White Fang at Mountain Glenn, I guess?"

Yang nodded. "How?"

Ruby wrinkled her nose. "Well... we just bring more people. Like... two whole teams. And get Uncle Qrow to come along too."

Yang grinned. "That sounds workable. And we both just happen to be leading a team this time through, right?"

Ruby grinned back. "I believe I noticed that as well."

Yang looked curious. "Will Uncle Qrow get back in time to help?"

Ruby nodded. "He should." She frowned. "What I'm not sure about is... what do we do about Amber and the powers of the Fall Maiden?"

Yang looked curious. "Well... Pyrrha got the powers the last time, and they helped, right?"

Ruby nodded. "Yes. I'm not sure we'd have managed to capture Cinder... or beat all those really strong guys at Mountain Glenn without them."

Yang shrugged. "So... make sure that Pyrrha gets the powers again?"

Ruby grimaced. "Pyrrha... didn't complain much about it... but having to have Amber's soul shoved into her... it had to suck. I know it hurt her, and she was different after... and I could tell she was scared. Not just before, but even after it had happened. Like she was afraid she was losing herself."

Yang wrinkled her nose. "Yeah... that sounds like it probably sucked. But... what else can we do? It sounds like we're going to need all the firepower we can get."

Ruby sighed. "I don't know. I think... I think if we could kill Cinder, then maybe her stolen powers would go back to Amber. Maybe it would let Amber get better?"

Yang frowned. "Seems like kind of a long shot... and..." She winced. "I mean... you're talking about killing someone. That's not exactly..." She trailed off. "I mean... OK, she's the bad guy. I get that. But still..."

Ruby frowned. "I watched her murder Pyrrha in my first timeline. And she set up the attack on Beacon. Hundreds of people died... maybe thousands. There were Grimm everywhere... civilians and hunters and huntresses all died. Lots of Atlas soldiers died... a whole Battleship full... and lots more besides. And it was Cinder pulling the strings."

Yang's face hardened. "OK, a REALLY bad guy... er... girl." She punched her right fist into her left palm. "And... yeah. If it comes down to it, I'll punch her ticket myself if I have to." Her face turned bleak. "I mean... I guess somebody is going to have to."

Ruby sighed. "I... I don't know. Maybe they can use the Aura transfer machine on her. Or maybe after we catch her... she'll get the death penalty or something. But... if Pyrrha got the full powers earlier... or if Amber wakes up and has all the powers. Either way, it'd give us a better chance."

Yang wrinkled her nose. "Well... the problem seems to be that... like you said, nobody knows she's a bad guy right now, right?" Ruby nodded. "So..." Yang continued reluctantly. "Killing her right now would be murder." She shrugged. "I don't really want to go to jail." Her face hardened. "I mean... if there's no other way... I'll do it, but..."

Ruby shook her head quickly. "We can wait to catch her red handed in the CCT." She told Yang quickly. "And... this time, I shoot her one extra time after her Aura breaks." She finished with a a note of reluctance making her voice quaver.

Yang looked at her sister, trying to keep her expression neutral. The way Ruby had casually discussed killing a person in cold blood chilled her. Ruby... her baby sister. Her idealistic little sister who wanted to be a hero like in the storybooks had just explained how she would kill an enemy in a way so as to try and get away with it. She could hear her blood pounding in her ears. She felt a little faint. She swallowed, but couldn't speak.

Ruby looked ashamed. "Yang?"

Yang grabbed Ruby and crushed her to her chest. "I'll do it." She muttered. "You don't have to." Ruby hugged her back, pressing her face into Yang's chest.

When they finally broke apart, Ruby wiped away her tears, and shook her head. "I don't know, Yang. I'm going to have to think about this one. Because... because Cinder breaks into the CCT the night before we leave for Mountain Glenn. The next morning we go... the next night we find the White Fang under the city, and we get on that train. That's one day. One day for Amber to wake up... or for Pyrrha to learn how to use the full powers. Either way... it's cutting it really close. If there is a way we could take care of Cinder earlier..."

Yang frowned. "Huh. Is there any way of proving she's a bad guy before that night?"

Ruby shook her head. "I don't know. I know she's behind Roman Torchwick... she's the one who gets him to work with the White Fang... she's the one who recruits the White Fang, somehow. But I don't know any of the details. And I don't know how to prove any of it."

Yang looked thoughtful. "Well... you know where Roman Torchwick will be sooner than that, right?"

Ruby blinked. "I guess so?"

Yang shrugged. "So... we catch him... and we don't let him escape. And we get him to turn on Cinder... somehow."

Ruby looked interested. "That... is actually a pretty good idea."

Yang grinned. "I do have those occasionally."

"Occasionally." Ruby agreed with a chuckle. She frowned. "Although that will be harder than it sounds. He's... smart, and tough. General Ironwood had Torchwick in his custody after Mountain Glenn the first time through, and as far as I know, Torchwick must not have told him anything, because nobody knew about Cinder till it was too late... and Torchwick ended up not only escaping, but taking over the General's flagship and taking over all of the Atlas combat robots at the same time somehow."

Yang looked incredulous. "He did what?"

Ruby shook her head. "I don't know how he did it... but during the attack on Beacon, all the Atlesian robots all started attacking everything BUT the Grimm. They shot General Ironwood's shuttle down... and Torchwick was on the flagship. He used it to start shooting down the other battleships..."

Yang blinked. "Battleships? As in more than one?"

Ruby nodded. "After the Breach, General Ironwood brought the whole Atlesian fleet to Vale. I guess he got put in charge of security? Anyway... that didn't turn out so good, because all of their robots turned on them... and us, during the final battle."

Yang whistled. "And that was all this Torchwick guy?"

Ruby shrugged. "Well... I THINK he had some help. There was this short girl. Pink and brown hair... wore white. We called her Ice cream girl. You know, after that ice cream with vanilla, strawberry and chocolate in it?"

"Neopolitan?" Yang asked.

"Right." Ruby answered. "Anyway... I took my rocket locker up to the battleship..."

Yang interrupted. "You took your what?"

Ruby blinked. "Oh... rocket lockers. We all get assigned one. You can send them anywhere you want with your scroll. You know, call your weapons to you..."

Yang blinked. "We get rocket lockers?"

Ruby grinned. "Yeah. Anyway... I used one to fly to the battleship to try and stop Torchwick, and that ice cream girl was there with him. After I'd beaten them... and the battleship crashed... the robots all shut down."

Yang nodded slowly. "OK... got it."

Ruby hesitated. "Ice Cream Girl is really good. She's got some sort of... illusion semblance. Not sure how it works, but she can change what she looks like with it, and she can leave behind images that look real but shatter when you hit them, like glass." She scratched her head. "For awhile I thought she could teleport... but I think she just uses her illusions to hide behind while she runs away really fast."

Yang nodded slowly. "Right..."

Ruby continued. "So... even if we do catch Roman... we'll have to watch out for Ice Cream Girl. And she could look like anyone."

Yang sighed. "Of course she can."

Ruby spoke up. "Anyway, that whole thing is why I want to end this before the Breach. If we let the Breach happen, then the next big thing is the attack on Beacon, and that's MUCH worse."

Yang nodded, although she looked dubious. "Right. So we don't let it go that far. Somehow."

Ruby took a deep breath. "If we can convince everyone that I know what's going to happen... it'll be a lot easier to stop it."

Yang looked at her younger sister. "Maybe..." she conceded. "But doing that seems like a bit of a tall order."

Ruby nodded. "But if we do, if we can convince everyone on our teams... and Professor Ozpin, and Uncle Qrow... well, if we convince Professor Ozpin he can help us with the General and... and with everyone helping this will be easy!"

Yang hesitated. "Yeah... it sounds good in theory... but how do we convince everyone you aren't either crazy or pulling a huge prank?" She gestured to herself. "You barely managed to convince me, and I'm your sister!"

Ruby frowned. "Well... our friends won't be SO hard to convince. I mean, you and Pyrrha and Blake all knew about me time traveling by the end of my second time through."

Yang looked thoughtful. "How did you break it to us that time?"

Ruby thought about it. "Well... you all kind of confronted me. You wanted to know how I... how I was doing so well in classes, and how I seemed to know stuff I shouldn't. I guess I'd slipped up a few times, mentioned things that I shouldn't have known about."

Yang raised an eyebrow. "OK... I guess it could work." She hesitated. "Was this before or after we were all dating?"

Ruby grimaced. "After? Like... a lot after? We'd been together for months by that point."

Yang sighed. "Right... so you were already a couple with Blake, and really close with Pyrrha by then?"

Ruby nodded. "Yes?"

Yang wrinkled her nose. "Yeah. That... probably helped."

Ruby sighed. "Yeah..."

Yang took a deep breath. "I... listen. If you just tell everyone what you know, they're going to think you're lying, or crazy. They'll come up with any explanation that doesn't include time travel. Me? I thought it was a prank. I thought you had to have gotten Uncle Qrow to help you out... maybe even Professor Ozpin. That you'd somehow hired Junior's gang to stage that robbery. And I'm your sister, Ruby. I've known you for your whole life. I can tell when you're lying by just looking at your face, and I didn't believe you, not at first, and... and even now part of me is screaming that this whole thing is insane."

She shook her head. "Our teams? They don't know us. We're strangers. They seem like good people... mostly. But... they don't have any reason to trust us."

Ruby looked frustrated. "But... they're our friends!"

"Not yet they aren't." Yang said firmly. "And if we push too hard... maybe never. If we went down to our dorms right now and told them everything... well, we probably wouldn't get halfway through it before it blew up in our faces."

Ruby sighed. "Blake... Blake would run away."

Yang looked curious, then thoughtful. "She'd think we were connected to the White Fang... or that we were setting her up, or something."

Ruby nodded slowly. "She'll... she'll run if she thinks her secret is going to come out. I stopped her before she got too far the second time through, but the first time? If we hadn't found her at the docks... I don't know if we'd have ever found her. I hope she'd have come back on her own, but... I don't know that for sure."

Yang nodded. "Yeah. I mean... she's an ex-terrorist. I mean... OK, she's a good guy now. And I believe you that she's reformed, and everything. And... I'll give her the benefit of the doubt and all, but... she's got to be scared of getting found out. I mean... wearing a bow? Constantly? To hide who she is? That's kind of major. And she's not just hiding that she's a faunus, but that she's an ex-terrorist. I mean... what if there is a warrant for her arrest or something?"

Ruby shook her head. "There isn't. In my first time through, Blake kept wearing her bow for the rest of the time we were in Beacon, but in my second time through, she stopped wearing it really early in the first semester... and the thing where she used to be a member of the White Fang... well, only our teams knew that second part, but... she wasn't worried about getting arrested or anything."

Yang nodded. "OK... so... I guess we can ease Blake into things. If we're careful?"

Ruby nodded back. "I know we can." She sighed. "But... you're probably right about it not being smart to try and do things too fast. Blake... doesn't know us. Yet. Neither does anyone else on our teams. We've got to show that they can trust us first..."

Yang smiled with a shrug. "That sounds like the way we should go."

Ruby sighed. "It's just... I have SO MUCH stuff that I know about them right now that I couldn't possibly know! But if we wait, and get to know them, they'll tell us all that stuff naturally. It's like... we'd be wasting all of my best material!"

Yang chuckled. "Yeah... the notes you have on them are pretty useful. And... you have more you haven't written down too, right?"

Ruby nodded. "A bunch! Like... I could help you and Pyrrha get together. I know all about what you guys did on your first date. She liked riding on Bumblebee... and dancing at Junior's club."

Yang blinked, then grinned. "Really?"

Ruby nodded. "Yeah. Actually, she took Blake to Junior's club too, so I think she must really like dancing?"

Yang blinked. "Pyrrha and Blake were dating too?" She shook her head. "Right... you mentioned that." She nodded thoughtfully. "Dancing, huh? Good to know." She frowned. "I don't know if you should really be telling me all of this. Like... it almost feels like cheating. And if it's bad to get the answers to a test before the test... isn't it almost worse if you're getting the answers to how to get someone to like you?"

Ruby hesitated. "Maybe? But... it's not like we're going to do anything bad with what we know. We're going to save people. And... Yang, Pyrrha and you were happy together. Is it wrong to help that along again?"

Yang shrugged. "Well... there isn't really a guarantee that that's going to even happen this time."

Ruby pouted. "But you two were so great together!"

Yang smiled slightly. "I believe you... but this Pyrrha doesn't even know me. And... didn't you say that in your first timeline she liked... Jaune?"

Ruby hesitated. "That's how it seemed... although Jaune just seemed interested in Weiss."

Yang blinked. "And who was Weiss interested in?"

Ruby shrugged. "She went with Neptune to the dance. He's Sun's teammate from Haven..."

Yang looked dubious. "I see. So somebody who isn't even at Beacon yet?"

Ruby shrugged. "Yes?"

Yang sighed. "So... we really don't know how things will go. I mean... you and Blake and Pyrrha and I were on a team together your last time through, and the four of us ended up dating." Ruby nodded. Yang shrugged. "We probably spent every day together, being on the same team, living in the same dorm. But that's not the case this time through. You and Pyrrha are on one team, and Blake and I are on another." She shrugged again. "I mean, that doesn't mean we couldn't get together the same way again, but that's got to change how things go down, right?"

Ruby sighed. "Yeah..."

Yang looked at Ruby seriously. "You really want to get back together with Blake?"

Ruby nodded firmly. "Very much."

Yang sighed, and nodded. "Then... we really need to take this slow. If you spring the whole 'I'm a time traveler, and you need to help me save the world' bit on her, she'll freak out. Maybe she'll handle it OK, but it'll make things weird. Especially if she figures out you were in love with her in another time line."

Ruby looked confused. "Wouldn't that make it easier for her to like me?"

Yang frowned. "I... don't know. Maybe? But maybe it'd scare her, or make her think you're trying to manipulate her into a relationship?"

Ruby groaned. "I don't want to scare her!"

Yang looked at Ruby in concern. "I'll do my best to help her, Rubes... but I don't think you can just make everything go back the way it was. Things aren't the same." She tried to smile. "Now... you said that Blake... that Blake and Pyrrha confessed to YOU, right?" Ruby nodded. Yang nodded. "Well... then I think what you should do is try and do everything you did on your second time through. When it comes to how you and they interacted, anyway. You didn't know you liked girls at the time, so don't... go after them. Let them come to you."

Ruby hesitated. "Well... I'll try? But... what if I end up with Pyrrha this time?"

Yang grinned. "Do you not like Pyrrha?"

Ruby thought about that. "Pyrrha's great, but... I love Blake."

Yang felt a pang in her heart at how sad Ruby sounded. "Yeah. You really do huh?"

Ruby nodded with a sad, puppy dog look in her eyes, that made Yang remember that she was the big sister, and she still needed to look out for her younger sibling.

"It'll work out." Yang promised softly. "I'll help."