Paradise

DO NOT FALL.

YOU SHOULD HAVE NEVER BEEN BORN.

Atlas was gone, and was now merely a city submerged in the waters of Remnant. Something Ruby and the other ones who fell did not know as of yet.

Fright was all they felt by the time each of them fell into the empty void. Each and every one of them feeling such failure, and dread.

Ruby woke up. Her weapon Crescent Rose fell first before she fell along with Blake thereafter. She was surprised to find that she was looking up at the sky again. But how come the sky? When they fell into a void of darkness?

She slightly panicked as she sat up, finding herself in what looked to be a sunny beach. More questions followed her train of thought.

Where's Blake? Yang?! Weiss?!

J-Jaune?!

She was lost in a beach. No Crescent Rose. No friends around. No gleam, sunshines, nor rainbows. But again, those were from naive fairy tales.

"Blake!" Ruby called out in her environment. She also found that this was not only a beach, but an island. A mysterious one with curvaceous trees, and strange kinds of roots growing from the ground.

"Jaune! Yang!" The desperate girl called out all of her friends' names as she walked closer to the incoming woods.

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All Weiss could think of, was Winter's voice.

"Winter..." She whispered, as she felt the grass spiked up against her face. The Huntress slowly stood up, and scrubbed the dirt and grass off of her bruised face.

Am I dead? She thought. What else would it even be if one fell into a void, after all?

She could still feel pain either way. Then figured, not dead at all. But how did she get here? In this paradise? It's as if it wasn't a void she fell into.

Weiss gasped, as she stood up. Looking around. "Jaune! Penny?!" Not so different from Ruby, she called out the names of the last friends she came across with.

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Blake found herself on another part in the beach. She frantically searched for everyone else. As she held a half of Gambol Shroud.

"Dammit..." She said, before she spotted a red blur in the distance. "Ruby?"

The two later spotted eachother, distances away. They both hurried, glad to have found the other.

"Blake! You're alive!" Ruby cried, and rushed to her sister figure as the two embraced eachother.

"I'm glad you are, too..." Blake said as she held Ruby close.

"We have to go back." Ruby said as she pulled away then searched the environment. "There has to be a way back." She said.

"Where are we?" Blake said. "I've never seen this place before."

"Neither have I." The younger huntress said, as she turned to Blake. "We have to find the others..."

The Arc boy Jaune was cutting through leaves and branches, also desperately searching for his friends. He cried out his friends' names as he searched for minutes.

Until he felt the blade of his sword cut through more leaves, and most specifically, what seemed to be another blade colliding with his.

He gasped, seconds of silence endured before he reacted. "...Weiss?"

Suddenly, the leaves bursted. Jaune earned a kick in the face, he grunted in pain as he skidded back. He looked infront of him and saw Neo Politan, who held out the blade of her parasol at him. Dread and anger across her face.

"Neo?!" Jaune blocked her next strikes with his shield, then picked his sword back up.

"You fell too?!" He said, as he thrusted a foot forward and managed to throw her back with his shield. He then lowered it to try and convince her to stop with her reckless route.

"Just stop, Politan! Me and my friends fell with you." Jaune said.

Neo groaned, as she stood up and pointed her parasol at Jaune. Who then noticed how enraged she was by the look on her face and her emotions.

"Cinder stabbed you in the back, didn't she?" Jaune asked. "Who woulda thought?"

She raised her parasol and charged at Jaune, who then mostly defended with his shield. Then he decided to strike back when she shattered and appeared behind him, he first blocked then slashed her away. She skidded back, panting.

The short woman ran towards the knight, further preparing her parasol before getting shot up and blown away to the side by a special guest in the background.

"She got thrown in? You got thrown in?" A very familiar voice spoke out, one Jaune simply heard just many minutes ago.

"Y-You're alright!" Jaune said.

"If Neo's here... then should I also expect Cinder?" Yang said as she appeared into the frame, walking out of woods as she cracked her knuckles and turned to a knocked-out Neo Politan, whose aura had been fully depleted.

"I..." Jaune stood up. "I tried to convince Neo to stop." He said.

"We both know it's hard to." Yang said.

"I.." Jaune turned to Yang. "No, you shouldn't expect Cinder at all." He looked down.

"Ruby, Weiss, Blake..." Jaune said, and enumerated their names to her. "We lost to Cinder and fell into the void like you did."

"No..." Yang clenched her fists. "That bitch." She said.

Jaune went over to Neo, poked her with his foot. Unconscious, she remained. Then he decided to pick her up.

"Are you sure about bringing her along?" Yang asked.

"I do have this strange feeling she'll change her mind." Jaune said.

"You know that's a good feeling, Jaune." Yang said, as her face softened.

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"Where am I?" Weiss asked herself as she ventured through these tropical woods. She looked into a broken Myrtenaster in frustration.

"We lost..." She sniffled, then started thinking about her older sister who was now the Winter Maiden.

"...I'm alright, Winter..." Tears streamed down till her chin, as she sniffled.

"...I am... alright." Weiss wiped her tears with her the back of her glove, in order to suppress the sadness. Maybe for now.

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"Up here, Ruby. Maybe we'll be able to find them around here." Blake said as she went up hill that'd lead further into the tropical forests, pointing to her north. She turned back at Ruby.

"Ruby?" She said.

The young Huntress was staring out into the beach, she watched the waves and the doves that flew around. She was quiet, rather too quiet. No surprise that she was reacting this way considering what had just happened.

Blake's ears lowered sadly as she looked at the one who is sort of a little sister to her. "Ruby... we'll sort this out." She placed her hand on the other's shoulder.

"We'll find Yang, come on..." Blake said.

Ruby softly sighed as she discontinued, and followed after Blake as they walked into the woods.

"We lost to Cinder again..." Ruby said.

Blake looked at her while they walked. "Yeah... she sure did. But we'll show her, Ruby. We can still get through this." She said and tried to reassure her.

Ruby looked at her with a dull expression. "Will we?" She said.

"Yes." Blake said firmly. "Look, we may not know whatever what happened to Oscar and the others out there. But we have to keep faith that they're fine."

"And if they're not?" Ruby tilted her head. "I haven't exactly thought of a plan B, y'know." She said rather bluntly.

"Don't be like that." Blake said. "When you and I first met, you convinced me that the world has hope and that we are all here to make the world a better place."

"Well then forget that!" Ruby shouted, at her. Gripped her fists angrily.

"Ruby." Blake said her name, tried to calm her down as they stopped in their tracks to... talk.

"I was clearly too young and naive to know the truth about what this job would cost me!" She said. "Just think, Blake. A fifteen year old who skipped two years of training." She held a finger up.

"I was just some dumb little girl who wandered around and cracked jokes thinking the world was all sunshines and rainbows. With no care in the world except for weapons, stupid romance comics, and unhealthy sweets!"

"I didn't look at the bigger picture of growing up that later consisted of trauma, puberty, boy problems, friend issues, and having to carry this huge burden on my shoulders of saving the world!" She said.

"But that exact goal of saving the world is the reason why we're here." Blake said. "You chose to keep moving forward even after Beacon fell."

Ruby ignored her, looking into her hands then she clenched them. "I even lost Crescent Rose..." She said.

"We'll find her somewhere, Ruby." Blake said.

Ruby looked up at Blake with a disappointed expression. Disappointed of herself.

"You know, Blake? I didn't even build Crescent Rose myself. I was just showing off. Qrow did 90% of it, I just decided on what kind of weapons it would be a mashup of, and its colors." Ruby said, as she shed a tear.

"All my skills, the way I fight? It was all Qrow, and he taught me the same moves." She said.

"Dad was too busy to teach me anything. So Qrow and Yang were there. Without them, I would just be me..."

"...by myself, a girl named Ruby Rose. I am no one but a naive little girl who knows nothing." Ruby covered her face with her hands to prevent these adolescent tears from flowing out. She cried softly, tears came and she let them flow despite how much she wanted to hide them.

Tears streamed down Blake's cheeks as well, her heart was broken because the innocense of the hopeful girl she once knew was seemingly gone.

"I'm sorry." Blake quietly cried, as she looked around. No Grimm detected. That was one good thing about this world, she thought before she decided to hug Ruby.

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Somewhere, Yang kept calling out for Ruby and the others' names as she and Jaune searched around the place.

Neo settled in on Jaune's shoulder rather well, and peacefully dozing off. The ice cream girl was surely tired.

"I hope they're okay.." Yang said.

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"Weiss!" Jaune called out at the distance where the trees weren't too close to eachother. A somewhat spacious area, where there was a blue blur ahead.

He gasped. "Weiss?" Jaune rushed over to the direction of that figure.

"Weiss!" Yang followed Jaune, re-prepared her gauntlets then launched herself into the sky with them to land over to Weiss.

Jaune watched as she did, disgruntled because he was carrying someone and could not help himself with those landing strategies.

"Gosh darn it, Yang!" He said, running over.

Weiss panted heavily, with a glad smile as Yang closed in on her, landing nearby. Accompanied by the sight of Jaune carrying... Neo?

"Yang!" Weiss hugged the buttercup of their team immediately.

"I can't believe you guys fell too." Yang said, as she hugged back.

Jaune grew tiresome by the time he closed in on them. A sweaty mess carrying a sleepy mess, t'was what best described him.

"Jaune, you're okay." Weiss went over and hugged Jaune as well. Then she began to question when she pulled away.

"You concern me, though. You brought Neo Politan?" Weiss said.

"I mean we are the heroes after all, Weiss." Jaune said.

"Yeah, right. Keep saying that until she stabs you, I dare thee." Weiss said.

Jaune nervously chuckled.

Yang laughed, and hugged both of her friends together. "Still quite the unseparable knuckleheads, aren't we?" She said.

"Where're Blake and Ruby?" Weiss asked. "Don't tell me Cinder fell too."

"She didn't. We're fine here." Yang said and looked around the environment. The sight of this paradise was truly something. It's as if they decided to go on a vacation in some special island formed specifically for vacations.

"Whatever this place is..." She said, then turned to the others. "You know, I actually saw like, a huge tree out there. Just near where I woke up."

"Huge tree? What about it?" Weiss asked.

"I dunno. It just seems... more than it looks. It's bigger than the average person can imagine." Yang said.

"It might be useful, somehow." Jaune said. "However, we still need to find Blake and Ruby."

"Sure. How about a beacon? Like, so they can see where we are." Yang said.

"Right. Weiss." Jaune turned to the girl. "Could you try summoning a tall glyph?" He asked.

Weiss then raised a broken myrtenaster as she stared into it once more in sorrow.

"Sorry, but... no luck" She said.

"I could try something with Ember Celica." Yang said, as she prepared her gauntlets. She looked at a tree then charged at it, she punched a hole in the shape of her fist, the impact helped her be able to pull the top half of the tree off. She had planted a number of her small sticky grenades onto the upper tree half before she strongly threw it into the sky, then by the time it was high enough, she detonated them. The explosion in the air served as a flare for whoever would soon come to them from nearby.

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Ruby and Blake were still strolling through the land, up until they saw an explosion occur in mid-air above the trees far ahead of them. The noise echoed across the island.

"Is that what I think it is?" Ruby said.

"Yang's grenades. I-I think they flared for us." Blake said. "Come on!" Then they proceeded to rush for the direction to the origin of the explosion.

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"They should be here any minute now." Jaune said, as Blake bursted out of the trees yards away from them. She spotted Yang in the middle of it and had tears in her eyes.

"Blake! You're okay." Yang held her arms wide open for Blake to fall into. The cat faunus went and embraced her girlfriend, having worried for her extremely since that moment she fell.

"Where's... Ruby?" Jaune asked.

Blake pulled away from Yang then stared off into the direction she came from. She thought Ruby was by her side to reunite with the others, but there was no one as if it was just Blake.

"Ruby!" Blake called out the hidden huntress. No answer followed.

"She was just behind me." Blake said, then looked down. "She's... having it rough." She added.

Ruby was hiding at the back of a tree, curled up insecurely. No, she didn't want her friends to look into the face of this failure... yet.

"Ruby?" She heard her sister's voice. Yang spotted her, as the older sister's face softened. She sat beside Ruby calmly.

"Good to know you're fine." She said, looking infront of her then back to Ruby.

"I'm the opposite." Ruby said plainly.

"Probably just for now." Yang said, she skooted over to Ruby then hugged her close. "I'm glad you're okay."

"I failed, Yang." Ruby said.

"Blake told us everything you said." Yang sighed. "I'm sorry you got pulled into all of this, and I'm also sorry that I didn't do much for you."

"You're fine, Yang." Ruby said, still dull. She stood up. "You've done enough, and so have I." She said.

Yang followed Ruby back to the group, the other three looked very worried of the younger Huntress and for her daunting mood.

"I'm fine, guys." Ruby said, and smiled, only it was half-done.

She walked over then hugged Jaune.

"Ruby... you're alright." Jaune said to her, relieved as he held her back with his free hand.

Weiss softly shed tears, and placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Ruby?" She sadly said, relieved at such extent to see her partner again.

The other turned to look at her. "Hey, Weiss..." Ruby said, and smiled as Weiss went and hugged her.

"Back together again even though we fell, eh?" Yang said as she placed her fists on her hips.

"Always the best feeling." Jaune said.

"So, uh..." Ruby looked around the environment when she got done hugging her friends. "Where's... Penny?" She asked.