Fanfic / Flowers Fall Back To Their Roots

"Because once the war of scorched earth and attrition came to a close, there were no victors, only the ones who would lose last.

So the last losers did the only thing they could; they held hands and looked up at the sky; they cried bitter, bloody tears and grieved with broken souls. They begged the shattered moon to affirm they made the right choices up to this point.

But like the gods, the moon would not answer, and the two were abandoned to the solitude of the empty world.

Synopsis: Rosegarden Time travel fix-it featuring adult Ruby and Oscar being angsty badasses trying their best."

— Archive of Our Own summary

Flowers Fall Back to Their Roots is a Peggy Sue RWBY fanfic written by Ignatia_Solomon, in which in the far future of Remnant, the war with Salem boiled over and led to the downfall of society. After the final battle, the only two people to walk the planet were Ruby Rose and Oscar Pine. In a desperate bid to claim a happier ending, Ruby and Oscar travel back in time to before the fall of Beacon.

Can be read at Archive of Our Own here.

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Tropes are:

• Affectionate Nickname: Ruby calls Oscar Pinecone, and he in turn calls her Rosebud.
• Alternate Universe Fic: Per Word of God, no one fell at the end of Volume 8, which also means the events of Volume 9 never happened.
  • When Penny died, Ruby received the Winter Maiden powers instead of Winter.
• And Then What?: After Salem's death Oscar realizes that through all of Oz's lives, there was no plan for after she was defeated.
  • However Oscar intentionally subverts this after arriving in the past. He and Ruby talk about what they plan to do after their second fight with Salem is over.
• Babies Ever After: Discussed. After finding out Ruby is pregnant, Oscar notes that, assuming their plans work out, their child will be the first of Oz's children to be born in a world without Salem.
• Bad Future: Oh god yes. In Ruby and Oscar's future Salem succeeded in dividing humanity beyond repair, and while they eventually killed her, they were the only survivors in the entire world.
• Break the Cutie: Ruby and Oscar are long past this point when the story begins. Despite killing Salem, they've already lost everything and everyone except each other.
• Comically Small Demand: With their future knowledge, Ruby and Oscar win a bet worth 500 million lien in Junior's club. They're willing to settle for 5 million lien, and a few favors which they're willing to pay him out of the five million lien. Junior is surprised they're willing to take such a cut to their winnings, but willing to take what he can get since he'd be alienating a lot his regulars if they had to cough up that kind of money.
• Conversational Troping: Once Oscar tells Ruby of his plan to return to the past, they discuss several potential Time Travel tropes, and Oscar notes they'll end up creating an Alternate Timeline.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Ruby inflicts one on Junior's goons.
• Don't You Dare Pity Me!: Cinder said this trope word for word before they killed her in the Bad Future. She actually calms down slightly when Oscar assures her that no one does.
• Entertainingly Wrong: The idea that the Pool of Light gave Salem her immortality is revealed as being this. Oscar says she was cursed by both the gods, and submerging herself in the Pool of Grimm could never have killed her for this reason. The Pools can only effect those who enter them willingly, with at least some understanding of what it will mean.
• Fate Worse than Death: While exact details haven't been gone into yet, Ruby had several run-ins with Grimm who were like the Hound. This included Summer Rose.
• Freudian Excuse Is No Excuse: After Cinder's Don't You Dare Pity Me! in the original timeline Oscar calmly says that none of them do, because while she did suffer all of the evil and cruelty she did were her own decisions.
• Gadgeteer Genius: One of Oz's lives, Diggs, was this. He was a skilled mechanic, and was the incarnation that forged the Long Memory.
• Genre Savvy: Ruby is rather knowledgeable about time travel tropes which Oscar attributes to her love of comics when she was younger.
• Giver of Lame Names: Oscar jokingly tells Ruby he's going to name his new staff weapon the Lengthy Recollection. He thinks it's funny, but Ruby does not.
• Handicapped Badass: Ruby has lost her left eye and Oscar has lost his right arm. Both of them are still incredibly badass. Oscar has been fighting with one arm long enough he didn't get a prosthetic when he had the opportunity upon returning to the past.
• Happily Ever After: Getting "the happy ending" is Ruby and Oscar's entire goal.
• Mundane Luxury: Clean air, water, food that has any flavor... Ruby and Oscar haven't had them in years, and they savor them upon their return to the past.
• Mythology Gag: After their attack on Junior's bar, Ruby orders a strawberry sunrise like Yang did all the way back in the Yellow Trailer.
• "No. Just… No" Reaction: Oscar's reaction to the idea that he could be hitting on Qrow. Because he doesn't have that context Qrow is a bit offended, and Amber is dying.
• Oh, My Gods!: Depending on the person they use Oum or the Brothers this way.
• Once Done, Never Forgotten: When Ruby tells him not to get kidnapped before they temporarily part ways Oscar jokingly complains that it only happened the one time, and people still never let him live it down.
• Past-Life Memories: Oscar has these as in canon, and now that the Split-Personality Merge is complete, he has access to all of Oz's memories. Through meditation he can enter a trance state where he's better able to sort through them and find the specific memories he's looking for.
• Peggy Sue: The main focus of the fic. Oscar and Ruby want to make sure the war with Salem is won without losing anyone this time around.
• Point of Divergence: Discussed. Oscar calls certain events "bottom of the tower pieces" likening their attempt to change history to a game of Jenga. Despite both enjoying the idea, it is for this reason that neither Ruby nor Oscar can simply kill Cinder as it's very likely that Salem would seek a new pawn who they'd potentially be unfamiliar with.
• Pregnant Badass: A few days after arriving in the past Ruby discovers she is pregnant. It doesn't make her any less capable of kicking all kinds of ass.
• O.C. Stand-in: Since we get so little of her in canon, Amber is this.
• Retroactive Precognition: Oscar and Ruby make use of Ruby's encyclopedic knowledge of tournament fights to win bets in Junior's club.
• Sadistic Choice: After he meets Amber, Oscar is conflicted. Cinder stealing her Maiden powers is a "bottom of the tower piece" to use the metaphor discussed in Point of Divergence, but Oscar doesn't feel right just condemning her to die. Ultimately he and Ruby agree to try and save her.
• Sex for Solace: In the Bad Future Ruby and Oscar have sex the night before they arrive in the Land of Darkness. Ruby admits to herself that it's to ignore negative feelings. It's slightly downplayed in that they're in a relationship at this point, and have been for a while,
• Sole Survivor: Ruby is the only surviving member of Team RWBY in the bad future, and she and Oscar are the only surviving members of humanity.
• Split-Personality Merge: By the time the story begins, Oscar's has completed. But it goes both ways with Oz being just as much Oscar as Oscar is Oz.
  • However after Salem's death in the original timeline, Oscar can't talk to the other souls that make up Oz anymore. As far as Oscar can tell, despite their memories still being there, Oscar himself is all that remains of their personalities though he's become even more like them through the merge, maturity, and experiences than he was in his youth.
• The Teetotaler: The smell of alcohol makes Oscar feel pain after experiencing memories of past Oz who were alcoholics. Even before then he didn't care for it much, but that made him swear it off for good.
• Theme Naming: The author explains that the names they give Oz's reincarnations come from the Wizard of Oz's full name Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs.
  • The King of Vale was named Phadrig which means nobleman, fitting for royalty.
  • Diggs is the nickname of the reincarnation that made the Long Memory Diggory.
• Took a Level in Badass: Both Ruby and Oscar are far more capable fighters now than they were in canon due to an additional decade of fighting, in addition to other abilities they gained.
  • Oscar took the powers of the Fall and Summer Maidens from Cinder after killing her in the original timeline. This has increased the magic he has access to. In addition he has far greater mastery of Oz's magic due to having more practice with it.
  • Ruby has the powers of the Winter and Spring Maiden, inherited from Penny and Yang respectively. In addition due to submerging herself in the Pool of Light, Ruby has a supernaturally strong desire to protect life which makes her Silver Eyes far stronger than any other Silver Eyed Warrior.
• You Remind Me of X: When Qrow meets Oscar, he finds something about him familiar, but can't quite place it. Readers know he's recognizing him as Oz.