14

Chapter 14: Perspective

Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

Blake curled up as the morning sun warmed her face. She fought the wakefulness that was slowly creeping into her consciousness, determined to sleep just a bit longer. Slow breaths tickled her neck. Weiss was still asleep next to her, but she could tell from the way that Yang's arm wrapped around them both that she was awake.

"Yang." Blake whispered in the humid morning air.

"Still here." She replied, equally quiet. There was no need to ask about Weiss, cradled between them both. "Princess still asleep?"

Weiss scowled in her sleep. "Not anymore." Blake said, smiling down at her.

"Just five more minutes was all I wanted. I'm not getting up yet." Weiss said, still refusing to open her eyes.

Blake heard the smile in Yang's voice. "So what you're saying is you're defenseless?"

"I swear to gods Yang, if you-"

But it was already too late. Yang pressed in against Weiss' back, and wrapped her other arm around her. She spread kisses around Weiss' neck and hugged her close. Blake joined in on the attack, and gently caressed Weiss' face. When Weiss finally opened her eyes, Blake leaned in and the two of them shared a gentle kiss.

"Ugh. You two are insufferable." Weiss said as the kiss broke.

"You didn't want to get up, now you don't have to." Yang said, her voice muffled in Weiss' hair. As wonderful as that sounded to Blake, she knew Weiss would never let them lapse on their routine like that. It's one of the few things that kept them sane down here, and Weiss protected it zealously.

Today though, Weiss almost seemed tempted to give in. She turned her head so she was looking Yang in the eye. She wrapped one arm around Yang's head and pulled her down. Yang couldn't suppress the grin on her face afterwards. "You've made your point, now get up." Weiss said.

Together the three of them emerged from their makeshift, and overlarge, sleeping bag. Yang gave Blake a peck on the cheek and the two of them held hands instinctively before they separated to start their morning chores.

Blake looked around their newest home for the day. It looked remarkably similar to their first day down here. Lush trees, strange vegetation, the distant sound of waves that never receded no matter how far you traveled. She made sure to keep within Yang and Weiss' line of sight. The last thing she needed was to lose them so early into a day.

"I think it's a jungle island," Blake reported. "Really similar to the one we arrived in. You should be able to use the grass for matts, the vines for ropes, and the long slender leaves for weaving." Blake pointed at each in turn.

"Well something's got to be different. We know they don't repeat." Yang said.

Blake glanced over at Weiss, who was holding two frayed ends of rope and scowling. "Something ate through this one in the night." Weiss said.

They each had their role first thing in the morning. Weiss checked over their meager inventory of supplies, Blake scouted, and Yang made sure to keep an eye on both. It might have sound like Yang had the easiest job, but it was the most crucial. The rules of the void took a long time to get used to, and even longer to figure out.

Even though now sharing one bed was something they did by choice, originally it was a matter of necessity. It took them forever to figure out why they would always get separated after sleeping. Until Weiss realized that somehow Yang and Blake never got separated.

"The two of you are sleeping together, aren't you!?" It was supposed to be a secret that Blake slipped into Yang's bed every night, but she wasn't fooling Weiss it seemed. "That's why you never get separated!"

After that, they tried to cram six people into sleeping bags meant for much less. To say that first night was awkward would be an understatement, especially given that Neo was one of the six, but they all woke up together the next day.

It was even before this that they realized that this dimension didn't work the same as the one they were used to. Taking two steps forward and two steps back didn't always mean you were back where you started.

Blake felt pretty comfortable navigating whatever terrain the void provided each day, but after so long down here, it would be embarrassing if she didn't. They had all stopped counting long ago, and lacked the means to ensure whatever count they kept wasn't erased along with their environment. Beyond that, Blake had the sneaking suspicion that like space, time wasn't linear here either.

It was somewhat random what disappeared every night. They had so many ropes at this point that even if most of their belongings vanished they would still have an ample supply. They had given up on trying to make a real shelter after one had come down on top of them as they slept when the environment shifted into a cave one day, and another disappeared into a blizzard.

It was always at night when things shifted. Once the three of them got established, they spent several days alternating sleep schedules so that two of them would always be awake, to see what happened when it changed. It worked for a few days, and the wooded cottage that they held onto had been one of Blake's favorite places they had been here. It had been a drain on their resources though, since they could barely let the sleeping person out of their sight, since this was before Yang had the idea to use ropes.

Still, they inexplicably woke up somewhere new a week later, both Blake and Yang having no memory of even laying down. They gave up after that.

The ever changing array of environments was the best quality of this place they were stuck in, because everything else seemed designed to invoke as much boredom as possible.

Their three-way relationship was probably just as much a product of that boredom as it was their love for each other. They had little else to pass the time at first, before Weiss declared that they couldn't go on like this, and they spent days coming up with a routine for them all. There was still plenty of time built in for cuddling together, but cuddling wasn't used to fill the hours of boredom anymore.

Weiss had been reluctant at first to agree to joining Yang and Blake's relationship. Even after Ruby awkwardly, and adorably, gave her permission right before she left the void behind. Blake could tell the two of them had something, but knew just as well as Ruby that they might be trapped down here for a very, very long time.

Blake didn't think Ruby would be surprised to find out that Weiss had decided to start dating Yang. Ruby told her about how close the two had gotten in Mistral, and one late night Yang had admitted that if Blake hadn't returned the two of them probably would be together. It was the type of thing that could've made Blake jealous, but instead she only felt a deep sorrow that she kept Yang from feeling that happiness.

Blake had spent many hours of that week in the cottage where they were basically confided to one room at a time talking everything out with Weiss and Yang. Separately, of course, given that one of them was always asleep.

"Ruby would want you to be happy." Blake would always say to Weiss. Weiss agreed, but she still felt hung up about it. Blake would listen, and she helped Weiss come up with a plan that once they got out of here, Weiss would tell Ruby how she really felt. "Yang and I almost waited until it was too late. The what-if's and the should-have's will consume you, if you let them." Blake said.

She had given both of them so many reassurances that it would be okay, that really, please just get together already, that they shouldn't hold back, that when she woke up to find them making out, more than anything she felt pure relief. Her relief was not reflected on her teammates faces though, who froze up when they noticed her awake.

She dispelled any doubt when she cupped Yang's face and kissed her, and then surprised everyone, including herself, by following that up by kissing Weiss, who melted into the kiss. Blake loved all her teammates, in more ways than one, and she knew Ruby felt the same. They would make it work once they were reunited.

Yang and Blake tied ropes around their waists before preparing to set off.

"What should we bee keeping out an eye for?" Yang asked with a grin. Weiss stared at her impassively. "Get it, bees?"

"I hope you get stung in your bee-hind." Weiss deadpanned. Blake couldn't help but laugh at her partner's expense. "Bring me something to weave with. Some of our water baskets disappeared."

Yang nodded and blew a kiss to Weiss who rolled her eyes fondly. Weiss gripped one end of the rope that hung around their waists, and she wasn't even out of sight before Yang and Blake joined hands.

It had taken them weeks to figure out how to not have to all move together. Moving out of each other's line of sight was dangerous when getting lost was so easy. But Yang realized that the physical objects in the world obeyed the same laws as the land did. As long as they were physically connected, they could always find their way back to each other. It was still a little strange when they would follow the rope back and find it to be twice as long or twice as short as when they set out with it.

It was a brilliant idea, and it set off Weiss who started making rope after rope after rope and joining them all together. Sometimes the ropes were already made for them by the void, like that time they woke up on an old pirate ship, which they pillaged for all it was worth, other times they had to make do with whatever they could find. Weiss had been particularly fond of massive cables they had found in a giant's house. They were rubbery and strong, and never broke like the others. Unfortunately, they could never figure out how to cut through it completely, and the morning it disappeared Blake was awoken to some particularly colorful profanity coming from Weiss' mouth.

The rope unspooled out from the coil at where Weiss was as Blake and Yang trudged ever deeper into the jungle.

"You tease her too much." Blake said.

"Pfft, no I don't!" Yang said. "She loves it, even if she'll never admit it. Besides, I like to think it keeps life interesting."

That alone was reason enough to do it for Yang. Anything that kept their minds off of the fact that they might never be rescued. Blake refused to think like that. Ruby and Jaune would return, and one day they would be rescued.

"You're keeping her spirits up so she doesn't go crazy." Blake said. "I hate feeling so powerless down here."

"Me too." Yang said. "Nothing to do but wait. How about this tree?" She gestured with their linked hands to a younger tree, long leaves supple and slender. Blake nodded in agreement and together the two of them started gathering as much as they could, stripping the tree bare. The leaves had sharp edges, unlike any Blake had ever seen before and the bark was the color of rust. A black moss grew over parts of it, and the ground around it was spongey underneath her feet.

Blake would usually take care to avoid the sharp edges, but she just grabbed at leaves instead. They couldn't even get hurt down here, aura or no aura, regardless of how dangerous something appeared. Ruby was the one to figure that out first, courtesy of Neo.

Once their arms were full, the pair made their trek back to Weiss, following the rope, who looked on approvingly at the bundles of leaves upon their return.

"The rope?" Weiss asked.

"About the same length as when we left." Blake replied, depositing her load down next to Weiss, who would spend the next couple hours weaving them all together until they were tight enough to hold water.

Lunch consisted of whatever was still around. A little bit of bread that was staring to go stale, some gathered nuts and wild berries, a can of soda. It was never a grand affair, but they were never in danger of starvation either.

After lunch they all laid down together, their sort-of free time before getting back to their routine in the afternoon. Usually, if they were outside, they would watch clouds go by. It was one of their favorite pastimes, but here the thick canopy blocked much of the sky from being seen.

"Can't even watch the sky today." Yang complained. Blake understood her frustration. It wasn't much to ask for.

"At least we have each other." Blake said. It was cheesy, but it was true. Maddening. That is what this experience would be without the two of them to ground her. The others understood that too.

"What do you think happened to Ruby after we accepted that girl's deal?" Weiss asked, staring up at the canopy, eyes unfocused. Blake and Yang know better than to respond. It was a road they had traveled a thousand times before, and it only led to misery.

Weiss insisted that whatever got Ruby, Jaune, and Neo out of the void must have been one of the brother gods. Blake was skeptical, at best. For starters, the girl looked nothing like either of them, and Ambrosius, who was created by one of the brothers, seemed wary of the void at best.

They had absolutely no way of knowing what happened to Ruby and the others. She could still be fighting Salem, in which case rescuing them had to wait. The war could be over, and their rescue days away. There were other options, but Blake refused to consider them.

The three of them held each other until the heat of the afternoon combined with the humidity started to make everything uncomfortable. Together, Yang and Blake had cheered up Weiss, and before getting up both gave her a kiss on opposite cheeks simultaneously, which never failed to make her blush.

Blake had finished tying two long ropes around her waist, and had already grabbed her gear when she noticed that Yang hadn't started yet. "Are you going to get ready?" Blake asked.

"... Would you mind if it was just you today? I think I pulled my back moving that tree yesterday." Yang said.

They didn't move any trees yesterday, but Blake nodded in understanding. Yang didn't want to leave Weiss alone, but if they were to say anything to Weiss she would insist that she was fine. It was just one day.

Yang had always been exceptional at recognizing the subtleties of her partners' emotional states. It was one of the things that Blake loved about Yang. She cared deeply about Weiss and Blake, and wanted both to be happy.

Blake leaned down and kissed Yang on the tip of her nose.

"What was that for?" Yang asked, giggling.

"That was because I love you." Blake said.

"I should abandon you more often." Yang grinned.

Blake rolled her eyes. "Shut up. I'll be back soon."

"Love you too. I'll miss you every second." Yang said. Blake didn't doubt that she would.

Blake tried to travel in a straight line, but she doubted the concept even existed down here. Without Yang to talk with, her thoughts started to drift. She could see how Weiss dwelled on so much outside of their control when she spent so much time alone. Blake's thoughts seemed drawn to what was happening outside of their prison. As if she could manifest her missing teammate with thoughts alone.

Ruby was surviving. Blake knew that for certain. No matter how long they were down here, Blake would always know that for certain. Ruby would come back for them, and would let nothing stop her.

The six of them had only been here for a couple months when they had discovered what eventually led to freedom for half of them. Their surroundings had changed overnight from a punk rock nightclub (where she and Yang had an unreasonably fun time) to an endless field, filled with waist high grass and nothing else, stretching to the horizons in all directions, undulating in the wind.

They traveled together for hours, but the only indication that they had moved was the trail of trampled grass they left in their wake.

"This is awful." Weiss said.

"Let's just keep going, there could be something important." Ruby insisted.

Blake had been the one to spot the tree first. She had been watching the horizon without meaning to, hypnotized by the waving grass. The tiny blip had snapped her out of it, and immediately they tried to walk towards it. It shifted in ways that made no sense, and more than once they had to turn around entirely to keep following it, but eventually they could make out the strong oak.

Had it been a natural tree, Blake would've guessed it to be hundreds, if not thousands of years old. But here? She had no idea.

As they approached, Blake could just make out a figure sitting beneath it. Her heart quickened and she nudged Yang and pointed to it. When Yang said she saw it too, the group could barely contain their excitement and they all ran towards the tree as fast as they could.

Panting and out of breath, they arrived at the base of the tree, where they found a simple girl, dressed in a sleeveless blue-and-white striped sun dress. A small golden pin of an owl perching on a branch sat affixed to her dress. In front of her, she held a guitar and strummed away on it, singing the entire time. Her brown hair blew gently in the wind, bangs falling around her face. A pair of thin glasses sat on her nose. She lacked the incorporeal nature of the spirits that inhabited the void, and was as solid and real as they were.

"I am the one who looks out when you're leaping,

I am the one who knows how you were brave.

And I am the one who heard what you said sleeping,

I'll take that and more when I go to my grave."

"That's a nice song," Jaune said once she was done.

"Thank you," the girl replied. "Would you like to hear another?"

"Maybe later." Yang said. "We've been down here for a while and you're the first person we've seen like us. Who are you?"

The girl set her instrument aside. "I'm no one important. The better question is who are you? You don't belong here."

"Bit of an understatement." Weiss muttered under her breath.

"Right, we don't belong here. So… does that mean you do?" Yang asked.

The girl stared off into the distance. "… I suppose it does."

Yang shifted uncomfortably. Blake felt tense too, besides the fact that she was the first person they met down here, there was something off about her.

Ruby stepped forward. "We're trying to leave this place; do you know anything that can help us?"

"You all wish to leave?" The girl said. They all nodded. "Then I cannot help you." Blake tilted her head at the specific wording.

"Does that mean if only some of us wish to leave, you can help us?" Blake asked.

"It does." She replied.

Neo made a few gestures with her hands, her way to communicate with them. "Oh!" Jaune said, "Neo asks what the catch is." A few more quick gestures. "She says there always is one." Jaune had been the only one to learn Neo's sign language.

"Thank you, but I know what she said." The girl smiled. "You must all live with the knowledge that you choose to leave another behind. That is the price this place exacts from all who enter it."

"What does that mean?" Weiss asked, but the girl remained silent.

It didn't take Blake long to work it out. "It means only half of us can leave." Her stomach sank when the girl nodded.

"That's… not happening." Yang said firmly.

Ruby agreed. "We're either all leaving together, or not at all. There's got to be another way."

The girl gave them all a sad smile. "I have been here since time began. There is nothing else. Would that there was, I would leave myself." She picked back up the guitar and strummed it while humming quietly.

The six of them debated what they should do. Use this opportunity to get half of them out, or look for another opportunity? Blake was still grateful that they decided to send half of them, since being trapped down here she, Weiss, and Yang had still not seen another living soul. Perhaps the girl was right, and that was all there really was.

Weiss and Ruby's goodbye had involved the most tears. It wasn't even close. After her team leader departed, Weiss stood motionless for several minutes.

"I think I'd like to hear another song…" She said quietly.

The girl smiled sadly, a smile that promised that she understood well what Weiss was going through. "Of course."

"This world it's scary.

I've taken some hits, so

No wonder I'm wary.

It's why I

Need you–

You're as pure as the driven snow.

Everyone thinks they know all about me.

They slap me with labels,

They spit out their fables,

You came along, you knew it was lying.

You saw the ideal me,

And yes, that's the real me.

This world goes blind,

When children are dying.

I turn to dust, but

You never stop trying.

It's why I

Love you—

You're as pure as the driven snow."

Yang and Blake both hugged Weiss as she sobbed.

Blake was startled out of her remembrance by the clanking of chains. Lovely, just what her day needed. She could try to avoid the sound, but once she heard it, she was bound to cross paths no matter what way she went.

It was better to get this over with as quickly as she could. So far she hadn't seen anything of note, but then again, lost in her own thoughts, she wasn't the most aware of her surroundings.

Feeling somewhat ashamed, Blake stood and listened to the sounds of the jungle. The chains were the loudest, but she could hear various animals as well. She stood motionless for long enough that one of them perched on a nearby tree branch. It was some kind of cross between a squirrel and a rat, with massively engorged front teeth. Like all wildlife they had encountered, it had no fear of them, and Blake nailed it with her wooden spear easily. Starting a fire later would be easy enough, if time consuming, and this would be dinner.

With something in hand, Blake started to make her way back along the rope that had stretched out behind her. If he was going to show up along the way, so be it.

She had only been following the rope back for a few moments when she saw the tree that Roman Torchwick's spirit was chained to. He was always chained to something, unable to move freely. At least there was some justice in this world.

"Well, if it isn't the kitty-kat!" Roman eyed the creature in Blake's hand. "Brought me a gift, did you?"

Blake didn't acknowledge his presence, and tried to walk past him, but the space curved and she was reduced to doing circles around the tree against her will.

"Hey, don't ignore me! C'mon, I'm dying here! Well, guess that's not entirely true. Ship already sailed and all. Was it something I said? Did my dashing good looks steal your girl?" Torchwick taunted.

Through gritted teeth Blake kept following the rope. Finally, it led away from Torchwick and his bait that she refused to rise to. There were others who, like him, faced eternal punishment, but not always those she thought deserved it.

Torchwick's voice was barely behind her when Blake tugged at the rope to see what direction it had laid out before her, when she fell back as it gave way. Scrambling, Blake saw that the rope had gone slack, and started reeling it in. The moment the two ends had split they had already been warped in space, and following one back to the other became impossible.

The development was annoying certainly, but not soul crushing. It meant that Blake would spend the night alone, and the day tomorrow looking for her teammates. Possibly even multiple days. Weiss would've probably already reeled the other end of the rope back into camp, and was probably hugging Yang, secretly glad that she didn't have to spend the night alone. This wasn't the first time one of them had gotten separated, though it had been a few months, at least.

Blake tried to navigate back to Torchwick, to at least give her a fixed starting point, and at the very least, his constant prattling would eventually turn to what he had seen in the months since they had last spoken, which sometimes contained something useful. He would be sure to give her grief once she returned, but it was as good a plan as any.

Still, even this plan was frustrated. In most of the places that the void took them the weather never changed. That made it all the more aggravating when a slow, dense fog began to roll into the valley. Visibility reduced, Blake stumbled around blindly, barely being able to see more than a few feet in front of her.

She thought she was making progress as she heard the dull clank of chains in the distance. It would be just a few minutes until inevitability caught up with her. But then a second sound joined the first. Was that… a guitar?

Heart beating fast, Blake broke out into a run. They hadn't crossed paths with the girl since their only day seeing her in the meadow. Blake thought that she found them both when she stumbled into a clearing that was conspicuously devoid of fog. A towering figure, easily twice her height, stood motionless in the clearing. Their legs and arms bore runic markings, their finger nails were long and sharp like claws, and dense white fur covered their torso. Feathers jutted out from their shoulders, and lion's mane framed their face. Lambs ears drooped on either side of its head, and three sets of antlers, an oxen's, a deer's, and a water buffalo's, protruded from its head. Its eyes were angled sharply, and its pupils were the shape of keyholes.

It was, in short, unlike any creature or person Blake had ever seen.

"Come, please." The create spoke, even though it possessed no mouth. The bottom portion of its face pulsated a greenish light as the words were spoken.

"What… are you?" Blake asked.

The being spoke in a level voice. "I am no one of import. The time for introductions grows short, even now. Child, listen well. The border between the worlds is porous. That of my blood, you are my choice. The window is closing; you must choose."

Choose? What was this thing talking about? "Choose what? I don't understand."

"A chance to return, to go home, is near. But only should you seize it."

Oh, home! Back to Weiss and Yang. Blake understood that. What was this then, some kind of shortcut? A lucky break? The void had produced stranger anomalies.

"Um, I accept?" Blake said.

"Very well. It is decided. Do great deeds, my champion." The being decreed.

"Your… champion?"

The fog, which had been held back by some invisible force, rushed in and enveloped the area. It happened so quickly that Blake only had time to watch as the being receded into it.

"Wait!" She called out. Blake waved one of her spears at the fog at where the being had stood, and watched in horror as it transformed in her hands. The wooden shaft transformed into a blade of black metal, one that she had thought was long gone.

She was holding Gambol Shroud. As the fog lifted, she found herself in a forest of red, standing on a train car, watching as the lone figure of Adam Taurus receded into the distance, the connection between their cars separated by her blade.

Notes:

Chapter 14! Flashback time!

You've probably noticed, this chapter was quite different from the rest. Following Blake on her final day down in the void. It was really fun to write, and I'd love to revisit the void as a setting later. It's also finally some polyamory in this polyamory story! It only took us 70k words to get there, and now it's gone. (It'll come back, don't worry!!)

I absolutely know that when volume 9 starts this chapter is going to be riddled with non-canon holes, but until then, let it stand as a testament to my best guess as to what the void is like. I think the void is going to be a very Alice in Wonderland type of place, with things being very much not what they seem, which I tried to put my own spin on here. At the very least, I do believe that the story of The Shallow Sea will be very important this volume, and that there are four gods, two of which are, for one reason or another, down in the void. In V3C6 when asked by Ozpin what her favorite fairytales are Pyrrha responds: "Well, there's The Tale of the Two Brothers, The Shallow Sea, The Girl in the Tower-" before Ozpin talks about the story of the seasons. Of those three Pyrrha mentioned, only The Shallow Sea remains irrelevant. I think the void and it are connected, somehow.

The songs come from The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes with only minor changes. They actually fit incredibly well thematically without having to change them much.