150

Chapter 150

Chapter Text

"Hey Pyr, Nora. Jaune. Ren. It's been a bit," Emerald murmured quietly as she stood at the edge of Beacon's cliff, staring up at the moon high above and sighing as she released a bouquet of flowers into the darkness below. "Sorry. There's not really been a good time to mourn. A lot of shit happened. We had to leave Atlas, we landed back in Vale, had to debrief everyone too… Neo's the Winter Maiden now. We've been trying to enjoy what time we've got before the end of the semester- not that we're actually taking exams or anything, but… it's… ugh. Gods. I found out that Cinder was gonna get Neo a ring at one point, y'know? Not that I'm jealous- I get it. She said she wanted to get me a ring too, but like… it's up to me, apparently. I'm not sure. I'm nervous and scared and it's…"

She sighed, rubbing her arm and grimacing as she looked to the side. "I want to, but there's not really a good time right now. Oscar's still training, we have no idea what Salem is planning, the relics are pretty much stuck where they are except the Lamp, Haven and Mistral are still in disarray, Atlas is locked down to the point that it's getting really unstable, Shade is still denying our travel requests… gods… was the point just to divide and conquer? Because it feels like, even with the CCT, that the Kingdoms are way more paranoid and isolated than they were before. Tensions are high, the Faunus aren't happy at all- no shit. Vale's council feels like they're cracking down, Atlas is definitely cracking down, Mistral isn't cracking down as much since the White Fang is helping there but… I dunno. Shit's bad. There's a lot going on. How are you guys doing? I hope you guys are okay and not dead like everyone thinks. Y'know…"

Emerald sat down, taking a deep breath and frowning as she stared up at the stars and tried to continue on. She thought about the good times they had- Team CMNE and JNPR and Professor Goodwitch trekking across Sanus and Anima together, the times they had with Oscar, the fun they'd had experiencing Atlas Academy's curriculum… She came up blank, and then… sighed again. There was one thing that united them all, it seemed. An equal, shared appreciation for The Girl Who Fell Through The World. A classic children's tale in the form of a tome-like novel- something worth reading over many nights of bedtime stories or all in one go on a long train ride. 

She reminisced about the story, then, knowing that Jaune had patterned himself in his childhood after the Rusted Knight, that Pyrrha found the Tarnished Lady's views on justice and duty intriguing, that Ren had trained for a pistol and dagger setup the same way the Lotus Rogue had, that Nora wielded a hammer because she wanted to be strong, tough, and fearless like the mighty Wild Valkyrie. She knew that Cinder loved the story as an allegory for personal growth and overcoming trauma and bad situations with the help of one's friends. She knew that Neo just thought the story was fun. She knew Mercury derided it as children's trash but still had a poster of the Rusted Knight from the live action movie that had been released almost twenty years prior. She knew she loved the story because it painted a world so vivid and real and amazingly colorful and happy in a way that Remnant just… wasn't.

It was an old story- nearly a hundred years old by now, she thought. Written in the decades immediately prior to the Great War by a man named Lewis Lutwidge, it followed the story of a girl named Alyx who fell through the cracks in the world and found herself in the whimsical and magical realm of the Ever After- a place where the rules were nonsensical and the beings as wild and untamed as the jungle that made up a majority of the lands. It was said that the Ever After was formed as a series of massive tiles, each one different and each one with different rules and people. 

Alyx went through the realm, stumbling along challenges and trials and tribulations alike as she became entangled in grasping thorns, argued with talking mice, fought a horrible monster known as the Jabberwalker, had her dagger stolen and had to barter for it with the Jinxy Peddler, had to defeat the Red King in a board game, had to figure out what that strange Curious Cat meant with his riddle meant, and then found, in turn, the Rusted Knight- hero of the paper village that helped them perform their duties to make the land beautiful- the Tarnished Lady- wandering vanquisher of the always returning Jabberwalker- the Lotus Rogue- who hid amongst the trees and helped anyone who was lost- and the Wild Valkyrie- the barbarous woman who ran roughshod along the Ever After in her search for her soulmates. And then… even further on down the line, nearer the tree, the final companion known only as the White Huntress- a mysterious figure who the story didn't focus on much, but seemed desperate to go with them anyway.

There were many trials and tribulations, explorations through climates wild and untamed and unknown and unexplored- there were dead acres, living acres, nonsensical acres, candy acres, deadly acres, spooky acres… anything and everything to the point that Alyx couldn't even keep track of them all. 

One of the most ominous chapters in the entire book felt straight out of a horror novel- Alyx and the traveling crew slowly making their way through an acre full of brambles and vines, thorns and howling wolves and the scent of blood and smoke on the wind. Everything felt as though it pulsed with hatred and death, everything felt as though there was something watching. The legends within the Ever After called it the screaming briars, and the lone being that wandered through those deadly vines was a thing known as Ephemeral Wolf- a thing that hunted through the brambles and shrieked endlessly and vanished from sight before anyone could get a good look.

Emerald had nightmares about the twisted, gnarled illustration that the book showed. When she was a kid, but still. 

Eventually, though, they had all made it to the tree and made it back to Remnant- the brave warriors who had come with her vanished, the girl found herself unable to cope with the dreariness of the world around her, and… the Cat?

No one knew where the Cat had gone, but the epilogue of the book stated that for the rest of her life, Alyx took care of a curiously intelligent cat that stayed with her until the day she died.

And…

Emerald sighed, thinking over the entire storyline of The Girl Who Fell Through The World , thinking about all of the stuff they'd interacted with over the years- Jaune admitted he'd tried to write fanfiction about the Rusted Knight, Ren admitted he'd read far too much fanfiction about the really terrible teen heart-throb reimagining movie that came out nearly a decade ago and Nora admitted she'd read the same fics but interacted more with the fanart side of things… Pyrrha admitted that she'd based her entire persona off of the Tarnished Lady and her unassailable air of endless victory. 

"Gods, I miss you guys," Emerald grumbled, laying back in the grass and staring up at the sky with a heavy frown. "Can't believe you guys got me talking about the fucking fairytales we all used to read… can't believe I started seeing you guys as younger siblings… can't believe I lost you all. I'm sorry. I think we all are. I know Team RWBYP's trying to keep a happy face on, but… I don't know if I really can. I can't wait until the day that we figure out where that Salem bitch is and how to kill her for good. I promise, guys…"

She raised her fist to the sky before clenching it tightly, retracting her arm and placing her fist over her heart in a silent pledge- a salute to those lost. "I promise that I'll fucking murder Salem for you guys, make sure she regrets sending her goons to Atlas. Make sure she knows exactly who she pissed off by… by killing you guys."

Emerald sighed, then, slowly pushing herself up and onto her feet after a moment and shaking her head. "Goodbye JNPR. I hope you're not dead. I hope you come back, however it has to happen. I miss you. We all do."

And then, as Emerald turned back towards Beacon's campus, she became aware of a figure standing there in the darkness- an awkward, short figure wringing his hands with a familiar cane on his hip gleaming in the moonlight.

"H-hey," Oscar Pine muttered, clearing his throat and giving Emerald a shaky grin as he waved unnecessarily. "You um… they sent me to come get you. For um… planning about tomorrow?"

Emerald blinked slowly, then shook her head again and started walking a bit faster back to campus- passing Oscar with a light tap on his shoulder. "Oh- right. Yeah. Let's go."