First A/N: This is what happens when I get a writer's block...more A/N in the end.
At first her vision was white...
"Do you believe in destiny?"
...and after a few moments, she was floating around in an abyss filled with nothing but darkness.
"Yes."
The darkness was void of every emotion, and she was just floating around. Consciously.
Alone, with no companionship to keep her alive.
Her name, is Pyrrha Nikos.
'I did make the correct decision, right? To die, for the sake of Jaune, Ruby, and everyone else...'
Her own words echoed in her mind as she kept her eyes closed for the rest of time, still being jailed by her own dark abyss...
…
…
… However, everyone's darkness always fade away at some point, even hers. And her darkness started fading away as bright light started to fill again after a few moments of floating around.
And in the next few seconds, she suddenly found herself looking at the source of the bright light, even if her eyes were quite blurry at the moment.
She brought one of her arms to rub her eyes to clear the blurry vision for a few while before looking at the bright light again.
"Hello there?" A sudden male voice got her attention, prompting her to turn her head towards the source.
She then saw a man who wore a white set of tuxedo with light yellow necktie on the inside to complete the suit.
As she looked at the man, she then started to look at the things that were surrounding her at the moment.
Pyrrha then slowly realized she had woken up in a white-ish room that resembled some kind of office and in front of her was a table that seemed to be taken from a normal office with things like memo pad, pens and their holder, and a name plate.
The name plate simply said, "Seb", making her wonder about one thing only.
"Where am I?" She asked before drifting her eyes back towards the man from earlier, who was standing in front of the door. She then also took notice of the window next to her.
The man breathed a few times.
"Seriously, why can't there be any question other than that?" The man muttered under his breath, slow enough to make sure Pyrrha can't hear it.
Pyrrha heard a few words, but can't make it out enough to know what the man was muttering about. She was about to ask more when she got cut off.
"Anyway, how are you? Do you want to breathe more? Or would you rather blink more to know and realize where you are?" The man asked her.
Pyrrha had never been more cautious, especially with suspicious people like the man in front of her.
Nonetheless, she took the second option and closed her eyes for a few moments before hearing a chair getting pulled and then she opened her eyes to find that the man had seated himself in the chair in front of her.
"Hello, I'm Seb, as seen on the name plate." The man, Seb, said to Pyrrha while pointing at the name plate that had been dominated by his name.
As of now, Pyrrha would have her weapons out, ready to crash out of where ever she had ended up in. But with no sign of them ever appearing again, she just sat still, waiting to hear what Seb had to say.
"Don't worry, I got someone to get us some of the best coffee we've got. In the meantime, let's get to some questions that I have." Seb said before looking at the papers that he had brought with him.
Pyrrha continued to look around her, desperately wanting to know what she had gotten herself into.
"I-I don't think I'm supposed to be here, because I'm..." Pyrrha trailed off, slowly but surely remembering the moment she was fading away from her world.
Pyrrha looked at Seb, who in turned just opened his mouth for a few moments before actually saying something.
"Yeah, I know. I'm so sorry. I tried to get some of your contacts, but just like everyday, there's just so much admin..." Seb trailed off with no intention on continuing his words.
Pyrrha just stared at him. Seb then handed her a piece of paper.
"We will need you to fill in some form that isn't so important, but still is important, nonetheless, for your relaxation. Okay, now one question..." Seb trailed off.
Pyrrha just scanned the paper in front of her, looking at the details of what the paper wanted.
"...are you being cremated?" Seb's question made Pyrrha stopped dead from scanning the paper further.
"I'm sorry, it's a fairly urgent question." Seb said. Pyrrha's face turned a bit green at his question. Seb scrunched his face up.
"Yep, totally sorry about that. I'll get the trash can if you need to..." Seb slowly trailed off before he went on to look for the trash can. After a few seconds, he turned back and saw that Pyrrha had stopped sitting and was looking out the window, clearly shocked from the sight.
Seb then walked towards the window and looked outside as well.
Pyrrha stared in shock and confusion as she watched at what looks like a world that had inverted itself, only using the inside as a plan of civilization.
"Oh, hey. I can still see my house from here." Seb said, making Pyrrha looked at him with a look that said, 'That's not helping'.
Seb took notice of that.
"Yeah, still sorry about that. Totally didn't mean for that to come out like that." Seb said in attempt to reassure Pyrrha.
"What is this place?" Pyrrha asked with a more stern tone in her voice, her desperation showing more clearly as she voiced her question.
Seb then rolled his eyes upward before looking in the other directions for a few seconds before finally looking back at Pyrrha.
"Well, you sort of know, don't you?" Seb asked. Pyrrha did not response.
"Most people kind of know, it's just hard to get traction on the concept." Seb continued, making a pose with his hand as he tried to symbolize the 'traction'.
"What is this place?" Pyrrha asked once more.
"Well, you're dead. And this is what's next." Seb simply explained towards Pyrrha, who became a bit confused at his statements.
"B-But I-I'm not dead. How can I be dead?" Pyrrha said, clearly more scared wanting to be sure that she was still alive.
"Our sincere condolences." Seb stated simply.
"I'm not dead. I'm standing right here. Alive." Pyrrha stated in an angry manner as she tried to make it clear that she was alive.
"Yes, you are." Seb responded with no emotion whatsoever before staying in silence to let Pyrrha continued in case she had any more questions.
Pyrrha just felt more baffled as the moment went by. Seb decided to intervene due to her composure. But Pyrrha quickly let her words out before Seb could say anything.
"Where am I? What is this place?" She let out two questions that were basically the same from a point of view.
"Good questions. Let me announce it clearly so you can get it." Seb said before clearing his throat.
"Welcome to the Promised Land!" Seb proudly announced as he then threw his arms out in attempt to amaze her.
Simply put, it didn't really work. Pyrrha stayed in silence, processing the words, 'Promised Land' that Seb had said earlier.
Seb clicked his fingers in front of her in an attempt to bring her back.
"Hello? I'm still not finished." Seb stated while still clicking his fingers in front of Pyrrha, who in turn was already back from her mind. She swatted his hand, surprising him.
"Woah, woah. Calm down." Seb said in order to try and calm Pyrrha down.
"Now where was I? Oh yeah. This is the Promised Land, also known as the Nethersphere, or the Underworld. This is where people go when they die. Simply put, you have reached the afterlife. Well, kind of." Seb explained towards Pyrrha about this so-called, 'afterlife'.
Pyrrha couldn't really grasp the idea of ever reaching the afterlife, not to mention even feeling alive right now. She then started to hyperventilate, but quickly died it down a few seconds after. She then turned towards Seb.
"You know, I would have gotten you a bag to breathe into, but you seemed fine after a few seconds only, so yeah. Anyway, come on, I'll bring you to the balcony to have a better look in this place and probably get some fresh air as well." Seb said before getting out of the office with Pyrrha, who just went on with it for the sake of knowing the truth.
They took just a few seconds after one minute of walking to reach the balcony that Seb was talking about.
The door to the balcony opened by itself to let them out. As soon as they were out, Pyrrha suddenly felt a bit of chill on her spine.
"It feels a bit cold for some reason. Is it always like this in this place?" Pyrrha asked Seb.
"Well, I'll explain later about that, as I am more interested on how I got better Wi-Fi out here. It's so weird." Seb said, completely avoiding the question. Pyrrha, however, became more interested when she heard some of his words.
"You use internet? In the afterlife?" Pyrrha asked Seb about having Wi-Fi, who just shrugged it off. Pyrrha then saw the tablet in his hand.
"And technology as well in the afterlife...that's just absurd." Pyrrha said with an invisible sarcasm in her voice. Seb took notice of that.
"Oh, come on. I mean, the Wi-Fi maybe is a bit spotty, but yeah..." Seb trailed off, once again with no intention on continuing his sentence.
Pyrrha continued to look out into the inside out world of the afterlife. Seb then cleared his throat, attracting her attention.
"Listen, one more question for you. Have you ever killed anybody?" Seb's question made her felt like her heart had stopped, even if it stopped for one second, but to her it definitely felt like her heart had skipped a beat.
She tried to ignore the question and continued to look away with hope that Seb didn't push her further for answer.
"This is surreal." She stated not only with hope, but also in awe as she watched the city's lights flickered every now and then.
Seb then came by, walking towards her side.
"Imagine embryos had telephones..." Seb started, only to get cut off by Pyrrha.
"I don't know how's that helping me." Pyrrha stated in a matter of fact manner.
"Now, now. Stay with me. I told someone else this stuff, and even he said it was not helping him. So please, go with me here." Seb said, remembering someone else that he had told the story to.
"Imagine babies in wombs could communicate with other babies in other wombs. What would they say? What would they even talk about? Maybe something related to life or something like that, perhaps?" Seb asked, expecting for Pyrrha to give an answer.
Needless to say, all he got from her was...
"I genuinely don't know." Pyrrha said with a straight face, signalling that not even she knows what babies would talk about in their wombs.
Well, if babies could talk in their wombs.
"They'd think that life only last about nine months long. And then, boom, the exit opens, letting them out and then just gone forever. Never hear from any of those people again. Nobody answers at the end of the other line." Seb explained whatever he had set up in his mind towards Pyrrha, who just listened to his story.
"Okay, then." Pyrrha responded with only one thing walking around on her mind.
'That definitely is not helping me in any way.'
"So I think it's safe to say that this place you're in right now, is not really an afterlife." Those words made Pyrrha turned her head back towards him.
"This is just more life than you had ever expected." Seb finished his explanation from before.
Pyrrha then remembered the question earlier.
"Why did you ask me if I'd killed anyone?" Pyrrha knew where this was going, but she had to make sure of it. That's one reason to ask the question.
"Well, before that tournament went to pieces, you did fight someone, didn't you?" Seb asked for reassurance.
Pyrrha's face never turned up more scared and confused than ever. She knew it's about the 'event'.
The one where she had gotten so much stress and had inadvertently ki-
"Hey, hey, you're hyperventilating. Again. Come on, I want to know as well." Seb said while shaking Pyrrha in order to bring her back to reality.
It took a few moments, but Pyrrha then finally came back to her senses. She profusely apologized for what had happened earlier.
"I'm so sorry!" Pyrrha stated while shaking Seb's hands, who in turn became annoyed due to what was happening in front of him.
"Yeah, yeah, I forgive you. Now please let my hands go. I know the memory flashes could be quite an impact but you need to give me an answer. It's important."
Pyrrha then finally calmed down after a few more seconds, supporting her body on a wall.
"Yes..." She said in a slow tone.
"Yes?" Seb asked for reassurance.
"Yes." Pyrrha reassured him for her final answer.
Seb just nodded at her.
"Why, though? Why-" Pyrrha started to ask, only to get her words cut off.
"Why is it any of my business? Is that what you want to ask? Someone else before you had the same type of question, so it really comes as no surprise you would want to ask that." Seb explained while looking into his tablet. Pyrrha just shrugged.
"Because, it seems like there had been a request to meet you. Any idea who would that be?" Seb's question didn't make it better for Pyrrha.
She then started to have flashbacks towards the battle in the arena.
The place where all the chaos had began.
The place where she had gotten someone killed just because of a stress.
Except, to her that was no everyday stress that made her more pressured than ever.
No. A request to see her had caused this to happen in the first place.
And now, she got a request again. This time from someone and she had a very clear idea who had requested her.
"It's been given a priority, which usually means..." Seb trailed off.
"Means what?" Pyrrha asked for the rest of the sentence, but didn't get any.
"Well, anyway, we've arranged a meet-up." Seb informed her.
"When?" Pyrrha asked,wanting to know when are they supposed to meet. Seb only smiled at her before turning towards the door.
"Come in." He called out towards someone.
The door then opened at the same time Pyrrha decided to turn and have look at the one who had requested her.
A sliver of orange peaking from behind the doorway was already enough to make her more frightened than the emotion of fear she had when she realized her fate before.
Then as more of the requester's figure started to emerge from the doorway, Pyrrha's thought became more clouded with hopes of doubt that the figure wasn't her.
'No, please no. Please, don't be her. Just please don't!' Her mind screamed desperately.
In a split second, the figure then revealed themselves.
The figure is a she and a person only Pyrrha can clearly remember of what had happened to her.
Pyrrha was too petrified to even say anything, instead just watched as the girl before her smiled.
"Salutations!" She remarked as she then waved her hand.
"Penny Polendina. It's weird she found her way here way ahead of you. I mean, it's just a few hours difference, but still..." Seb trailed off as he scanned his tablet.
He then looked away from his tablet and looked at Pyrrha and Penny back and forth.
"So, I'm guessing you two have met, yeah?" Seb asked as his eyes then stopped at Pyrrha.
No response ever came. Seb shrugged before walking towards Penny.
"Miss Polendina, you are one lucky girl. You are one of the few robots that had managed to reach the Promised Land. And for that, I salute you." Seb stated while also saluting towards Penny, who just stared at him before saluting back while smiling. Pyrrha just watched, her worry and anxiety was still existing, although not physically.
She then dropped her arm and went closer towards Seb.
"There are other robots here? Just like me?" Penny asked, curious about the other 'robots'. Seb nodded.
"Yes, we have a few around here. One of them is who we called, Half-Face Man, in which you may never have the information to even learn about him." Seb said, briefly mentioning about someone called Half-Face Man.
Both Pyrrha and Penny got curious when they heard the name.
"Half-Face Man?" Pyrrha asked, finally managing to get a hold of herself. Even if it was for a few seconds.
"Yeah. His face is half robot and the other half is covered by human skin. It sounds creepy, I know. But then again, he did incinerate a whole dinosaur for that eye of his..." Seb explained as he looked at the history of this Half-Face Man on his tablet.
Pyrrha became stunned when she heard about a dinosaur being incinerated by one man.
"Are you serious? He actually incinerated a whole dinosaur? By himself?" Pyrrha asked, wanting a confirmation on the statement.
Seb just nodded. Penny and Pyrrha looked at each other. Penny's face then looked like as if she remembered something.
She took a step towards Pyrrha. Pyrrha took a step back.
"Please, no. I'm so sorry about what happened to you. I never knew what came over me, just please don't-" Pyrrha's words were cut off as Pyrrha herself was embraced in the arms of Penny.
She was not expecting the hug. Not after what had happened in the arena. She wanted to struggle to get Penny's arms loose, but that feeling slowly left her as she melted into the hug. She then hugged her back.
"Don't worry about it. We're all friends here. I'm not going to hate on you just because you killed me." Penny explained, leaving Pyrrha to bury her face into Penny's shoulder.
Seb just watched.
'Wow, this isn't like anything when that soldier met the kid. They took time to get along, but they did...' Seb thought to himself as he remembered the two people from way before.
"Actually..." Pyrrha started as Penny then took her arms off, taking Seb back to reality.
"I wanted to ask about why am I feeling so cold." Pyrrha said, walking towards Seb. Seb then remembered about what he said a few minutes earlier.
"Oh yeah, I did say that I wanted to explain it to you." Seb muttered under his breath. He clapped his hands together.
"Okay then. Let's just start it off as simple as it could be. Your mind or soul is right here, in the afterlife. Your body stays in the real world. To put it simply, you can still feel what is happening to your body even when you're here. You're feeling cold because your body is in a cold place right now." Seb explained towards both Pyrrha and Penny.
Pyrrha then had a confused look on her face.
"What do you mean? I don't have a body anymore." Pyrrha said. Seb just stared at her.
"I'm sorry?" Seb wanted to hear it again.
"I said I don't have a body anymore! My body turned to ashes as I left my world. So how is it possible for me to feel what is happening to my body? I was already cremated!" Pyrrha asked. Seb opened his mouth, but someone else got to it first.
"Maybe your body is still intact." Penny said as she interrupted the conversation. Pyrrha and Seb looked at her.
"Well, that is the only possible explanation, I suppose. Because if you did turn to ashes, there is no way for you to end up here." Seb said.
Pyrrha then looked away from both Penny and Seb, instead choosing to stare out into the environment of the Promised Land.
"Why? Just why-" Pyrrha started to ask but let her words get cut off as the lights started to turn off, one by one.
"Ooh. I didn't think it was already time to go home. She really has the time to get this done." Seb said to no one in particular while watching in awe at the lights that were turning off.
"Hey, mister Seb. What is happening?" Penny asked, curious.
"Well, I have a brief moment to explain this. As I mentioned before, this isn't really an afterlife. I was being a bit poetic when I said that. And Nethersphere is just a cool name we picked up during a spit-ball. Also, think of it as a data cloud. Data cloud filled with minds of the deceased." Seb explained.
"And what is happening again?" Penny asked.
"You're going home. After all, when a cloud is heavy, it will rain upon the world like crazy." Seb explained about the process of 'returning home'.
"So that basically means we're going back? To our world?" Pyrrha asked . Seb nodded while smiling.
"Yes, and an extra news is, there's been a bit of an upgrade." Seb stated.
Pyrrha and Penny never knew what that meant as their visions turned black a few seconds after Seb said that last sentence.
Whatever happened next, was never expected in anyone's mind. Ever.
"Ruby?"
Someone called out for a person that wasn't there. Silence answered.
"Nora?"
They called out again for someone else that wasn't there. Silence answered them again.
"Ren?"
They once again called out for a person that wasn't there. Once again, silence answered for them.
Silence was the only thing that accompanied the teenager as they backed up on a path that contained no life forms of any figure.
In front of him was a metallic figure that seemed very murderous and seemed intent on murdering the teenager. It was also pointing its blaster that was fixed on its wrist.
"Please." The teenager said. The figure didn't stop.
"Don't kill me." The teenager continued. The figure still didn't stop.
"I still want to live. I've got friends to take care of. If you don't let me go now, I might have to use force on you."
The teenager then slowly stood up. The figure then finally stopped.
"YOU DO NOT POSSESS ANY KIND OF WEAPONRY." The figure stated in a robotic tone.
The teenager stood corrected. The figure was right. Their weapons were nowhere to be found on their body.
"Doesn't mean I can't take a hit from you-" The teenager started before the figure then suddenly shot electricity out of its hand, knocking them out.
The figure then pointed its blaster again.
"DELETE!"
The blaster then fired.
So, yeah. I'm back, even if it is for a few moment. At the least I got this off my mind.
So, I rewatched Series 8 of Doctor Who and for some reason I really like the idea of Missy using the dead people's minds to be the new army of Cybermen.
Then I thought, 'Why don't put the hard drive in Remnant instead? What would happen?'.
And so, this one-shot happened.
So, leave a review on what do you think about this. I don't know if I want to make a second chapter to this. But if the reviews asked for it, then I will try my best.
Some of you may ask why didn't I just use their actual names...
To be honest, I really don't know why...
...With all that said, see ya!
P.S: Yes, I know. I took most of the lines from the actual episodes themselves, so you have to bear with me. Okay?