When his eyes opened, he stood in a familiar blackness.
While it had been thirty years since he last saw it, he remembered every detail that wasn't there. Every crevice he couldn't see. Every curve that hid from his sight.
And of course, she sat there, tall and imposing in her monstrous form, a far cry from the form he remembered her having once upon a time.
Once upon a time, she used her beauty to her advantage. Now, she was so assured in her strength that she saw no need for beauty in the same sense. Instead, hers was a beauty of deadliness.
"And here we stand," she said, "once more in conference. How long has it been?"
"Too long," he said. He brushed the non-existent dust from his green suit and grasped for something he no longer held.
Ah, of course.
When he went back, he'd have to get his cane back from Qrow.
"Every time we meet like this, our discussion begins anew. Why?" she asked him. He sat down opposite her, resting his elbows on the invisible table.
"Because in ten thousand years, you haven't found someone you enjoy the company of more than me." Her eyes lit with a devilish amusement.
"So tell me, what will be the legends of this tale?"
He leaned forward, "red gems and beautiful trees. Dusty old birds and the distinct smell of pine."
"You think the girl still has a part to play in this?"
"I think even you should keep an open mind."
She laughed and it was a great and terrible sound.
"If you say so."
"S-" she didn't let him finish.
"Do not call me by that internal name. I may accept it in that Remnant of the old world, but here I will only accept one name, and one name alone."
It was true. Here was the only place their true names were used. No one on the Remnant knew who they were, though they wouldn't know the truth even if they did know their names. It was as she said: We are but Remnants of a forgotten past.
"Very well. I take my leave soon, Eve."
Eve smiled. This time, it was not so great and terrible. It was the smile of an old heart.
Her smile faded. "Things can never return to the way they were, can they?"
"No. As much as I wish otherwise," he said, "they will never be the same. But our legends will one day live on."
"Legends…stories scattered through time…" Eve trailed off as he faded. "Goodbye, Adam." She stepped away from her darkness and light and she was once again in her palace.
"There will be no victory in strength," she said softly.
But perhaps victory is in the simpler things that you've long forgotten—things that require a smaller, more honest soul.
"I have not forgotten," Salem said to herself as her eyes turned to that honest soul she had corrupted – Cinder Fall.
"And this time I will not lose."