Yang silently walked along the surface of the red sea. It was so vast; the way it stretched further than her purple eyes could see calmed the blonde. The gentle waves moved underneath her bare feet as if she wasn't there.
She knew exactly why the sea was red. It was all the blood that had spilled during the war she'd died in. She wasn't sure how long it had been since she'd started walking. She wasn't sure if the war was continuing or had been stopped. She wasn't even sure if her friends were still alive. All she knew was that she was dead, cursed to walk above the sea forever.
Yang stopped for the first time in what felt like a few minutes, but had definitely been much longer. She looked down at herself, wondering what she'd been wearing all this time. All she saw was a plain white dress reaching her ankles.
White had been Weiss's signature colour. She didn't have much to say about the heiress, but they had been teammates. They hadn't been particularly close per se, but a friend of Ruby's was a friend of hers.
Yang took note of the sea's shade of red. Red like roses filled her vision, reminding her of her sister's cape.
Ruby had been practically obsessed with the colour red since Summer's death. Red was Ruby's defining colour; the one she nearly always wore. If you met Ruby, any and everything red would remind you of her: strawberries, ladybugs, the sunset, maybe even a pair of red socks would make you think of her. Hell, it was even in her first name, which was both a jewel and a shade of red. Her last name was Rose, which was a red flower and a symbol of romance and love. Yang wondered of Ruby ever found romantic love. If she did, she would never meet the person because she was stuck there.
The thought of her sister made her think of Summer, her stepmother. Was she somewhere around here? No, she couldn't be. If this was some kind of Heaven, Hell, or something in-between, there had to be more people than just herself. If that were true, she would have met at least thirty of them by now. Did everyone have some kind of afterlife meant just for themselves, to be shared with nobody? Was this her own afterlife tailored just for her? Why wasn't she spending it with any of her loved ones and instead doomed to wander the red sea forever? Surely the creator of the afterlife knew that she was more of a people person...
Which reminded her, what did she say to Oobleck when he asked why she wanted to become a Huntress? That she was a thrill seeker? That sounded pathetic to her now. She'd wanted to fight and travel just because, and helping people was just a bonus to her. Now that she died doing so, she regretted it. It was her thrill-seeking that brought her where she was. She'd been in her third year at Beacon when she died and she was only there because she wanted to be a Huntress. What was wrong with her? She'd lived a short life because of that. A whole nineteen years, not even two decades, and what did she accomplish?
Nothing. She was just another brawler.
Now, Yang was disappionted in herself.
Nothing could make her feel better. Why couldn't she watch over her friends and family and see how they were doing? Seeing Ruby smiling as she ate a cookie, Blake reading a book, even Nora's antics would cheer her up.
Yep, that would lift my spirits... Eh? Am I right?
Great. No one could bop her on the head after a horrible pun anymore.
This afterlife sucks.
Yang started walking again.
She never did find her mother, something she'd vowed to do. She wondered if any of her friends, dead or alive, ever achieved their dreams. Did they stop Cinder's faction from doing... whatever it was? Did Blake ever help achieve equality between humans and Faunus? Did Penny make any more friends? Did Nora ever break Cardin's legs? Now that, she wanted to know. Really.
How long had it been? A month, two, maybe six? Was it a year, decade, century? A millennium, perhaps?
Damn, if it's been a thousand years, then I really wanna check on Remnant!
No matter how long it had been, she never got to tell Blake how much she loved her. Those three words would never escape her lips and reach Blake's ears. The Faunus's fingers would never run through Yang's now ankle-length tresses.
Her heart longed to know what could have been, and she had a constant reminder of her mistake of not telling her sooner. A little black ribbon tied around her ring finger in a bow.