Chapter 3: Memories of Neverland
(A/N): This note is for you guys who've been with this story for a little while and have read the most recent chapters. Due to creative differences and a lack of agreement, I and my co-writer have had a falling out. The Red Seraph will no longer be writing any part of this story. I'd like to apologize for the massive let down. Various perspectives, chapters and characters will be scrapped, including MDNT and Pileas. And, perhaps most disappointing of all, Cinder and Emerald will be going through a whole rewrite. I'm sorry Panzer. I hope y'all will stick with me through the following rewritten chapters.
The huntresses (minus Blake) recovered from their shock and brought the lad to the team's campsite to make him feel welcome. The campfire had died down a bit but was still crackling away merrily; this time two new shadows joined the original four sprawling the walls of the ruined room. The conversation was on the bloody history of a distant planet called Earth and how the people condemned themselves to a nuclear holocaust almost two centuries prior. The four huntress' attention held true, especially at the life of the Wastelander before them.
"... I got my T-51 armor from a friend who came from the old Washington DC area," Jeremiah explained to Ruby as he cast a glance to the armor in question, "I still don't know how the thing was made that tough though."
"Oooo, did your friend tell you how they got it?" Ruby inquired further.
"She said that she got it from an old prewar cache after helping a group called the Outcasts."
"What's your friend like?" Yang chimed in.
"Seraphine, she's like a sister to me and can easily kneecap a deathclaw with her baseball bat," he explained with a sad smile.`
"There's baseball on your planet as well?" she asked.
"Yeah, it's odd how closely our planets come in terms of culture and language."
"I agree. I am still trying to wrap my head around the fact that you can speak Valish." Weiss added in while holding her chin in a thinking pose.
"Jeremiah," Blake called to get his attention, "do you mind explaining what the Outcasts and deathclaws are?"
"From what Seraphine told me, the Outcasts are a group of technology hoarding power armor users that splintered from her old faction, hence their name. Deathclaws are simply nine-foot tall bipedal lizards."
"Do you have a picture of them?" Ruby asked with an excited grin.
"Yeah, one sec," he said and fumbled around looking for his handheld Pip-boy 3500, (the 3500 model is a cosmetic change to the Pip-boy readius mod from the Fallout: NV nexus.). After he got it out a light projected from the back of the device onto the adjacent wall and displayed a picture of an aforementioned deathclaw from his perspective in the armor.
"Wow, such big, much spike...," Ruby muttered in awe.
"Are those things any good in a fight?" Yang asked and pumped her gauntlet for emphasis.
"In a melee fight they are pretty tough, but crippling their legs makes it like shooting fish in a barrel."
"Those almost look like the dragons from the old books," Blake said with an amused grin.
"Yeah," Ruby agreed, "fighting dragons while in armor and protecting people... Sis?"
"You thinkin' what I'm thinkin' Ruby?" Yang asked with a semi-evil grin, and Ruby nodded, giggling.
"Uhh, what are you two getting at?" Jeremiah asked in confusion.
"You're a knight in not-shining blue armor," Ruby and Yang sang in unison and caused Jeremiah to snort in amusement.
"This isn't the first time I've been called that," Jeremiah chuckled, shaking his head.
The Heiress cleared her throat loudly, "Back to the point, what created the deathclaws?" she asked while leaning in for a closer look at the slide show of photos, "none of Remnant's normal wildlife look like that. Not even the Grimm we know of do."
"There are plenty of theories; some say they're genetic experiments and others claim that deathclaw are demons who came from the pits of hell after the bombs fell," Jeremiah explained while deep in thought, "personally, I tend towards the 'genetic experiment' theory since they act like regular predators."
"That is something our worlds share as well," Blake replied in a melancholic tone, "the Grimm you have been hearing of are a complete mystery to us, too. They don't eat, drink, sleep or even mate; they just are. Their black hides and bone plating resemble the stuff of nightmares. Many religions on Remnant brand them as demons, and for good reason."
"Thanks for reminding me Blake; you said before that your beliefs 'narrow' what you think is impossible. What do you believe in?" Yang asked.
"Uhh, way to put me on the spot Yang," Jeremiah joked as she winked at this, "joking aside, I believe in an Old World religion called Christianity."
"What are its beliefs?" Weiss asked.
"In an extremely short summary; John chapter 3 verse 16: 'God loved the world and gave His only Son, so whoever believes in Him will not perish but live forever.'"
"That sounds pretty close to one of my dad's favorite verses from the Script," Ruby commented with a bewildered face.
"What's the Script?" the Wastelander asked, equally bewildered.
"It's the holy book of The Way," Ruby clarified, "it runs in the family."
From there the conversation continued with various subjects about both Earth and Remnant. They talked all about Remnant's mysterious mineral called 'Dust' that had been used from ancient times to combat Grimm and how all modern technology relied upon it, and Jeremiah explained the greed of prewar America and China's ultimately futile conflict in Earth's resource wars, they talked late into the night; as the informal study group discussed each respective world, delving into the personal stories of the Huntresses and the Wastelander any further fell by the wayside and became a story for another day.
Remnant's sun began to rise and the shattered moon still peeked from the horizon. The once roaring campfire burned down to smoldering embers and around the fire four figures laid in sleeping bags with their respective backpacks nearby. At dawn's first light three of the Huntresses and the Wastelander awoke after taking shifts on watch. Ruby was already awake from her shift and decided to start some coffee to help the others wake up faster.
While the coffee brewed on the cooker, Ruby greeted everyone is a singsong voice, "Good morning, team!"
"Morning, Rubes," her sister yawned back while stretching.
"Good morning," Weiss replied from her beauty keeping session with a compact mirror.
"Mmhh," the catgirl grunted with lead eyelids and slightly slouched.
"Good morning, guys," Jeremiah said as he rubbed an eye and looked through his Pipboy for something to read.
"I'm brewing coffee and what do you want to eat before we call for extraction?" Ruby asked with a smile, holding up a frying pan and spatula.
"I… just need... coffee…," the brunette muttered and flopped back down on her sleeping bag.
"I'll take some pancakes," Yang answered while getting some Joe for her and Blake, who was already back asleep.
"I would like some as well, but please go light on the chocolate chips this time.", the heiress said.
At that moment a violent burst of green light came from Jeremiah's direction and caught the girls (minus Blake) off guard. When the light subsided they saw him holding a somewhat tattered book in his hands.
"What in the sweet name of Monty Oum was that?!" Yang exclaimed while covering her violet eyes and caused Blake to jolt awake.
"Uhh! Who? What? Tuna?" Blake questioned in a half-awake state.
"My pretty blue eyes!" Weiss cried dramatically, throwing an arm over her face and collapsing theatrically.
"I should have shown you guys last night," Jeremiah began to explain,"my Pipboy can digitize matter and materialize it from storage."
"Is there a way to turn off the flash?" Ruby asked as she rubbed her silver peepers.
"Oh, yeah. Sorry, I set it up to act like that to blind enemies as I switch weapons or use stimpaks."
"What happened?" the cat girl asked, since she just became more coherent, as her ears twitched.
"Xiao~Long~ story short: there was a bright flash due to Jeremiah's Pipboy and nearly blinded the rest of the team," the bubbly blonde explained and caused her team mates to groan at the pun on her last name.
"Uhh, Blake?" Jeremiah called with a curious air.
"If it's my cat ears: yes, they are real, my people are called Faunus and we have more varied traits that just from cats, and sorry for not telling you this sooner," Blake semi-ranted with a little annoyance evident in her voice.
"Uhh, thanks? That... did kinda answer what I was gonna ask," Jeremiah rubbed his neck in awkwardness.
"Sorry, Blake has a hard time in the mornings," Weiss apologized for her teammate.
"Here Blake, I got your coffee," Yang said with two coffee mugs in her hands and offered Blake one.
"Thank you," Blake cooed.
"Extra strong espresso with heavy creamer, just how you like it," Yang recited while Blake grabbed the offered drink and gulped it down, "So with that caffeine in you, do you want some pancakes to go with it?"
"Yes, Ruby, also be sure to use bacon grease to cook mine with," Blake said with a chipper tone.
"Hey, what were you getting out from your device, and what do you want to eat?" Ruby called out to the Wastelander as she began to cook the oft requested pancakes. Starting on the other cooker she put the frying pan down and poured in some batter.
"It's the Bible," Jeremiah called up from his reading, "and I'd like some cheese grits, if y'all have any, or pancakes."
"Ahh, and what are 'cheese grits'?" the crimson-caped cook asked and almost burned her current pancake in bewilderment.
Looking up from his book the Wastelander replied, "It's a breakfast item made from ground up corn with melted cheese in it."
"Sorry, we don't have anything like that with us right now, but how many pancakes would you like?" The cooking leader asked as she finished making her team's breakfast, "Alright, three 'cakes with butter and bacon for Yang, two light chocolate chip pancakes with chocolate syrup and sunny-side up eggs for Weiss, and three bacon flavored ones with fish sticks for Blake."
"I'll take three with bacon and butter," Jeremiah replied to the cook and popped the bible back into his Pipboy after finishing a chapter.
"Thanks for the food Sis!" Yang gushed with glee as she, the snowy mage, and neko sat down on their own bags to eat.
Taking in the aroma of her meal, Blake simply sported a wide smile and sang, "Arigatogozaimashita~~," like the awkward female lead in Blake's favorite teen romance novel series, Ninjas of Love, authored by Stephanie Mire. Everyone looked at Blake with various expressions; Yang lightly chuckled in amusement, Weiss blushed and looked away as she loved the books as well, Ruby only shot a grin at how cute she was, and Jeremiah just looked on and gave a "Huh."
"Sorry, I think I'm still a little sleepy?" Blake offered with shaky resolve.
"Seems... legit," the blonde commented. Everyone else kept silent and Ruby went back to cooking.
"Hey Ruby, would you like for me to cook you something?" Jeremiah offered as the others ate.
"Nah, I already ate. Thanks though." She replied and continued with the bacon next. Upon finishing the bacon she handed the next plate of food to the new arrival. "I'm going to call for extraction. I better tell Charles that we have a large surprise for him…." After that Ruby pulled out her scroll and tapped the screen to bring up Charles' contact information.
"Hey, Chuck, we're done clearing out Mt. Glenn," the leader called over the device.
"Great to hear! I'll be there to pick ya up ASAP," Charles replied.
"We found someone though; he's from outside the kingdoms."
"Okay, so a plus one. That's fine, but is there a catch?" Chuck chuckled back.
"Yeah… about that," Ruby deflated a bit, "there's a large payload that came with him."
"Pfft, Ruby, I know that you like to crack jokes like Yang, but you need to work on your delivery."
"No. Really, look." Ruby said, as she turned her scroll to the blue T-51 armor in the corner.
"Rubes, thanks for the concern but Bessie can handle about a dozen atlesian knight. She can handle one," Chuck gave her a reassuring nod.
Ruby smiled, "Okay, we'll grab our stuff and meet you at the forum." With that she closed her scroll and turned back to her teammates and Jeremiah. "Alright, guys, we need to pack up and get moving. Charles should be at the RP soon."
The four girls and their new friend gathered up their belongings, geared up, and marched north to the center of the city where a spacious forum awaited them. Glenn's Heart they'd called it when the city had been inhabited by more than monsters. The Heart had bustled once, been a center of the city's community just a few decades prior; now it was a ruin, and an oddly familiar sight to Jeremiah.
The armor sighed, "Dang... so war really never changes," as he eyed the crumbling buildings and dilapidated stores.
"What do you mean?" Yang asked.
Jeremiah stopped and gestured to the half-collapsed dance hall to his right, "It's just that with Grimm or Nuclear Armageddon the results are the same."
A look of understanding crossed over Yang's face, "Are things really this bad where you come from?"
Jeremiah nodded, starting to trudge again, "Kinda. Most of the big cities were reduced to radioactive ash and slag. We're rebuilding though but at least you guys start off with plumbing," he gestured to the sputtering fountain in the center of the forum, the only thing that hadn't been ruined in the past years, as Bessie's trademark roar buried all other sound.
