A/N: Updated June 4, 2019

Beta: Courtland!

~The Path Most Traveled~

Daylight was starting to fade, so Chris and Mint took shelter in one of the many abandoned houses. It was far away enough from the inner circle that nobody should be able to find them. Chris still put up noisy traps around to warn him if anything were to approach them in the night.

Chris took inventory and found that they had enough food for about three days. Depending on the amount of fish that he could catch, their supplies could last them about a week.

For supper, they had crackers and a can of tuna. They didn't want to give away their position, so decided against a fire to cook anything on.

"Can you teach me how to fight like you do?" Mint asked. She took another cracker, smudged tuna over it, and took a bite. Just as she bit the tuna decided to not stick and fall off.

Chris smiled at her pout. "Be careful, don't waste our supplies." He ate his cracker in one bite. "I don't think I'll be a good teacher."

"Why not?"

"You are too small. We fight too differently." Even if he has lost a lot of his height in the strange transition, he was still a lot bigger than Mint.

Her face fell.

"Nevertheless…"

Her eyes lit up with hope.

"What I can do, is help you learn the mentality."

Her face fell again. "What?! But – but – but I want to learn how to beat up bad guys! Show me the moves!"

"Maybe it is because I don't know martial arts. All you saw me do was blind some rascals then kick them down the stairs."

Chris struggled to keep his smile off his face as his companion looked like she was having a facial muscle spasm. He didn't know why he was teasing her, but it was fun.

"Kidding." He smirked internally. Mint's scowl and pout combination in response was about as effective as a little puppy's. "Still, whatever techniques that I can teach you will only work if you have the right mindset. It all starts there."

"Sounds boring."

"Mint, it's very important." His patience was starting to wear thin.

"Ughhhh. But – "

"No." He was resolute as he stared into her brown eyes.

"What if I – "

"No."

"You are not even hearing me – "

"No, and it's final, Lily. I will – "

~The Path Most Traveled~

" – not be swayed! This is not a game sis, this is real life! They are cruel people, monsters!" Chris cried.

Lily stood in front of him, her arms crossed. Her eyes were brown, reflecting her own will that is strong and grounded like the earth. "I know that they are monsters. That is why we must stop them. You are there, at the center of their operation, the perfect spy. You know what they do. You know that the government can't stop them because of how well they hide and the way they are organized. That is where we come in."

"But I can't risk you or myself! I am certain there is a way I can come home without getting a target painted on my back. Just give me some time…"

"What about all the attacks? What about all the innocents? As long as they exists, there will be more death and destruction."

"But what about us? What about your future? You are a brilliant scientist, the golden child of the family! Think of our parents!"

"And so you will heartlessly leave everyone else to die? When you have the ability to change it?" She tilted her head, completely unconvinced. Her hair, ever so well taken care of, moved to cover her face and she brushed it away.

"I – I may have the chance, but it's too risky!"

"Have you forgotten about all you told me? The hollow town? The massacre at the town square? The bomb in subway – "

"I remember! I remember!" Chris cried, tears gathering at the corners of his eyes. "I just wish everything could be easy. Sending you the info, giving anonymous tips, saving the two women…"

Lily leaned against the wall. "You know as well as I that we can't do that anymore. They have agents in the government and trackers online."

"Still…"

"Chris. Leave this to me. You can trust me." She stopped leaning against the wall and stood straight. A cocky smile was on her face.

"I want to – but I also don't! I – I – "

"Little brother, I know what I'm doi – "

"I can't just let you sto – "

She walked close to Chris and put her hand on his shoulder. "Don't you trust in me?"

He shook it off. "Fine!" He yelled. Chris walked away.

~The Path Most Traveled~

Lily… Lily! LILY! Chris cried inside his mind. The memory struck him hard. There was a load of heavy regret attached to it that felt strangely raw, even if he had gotten over them once. It tortured him with dramatic irony, making him feel like a spectator who knew something was going to go wrong, and was screaming at the oblivious main character to do something.

How could I have done that?! I was stupid, stupid, stupid! Letting her do it, just because of some petty annoyance. If you truly loved her, you would have stayed! You would have stopped her idiotic scheme! You idiot! You selfish bastard!

He found himself panting on all fours, having fallen. His heart beat strongly, adrenaline coursing through his veins. Eyes wide and unfocused.

Sis… You have always looked out for me. And the one time I could have helped you, I… abandoned you.

"Uhhhh… Chris, are you ok?" He looked up into Mint's worried red eyes. She was blurry for some reason. "It was so weird, you just stopped saying what you were saying and stared at me, and then dropped to the ground. And now you are crying? What happened?"

He quickly wiped away the wetness and got up. "I – it's nothing. I think I'm…" He quickly thought of something. "I think I'm getting some of my memories back." The boy watched as his companion grinned, before suddenly realizing something and struggled to keep the grin up.

"Oh! That's… um… very… good?" It wasn't very convincing, very forced.

Chris stared at her.

She nervously played with the fabric of her shorts. "Uh… What did you remember?"

He wasn't too sure what she was nervous about, so he pushed the thought aside in order to make up an answer. "I remembered something about my home." Mint's face fell, but Chris had closed his eyes to make it seem like he was scrounging up a memory, and didn't see it. "It wasn't good. I don't know if I can ever go back."

Close enough to the truth so that it's not a straight up lie, and still vague enough so that you can add details later to fit your needs. Good job, Chris, you still got it!

When he opened his eyes, Mint had already crushed whatever fears she had and buried them deep. She had a reluctant smile on.

"Anyways, it's pretty dark now. Let's argue about your training in the morning." He moved to pack everything up.

Mint looked at him, unsure, but laid down by their pack of stuff. "…alright."

They did not have any kind of bedding at all, as the old man didn't provide any, so instead they had to sleep directly on the floor.

All this is strange, thought Chris. His hands moved almost automatically. It just feels so real, but then these memory things keep happening, and suddenly I know everything I'm seeing is not real. But even someone in a coma can't create a world so elaborate, can he? What if something really improbably has happened? What if…

Oh my God! I think I've figured it out! This is like one of the horror stories isn't it? The government has figured out how to force a person's consciousness into a fabricated world and is trying to trick the information out of me! That explains why I'm having these weird flashbacks – they are somehow triggering them! Its like that game! Assassin's Creek! …Cred?

His hands paused mid-motion while closing a lid.

Right… I think I'm going crazy.

They moved again.

Maybe I'm just trying too hard to make sense of all of this. I don't think there is any way for me to determine what it is right now. I need more clues.

He finally finished packing up, and with a yawn, also laid down. I'll think about it more in the morning. He made himself comfortable, or at least, as comfortable as he could. He calmed his mind and relaxed his tight muscles, letting himself melt onto the floor. Then, he closed his eyes, looked skyward with his mind, and spoke up.

"God, I think I'm doing better. I am trying my best to be good like you, but it is just so hard. Please, lend me some of your patience, lend me some of your strength, for while I do not know what has just happened, I know it is within your plan. If I make the right choices, I know no matter what hardships lay in front of me, good will prevail. I just need a little help.

May your will be done, just as it is in heaven.

Amen."

"Wha' 'as 'at?"

Chris looked towards Mint's side and saw that she was looking at him, eyes wide with curiosity. Her cheek was pressed against the ground, affecting her speech. "It was a prayer."

"I'ff never heard anyffing 'ike 'at!"

"Really."

She pushed herself onto her elbows and held her head up using her hands. "Yeah! I remember knowing this lady who believed the whole world was created by two brothers, but I don't think she ever prayed to them!"

Chris was always interested in other religions. "Why not?"

"Ah! I think… uh…" She swung her legs from side to side, as if wagging a tail, her lips pouting outwards and eyes looking upwards in thought. "Ah right!"

"In the beginning, they created stuff. One made good stuff, and the other made bad stuff." She sat up so that she could free her arms. "And good and bad didn't mix, so they ended up having epic battles!" The girl made sound effects as her hands started battling each other in a climactic battle for ultimate control. "Then, they got bored and tired of all the fighting. Before they quit Remnant, they created us, their children! The humans, who have the gifts of… something. Uh I forget that part, but I remember that humans have the ability to choose to be good or bad!"

"Huh, that's interesting…" commented Chris.

Mint continued. "But I also heard that the two gods were brothers, so two boys and siblings, so I don't know how they had children. I asked her to explain, but then she started giggling…"

Chris blanched.

The girl didn't notice, her frowns scrunched up together in confusion. "…and said she'll tell me when I'm older."

Quick to change the topic, Chris hurriedly asked her, "So is Remnant the name of this planet?"

"Uh. Sort of… it's the name of the world."

"How do you differentiate it?"

"Well, we are on this planet, the planet of Remnant, in the world of Remnant! And all around revolve the sun, the stars, and our broken moon!"

"What?"

"What what?"

Chris decided to verify the first insane thing he heard, and walked to the window to look outside. In the sky, the stars hung as they should, but in their midst was a huge broken spherical object at least one hundred times larger than the moon back on Earth.

It was ridiculous. It was insane. It didn't make any sense.

A celestial object that big would have absorbed its broken parts by now due to its enormous gravitational field. Or, if it was spinning, then shouldn't its effects be felt on the planet he was on? Were they on a collision course? They can't be on a collision course, or everyone would probably be panicking. Are they panicking?

"Mint, is that thing going to crash into us?"

She burst into giggles at the comical scared expression upon his face. "Of course not! It was like that since ever, and never has gotten closer! Plus, it goes around us fast enough that none of its pieces fall on us due to our gravity."

He released a sigh of relief, before moving on to the next insane thing. "You all also believe in the geocentric model of the solar system?"

Mint blinked.

"Right. Let me rephrase that. You believe everything revolves around your planet?"

"Uh, duh. You can see it happen."

Chris' brain went into overdrive. How can they believe in the geocentric model? It does not take much advancements in technology to make accurate measurements of the other planet's orbitals, or even the sun's, to disprove it.

Is it possible that they are primitive? But then how do they have guns and everything? I think they had electricity in the village, but I'm not certain about that.

Hm. Remnant. Could they be what is left of a civilization? That would explain the name, the breach in the walls and the high level of technology, but also primitive beliefs. Some galaxy-spanning empire that met its end?

Chris smacked himself on the forehead. "Right, coma-theory. Or Assassin's Mead theory."

"What?"

He had forgotten momentarily that he had an audience.

Argh, what the hell, nothing makes sense, there's monsters in the forest, everything is crazy…

"Nothing, Mint. Let's just sleep."

"But I want to know about your prayer thing!"

"We'll talk about it in the morning. This is too crazy for me."

"I want to know!" She whined. But Chris had already laid down and turned to his side so that his back was facing her. Mint pouted, but then grinned mischievously. She tiptoed near him.

"Go to sl – Argh!" Chris was interrupted when Mint jumped onto his stomach. "What the hell?!"

The little girl gasped. "That's a bad word!" She pressed a finger to his lips.

Chris glared back.

Mint giggled. "Tell me!"

The boy tried to hold his glare, but when his companion brought out her puppy dog eyes, he couldn't help but relent. He nodded resigned, and she removed her finger. Then he pushed her off.

She fell to the side with a yelp.

He tiredly sat up, and after a moment to search for words, said, "To sum up my faith, I believe in one good God who created the world. He is all knowing and all powerful and created humans in his image."

"What? One good God?" The girl pushed herself off the floor and sat just like Chris, facing him. "But there are so many evil people in the world, like the White Fang!"

"Ah. The problem of evil. It is a very important question and has a very complicated answer. Still, it can be distilled to one thing: free will."

"Free will?"

"Yes. When God first created the world, he created beings that worshiped him because he made them that way, and acted like they did because they were created like so. He felt sadness that no one chose to follow him but was compelled to follow him."

"Wow…"

"One day, he got an idea. He created a concept called free will: the ability to choose. It transcends even his omnipotence, surpassing even reality itself. At first he was glad, happy. But he needed someone to give it to.

He looked first at the mountains. However, when given the ability to choose, they rejected the gift itself. 'My Lord, not even our shoulders that hold up the entire sky can bear the weight of your gift.'

He then asked his angels, his perfect creations of every way. They did like the mountains. 'My Lord, we are thankful, but our place is at your side.'

To all his creations, he posed this question, until finally, he came upon the humans. They, unlike all others, stood proud in front of him and accepted it with honor. And so it came to be.

With the power of free will, humans have great potential for great good, but also great evil."

"That's so cool! But how do you know that's true?"

Chris smiled. "There is a reason it is called faith. What I do know is that through science, we approach understanding, one step at a time. We figured out the theory of evolution, the tool that God used to create us. We learned that He is unbound by time when He told us creation was in seven days, but through science, theorized that formation took billions of years."

"That's so cool… a good God above, watching over us? Is that why we met?" Mint asked.

Chris looked into her eyes and one corner of his lips curved up. "Maybe." A little girl, living by herself in the wilderness… he does not want to know what would have happened to her if she had been left alone any longer. A yawn suddenly came from him. "Aaaaanyways. Story time over. Let's sleep, Mint." He laid down on his back and closed his eyes.

On his right, the girl mimicked him, a pout on her lips and crossed her arms.

That is one thing I haven't considered yet. Maybe I did die, and here, it is purgatory. A place in which we are cleansed of our sins by fire, and I do have a lot of sins.

However, it doesn't seem so bad. Where's the fire? Maybe we were wrong, and purgatory is but another world? Maybe…

A second chance?

Ruminating over this possibility, he slowly drifted off to sleep.

~The Path Most Traveled~

"Chris?"

"Go away! Leave me alone!"

"Chris… you can't just stay in there forever."

"I totally can!"

There was a feminine sigh, before the lock of the door was picked open. Lily let herself into the room.

The little boy sat at his desk, his head resting on his crossed arms. He was sobbing.

"Chris, you know mom and dad can be harsh sometimes, but they love you – "

"Well you're wrong!" He cried, though the sound was muffled by his arms. "If they love me they would try to understand me!"

The older sister resisted the urge to roll her eyes at the scene and approached him, her expression soft. "I know he was very precious to you, Chris. I'm not trying to say that you should just 'get over it'. But you need to look at it from their point of view, little brother. Dad just lost his job for the nth time and mom is watching our savings drain away bit by bit. Both are very tired, Chris."

"I don't care!"

Their family wasn't perfect. There was no white picket fence, no safety of a steady income, no loving housewife and hard-working father. On the other hand, every family had their problems. Maybe some are better than others, but there will always be arguments – the small bumps along the road that make life interesting. Still, Chris' was one of those that wasn't hell, but felt like hell to him. For each person's life is their own, and each tragedy their own.

She wrapped him in an embrace. "Oh Chris…" She kissed the top of his head, then rubbed her cheek against his hair. They stayed like that for a while, the little seven-year old quietly sobbing and his older sister comforting him.

"Chris," Lily suddenly said. "I know that you really loved Muncher, but I don't think he'll want to see you like this."

Chris didn't respond, but felt a lot better, being surrounded by his beloved sister's warmth.

~The Path Most Traveled~

Chris woke up, but didn't feel very rested, being surrounded by the morning coolness. He was surprised that his back didn't hurt, as sleeping on the ground took time to adjust to.

And a dreamless sleep too. Huh, this body must be somehow used to it. How convenient, he thought, whatever memories of his dreams have been slipping away from his awakening.

The first rays of sunshine of the day peaked through the empty window frames, bathing the room in a warm there were only a mere few streaks, so they did not actually help warm him up. Mint stayed soundly asleep, ignoring her own golden spotlight.

He forced down his urge to yawn, blinked away his sleepiness, and inspected his surroundings. After making sure that everything was as they were before like the previous night, and that none of his traps on the inside of the room were triggered, he verified that his gun and knife were both in his pockets and got up.

He patted his clothing to get off whatever dust he had on him. The boy followed it up with a few stretches. Then, he moved to wake up his companion. He put his hand on her shoulder and shook her.

"Nnghh. Five more minutes…" She turned onto her side so that her back faced him.

For some reason, he couldn't help but smile. He could imagine her cute scrunched up face, annoyed at the disruption to her sleep. There was something endearing about it.

He had seen innocence, seen their naïve world view shatter as fire and brimstone covered the sky. The life draining from their eyes as everything they held sacred was turned into playthings for their enemies. But here, in a city where thousands have laid down theirs lives in defeat, there was a beacon, a light in the darkness.

It wasn't even a metaphor, he suddenly realized. Chris hadn't noticed before, thinking that maybe it was just his own wallowing of the past, but there was certainly some kind of deathly miasma in the air setting off his memories. It stank of the past, of the every drop of blood shed, of every mother slaughtered in front of her children, of every body left to rot. It was as if a thousand souls had been laid suspended for an eternity in a repetition of their final agonizing moments.

And through the black fog, there was Mint. He wouldn't have noticed how thick it was if she wasn't there as comparison. Chris didn't get it, or even understand it, but the area directly around her was… clean? Warm? He closed his eyes and focussed on feeling it.

I'm not feeling it physically… it's… so strange. It's immaterial? I feel it like an emotion, but I know it's not my own because it feels distinct, Chris noted. What is this? …wait, it also feels like… kinship?

No matter what he did, he could not figure out what the feeling was. All that he could tell was that when he was near Mint, the feeling turned a lot better. Finally, after a few more minutes off tester, he shook her shoulder harder to wake her up.

"Whyyyyyy… It's too early…" She mumbled.

"Mint, weren't there a lot of activities you wanted to do today? Like training, fishing…" He wanted to ask Mint about his strange feeling, but then realized that maybe telling her that it felt good when he was near her came out as a bit pedophilic. Chris decided that he should probably keep it to himself. "Mint?"

The sleeping girl didn't get up and curled up instead like a cat. She made some noises that could be some mix of 'go away' and 'lemme sleep'.

Chris sighed and shook his head. He moved to prepare breakfast.

It turns out that he did not need to figure out how to wake up Mint. The sound of one of his traps going off was quite loud and sent Chris into battle mode. He reached for his gun and knife and looked through each of the windows. Nothing on each side. Those traps were untouched. Only the one protecting the door was left, and thus, must be the one that went off. Could it be the villagers, looking for revenge?

Nevertheless, he didn't need to guess, as he didn't have to open the door to know who was on the other side.

"You idiot! You know he's very smart and strong, of course he was going to booby trap it!"

"Help me!"

"Shut up! If you wake him up, he might be in a bad mood, and not want to trade with us!"

"By the gods, you are all stupid!"

Any further arguing was stopped as Chris opened the door, weapon in hand.

All four boys stilled, even the one hanging from the roof by his feet due to a rope trap. Chris recognized them as the ones from before, though they had backpacks this time and no weapons. The two sides stared at each other. One side looked like they had been caught with their hands in the cookie jar, while the other kept a stoic expression.

"Uh… hi?" the boy in mid-air tried.

"No, dumbass, remember what we've practiced!" The leader from before berated.

"Right. Stranger, we've come to bargain!"

Chris was not impressed. "For what?"

"We're sorry we attacked you! So, uh… we have some stuff to trade, so that we can get our gun back! Boss borrowed it from his dad and he'll be pissed if – "

"You idiot! Don't tell him the stakes!"

"Hey, you are the one who chose me to talk to him because you were too chicken – "

"I'm not chicken!"

Before they could get into another argument, the de-aged man interrupted them. "Well, go on then. What do you have?" While he did not want to part with the gun, he decided to humour them just in case they had something he wanted. It may also gain him some friendliness from these children.

One of the boys eagerly put down his bag and started taking out items. "I brought an apple," he said as he took the item," another apple, and another apple, oh! An orange…"

"Seriously? How stupid do you think he is? A gun is worth so much more!" The 'boss' yelled at him.

"Wait, I'm getting to the good stuff! Here's a limited-edition huntsman card of Ozpin, the headmaster of Beacon Academy!" The one with the open bag proudly declared, showing off his shiny collectible card. His friends gasped.

"No way! They only made two of these!"Minion #2 said.

"Holy crap!" Minion #3 cried.

The boss boy seemed to have tears in his eyes. "Really, Crim? You'll really trade that away for me?"

"Of course, boss! You are my boss no matter what!"

"Crim, you are my favorite minion!" He tackles-hugs his friend.

The other two boys, one of them still hanging, looked at each other. "That's so gay," one of them whispered.

Chris coughed to get their attention. "It is a moot point, I don't want any cards. Is there anything else?"

"Well," casually said minion #2, "I brought a dust grenade," His friends watched him, a bit disbelieving, as he reached into his backpack and held out his mentioned item in one hand.

The boss stalked towards him. "No! We are not giving him a bomb, you crazy?"

"He has a gun, boss. I don't think trading him anything normal – "

"No! Gimme tha – "

The boss reached the grenade just as his friend pulled it away. He was faster, so was able to even get a grip on one part. What he didn't expect was for his minion's instinctual action moving the grenade pin straight into his grasp.

Click.

The four boys stared at the suddenly live explosive.

The person holding the grenade was dumbfounded, not really understanding what had just happened. His leader, with the pin in hand, also blanked out.

Chris, being experienced, did not freeze. The moment the pin was removed he burst into action. He sprinted towards the boy with the nade, and in one fluid kick sent the grenade flying away from them. It made an arc before disappearing onto the top of another building near them. There was a large bang, plus a cloud of dust.

"Holy crap," breathed minion #3.

Then the whole building the grenade had landed upon crumbled, sending a wave of dust that covered the kids in debris. There was a moment of silence as everyone tried to process what just happened.

"You stupid-heads!" Came from behind the five boys. It was Mint, who had been woken up by all the commotion, and came over just in time to witness the situation with the grenade.

"Y-yeah," the leader of the village boys agreed, though he was still in shock at his near death, "t-that w-was really… y-yeah." His eyes were wide with fright.

"No, I meant why didn't you just throw it away?! Instead you froze with fear!" Mint yelled at him. She took threatening steps forward.

"Missy, we thought we were going to die!"

"Well, now we really might die because you have attracted the Grimm with your fear, especially with that sound!"

Interrupting their argument, a deep, loud, animal roar shook the ground.

~The Path Most Traveled~

A/N: Sorry this is sort of late (I guess I'm updating Fridays?). It is longer than normal, so that makes up for it?

The thing is, I had a lot planned for this chapter and didn't expect it to be so long. So, this is technically ¾ of the chapter. I was trying to finish everything and only posting it then, but I decided against it because of the length.

I might not update next week, instead, I'll be finishing this one chapter and updating the previous few. Or I might still update. Nothing is in stone.

Nobody left a review… me sad. No thoughts on the story yet? That's alright.