Crackling, darkness, glowing patches of orange within it. A pair of feet slowly crunching the dirt underneath them. There was no calming breeze, no children playing, no happy couples strolling by as they held hands affectionately. The village was not what it used to be, and that made him very upset.

Some time ago, Sarasnay had a reputation for being a thriving village. It had been dotted with lush green trees, there was a valley of flowers and everyone in the village grew something edible in their backyards. A few had farms while the rest grew some herbs and one type of vegetable or fruit. Frowns were uncommon and happiness covered the village in a thick fog, like a warm embrace.

All of that went up in flames.

Ren still remembered the event, but it was a bit foggy. The screams of the villagers, the small crying children and smoke filling the air made up most of those memories. It had such an impact on him that the day of the fire was his afterlife. His village burning around him; his eternal nightmare.

He wasn't sure where he went wrong in his life, however. He'd become a Huntsman because of this very village. He'd wanted to protect people and that's what he died doing. Maybe this was a reminder of why he followed the path he did, maybe he owed someone a few Lien and never paid back, he's never know for sure why such a tragedy would surround him forever.

Ren was grateful he never lost Nora to that. If Nora had died in that fire, he was sure that he would never have gone to any combat school. He would have shut down. Yeah, he had a bit of a crush on her, but she was his best friend. He didn't know a time when she wasn't by his side. They always counted on each other. Hell, the two were partners before his death. If he'd died in that fire, Nora would shut down.

Wait a second.

Ren was actually dead. Nora was likely still alive and so was the rest of his team.

I'm dead, they're alive.

Jaune was no doubt beating himself up because his teammate died on his watch. Pyrrha was probably either comforting her leader of weeping for Ren herself. He was positive that Nora was dead inside. He felt terrible for leaving his friends behind, but he knew there was nothing he could do but watch the memory of his village burn.

Ren remembered what was supposed to be his first mission with JNPR. The village they were scheduled to go to was Sarasnay. It had been rebuilt and was ready to start over. The news had excited him and Nora so much, they just had to pick that mission. Their hometown was restored and they were raring to see it, Ren more so than Nora. He was crushed when they ended up not going in the end, but Jaune and the rest of his team tried their best to cheer him up. He'd felt better after a couple days, but the possibilities lingered in his mind for a while.

To him, Jaune was the brother he never had. Ren appreciated his efforts to become close to him, like when he asked him for girl advice. He wasn't sure why Jaune thought he'd be good with the ladies, though. Ren barely talked to anyone other than his own team and RWBY, who were also his friends. He wondered how they reacted to his passing.

Ren looked up from his shoes, seeing a bright light.

Don't you see the light right before you die and not while you're dead?

With that in mind, he jogged to the light and found himself in a valley. It resembled the one from Sarasnay, but the colours of the flowers were different. Typically, there were white and yellow flowers only; here, they were red, black, yellow, white, bronze and pink.

Bronze? Do those actually exist?

Strangely enough, they reminded him of Pyrrha's armour, Milo and Akouo and her headdress. Bronze was like Pyrrha's defining colour. The colour of the all-star "untouchable" champion of combat, the celebrity, the one who graduated Sanctum top of her class, the cereal mascot. Those were most of her titles, and while he had heard a bit about her before they met, Ren knew her as simply Pyrrha Nikos.

The white ones reminded him of Weiss. She was just as famous, if not more than Pyrrha. Her titles were Heiress of the SDC and Ice Queen. Ren didn't know her personally, so she was mostly the Ice Queen in his perspective.

Especially to Jaune, though; that's one of the two people the red flowers made him think of because of his hoodie. The blond had been rejected by Weiss a few times, and pretty harshly, in his opinion.

The other was Ruby, leader of team RWBY. He wouldn't be surprised if Ruby's one true love was Crescent Rose because she loved weapons and her own the most. Ren remembered seeing her go crazy over StormFlower and her eyes sparkling frim the sight of a knife-gun hybrid. The rambling reminded him of Nora, who he assumed the pink flowers represented.

Yellow was obviously Yang, the Pun Wizard. He didn't have much to say about her other than that.

The black flowers caused his mind to shift over to Blake. She and him were almost kindred spirits: they were both quiet and liked silence for a longer period of time than others. They had a few differences, like Blake talked a bit more often than him and her love for a certain genre of literature. Ren liked knowing someone similar to himself, if somehow comforted him.

Ren was at ease now, knowing that the flowers represented his friends and that they surrounded him brought him peace.