...Mmmm~ So soft~
It was a wonderful feeling to experience. Everything was so very soft and delicate, comforting and smothering her with bliss. She felt welcomed. She felt happy. She felt safe and content.
Ruby had experienced dreams like this one before. Well, she was about sixty percent certain that she'd experienced similar dreams. The young trainee huntress wasn't really the best when it came to remembering her dreams, especially when she was in the midst of one.
This particular dream was so nice~ Everything was so pale and pure. So very soft. She felt like she was laying deep within a garden of roses, nestled up against ruffled petals. Oum, she could feel them against her cheek.
Absentmindedly, she rubbed her cheek against them, sighing in contentment at the feeling. Ruby felt so full, so loved. She felt like she was worth a million lien, overtaking the world with her grandiose design.
It. Was. Wonderful.
Every part of her body shuddered in bliss, tiny pinpricks of pleasure rippling pleasantly against her skin. She felt content. She felt at peace, deep within this beautiful garden of roses.
She adjusted her position ever so slightly, murmuring unintelligibly as the tips of her knuckles slid against an odd soft material. She wondered exactly what it was. It felt so nice. Soft and delicate, just like the doll she loved.
Curiosity growing, she adjusted even further, sliding her hands upwards and-
"Master~"
Ruby shot up in alarm at the sound, her eyes blinking open as she-
Oh. I see. That wasn't exactly a dream at the end there, was it? her mind so very helpfully informed her.
Ruby was, or had been, laying down against her doll on the ground, her head resting against Kirakishou's lap. From her position, she'd been laying down on her stomach with her arms hanging up on either side, which had apparently caused one of her hands to rest against Kirakishou's inner thigh.
This meant that when she readjusted and moved her hands upwards-
Oh. Oh dear.
"K-Kira! S-Sorry… for, um, ya'know… fondling you," Ruby stammered out with an embarrassed blush, looking anywhere but at the peach blonde Rozen Maiden doll.
In a sudden burst of alarm to her senses, Ruby felt the doll's slender hands grasp her own, gently pulling her hands closer.
They felt… warm. Well. Not exactly warm. Just not the cold that she had expected.
She guessed that it had something to do with being in Ruby's vicinity. Body heat or something. It made sense.
Kirakishou rubbed her cheek affectionately against the back of Ruby's hand, murmuring contently. "...It was by these very same hands that my Master chose me~"
She… what is she..?
"Eek!"
The doll gently kissed her hand, focusing on her digits, before licking them-
Ruby felt like she was going to dieeeee-
"...To be completely honest," Kirakishou pulled back to whisper in an almost coyly conspiratorial manner, "your pure rose did not mind the sensation. To feel her Master held against her in such a way, treating her like a real girl…"
Was she saying that she liked it?
No! This is not the time for this!
Ruby shook her head, gently pushing the doll away and forcing herself up onto her feet. She stumbled slightly and the doll was quick to catch her, jumping up and holding her steady.
From their close proximity, Ruby was quick to realise that the damage that had been done to her doll had been removed, almost as if it hadn't even been there in the first place. She was also acutely aware that Kirakishou was wearing the same ornate dress that she had originally been found in over at the docks. The same one that had been destroyed in the dorm room explosion alongside everything else in her wardrobe.
"Master…" Kirakishou fretted, a single hand supporting her back while the other held onto Ruby's hand. "Please, be careful. You have only just awoken from the transition. Focus your consciousness on your pure rose, on her and her alone. Do not make your pure rose worry…"
Ruby nodded absently, before wincing when the movement brought with it a sudden onset wave of vertigo.
"O-Oh, um, yes, sorry… it may be best if I sat down for a bit…"
The doll gave a soft tentative mewl of acknowledgment, before hesitantly detaching from her handhold with Ruby. The young huntress-in-training blinked at the odd movement, before watching with wide eyes as Kirakishou did a wave of motion and a crystalline bench seemingly grew out of the floor right in front of them.
Kirakishou caught her inquisitive stare and blushed embarrassingly, before slowly and mechanically guiding Ruby to plop herself down on the bench.
It was surprisingly soft and comfortable for what should have been a hard material, along with being oddly warm, but Ruby didn't take much note of it. She was more interested in just how Kirakishou had made the damn thing in the first place.
"Do you like it, Master?" Kirakishou inquired gently, a small anticipatory smile crawling up onto her lips.
"W-Well… it's certainly something," Ruby tried, earning a pleased noise from the doll. "But how did you do it in the first place? It, um, I thought you were limited to all those vines and stuff."
The doll giggled, almost as if she had made some sort of funny joke. "Do you not remember what has occurred? The N-Field, my N-Field, is a physical plane now. I can shape the N-Field into whatever I desire, with enough energy. And thanks to you, my precious Maiden of Silver Flame, I have more than enough energy for something as simple as this."
Maiden of Silver Flame? That's a new one.
She didn't really understand the rest of what Kirakishou had said, having literally just woken up, but she was cognisant enough to recognise that the doll had given her a new title. And Ruby could hazard a guess as to what exactly Kirakishou was referring towards when she spoke of a maiden.
"S-So… it worked? I became a Fall Maiden?" Ruby questioned, latching on to the one part that didn't require her to figure out doll semblance metaphysics.
Kirakishou gave a soft nod, smiling happily at her. "You absolutely did, Ruby. Your doll couldn't be more proud of you for everything that you've done," Ruby blushed at the glowing praise, utterly unable to keep the smile from growing on her face. "With your powers, I was able to regain control over the N-Field and eradicate the grimm infesting the area that became my N-Field."
"E-Eradicate the grimm?"
The doll nodded. "Yes. It was actually an unintended side effect of your transition into a Maiden, but it was a welcome one. You powers, specifically, appear to possess a certain ability to destroy the grimm."
Ruby blinked, confused. "...Um, I think most things can do that…"
"Ah," Kirakishou giggled, "but exist no other powers can do so in the way that yours did. But, perhaps, true understanding will occur at a later date for a curious mind, such as your own?" the doll mused to herself, whispering as if revealing a deep secret of some kind.
"...Okay?" Ruby slowly answered, confused. She didn't understand why it was a big deal that her specific powers killed the grimm in some certain way, but if it was enough to destroy them then it didn't particularly matter right now. If grimm didn't like her rose petals, then so be it. She could deal with it all later, as Kira had hinted towards. "Um… so, er, what happened?"
"You'll need to be more specific, Master. Many things have occurred at many different times."
Ruby pouted and reflexively puffed her cheeks. The doll knew exactly what she meant, damn it!
"After I went to get the Maiden powers!" she exclaimed forcefully, waving her arms around.
The small blonde doll giggled at her, clearly amused by Ruby's strong reaction. "Well, Master, if you wish to know, your Headmaster Ozpin showed up, alongside Cinder Fall. They wished to stop you from gaining the Maiden powers."
"What?! Ozpin and Cinder?! They were working together?!"
Kirakishou outright laughed at the very idea. "Oh no, definitely not. They merely adopted a… ah, temporary ceasefire in order to combat what they believed to be a greater threat."
"...Oh. Right…" Ruby muttered, torn between a sense of horror and outright disgust for the two people that would seek to attack her pure rose. "W-What happened?"
Kirakishou shrugged indifferently, broadcasting her disinterest in the situation, "Headmaster Ozpin proved to be of significant challenge to a pure rose, Master, but he was too late to stop you from awakening as a Maiden. Cinder was upset over her plan failing and acted more like an angry toy than a threat."
...A toy… just like Yang…
She could remember her thoughts regarding Yang and everyone else, right after her sister had gone and attacked Kirakishou. It hurt to remember. Oum. They probably all hated her now, didn't they? It was clear that Kirakishou had won, in some strange way, and that considering how Yang had been after merely speaking with Laplace, who knew how her team would feel?
Especially considering Kirakishou's supposed battle against Headmaster Ozpin and Cinder Fall. While she didn't know much about the woman who had bombed her doll's room, the headmaster of a huntsmen academy had to be powerful, right?
Ruby… didn't really know what to think of all that. On one hand, it was utterly bonkers that her doll had successfully defended against the headmaster himself coupled alongside someone with half of the Fall Maiden powers, even for a short amount of time, but on the other hand, she was worried about what had happened afterward.
"...How did it all end?" she asked.
"When you awoke as the Fall Maiden," Kirakishou began, "your doll had trapped them inside her Palace of Beginnings- in a similar configuration to this one."
Ruby looked around, taking in the scenery for the first time since she had awoken. A flat, crystalline surface spread out all around her, noticeably not translucent as opposed to how it had been before. Teal-green crystalline walls met the edges of her vision, climbing high into a sky that shined with a pale light completely dissimilar to the ocean blue skies of, well, Remnant.
Also, there was an odd white fog that seemed to cover much of the lower terrain, limiting her sight to a small degree. It was weird, however, in that it seemed to shift at odd times, almost as if it was following her sight. It would move as she did, revealing more and more of Kirakishou's grand design.
The crystalline area certainly looked beautiful, overwhelmingly so. As if she was a tiny mote of light staring deep into the heart of a star. Or a single instrument held within a roaring crescendo. It overwhelmed her and covered her entirely, to the point where she could not help but be a part of it- a part of something different.
The sensation was nothing like what she had felt inside the N-Field previously. Was this how Kirakishou perceived it?
"Right…" Ruby gestured for the doll to continue.
From the smile that Kirakishou gave her, appearing oddly flattered, it would seem that the doll had caught Ruby's positively assessing gaze. She couldn't help but smile back, feeling enraptured by her doll's warmth.
The cold had become the warm.
Just for her.
And for her alone.
"Cinder Fall was able to use her limited Maiden powers to escape," Kirakishou continued with her explanation, "she accomplished this by launching herself up and over the crystals- taking advantage of the lack of roof."
Ruby gawked. "B-But how?! Most of those crystals must be hundreds of metres tall!"
The doll seemed as impressed as Ruby was confused. "Hm, perhaps it is a unique response in part to her frantic resolve? Your doll cannot be certain- Cinder is far from these parts, unfortunately. Far enough to escape the sight of a pure rose, for now."
Damn.
"A-And what about Ozpin?"
Kirakishou pouted. "...Ah~ Well, your doll wished to add Ozpin to her garden of dreamers. It would have been wonderful, you see. Ozpin likely possessed a great many memories of Summer Rose and I would have been able to give Summer these treasured moments. However, the man opted to end his own life rather than accept my garden. He departed before I could think to gather him. It was very strange, come to think of it."
He'd killed himself?! What?! But…
But that would mean…
Those memories of Summer were gone. Ozpin had been the headmaster of Beacon Academy for ages. She'd checked. Long enough to see Summer Rose during her first day as a first-year and had likely been in contact with Summer up until her dea-
Disappearance. Death. Momentary passing?
Until it had happened.
Now, with Ozpin gone, so too were undoubtedly years upon years of stories. Things that only the headmaster would have known about Summer Rose.
Now, her Mother would never be able to tell her those things. She'd never be able to tell her some random stupid detail about a test she'd had in her second year, or some wacky stunt that occurred during detention. Or even just how she had acted on the first day. Had Summer been as nervous as her? Had she been able to withstand all of the stares? Had she almost blown up a heiress just like her? Ruby would never know, not now. Those memories were gone. A piece of her Mother that Ruby would never get back.
It saddened her greatly. Both saddened and angered her, that the man would choose to spite her one last time. Was this his form of revenge for Ruby gaining the maiden powers?
Kirakishou clutched her hand. "...I'm sorry, Ruby. I know how much this meant to you," the doll frowned, a rare expression shared only for her. "...I did what I could, but he would not submit. He just wanted…"
"...To be free. I know," Ruby finished sadly, pulling the blonde doll close and holding her tightly. "I'm sorry, too, that you had to see that. With Ozpin. You shouldn't have been forced into a situation with something so… horrid."
"Master… I would experience it as many times as necessary, in order to ensure that you were alright. We needed the Maiden powers. It was what had to be done."
Still… for Kirakishou to fight both Ozpin and Cinder… just in order so that Ruby was able to successfully attain the Maiden powers… she couldn't help but wonder if it was even worth it in the end.
Yes, the N-Field had been stopped, but Kirakishou's Palace of Beginnings was here to stay. Physically. The Rozen Maiden doll had been forever changed, due to Cinder's stupid bomb and Ozpin's pointless sacrifice.
Even Ruby herself had been changed, she'd become a Fall Maiden, just so that she may help stabilise the N-Field and prevent it from overtaking the globe. That power now lay within her, stolen from the arms of another in order to prevent the N-Field from consuming everyone. The power, the power of the Fall Maiden, was now hers.
She could feel it in her body. Pumping through her bloodstream. This fire. This energy. It was a completely different experience from what it had been like when Ruby had first unlocked her aura. Then, she had felt strong. Now, however, she felt like a force of nature.
...If this strength was what all Maidens possessed, a part of her could understand why certain factions in the past had tried to steal the power for themselves. It was certainly… intoxicating, to a degree.
"Master?"
"Hm?" Ruby blinked, before refocusing. "Oh, sorry. Just… thinking about stuff."
Some part of her had hoped that after everything with her team and with Cinder and the N-Field, she would have been free of her stupid scatterbrained self. Especially in front of her beloved doll. But, apparently, some things never change.
"About?" Kirakishou inquired, forever curious.
She couldn't help but smile. Her doll just seemed so invested in everything that Ruby did. So caring. It was so very overwhelming at times, but she found it was a pleasant type of overwhelming. Like when she would get a fever as a kid and struggle to find a good temperature, only to find that one perfect moment of blissful heat or calming cold.
"W-Well…" Ruby forced herself back on track, away from the odd direction that her thoughts had taken. "I-I… I'm glad to see you're not damaged anymore!"
That hadn't been what she had been meaning to say. But, at the moment, it had been the only thing that had come to mind. She couldn't exactly speak about the strange feelings permeating her body, or of the sordid events that had coloured her recent history.
So, instead, she bumbled and changed the subject. It was all she could do. And she felt terrible for it.
Yet, her poor little doll could only smile delightfully at what she perceived was nothing but an innocent comment.
"Ah~ Master is so kind~" Kirakishou cupped her cheeks in her hands, swaying to the side and animatedly swooning. "Well, if Master is curious, then her doll will answer. Your pure rose needed only wait until her garden amassed enough energy so as to make such a repair possible."
"Energy?"
Kirakishou giggled. "Aura, Ruby. You remember, do you not? My little dreamers will generate energy for me while they rest inside the garden. Now that the N-Field has been stabilised and fully manifested, there is quite the surplus for a pure rose to use as she desires."
Ruby blinked, slowly nodding. She could only marvel at the very idea. Just how strong could a person be with that much aura? Vale was a pretty big city and there had been a ton of people visiting the city for the tournament as well.
Actually… how much of the city had been converted? Ruby had seen crystals growing all over the place, but she wasn't certain just how far it extended.
Could Kirakishou have taken the city? Was the city of Vale no more?
...Eh. She'll ask about it later.
"So, how many people are seedlings now?" she inquired curiously, adjusting her position on the bench to something more comfortable.
The bench kind of reminded Ruby of the one that had been outside the Beacon Academy dormitories. Both the mirrored world version and the regular world one. No backing, just a simple design. Though she could admit that this one was far prettier.
Crystals, especially Kirakishou's crystals, held quite the appeal to her now~
It was almost funny. She would have thought that after everything that had happened, the sight of the crystals would have repulsed her. They had caused so much devastation, after all.
But, now that they were here and there wasn't any fighting or anything going on… it felt almost reassuring, in a strange way.
The N-Field was stable. Kirakishou was stable. Everything was alright.
"Ah~ Just a little over seven hundred thousand," Kirakishou tittered, glancing off to the side and puffing her cheeks out in a way that reminded Ruby of herself in some odd way. "It is a little difficult to count that high, to be honest. I can only wonder just how other people deal with it."
"Other people use computers for that, silly," Ruby playfully teased her doll, pinching her cheek. "But still, that's a lot more people than what you had before, isn't it?"
"Hm? Oh yes, by quite a bit. Why do you ask, Master? Would you like to use them for something?"
Use them? Ruby balked inwardly. Why would Kirakishou suggest that? That isn't what I meant at all…
"No! No... I just... I need to know. Will it be alright, to hold that many people? There won't be any problems, right?"
"There won't be any problems now, Master. Not since you were able to become a Maiden," Kirakishou smiled proudly, briefly turning her attention away from Ruby to gaze towards the fog-laden crystalline terrain. "Now, your guiding silver light has made the impossible possible. Immaterial has been materialised, and it was all due to you, my Master."
Ruby wondered if her poor heart could take any more of this praise before it exploded.
"Um, right. Whatever you say," she shuffled awkwardly, not at all used to such ravenous adoration. "S-So, what now?"
Kirakishou smiled, her lone slit amber eye focusing once again on Ruby's form. "Now, Master, it is time for a gift. Would you like to meet with Summer Rose? She is expecting us, deeper within my Palace of Beginnings."
She awoke with a gasp, a searing pain roaring to life in the space around her left shoulder blade.
Lilac eyes looked around frantically, taking in the unfamiliar environment with some degree of slowly mounting confusion.
She was laying down on a small bed inside a… tent, of some kind. Patchwork, definitely, with various cuts and scrapes that had been sewn back together numerous times. Not at all like the tents that she had been in as a kid during numerous school excursions. This one was large. She figured that one could fit a dozen people in here and still have a bunch of space left over.
Numerous beds littered the enclosed area, all of them in various shades of disarray. There weren't any other people in any of them.
There were shelves resting atop numerous crates that had been stacked up all over the place, lining the walls in a disorganised fashion. Pieces of ruined clothing and cut pieces of fabric were all over the place. Some of the fabric looked uncomfortably familiar.
She looked down, eyeing herself.
Her tan jacket and signature yellow crop-top were gone. Instead, her chest had been bound with shoddy bandages that wrapped around her shoulder. Medicinal bandages? They looked to be made out of a cut cloth of some kind. Like they had been torn from something else and repurposed.
A quick check down below confirmed that she was at least decent. Her compression shorts were still there, but her belt and boots were gone.
Her golden hair was in complete disarray, but that part was pretty much par for the course at this point.
Her eyes were drawn to a sudden sound of movement nearby, the tent flap opening to reveal a young woman with tan-coloured skin and short brown hair. The woman's eyes, ice-blue and decidedly sharp, locked onto her own immediately. She had a neat tattoo on her left arm. Some bird, by the looks of it. Though, it was pretty hard to see from her position.
"...Oh. Huh. You're awake. Didn't think you'd be up so quickly. How're you feeling?"
All delivered with all of the interest a librarian may display to anything that is not-
Screw it. Language was difficult and her head was hurting something fierce.
This person clearly didn't give a damn about her. Bedside manner certainly wasn't this person's specialty and even if they had it, they certainly weren't going to use it for her.
She coughed hoarsely, trying and failing to speak up immediately.
"Here. Drink this. It'll help."
A dirty mug containing some murky liquid was offered to her. Certainly wasn't water. But, at this point, she would take whatever she could get.
She took the offered mug, downing the contents as fast as her poor throat would allow her. It tasted… horrid. Like some kind of off-taste tea that had been mixed with a frankly concerning amount of honey and flavoured with whatever vegetation that was hanging around nearby.
But. It helped.
"Feeling better now?"
She grimaced, shifting up in her bed and meeting the- oh. No. No backboard. Just more crates behind her, that shifted a bit from her weight.
"...I feel like shit," Yang deadpanned.
The girl let out a bark of rough laughter. "Hah! Sounds about right. Well, you did get shot up pretty bad. Left scapula, huh?" Yang grimaced, looking over to her left side and feeling the sting. "You huntresses are all the same. Front-loading your aura, never expecting a shot in the back. Got you pretty bad. Surprised the grimm didn't finish you, but I can only assume they were a little preoccupied."
Shot in the back…
Part of her wanted to deny it, to say that it had to be something else that had happened. That it was some sort of trick. An illusion, done by Kirakishou in order to mess with her.
But it hadn't been Kirakishou.
It had been Ruby. Her own baby sister had shot her in the back. Her innocent little sister, twisted and confused by a cursed doll to play a part in some stupid game. Their twisted form of love had ended up overtaking Vale. Who even knows what had happened to the country. Had someone else managed to stop the N-Field? Feh. She supposed that in the end, it didn't matter. Her sister would still end up loving a lie, and it seemed that Yang was powerless to stop it.
"...It wasn't like that," Yang muttered sadly, shaking her head and looking down at her hands. "It was-"
"Ah!" the girl interrupted rudely, holding up a hand. "Spare me the pity party. You fucked up. Got shot. Happens to us all. What doesn't happen to most is surviving it. Getting out alive. Even with help, it's still pretty ballsy."
Yang looked at the girl in confusion. Was she ridiculing her or consoling her? Either way, it was a pretty piss-poor attempt all around. Oum, for all she knew it was her attempt at bedside manners.
Still. If the girl wasn't interested in her story then she certainly wasn't going to try a second time. Saved her having to think about the pain. At least right now. She'd probably be a mess later on.
"...Right, whatever," Yang shook her head, before wincing at the sudden spike of pain. Right. Headache. "Where am I? Who are you?"
"Well…" the girl walked forwards, looking over her form with an assessing eye. Part of Yang felt decidedly naked given how little clothing she was wearing, but she quickly pushed those thoughts aside for the moment. "Eh. You look decent enough. Can you stand?"
Yang wasn't entirely certain herself.
Shuffling to the side of her bed, she quickly pulled the sheets off and swung her legs down to the grassy ground. A brief wave of vertigo assaulted her for a moment, before quickly passing. She grimaced. It probably wasn't a good idea, but…
...She didn't know these people. Probably was an even worse idea to stay here for any longer than strictly necessary.
Pushing forward, Yang was able to shakily stand up on her own two legs, though she quickly grabbed hold of one of the nearby crates for support.
"Still a bit woozy, eh? Well, guess it's to be expected," the girl mused. "Aura can do a lot, but people rely on it too much for everything. Can't heal you all proper like if it's depleted, for instance. Gotta rely on an actual medical procedure for that. Who'd have fucking thought, right?"
Judging by the girl's incessant, if not actually annoyed tone, she was probably used to dealing with people that had done exactly that- going and depleting their aura only to find themselves healing slowly and getting confused.
Yang certainly knew about it. Can't exactly be a girl like her without getting into more than a few sparring matches at school that weren't exactly academy sanctioned. Her Dad had been quick to both reprimand her and teach her how to be better.
On the other hand, one of the things that Taiyang had also taught her had been how to spot when someone was trying to change the subject.
"...You still didn't tell me where I am, or who you are."
The girl grinned wolfishly at the sight of Yang's narrowed eyes. "Well, blondie, you can call me Vernal. Certainly not my real name, but it's the best you're going to get. Better than what most people get out of me, that's for sure."
Yang was certain her eyes flashed crimson for a moment, judging by the way Vernal's own ice blue eyes flickered upwards momentarily.
"...Don't call me blondie. It's Yang. Yang Xiao-Long."
Vernal raised an eyebrow, before gesturing for her to walk over. As she was doing so, the tanned woman spoke up. "...Xiao-Long, huh? Well… as for where you are…"
She opened the tent flaps as Yang approached, a menagerie of faces greeting her. There were a sizeable amount of people hanging around the tent, many of them decked out in leather armour and sporting various weapons. They all looked pretty grizzled.
As for the area, it looked like she was in an encampment of some kind. In her eyes, it seemed rather temporary. No real permanent fixtures and a lot of crates thrown about everywhere.
The encampment itself was enclosed by a large wooden log wall, with only a single large wooden gate acting as the entry and exit. The camp seemed to be comprised out of many smaller tents, that looked to be in about the same state of disarray as the previous tent Yang had been in.
She could see that she was on a sort of long stretch of passage, heading from the main gate towards what seemed to be the main area of the encampment. From what she could spot at the angle, it looked like the main area was pretty large and circular in shape. There were tents around, but they looked like they all had specialised purposes.
The people around that area looked far more grizzled, too. And more than a little pissed off. Where the hell was she?
"...Welcome, Yang Xiao-Long," Vernal's sudden voice decided to speak up and answer her question from before, "to the Branwen Tribe."
Her head whipped around to stare at Vernal so fast she felt like she could have broken something. Branwen. She knew that name. It had been part of the name that she had relentlessly searched in every database and spoken to every seedy bar known to man.
Raven Branwen.
This was it.
Raven Branwen's Camp.
She'd known her Mom had become a bandit after breaking up with the rest of her team some time after graduating Beacon Academy, but to actually see it with her own two eyes…
"-How…"
A new voice spoke. Older. Feminine, yet with a rough tone. Loud and authoritative.
"I found you in the Emerald Forest. Broken and beaten. Unconscious, even. So, I took you back here and had my people fix you up the best they could. You're welcome, Yang."
Once again, Yang found herself whirling around in surprise.
It was her. Raven Branwen. Oum, she looked almost the same as she did in the photo that Qrow had, the one of Team STRQ. Same outfit, if a little worn down and patched together. Same blade. Same hairstyle, just like her own.
"M-Mom…"
There it was. The meeting that she had wanted for so many years, that she had fantasised about dozens if not hundreds of times. She felt like she knew every possible permutation of how it would play out, of what she would say and how Raven would respond.
But now that she was here, face to face with the woman that had abandoned her all those years ago only to suddenly reappear…
...She didn't know what to say.
Raven seemed to notice this, amusement crawling on her features for a moment, before she glanced around to the other people -bandits- and spoke up.
"Everyone! This woman is Yang, my daughter. She was in the thick of Beacon when the grimm came and the crystals grew, and she survived!"
The applause was… deafening. She didn't know what to make of it. Bandits. Cheering for her, for her surviving.
By dust, even her 'nurse' Vernal seemed to be rather impressed. She wasn't cheering, not by and stretch of the imagination, but the girl had offered her a curt nod when Yang had glanced in her direction.
It was very strange, to say to least.
As Raven approached, the crowd quickly dispersed, going back to doing whatever they had been doing before.
"Vernal, leave us."
The tanned girl nodded immediately, shooting her one last look before disappearing back into the tent that Yang had previously been occupying.
"Yang. Come with me. I'll lead you to my tent, away from prying eyes. We have much to discuss."
And the woman that Yang had both idolised and despaired about for what felt like her entire life… turned and marched away without another word.
Yang took a brief moment to recognise her incredulity, before letting out a sudden shout of offended outrage and marching (stumbling) after the dark-haired older woman.
It was all just… so very strange. Walking through the ruins of what was once Beacon Academy alongside her doll.
During the trip, a part of Ruby had expected to see some kind of visual indication of what had befallen the area. Ruined buildings. Stone. Fires. Smoke.
That sort of thing.
Instead, everywhere she looked, everywhere she went, it was pristine.
There were crystals everywhere, yes, but no sign of the devastation that had first followed their growth into the world.
Kirakishou had called it her Palace of Beginnings, but Ruby felt it was more akin to a crystalline citadel of some sort, instead of any kind of palace or castle. There were no real walls or towers, merely a massive collection of crystals standing tall amidst countless smaller others.
When Ruby had awoken, she had been at the precipice of the central tower within Kirakishou's materialised N-Field, in what was essentially a roofed area at the highest point. The very top of the largest crystalline spire, minus the walls themselves. She could liken it to standing inside of Ozpin's main office at the top of Beacon Tower.
She hadn't realised just how high up she had been, due to the crystalline walls that had surrounded her at the time.
But as she descended deep into crystalline interior following her talk with Kirakishou, Ruby had quickly realised that she was not journeying through crystalline caves as she first thought, but merely descending a building.
If this was just how tall some of the crystals were, then how deep had the Palace of Beginnings grown underground? When the N-Field had first manifested and begun storing dreamers in the translucent ground, Ruby had been able to see quite far down. Now, however, she couldn't see a thing. Even now that she was on the surface level.
"Come now, Master. We're not far from Summer Rose."
Ruby nodded absentmindedly, before forcefully tearing her thoughts away from matters that she felt would only discomfort further discomfort her. This was not a time for such nonsense.
She was going to see her Mom.
"Where is she, Kira?"
The blonde doll squeezed her hand, reminding Ruby of what was becoming one of their little favourite pastimes. She really enjoyed holding the doll's hand. It was so very-
"Not too far now, Master~" Kirakishou's coy smile was very telling, as the doll had certainly caught her zoning out again.
She couldn't help it! Everything was just so… mystifying. Her mind liked to wander, okay!
"R-Right…" Ruby responded outwardly, blushing.
They were passing through a sort of pale crystalline forest, having long since walked outside Kirakishou's crystalline citadel and into the surrounding land. She wondered just where she was in relation to Beacon Academy. Was this the Emerald Forest? Or perhaps some part of Vale?
In support of the latter idea, there hadn't been any kind of drop to indicate a descent into the Emerald Forest, which would imply that they had to be somewhere around Vale.
Beacon Academy had been surrounded almost entirely by cliffs that sectioned it off from the Emerald Forest down below- excluding a small mountainous descent that lead towards the city of Vale. It had been what had made Vale to be neigh-insurmountable to both grimm and enemy assault alike.
Which meant that Ruby had to be somewhere either along the walk to Vale, or in Vale proper.
But, there were just so many trees. If they could even be called that. To be fair, they differed quite immensely to the trees found within the Emerald Forest. Where did they all come from? Where did all of the buildings go?
All of the trees she saw were barren, completely devoid of vegetation, looking more like the desiccated husks one may find within the harsh deserts and barren wastelands of Vacuo on the continent of Sanus.
However, unlike the ones found on Sanus, these trees were crystalline in design, sporting the same pale crystalline teal material that made up the majority of Kirakishou's N-Field. They were adorned with numerous sharp dead branches, looking almost like the aftermath of a heavy forest fire than any kind of healthy growth.
...Yet… in conjunction with the crystal clusters, the white sky, and the thick mist suffusing the area… it felt almost like something out of a story. Enchanting. Magical.
She felt like a kid again, reading a big fantasy novel and imagining how wondrous the world might look with her own eyes. It was all just so, well, different, to everything that had made up her experience of the world so far.
...And Ruby recognised that she was still very much a kid. She just meant that when she was younger! She hadn't read a kids novel in, like, months, damn it!
"We're here, Master."
Ruby blinked, refocusing after mentally committing to pick up the last book in a certain series she had forgotten about in favour of-
Oh, wow… Mom's in here?
She was standing at the edge of a small clearing in the forest that lead to a small crystalline growth in the centre. It looked much like how one would imagine an igloo, if they had constructed it out of teal-green crystals and a smattering of ashen wood that most certainly stood out in a forest composed entirely of crystal.
It was also about as big as some of the homes she had seen around Patch, if not perhaps a little bit smaller.
There was a door in the centre and-
Ah! There's her Mom! She's right there! Standing and waving to them with a smile on her face and-
Without an ounce of hesitation, Ruby rushed forwards, intercepting Summer Rose with a big hug. Summer Rose caught her with a grunt and a startled laugh, twirling Ruby around as she giggled happily.
Just how long had it been, she wondered, since she'd been able to do that? Over a decade, definitely. She'd barely learned how to even walk before Summer had…
No. Bad times. It was different now.
"Mom!~ I'm so glad you're here! Ahhhh! Did you miss me? Did you, did you?!"
She grinned a bright, happy grin. Words couldn't describe how happy she was just to be in her Mom's arms again after so very long. All of the pain and hardships she had gone through felt almost like nothing in comparison to such a moment.
"Of course I did, my little sun and stars," Summer said tenderly, setting her down with a gentle movement. Ruby giggled happily, smiling a megawatt smile up at the older woman.
Ruby looked over towards where she had been, in search of Kirakishou. Ruby's eyes spotted the blonde doll staring at them with a beautiful little warm smile on her face. Her hands were clasped together over her chest, almost like she could barely contain her fondness.
"Well, what are you waiting for, Kira? Come on!"
The smaller doll giggled happily, conjuring a crystalline vine and propelling herself forward. Ruby blinked a little in surprise, before catching the doll before she could crash into them. However, she must have mistimed her position because in an instant Ruby had fallen onto her butt, the small blonde doll cradled in her arms.
"Ah~ Sorry, Master. I am still getting used to these new vines…" Kirakishou pouted adorably. Ruby could only sigh in exasperation, feeling so utterly embarrassed in front of her Mom.
Summer giggled at the two girls, looking down at them in blatant amusement.
"Here, come in you two, before you both make any more messes."
"Hey!" it was Ruby's time to pout as she stood back up, before helping her Rozen Maiden back up to her feet as well. "Don't rope me in with her! I can control my semblance perfectly, thank you very much!"
"...Says the young girl who just crashed into me mere moments ago~" Summer responded immediately in a sing-song voice, shaking her head in faux-admonishment.
"Mommmm!"
Despite her pouting, she couldn't hide the warmth from her tone. It was all just so… freeing.
Summer was quick to open the door, less of an actual door per se and more a crystal that slid down into the ground in order to reveal the interior. Regardless, Ruby goggled at the sight, marveling at it as Summer escorted the both of them inside. Automatic doors! That could never not be cool, at least not in her opinion.
The interior looked even cooler!
Well, at least, to her. Anything about her Mom was destined to be cool. That's all the was to it, really. It was a functional law of the universe, after all! Well, her universe.
Ruby looked around the crystalline interior, admiring all the sights that greeted her. It almost looked like she was in some kind of strange compartmentalised form of her home in Patch, one that have been covered in crystal. It reminded her of the strange mirrored world of the Beacon Academy dormitories, to a degree. If only in that this home was an alternate version summoned up by her Rozen Maiden.
There was a sizeable living area situated next to a small kitchen, with a stairway on the far side leading up towards what Ruby assumed was a hallway in a similar allocation to her home in Patch. If that was indeed the case, she would find a few rooms up there. Most of which likely crystalline and pure, albeit with a small collection of alabaster wood in places where crystal would be inopportune.
Though hopefully, the beds weren't entirely crystalline. Hopefully, they had at least a nice comfy mattress, like the one she had in her Beacon Academy dorm room. A crystalline mattress didn't sound particularly comfortable. Or, well, at least not bouncy. And she liked a bouncy bed. They were fun to jump on. At least, they were when Dad wasn't around to scold her.
Summer led both Ruby and Kirakishou towards the living area, chatting under her breath with the other doll while Ruby slowly looked around the room. She could spot a tiny little dining set up in a similar manner to the one over in her Patch home. The dining table was a lot smaller, with enough space to hold only a single chair on the longer sides, while another chair had been laid out on one of the ends. Three chairs, for them and them alone. Well, she supposed that Kirakishou did say that Summer had been expecting her.
Everything was made out of the same crystalline material, albeit the chairs were padded with a pale white fabric of some sort while the table had a thin crimson tablecloth placed over it. Which led some hope into the whole 'anything but crystalline mattresses please' idea.
She stared at the tablecloth for a moment longer than she felt was strictly necessary, feeling oddly discomforted by the sight, before shaking her head.
"Please, sit down, you two. I'll be just a moment. I'm just preparing a meal now."
Her mother disappeared inside the kitchen. Ruby felt the slightest little urge to chase after her, before she remembered that such an action would leave her precious little doll all alone.
She couldn't have that. Not to her doll.
"Come on, Kira," Ruby plastered on a bright smile and eagerly pulled the doll forwards. "Let's chat!"
A/N:
After pumping out massive chapters in a grand series finale, writing a smaller chapter like this was both refreshing and difficult at the same time. We're entering a new developmental line for this story, with all the wonders and hardships that such a prospect brings.
What did you all think about the visual description for the Palace of Beginnings? I based it specifically on scenes from the anime, using the brief scenes that displayed Kirakishou's N-Field. Even the bracken teal trees appear in that, for a small moment. Summer's house, however, is more of a new design. Think of it as you would Salem's house during the scene in RWBY where Ozpin first met with her, following his foray into the new world. A house in the woods~
Yang in the Branwen camp is an idea that hasn't been explored as much as it should have in the RWBY fandom. Early on, Yang had been set up as a character aching to meet with and learn about her Mother and it was dropped in favour of other events. Of course, such events were gangsters and magic angry animals oh my, but it was still a strange departure. It will be fun to see how things go with this little development.
Feel free to let me know how you all thought this chapter went! Until next time!