The Pledge
For the sake of this world… for what remains, for what is left… I have no choice… We have no time, no way out… except for this one. I… bid all of you farewell… perhaps for just now, perhaps forever… Holy Grails, grant my wish… Mahapralaya!
Robin Hood
Meeting this Ozpin guy hadn't been unexpected, especially after Gale had explained he was helping them specifically because the gods, who were apparently that Alter's children imagine that, had ordained him to meet them eventually. No exact date just 'eventually'. Sheesh.
Of course after the rather intensive physical, and convincing Nightingale that, no, he did not need to have the rest of his arm cut off, thank you, he was back in his cloak, if not his normal outfit. It was better to be wearing May King, just in case. When Ozpin had returned from whatever errand he had been running with that blonde woman, he'd tried to speak with Nightingale, but instead he decided to take charge and let the man talk to someone who was actually sane.
"Look, why don't we take this elsewhere Oz? Like that office of yours?" Robin suggested from his place on the bed, and as expected, Gale was on him instantly.
"No, you need rest, not to be wandering around, understood?" she said, her laser focus right on him, but the Archer refused to budge.
"It's just a short walk and what, an elevator ride up to his office? I'll be fine, and I'll come right back, alright?" he asked, trying to appeal to that somewhat sane part of her that understood that she couldn't keep patients cooped up in a bed all day.
Ozpin just watched as Nightingale had an internal debate, before huffing and nodding, turning her attention towards Avicebron, who had remained silent since he'd awakened… maybe he'd fallen asleep again, he wasn't exactly sure. But Robin just got up and motioned to Ozpin, who led him out of the medical wing and towards Beacon tower.
"Busy night?" Robin asked, trying to make a little bit of small talk with the silver haired man, who just sighed in response, shaking his head.
"The busiest in a while, not even counting you five, dealing with the daughter of miss Rose is a handful and a half, but she has spirit, I'll give her that. Glynda is a bit more moody than normal, but that's probably just a lack of sleep from preparing for the upcoming term," Ozpin explained.
"Right… this place is a school," Robin mused, turning his head upwards as he looked at Beacon Tower… it was an impressive building for sure. Ozpin just hummed, and led him into the lobby, and from there into the elevator.
As they were climbing the tower, Ozpin spoke up. "So… you are Robin Hood, yes?"
"That is my name, yeah," Robin muttered, wondering what Ozpin was on about.
"Do you mind indulging me for a moment?" he asked, and Robin his nodded in confirmation, and Ozpin turned towards him. "Say for a moment you had to fight an enemy with far greater resources than you possess, whose movements are nearly impossible to track… what would you do?"
"That sounds like you're asking for a battle strategy for one thing, and you'd only be asking that for one reason," Robin pointed out, and Ozpin nodded, following his line of thought… great, this already.
Robin sighed, before he started speaking. "Well for starters, that is about the situation we dealt with ninety percent of the time at Chaldea, so let's break it down. Every enemy has some form of weakness, and even their greatest strengths can be a vital weakness. Their numbers advantage would normally mean they possess a vast force yes, but that force would not only be unwieldy, it's vulnerable to attacks against the whole. Given that I specialize in mass scale annihilation, and the weakening on armies, such a foe is actually more vulnerable the larger they are, provided they lack the detection to find me. Finding them might be a problem yeah, but that's where you turn to more unorthodox methods. Your eyes are going to deceive you, no matter what, so rely on your ears, your nose, in our case we've turned Noble Phantasms, normally used as offensive tools or a defensive barricade, into a detection system to find an enemy that responded to any form of sound stimulus for example… and with quite a lot of lethal force might I add if agitated."
Ozpin nodded as the elevator doors opened, revealing his office. The pair walked inside, and Ozpin took his seat behind his desk, Robin taking the chair in front of the desk as Ozpin rested his hands on the table. "Let's get off that topic then… you asked to speak with me, so I suppose I should indulge you, since you've done the same for me," he stated, and Robin nodded, crossing his arm over his chest again.
"Well, I suppose I should ask, given my lack of information… What is Remnant like? I can already tell it's not peaceful, given that this is a school designed to teach its students how to hunt monsters," Robin brought up, and Ozpin nodded.
"Well then, I suppose I should ask you… do you want my personal opinion, or you do you want the opinion of someone who's living in the current era?" Ozpin poised, and Robin sighed, because of course there was a good news, bad news situation… well let's get it out of the way.
"Good news first, then give me your opinion," he muttered, and Ozpin nodded, before looking towards the window.
"Remnant is probably in its most prosperous era… the tensions between the four kingdoms are low, we've made rather great strides in technology, and currently there have been no large Grimm attacks in the past ten years… except for Mountain Glenn, which was a risky endeavor to start with. Sure, small towns go missing to roaming packs, but overall, the situation looks good, people are content, we're safe within the kingdoms, and we actually have a large number of settlements now, rather than the 'four kingdoms, that's it' of a hundred years prior. So overall, sounds, if not perfect, rather good, no?" Ozpin explained, and raised his hand towards Robin at that final question. The Archer nodded slowly, already seeing a nice large 'but' here.
"So allow me to ask then… what is your opinion, man who's watched Remnant's entire history?" Robin asked, and instantly, the headmaster's face turned bleak.
"To put it bluntly, the situation is terrible. Salem has made no moves that I can detect, except for one, in a while, I've lost every single warrior capable of actually putting up a meaningful fight in single combat against Salem, most of my greatest assets, the Maidens of the Seasons, are missing or near death, the despite how great things look from the outside, the silence worries me. Salem has always been fighting two wars against me, the overt war that we train hunters for, that being the hunt for Creatures of Grimm… and then the Shadow War that I fight against her with my inner circle, and that one is going quite poorly, since I've lost so much in own the previous ten years… quite frankly, your arrival has been the most positive thing to happen in the past decade, and that's just because you exist, rather than anything you've done, since it means at least one of my duties is complete," Ozpin admitted, and Robin sighed, before leaning back in the chair… then Ozpin continued. "I'm not going to ask you to fight my war, you all have earned your rest so-" Robin cut him off by raising his hand.
"Sorry Ozpin, but… I doubt any of that is going to fly, if only because I know Gudao so well. He'd never stand for this, this bleak situation… so tell me now… do you have any idea on how to beat Salem, any plans, anything? Or are you just reacting to whatever fires she sets?" Robin asked, and Ozpin was quiet for several moments, the only sound the gears of the tower, the clock ever turning… and then he spoke, his hands clasped together and his head down towards the table.
"I have no plans to defeat her… because it's impossible… I'll be clear and forthright with this… Salem is immortal, completely and utterly. Its her curse from the brother gods, to never die… that is her punishment which she has made her strength. I can't defeat her, because it is impossible to kill her… at least, that is what I thought," he looked up at Robin. "Your Noble Phantasms might-"
"I'm sorry to say this Ozpin, but that's actually a very tall order… from the sound of it, her Concept of Death has been removed, rendering her immortal. Only one man I know was capable of killing something like that for good… and he's long gone, both him and his power to do that," Robin brought up… and almost instantly, whatever light that was in Ozpin's eyes seem to fade, but before despair could actually set it, Robin raised a finger and continued. "But, unkillable does not mean it's impossible to neutralize her. After all, given your previous question, her influence comes from her shadow war, her creatures of Grimm… and you."
"Me?" Ozpin asked, and Robin nodded, before continuing on with his idea.
"Yes, you, after all, you clearly don't have a good way to track her movements, those of her or her agents, and that means she holds the initiative, and probably has during this entire shadow war, hasn't she?" Robin asked, and Ozpin just closed his eyes in response. "Thought so, you might be good at reacting to her fires Oz, but if you want to actually get somewhere with this war, you have to do something better."
"So what do you propose?" Ozpin questioned, and Robin just smirked.
"Light your own fire, get her to react, rather than the other way around, start taking her agents off the board, rather than just waiting for them to reveal themselves so that you can take them out… that's how you've lost so many isn't it? They keep being found and removed, aren't they?" Robin stated, and Ozpin, rather bleakly, just nodded.
"Then call up whatever resources you currently have, and go on a hunt, try and find her agents, and I'm not talking about her Grimm, find her human agents, because if I know anything, she has some. Find your missing pieces before she can get to them. So something proactive, hell start a damn recruitment drive… the world can always use more heroes Oz." Robin offered.
Ozpin seemed to take a while to ponder this, before tapping the desk. "Recruitment drive…" he muttered, "Perhaps… this years hopefuls might be good, or perhaps they are a dust keg, just waiting to explode," he continued, and Robin tapped the desk.
"Well, why don't you show them off?" Robin asked, wanting to see what Ozpin meant by 'hopefuls', likely ideal students for the academy.
Ozpin sighed, before opening a drawer in his desk, and then pulling out a paper file, and putting it down. "Meet this year's roster of first year students. Most of the hopefuls I've noticed are in the front, and there is one who's joining that roster not in there yet," Ozpin offered, and Robin opened the folder, looking at the pile of papers.
"Let me guess, that girl you went to see tonight?" Robin asked, and Ozpin nodded. He nodded back, and picked up the first file. "Blake Belladona, huh, semblance is… shadow clones. I'm going to assume a Semblance is their special ability?"
"You would be correct Robin," he said, before looking at the file himself. "Of course, some things are not recorded on the public roster."
"What's that?" he asked, and Ozpin pushed up his glasses.
"Blake Belladona is the daughter of the previous leader of the White Fang, terrorist organization, back when it was just a peaceful protest group. She's been recorded as part of a few operations for the White Fang, including one last week, where she was on board a train full of dust alongside the leader of the White Fang cell in Vale, Adam Taurus, that application for Beacon came in two weeks ago, a week before she went rogue from the White Fang, given that most of the train actually managed to reach its destination, thanks to her, the rest was found… in less than stellar condition," Ozpin supplied.
"So she's a traitor to a terrorist organization huh? Wonder what made her jump ship… I'm going to assume some real quick, but… is she human?" Robin asked.
"No, she's a Faunus, both her parents are Faunus afterall, of course that isn't public knowledge," he pointed out, and Robin looked at him.
"I'm going to assume given the lack of a file that only you, and now me, know this?" Robin asked, and the headmaster nodded. Robin shrugged, it was the headmaster's call. Putting down the file for Blake, he picked up the next, Jaune Arc… "You have got to be kidding me."
"Something catch your interest?" Ozpin asked as Robin threw the file onto the table.
"He even looks like her, just gender flip, god," Robin complained as Ozpin raised an eyebrow, Robin looking over the file closely… and facepalming. "Ozpin… please tell me this isn't a real application."
"Oh it's very real, but the information on it is falsified, likely by the very student who submitted it," Ozpin added bluntly, and Robin just groaned… be cause of course history had to repeat, didn't it.
"And you're allowing him in? What are his actual qualifications?" Robin asked, and Ozpin just shrugged… so a completely unknown variable, joy. "Why?"
"...You said it yourself, of course, it was the name that caught me, not the appearance, but that merely reinforces my decision," Ozpin explained, and Robin closed his eyes. Of course, Ozpin knew at least some of the stories, and Jeanne's would obviously be one he would know… Jeanne d'Arc, Jaune Arc. A boy who was trying to get into Beacon on false information, a woman who joined the army by falsifying her appearance as a man. He wanted a hero, on the vaguest of hopes this was something like the stories.
"Ok, moving on from him…" Robin muttered, and grabbed the next file. "Lie Ren… semblance is Tranquility… most of his history is blank," Robin pointed out, and Ozpin grabbed another file from the pile, and held it up.
"As is the history of the one who joined the exact same time as him, Nora Valkyrie, but I at least know a little bit, both of them are orphans, from Anima. At the very least, their test results came back well, given their lack of prior schooling," Ozpin supplied, and Robin hummed. Another technical pair of unknowns, but at least these two were actually capable in combat. Both sheets were then set aside, and Robin grabbed the next one.
"Pyrrha Nikos… oh wow she's got a resume," Robin muttered, he didn't understand what most of this stuff was, but given the amount of times 'champion' showed up, and the bit about her being titled 'the Invincible Girl' told him that this was likely the best of the lot when it came to pure combat capability. She even had three different weapon forms, but her Semblance was another unknown, similar to Arc's… wait. "Achilles…" Robin muttered, before putting the paper down. "These four, two of them remind me of old friends, the other two I don't know, I assume you had an idea?"
"I was going to attempt to force them all together, her title was a similar enough one to that of Achilles' legend, the Invincible Hero, and Arc, you've already heard, pairing the two of them up, I hoped their legend would grow, and with a pair of other hopefuls that are clearly very capable to make up for Arc's deficiencies." Ozpin started explaining, and Robin nodded, before going for the next hopeful.
"Weiss Schnee, heir of the Schnee Dust Company, Atlas, and a summoning…" that last bit caught him, and he looked at Ozpin, who just nodded slowly. Another hopeful based mostly on legends, he probably wanted her to succeed based on that semblance alone, rather than her other titles, whatever this company she was heir of was. "You wanted to try and summon heroes."
"...I will not deny this statement, but currently, according to what I know of the Schnee families, their semblance, which is hereditary… is actually more close to necromancy than anything else, yet Weiss Schnee has not been able to perform the same type of summoning as her sister, one of my friend James Ironwoods 'Special Operatives'," he claimed, and Robin looked back to the paper… he was hoping she would be capable of a mutation in an already established summoning ability, to try and gain access to the legends, or even summon dead allies more likely.
Putting down the file of the heiress, he grabbed the next hopeful, yellow hair, purple eyes. "Yang Xiao Long, powerful, strong Aura, ouch that's a nasty ability… hmm," he looked at Ozpin, who nodded.
"To give better clarification, she is the daughter of a… former agent of mine, and the half-sister of the girl who I visited today. She's very powerful, so she's clearly inherited something from her mother, if nothing else, but her style of fighting is more similar to her father's. Taiyang Xiao Long, who retired after losing his second wife…" Ozpin said, and Robin closed his eyes, and sighed.
"Right… so that's seven hopefuls… and an eighth in this girl?" Robin asked, and Ozpin nodded.
"Ruby Rose, the student of one of my agents, Qrow. This night, she got into an altercation with one Roman Torchwick, a resident crime boss of Vale, and several other men. At the Dust to Dawn she knocked out all of the robbers, except for Roman Torchwick, and pursued him, Gylnda was arriving on scene, just in time to stop Ruby from being blown up by Torchwick as he was making his escape, another fight ensued between Glynda and miss Rose against Torchwick, and an unknown woman with some sort of Fire semblance, both of which made their escape on a bulkhead transport. I've offered her a spot in Beacon due to not only her proficiency with the scythe, but also the ease with which she dispatched four criminals, and had one of the most dangerous men in Vale on the run, and proved to be a dangerous enough combatant as to force the deployment of a clearly unknown asset to escape. That alone speaks volumes of her ability… and she has Silver Eyes." Ozpin gave the information, and Robin noticed that tidbit.
"Silver eyes… important I assume?" Robin asked, and Ozpin nodded, but didn't elaborate. "So beside the Silver eyes, she's clearly a very capable fighter, is there a reason she isn't with all these hopefuls besides that?" he continued.
"She's underage, only fifteen, which is a year before she could, under normal circumstances, she would not be coming to Beacon yet," Ozpin supplied.
"Which is now not the case, as the headmaster has decreed," Robin muttered, and Ozpin just nodded. "Would this be just because she is a student of your agent?"
"I failed her mother," Ozpin said quietly, and Robin closed his eyes, and sighed. Of course it had to be something like that… recompense.
"In all honesty, from the looks of all these people… if this is all you got, I'm afraid you're outclassed. They aren't children, but they aren't hardened warriors, they're kids, and given that they are coming to this academy, until I see otherwise, they're Hunters who do not specialize in covert actions, they specialize in hunting monsters," Robin brought up, and Ozpin shook his head.
"Unlike James, I am not about to start pressing huntsmen into service in my shadow war. I will simply make them offers to join, and push them to where they can best excel. Miss Nikos would benefit from a partner who needs training, and mister Arc requires training. That way they can be a team… At this academy, I have always prided myself on trying to make huntsmen teams, not individual hunters… and yet the legacy I have left behind…" Ozpin muttered quietly as Robin picked up.
"Most of those 'teams' don't last do they," he inferred, and Ozpin just nodded solemnly…. Robin could see the value in it, having someone always willing to watch your back, and as he'd learned in Chaldea, teamwork easily triumphed over pure power. The amount of combinations of abilities Gudao had worked together between the arsenal that was Chaldea was incredible.
"I'll wait for what Gudao has to say… but know this Ozpin. Take what I have to say to heart, because it may be some of the best advice you'll get in a while," Robin started, and Ozpin listened. "Never forget that you are still human, that you can still fail. We may be heroes, but we are still fallible… but that nature means we learn from failure. You say that you've lost a lot… take what you have learned from those losses, to make sure they never happen again. Lives are a precious thing, every last one of them. Save as many as you can… understand?"
Ozpin was silent as he contemplated this, before nodding. Robin stood up, and walked towards the elevator. "Have a good night Oz," and he entered the elevator to head back down… it was going to be a long night.
Van Gogh
Their travel between Imaginary and Real space was clearly going to take a little while… but this familiar setting, on the bridge of the Nautilus… it made her… more stable the usual… or perhaps the lengthy duration of her sleep meant that she'd become more stable. Van Gogh wasn't trying to commit suicide at least, so there was no outright conflict between her pieces at the moment. Hopefully that would remain, she quite liked having some semblance of sanity. The lack of the Old Ones trying to force her into their schemes to invade also helped, so that probably was why Van Gogh wasn't trying to get her to kill herself again.
That still didn't mean millenia of disuse of her voice wasn't going to make it any better in an instant. "H-how?" she asked hoarsely towards Nemo, who turned to face her, and then looked towards Benienma.
The enma just sighed before beginning to speak. "Unlike a lot of Servants, I had a rather established place to stay. You see, before the world actually went poof, I had started dragged Servants off the throne and into Enma-tei, the earlier they died, the earlier they got into Enma-tei. I was planning on trying to ask my father if it was probable cause to try and strike back against the world of the living at that point, given that if the Alien God won, then we'd all be doomed forever… and then the world went poof and was remade, and not just the normal world. The throne went poof as well," Benienma explained, and Van Gogh just stared in shock at that idea… that the throne was…
"It's not gone, not completely if that's what you think," Nemo started, and pointed towards Benienma again.
"As you were a Foreigner with a, technically, still living piece, similar to Abigail, you wouldn't be aware of this… the Throne of Heroes still exists… somewhat now. Gilgamesh is anchoring it," Benienma's face became solemn, "To think that the arrogant king would place himself upon that eternal throne. He held out hope, and he still holds out hope that Gudao would reappear one day," she finished, and Nemo took over.
"Far more gave out hope however… The only thing that really kept us on the throne was sheer determination. Abigail, the actual one, arrived at some point and took Hokusai and Yang off the throne to do… something, but before this point the only Servants now left on the Throne of heroes was limited," Nemo added, before sighing. "Myself, Gilgamesh, Ereshkigal, Enkidu, Voyager, Okita Alter, Caenis, Lady Maiyoi, Xiang Yu, Jason, Mash, Mandricardio, Moriarty, and somehow Goredolf of all people. We are all that are left on the throne at this point," Nemo said sadly.
"Then… what about Van Gogh?" she asked, referring to herself of course, she was still capable of being summoned right? She was just a heroic spirit right? What did that make?
"You were… there, but not. Not exactly available we'll call it. That's how we knew you were still alive," Nemo provided, and smiled. "And I knew exactly where to look."
"As for myself, after my Father's death… all I can say is that I am the last enma, I suppose that technically makes me 'the Enma', but it's not like I have a job outside of providing moments of comfort for those who remain on the throne of heroes. Still, I never gave up myself, especially since there was still a new world out there to watch," Benienma said and Van Gogh paused…
"Then, then then then…" she stuttered, before taking a deep breath, her coffee cup shaking between her hands. "He is?"
Both of them looked at her, smiling, before nodding… and she very nearly dropped her cup. He was alive, Master was alive, he was back oh happy days, oh happy days! "Where!?"
"Calm down, we don't know where, just that he is back," Benienma provided, and laughed, that sweet serene sound. "It took a bit of doing, but I managed it, thanks to the Imaginary Numbers Sea, and Nemo himself. Since I technically am not on the throne, I could leave at any time, but I was able to take Nemo with me to come fetch you… or rather, he is the one who begged me to take him to come and find you, rather than leave you at the bottom of Imaginary numbers space forever," she said, and Van Gogh just smiled… before putting down her cup and walking towards Nemo, wrapping the Rider up in a hug, which he returned, despite their height difference.
"I've taken a risk I normally wouldn't with this action. If I die, that's it, I'm dead, dead… but that should be fine, I don't plan on having that happen any time soon. We've waited over thirty nine thousand years for this moment… we'll see him again, finally," Nemo said quietly as she let him go, and Van Gogh just clapped softly… as suddenly there was a creaking sound, Nemo quickly jumped and turned around, reaching for the radio again.
"We have breached the barrier between Imaginary and Real space! All hands, prepare to surface! Repeat, all hands, prepare to surface!" he started ordering, and Van Gogh looked out the window of the Nautilus, which showed the ocean, deep and dark… but it was the real ocean, with real water and-
"Incoming!" Benienma warned, and suddenly, there was a crashing sound, and the Nautilus shook.
"Damage report!" Nemo ordered, and quickly one of the Nemo series responded.
"Light damage to the aft armor plating! Something is trying to ram us!"
Nemo quickly looked at the sonar, before looking at Van Gogh. "I know its a lot to ask right now, but we need a White Army out there for this. We can't surface with whatever this thing is on our tail… Van Gogh?"
"I understand," she responded, and quickly her skin faded back from pale white to light blue. The depths of the ocean were nothing compared to Imaginary Numbers space, but she wasn't going to not take this seriously, that was not how Van Gogh would have wanted to. She ran for the airlock, but as she was running one of the Nemo Series flagged her down.
It was a Nemo Marine. "We have a torpedo bay ready!" he alerted her, and she redirected course, she knew exactly where the torpedo bay was, where princess Hime kept getting shot out of the Nautilus for sonar purposes. Two Nemo marines were actually in the process of pulling the hatch open and she quickly climbed in, the trio of marines shutting it behind her.
She could hear their muffled calls as the magic energy built up behind her, the torpedo door opened, and water flooded the compartment… and she was fired out. She went about fifty meters before slowing down out in the water, the Nautilus passing under her as she caught sight of the beast that was trying to ram the Nautilus.
It was some sort of massive leviathan, a black beast, a monster. She stared at it, angry that it would dare to endanger her friends. She summoned her umbrella creature behind her, and had it lash out, the tendrils quickly expanding and firing forward at the monster, spearing it and spraying paint into the ocean. It actually roared a very natural roar in response to the pain, and quickly turned to face her. Good, good, attention on Van Gogh. She swam after the Nautilus anyway, so that she could return to it after this diversion. She summoned her brush, and with it, she summoned a jellyfish creature above the monster's head, the red eyes almost going wide as it was speared in the head, it roared in pain as its energy was drained, before her creature vanished into black. Finally she raised her hands, summoning a painting, completely black, above the creature, and many spears of darkness… and speared the monster through the skull.
Amazingly, this wasn't enough to put the creature down, and as the Nautilus was turning around, the monster roared, despite its wounds. She grit her teeth, bubbles flying out of her mouth as she clasped her hands together, summoning a whirl of paint from below and forcibly engulfing the monster in a whirlpool of paint, she concentrated hard, trying to get it to just die… and finally when she let go, there was a corpse… slowly beginning to dissolve into black.
She wanted to breathe a sigh of relief… but she knew better. She'd had to unleash quite a bit of power, not insignificant power, just to wound the beast, and she'd been striking for points that were obviously supposed to be weak. It hadn't gotten to do anything thanks to her rapid deployment and assault, but it probably would have been bad if it had.
The Nautilus slowed below her, and she drifted downward, the airlock opening to let her in, and she came to a halt floating above the floor as the airlock hatch closed, and the water was drained. Now she breathed that sigh of relief as she felt the Nautilus begin to rise once more. She went for the door to head back inside, her skin already bleeding back into white once more, only this time she finally changed clothes back into those comfy ones, and her nice sunflower hat. She walked down the hallway as Nemo was barking orders to his Nemo Series clones through the radio, like a good little captain should.
She watched as she entered the bridge, that Nemo suddenly had the blinders close, making the windows dark as he put down the radio. "I think it's better we all see the sun like this," he said, before walking by her, Benienma following, and she turned to follow as well, Nemo leading them to the control tower ladder, and quickly climbing, motioning for her to follow.
She struggled, thanks to her unique footwear, to actually climb, before she managed with help from Benienma, at the top of the ladder, Nemo reached for the hatch's valve, and began to turn as she felt the Nautilus come to a halt… he stopped turning and pushed the hatch open.
Light flooded the control tower, and she wince in pain, but it was a good pain, the pain of seeing the sun for the first time in forever. She her vision returned, Nemo was holding his hand out to her, above him it was blinding white with light… she reached out, grasping Nemo's hand, and he pulled her up, climbing out with her onto the control tower.
She held her hand above her eyes, trying to block out the bright sun for just a moment… and when it all came back to color, they were surrounded by water completely, no land in sight… but that didn't matter. Nemo sat on the edge of the hatch, and she joined him, kicking her legs over the side as they sat there in the sun… for the first time in thirty-nine thousand years, together they saw the Real World's sun.
Memories tried to flood her, but she quashed them down. She did not need to remember him, she was long past him. She was neither the Sea Nymph, or the Painter, she was her own Van Gogh… she was just happy to see this beautiful day, alongside one of those who had given her purpose, given her identity.
"The rains have ceased, and we have been graced with yet another beautiful day," Benienma said from behind her, she did not turn to face the enma as she joined them in staring at the sea. "I heard that once, long long ago… we finally made it, the wait is over."
"It's been a long journey, this impossible dream, but we've done it," Nemo said quietly, and Van Gogh smiled.
"We're coming back Master… just wait a little while longer," she added… the Master could wait a few minutes longer… long enough for the trio to reminisce and face the afternoon sun.
AN: Bit of a long one this one. I'm very happy to see that a lot of people are really, really enjoying the Pledge. That makes me quite happy with my work. But don't worry, it's not ending yet. But more has been revealed, both happy and sad in measures equal. But please, I like to hear what you all have to say, and I like to see what you have to say on TV tropes as well. But most of all, enjoy this story. Thank you all for your wonderful support.