AN: a sequel chapter because you requested it. There's Greek Fire fluff, Nuts and Dolts, still some implied Bumbleby, and some Fair Game, Renora, and Monochrome moments. Enjoy.
Pyrrha is here. Still wearing her armor because she so rarely thought she was more than a soldier. Still always smiling because she is always the one who keeps teams together.
Pyrrha smiles and opens her arms to catch Yang when she falls. As she always has done.
She holds Yang and strokes her hair as Yang sobs into her shoulder. Tells her that they are together now. That Cinder is dead and Yang can finally stop fighting. That everything will turn out now, because they have each other.
Blake flees from the demons in her own mind for months. The mist in her mind develops thunderstorms that strike the Maidens and send them whirling away to the farthest reaches of her psyche, then settles into a fog dense enough that they can scarcely move through it.
Yang begs her not to give up, but only fragments of words get through. Each time Blake hears the voice of a past Maiden in her mind, the gray fog lightens momentarily, and Yang can see for a brief moment before it is gone and she relies on Pyrrha's hand in hers to guide her.
Blake feels nothing for months until Ruby and Weiss find her. There is a burst of fury. A brief glimmer of joy. And then the pain of having to tell Ruby that her sister is dead.
The pain is an emotion at least, an emotion clear enough that the Maidens can peer outward.
Ruby sobs shakily into Weiss' shoulder. Weiss shows none of the cold Yang is too familiar with. She simply pulls Ruby closer.
The others flock around Yang and Pyrrha. Console them in their voices blurred from lack of use.
Pyrrha wraps both arms around Yang, holding her against all the pain of being able to watch her sister grow up through fogged glass and never being able to reach her.
Blake is recovering. The fog surrounding them is lighter. Past Maidens cluster around Blake as she fights, exhorting her on.
Blake can hear only faint whispers from them. But whenever Yang speaks, she stops. Listens, eyes shining with tears, then smiles a vanishingly faint smile.
Yang tells Blake the same things she was told long ago. That she is better than she knows. That she is stronger than she dreams. That she is never alone. And Blake lives.
Adam Taurus falls beneath her flame-wreathed blade. Yang laughs and says that she was the one who fought like that, with fire and anger and without retreat. Blake smiles faintly again. Tells Yang that she's learned so much from all the past Maidens.
Pyrrha smiles fondly at Blake and wraps an arm around Yang's shoulder. Makes a comment about how they grow up so fast.
Penny is no sooner installed into a new body than she goes to search for Ruby. Ruby is her friend. Her only friend. And Ruby may not need her protection, but Penny wants to be near her friend. Because friends help each other.
She downloads manuals on dealing with grief, but none of it helps when Ruby cries each night. She insists that she is all right. Insists that she needs to be a leader for her team. Insists that she doesn't want help from anyone.
Penny still does not understand emotions. She does not understand why Weiss appears not to care about Yang's death, why Blake has withdrawn so much that she barely speaks, and why Ruby has occupied the role of leader better than ever before. She does not understand why Ruby says again and again that she does not need help while she crumbles into Penny's arms. And she does not understand her own determination to help her friend regardless of Atlas, regardless of her own programming, and regardless of her safety.
But she is as happy as she can be. Ruby is her friend, and she loves to fight with her friend at her side, and to talk to her friend about machinery, and to hold Ruby until her tears slow and she falls asleep.
Pyrrha cries at the wedding. Yang teases her about the tears while drying her own face.
Taiyang is crying too, over his second daughter getting married and his first daughter not being there for the event. Blake talks to him, quietly, about his daughters and how many times they have saved her life. Weiss drapes her arm over Blake's shoulder casually in a gesture that would be utterly alien to her a year before, and Blake doesn't move away.
Winter radiates frigid disapproval for the festivities, but when Weiss rushes over to hug her and introduce her to her teammates, the corners of her mouth lift. Qrow is six months sober, complaining about how quickly they grow up to Clover, who is out of military uniform and looks like he has heard the same complaint a thousand times.
Ironwood is overseeing the cleanup of Grimm-infested regions of Mantle, but has sent Pietro Polendina in his place. The doctor is nervous, flitting through the crowd, exchanging pleasantries. Nora is seven months pregnant but as energetic as ever. Ren bobs along behind her, still stoic and quiet.
Jaune is trying to greet late guests, ensure that the aisle is clear, and keep Ruby from panicking over something. He's less scrawny, grew into the long arms, more muscular. A good Huntsman. Still a dork.
Pyrrha swats Yang when she comments that, and she instantly switches gears into how he never would have come this far without Pyrrha.
At least we could sort of be here, Pyrrha comments. We've seen many of them come so far.
Ruby wears her Huntress uniform, because Yang never could get that girl to fancy up if her life depended on it. She did clean the mud off her boots, at least. Penny, beside her, is literally glowing. Both girls (women, now, after all they've been through) are joyful.
A thought from Blake's mind washes over them.
Do you want me to tell the happy couple anything?
Tell Penny that I'll kill her if anything happens to Ruby. That's important. And tell Ruby she turned out a good leader, and I'm glad she's happy. She knows I'm not good at heartfelt speeches. She'll understand.
Blake makes her way to Ruby and tells her. Ruby's eyes fill with tears, and she smiles and waves toward Blake.
"Hey, Yang. Thanks for being here. You're probably doing well, with Pyrrha there. Good luck dealing with Blake."
Yang laughs shakily and brushes the last fragments of mist aside to look at her sister. Even without the best sister ever to guide her, the girl turned out perfect.
They danced once, before the Fall, when Yang had dragged Pyrrha out to a nightclub. She got drunk, and Pyrrha held her upright as they walked back and made their excuses to Goodwitch. A week on cleaning rotation was worth it for Pyrrha's laugh.
Pyrrha is laughing at her now, as Yang tries to lead in the waltz and steps on her toes. Shaking her head at Yang stubbornness.
They dance across the mist. Pyrrha pulls Yang closer to her and leans her chin into Yang's shoulder.
Yang never believed in heaven. Thought it was just a fairy tale for people who were afraid of death. She was wrong.