.
yEs
.
Then you're left in the dust
Unless I stuck by ya'.
You're a Sunflower.
I think your love would be too much.
.
.
"Now, now, dear cousin. Don't cause a scene and no sud-den move-ments," Jupiter taunted, while tapping his knife on Daed's carotid artery. "One careless slip of the wrist is all it takes, you know."
"Mercury…" Icarus whimpered low.
"Don't worry, kid," Mercury assured him. "I'm not letting anything happen to your dad."
In the loud bustle of Brigid's packed workshop, no one took notice of the tense standoff in place. The staring contest between the two relatives of Black was drowned out by the smiths and warriors having their prosthetics fixed.
Mercury hadn't moved a muscle since seeing Jupiter's steel mask. His hands were still holding the tools used to work Icarus's prosthetic. He was even in the middle of detaching a certain circuit, when his cousin caught him off guard.
Mercury tried to take in his environment, to see if there was anything around him to use. But as if to cut off any means of solution, Jupiter's voice came along playfully once more.
"Uh-uh. Eyes here, old boy. I'd hate for you to miss out your own final moments."
"And I'm supposed to just sit here and take it? Why don't you just ask me to walk into your spear? You always did have lousy aim."
"That won't be necessary. Although, if you move so much as a millimeter, I may very well accidently kill the boy. Due to my 'lousy' aim, you said?"
Jupiter let out a low, pompous chuckle.
"Or, of course, you could simply forsake these two in favor of saving your own skin. You wouldn't make it far, in any case, but the choice is yours. Now comes the moment of truth."
Underneath Jupiter's cloak, a gold, jagged spear appeared. And with a swift motion, the assassin readied to impale his target with an underhand throw.
Mercury had to act fast.
He knew he stood a better chance of survival if he simply left Daed and Icarus to die, but his conscience banished the thought. He needed to find a way to make it out with all their lives intact. There was always a way. He just needed to see it. And sometimes the answer wasn't around, but right in front.
"Sorry, kid. This is gonna hurt."
As Jupiter's spear flew, Mercury readjusted his hands to work the tools on Icarus's prosthetics. A sharp pain shot through the young boy's shoulder blades, causing his artificial wing to flare. Its steel feathers shot out like darts from a dart gun.
The projectiles hit the knife pinned to Daed's neck, out of Jupiter's hands. At the same time, Mercury shifted his body in front of Icarus, in order to meet Jupiter's flying lance.
The workshop suddenly erupted in the wake of a violent typhoon. Lightning and wind intertwined in the reaction between Mercury's kick and Jupiter's spear. The cloth holding the tent, as well as the occupants inside, were all blown away.
While the people tried to grasp what was happening, Brigid herself, found Icarus thrown her way.
"Take care of him, Brig!" Mercury shouted. "I cut it close with Daed. He's not in good shape, call a doctor!"
Just a little distance away, Brigid saw Daed bleeding his neck out on the floor. Mercury was already busy in a showdown with his cousin. It was a lot to take in, but the chief smith knew what had to be done.
"Everybody, get the hell outta here! Someone call for Temujin's advisors!" she bellowed, as she whisked Icarus behind the nearest wall.
No sooner had the small evacuation occur, did Mercury unleash a small hurricane that swept him and Jupiter up into the night air. The two instantly elevated a height over a thousand feet off the ground.
"Never one to think things through, were you?" Jupiter taunted.
Mercury squinted in pain from the strain.
The leg he used to meet Jupiter's javelin was completely shot. A hole bore through its bottom sole up through his calf. His remaining prosthetic had to bear the whole weight of his attack and didn't afford him his usual aerial mobility.
It wasn't long before Jupiter folded out a second collapsible spear, and threw it. Mercury tried to orient his body in time to dodge, but his last functioning leg was skewered through the ankle.
"Fuck!" Mercury cursed.
He took out my legs the first chance he got!
"It is a bit inelegant to let you fall to your death, dear cousin. But it does have a sense of poetry to it."
"You're such a prick, Jupiter!"
"Sticks and stones, Mercury."
"Yeah?! Well, you're forgetting you can't fly eith—…"
Just then, Jupiter extended a third collapsible spear, twirling it overhead to slow his descent.
"Motherfu…!"
Mercury could only watch his cousin trail back, as he continued to plummet faster and faster to his death. He would meet groundside in a matter of moments. There was nothing on him save for the tools he still held on to.
"…Magic fingers, don't fail me now."
Mercury brought his legs to his chest and immediately set to work. His body started to spin wildly in the wind, adding violent vertigo to the increasing difficulty.
He ripped the damaged plating away to reveal his prosthetics' inner circuits. His brain immediately went to comparing the damages between his two legs. The operational parts of his right were uninstalled and then reinstalled into his left.
"Fuck. Fuck. Fuck-fuck-fuckfuckfuckfuck!"
As soon as he connected the final component, Mercury flooded the prosthetic with his Aura. Fettered steel wings unfurled from his heel. They sputtered with a faint gust, before releasing a ferocious howl.
Mercury's descent halted four feet off the ground, before going into a violent swoop that sent him crashing off the sides of several houses.
The young man eventually stopped, when he smashed through the wall of a residential home.
Numerous dishes shattered on the floor via Mercury's crash landing into the family's kitchen. The dining room furniture being the only thing to soften his impact. Meanwhile, a pair of parents and two children stared at their uninvited guest in bewilderment.
"Ugh!" Mercury coughed, while pushing what remained of a table off him. "Sorry 'bout that. Brigid's the one you wanna talk to about damages. She can build you a new kitchen."
He shoved off the rest of the debris, and saw his legs were completely broken this time. There was no quick fix, not even for a second of functionality. He was completely defenseless.
"Them's the brakes," he sighed, before turning to the family. "You might wanna clear out. I can't make another tornado to get us clear of civilians again."
The family didn't know what he meant, but the confusion didn't stop them from leaving.
But before they were completely out of the house, Mercury shouted to one of the children.
"Hey, kid!"
The child stopped.
"Is that a box of Pumpkin Pete's?"
…
Jupiter arrived through the wall he saw Mercury crash through.
He knew he didn't have long before someone from Vacuo's military responded. The assassin needed to finish the job as quickly as possible—but certain things could not be rushed.
After making sure there were no traps, Jupiter stepped into the ruined dining room.
"Hmph," he sniffed. "Enjoying your last meal, dear cousin?"
"You can't—have any…!" Mercury said between scarfing down spoonfuls of milk and cereal.
"You know, Mercury, I didn't expect you to survive that fall. I still find it hard to believe you survived Apollo and Diana, but seeing you today, well. You certainly have talents."
Mercury only continued to make loud crunching noises.
"I am the last active member of our Family, and now carry the name Sable. I have almost no doubt Vulcan failed his mission, leaving you and I the only ones to uphold our House's legacy."
"…"
"You and I can rebuild, make our House better than it was. What say you?"
"…"
"…"
*BUUUURRRPP*
.
X
.
"Mercury still hasn't texted me back!" Emerald shouted.
"I'm not getting anything from Neo either," Yang replied.
On the top floor of the Tower of Alexandria, Yang, Emerald, and Professor Oobleck were surrounded by a mess of papers. The three were trying frantically to get in touch with their people in Vacuo, when one finally managed success.
"It's as we've feared. Several assassination attempts have been put into motion throughout the city, according to Peter!" Oobleck shouted.
"Do we know who?" Yang asked.
"So far, Temujin and General Nai are confirmed to have survived their attacks. More than a few of Temujin's closest advisors have been…slain."
"And?"
"…An attempt was made on the life of your father."
"And?!"
"…"
.
X
.
In the dark bedroom of Taiyang's apartment, the only source of light came from the purple, bright hue of Glynda's Semblance.
Clutching at the bedsheets that covered her naked body, the sorceress held her riding crop high, pressing a scorpion Faunus against the ceiling.
"Hmph. I don't believe they expected me to be here."
.
X
.
"The assassination was thwarted," Oobleck ended the report awkwardly.
"…Awesome," Yang replied with mixed feelings. "Anywho, do we have anything from the other side?"
"Unfortunately, no. It appears all messaging has ceased on Salem's side. It is likely they will maintain communication silence until every assassination attempt is carried out."
"Damn it!"
Yang gave in to her frustrations and let her fist smash through the chair next to her.
The relief of hearing her father still alive was quickly filled with worrying thoughts of Neo. No matter the current strain on their relationship, she knew she should have gotten a response from her partner by now. Her paranoia drove her deeper and deeper into madness with every passing second.
In an attempt to change her focus, Yang turned to her teammate.
"Em, any word from Merc?"
Emerald was still constantly tapping away at her scroll. The girl's fingers jabbed the screen with such force, she was surprised it wasn't full of holes already.
"Freakin' nothing!" Emerald shouted. "I've been spamming that asshole's inbox for the last hour, and I've got nothing!"
"Something's wrong."
"Definitely wrong."
"…"
"…"
"…They could just be busy."
"…Probably busy."
"We could be overreacting."
"We're probably overreacting."
"…"
"…"
The two stared at each other for a short time.
"So, let's overreact," Yang nodded.
"100% maximum, no chill. How about that project you, Cinder, and the princess were working on?" Emerald asked.
"You mean the ultra-super-top-secret project Cinder told us never to even mention on painful death and torture?"
"Bingo."
"Yeah. Let's do it."
Yang's right arm immediately shifted form with rapid change. The protective plating along the shoulder down to her forearm folded into a ring that rotated around her wrist. A low, but vibrating hum resounded from the miniature reactor's power cycle.
"Um…girls?" Oobleck stared at the two curiously.
"Sorry, Professor," Yang replied. "It's already a crazy risk trying to bring just one person with me."
"Whoa, how big a risk we talkin'?" Emerald threw her a crooked gaze.
"Oh, I don't know. It's still in its trial phase and it only worked the one time."
"So, what are the chances it's going to work now?"
"20-80… but under pressure? 50-50."
"Great."
"Like we're not going to go through with it, anyway."
"Yeah, you're right about that. My life's in your hands, clutch play. Don't fuck this up."
Emerald held out her hand, and Yang held it with her left.
"I won't—"
"Probably."
.
X
.
With a deft slash, Adam cut down another of Neo's mirror clones to nothing but shards of glass.
The petite girl was no longer able to teleport properly anymore, as Adam and Blake saw their victim reappear at a stumble not too far down the street.
"Run, run, run, little mouse~" Blake mused. "You'll only die tired."
The two made a single dash and caught up in no time.
As their blades were about to fall, Neo never once looked their way. Her concentration completely on what was in front. A row of rotating mirror panels conjured, disappearing into the distance.
Right as the swords were about to cut open her back, Neo was gone.
"Hmph, still a few tricks, I see," Blake squinted. "Instead of one big jump, she used several small ones. Resourceful, if not desperate. Adam."
On his partner's cue, Adam activated his Predator's Semblance.
His vision painted almost completely black, save for feint outlines and a murderously, luminating red trail. The wounds he inflicted on Neo let him track her movements, like a shark tracking blood in the water. It didn't matter if the injury was large or superficial. The predator rarely lost sight of its prey.
And escape was next to impossible, combined with Blake's Semblance.
As Neo ducked into an abandoned house, she felt more blood draining from her by the second. Her forehead was drenched in sweat. Feverish breaths escaped her exhausted body. Random bouts of delirium set her off balance.
Neo's last trick took its toll. She could feel her Aura petering out into its last reserves. And then, there was also the black mist seeping from her wounds.
Blake's Bad Luck did more than disrupt her Semblance. Neo could feel something eating away at her mind, sapping away her will. And deep in her heart, the thoughts she tried to lock away dredged to the surface.
"How exactly did you think this story was going to end?"
Salem's voice whispered inside her.
"Did you truly believe Yang Xiao Long would choose you over Blake Belladonna? You must have known your relationship was never fated to last."
Shut up!
Neo's inner scream came out to no one. She didn't even notice she blacked out briefly.
The girl could sense her pursuers closing in. Her temporary loss of consciousness deprived her of any time to escape. She was at a loss of what to do.
And then, Blake's voice came again. Louder than a whisper this time. Each syllable bounced around her skull like an echo increasing in volume.
"Surely, you always knew the truth. Deep down, you know this girl and Yang are in love. True love."
SHUT UP!
"Nothing like the depraved, twisted thing you created. Some poorly reciprocated bond of dependency, guilt, and a fair amount of manipulation on your part."
That's not what it is!
"Isn't it? Such shallow affections could never last, Neo. Once she knows who you really are… Ah, but she's already discovered that, hasn't she? With help from none other than yourself."
She won't care!
She…!
She will still…!
"…Love you? Are you so sure? Especially when compared to me?"
As Neo clutched the sides of her head, trying to will the voice away, the surrounding windows shattered. Reflected in the glass fragments, she could see images dart across. Memories of the past played in all of them.
There were private moments shared between Blake and Yang. How they first met at Beacon, their eyes meeting in the Emerald Forest, the partnership that blossomed, their first dance. An intimate moment shared behind the closed doors of a classroom. A sacrifice made of purest love.
In its opposite, memories of Neo readying to deal the deathblow to an unconscious Yang appeared. The palpable hatred the blonde girl showed when she was first recruited. The look of dread as Neo clutched the dead child in her arms. And of course, the moment Yang blackmailed her so she wouldn't kill Ruby.
"She used your feelings to stop you from murdering her sister. I think that may be the most legitimate reason for your… 'union', I suppose you would call it."
Salem's words scraped the walls of Neo's skull like poisoned barbed wire.
"Is it possible you still don't see it? Have you blinded yourself to such levels of delusion?"
No!
It was more than that!
We…!
We…
"And when you're gone, Yang will finally be free. She'll remember you and think, 'How could I have ever fooled myself into caring for such a monster?' And when such a time comes, she will belong to this girl once more…"
"Love—untainted, beautiful, and sincere," Blake and Salem's overlapping voices finished, in front of her.
The cat Faunus appeared alongside Adam in a blink of mist.
In the small living room, Neo cradled herself against the wall. Nowhere to run—no willingness to run.
"Do you know what essential element mirrors require to fulfill their purpose?" Blake asked the trembling girl. "Light."
Adam drew his sword and slashed through a barrier of mirrors. The cut glass shattered onto the small girl causing severe scrapes and abrasions.
"After all, without light, how can a mirror cast a reflection?" Blake continued.
Adam made another slash, wiping out Neo's next layer of emergency defenses. The petite girl was practically sitting in a pool of her own blood.
"Empty without anything to reflect. That's what you are, Neo. Empty without Yang. You need her—but she does not need you."
Another vicious slash and the final line of defense was gone. Neo's eyes went a hollow brown, broken and void of any vacancy or recognition.
"In the deepest recesses of your heart, I can feel you holding out hope. Hope that you and her will come to terms again, and put this messiness behind you. Hahaha!" Blake laughed. "No such hope exists, no such hope ever existed."
And in a tone that was not warped by Salem, but Blake's alone.
"You don't deserve her."
"But I do."
.
X
.
Jupiter stopped right before Mercury's damaged feet. He measured his spear over his cousin's chest and readied to execute his last remaining relative.
"You know, Mercury. I don't believe you ever realized how pathetic you are, or the vain hope you carried."
"Ugh. Can't you just kill me, and get it over with?"
"You tried so hard, dear cousin. But let me tell you something that I and all your little friends always knew about you, but you yourself never saw."
"…"
"You're just a child that simply wanted to be loved by his father. That was all it took to fix the broken little boy. Not your new legs or some misguided team of misfit toys, or saving a boy similar to yourself. No. It was a father's love."
Jupiter chuckled.
"Just a lost little child, who wondered why his father never loved him. The one thing you wanted, but could never have."
"SHUT UP!"
"Because your father hated you, and you killed him."
.
X
.
Blake flashed a gentle smile.
"I think it's time to sink this cracked ship."
As the edge of Adam's blade was about to sever Neo's head from her neck, a ripple in space appeared.
The fissure pulsed with a blow from the other side, causing the air to crack. Flames of seven colors licked out from the ether, as a metallic fist punched through the gap to meet Adam's sword.
Upon contact, the prosthetic arm and blade shattered in mutual destruction. The aftershock knocked everyone in the room back a step from the dimensional rupture.
Not waiting another second, Yang used her remaining arm to punch through whatever space still stood in her way. Her hand ripped the fabric edges of reality, like it was made of cardboard, until she had enough room pass.
As Yang left the distorting portal behind her, ceaseless fire continued to engulf her figure. The air in the room was quickly being burned of its oxygen. A hellstorm of mixed hues erupted from the clash of the Never Realm's passage, before causality forced the gash close.
But the sealing of the rift did nothing to quench the bright flames illuminating the environment now—
As the Spring Maiden, in her full wrath stood before those threatening her partner.
"Yang…" Blake muttered in disbelief.
The girl's eyes went to the newly severed arm. Memories of a similar moment made her insides run cold. She stared at the pitiful figure of Neo and wondered, 'since when were their positions traded?'
"Well, isn't that hilarious?" Adam barked with a deprecating grin. "But this time I won't stop at just an arm—"
Before the young man barely finished his sentence, Yang's image flickered. A vicious, sidekick was delivered directly to the midsection. Its swiftness and violence perfectly mimicked Neo's technique.
The impact from the full-fledged Maiden sent Adam crashing through a whole row of houses.
Only at the end of the neighborhood block, did his body stop rocketing through walls. And his sizzling carcass rolled into the empty street. Smoke wafted from him like overcooked barbecue.
Meanwhile, Blake watched Yang with a conflicted gaze. Her thoughts were a jumble. Her psyche felt like it was being ripped in a thousand different directions.
She could feel Salem's part of herself ordering her to retreat. Another part telling her to speak to Yang, ask her for help. And yet another part that wanted nothing but to leap into her former partner's embrace.
Run, Blake! And take Adam with you!
I don't want to run.
Yang will kill you.
No, she won't. She would never.
This is not the Yang you knew! Only I can bring her back, but not if you don't retreat now.
I can't…
You can!
I don't… want to…
The only thing Blake could do was stand still as the different voices argued inside her. Before the furiously blazing Yang, she could only watch with a faint trace of hope. The girl, who had once come to her rescue, was here once more.
…
At that moment, the flames spilling from the Spring Maiden snuffed into trailing embers. Only the warm glow and the afterimages of feathers floated from her hair.
Yang turned around to Neo.
She bent down and braced her partner's light frame to hers with a delicate care. Her single arm scooped up the injured girl with ease, and began walking.
Without any sense of recognition, Yang walked past Blake. Not a single look spared in the other's direction. All her attention rested in the one caressed in her arm.
Neo didn't have any tangible consciousness in her. She was coming down with a fever in addition to her injuries, which made it impossible to differentiate what was real from hallucination. Only in brief glimpses did she understand what was going on.
The only thing that felt real to her was the body of fire she nestled against.
Warm.
.
X
.
"You know what, you asshole?!" Mercury yelled. "Let me tell you a truth of my own. You know what everyone thinks when they see you?"
"Oh, yes. What pray tell is that?" Jupiter asked with a maniacal grin.
"All they see is some pompous douchebag, who pretends at being some badass! You, my dad, all of you are pathetic. I might be pathetic—but I'm nothing compared to the rest of you!"
"And your reason being? Ah, your friends. Of course, how could I forget the weakling's fallacy?"
"Say what you want, but you've never had to protect anyone in your entire life. Me? I have three other people I gotta watch out for. The only way you could ever get people to stand being around you for more than two minutes is by killing them, or boring them with all that Black Family bullshit."
"Really? You've stooped to the insult equivalence of, 'I have no friends'. Well, that was sorely disappointing. I don't know why I was hoping for something more enlightening, but I suppose this is the rapport we've built. Only fitting that you die with weakness in your heart and only foolish words to comfort you."
"Cereal. It's called 'cereal'."
"…Farewell, cousin. For all your boasting of friendship, I will make note to send the rest of your cohorts shortly behind you."
"Hehe, 'behind you'."
"Yes, very shortly."
"Naw. Behind you."
Just as Jupiter was about to thrust his spear into Mercury's chest, two sickles sank their teeth into the back of his ribs.
Emerald's hallucination dissipated, and she faded into existence. At the same time, she twisted her weapons so that they would fish hook upwards, ripping through the assassin's internal organs.
As the breath escaped Jupiter and he dropped his spear to the floor, Emerald leaned into his ear.
"I've waited a long, LONG time for this, you pretentious little prick!" Emerald jerked her blades up, pulling them deeper through Jupiter's rib cage, causing him to gasp again. "I could've gone for the carotid, do you the quick and easy—" she torqued her wrist. "—but I wanted you to suffer. You and your whole family did my partner dirty, and you get that circle of life shit now."
Jupiter flailed his arms backwards, in the vain hope of reaching Emerald's blades. But his assassin kept a secure hold.
"I'll tell you a secret I've never told anyone. I always wanted to shiv Mercury's pops like this, too. But seeing as I can't have my vendetta on the whole Black Family, I guess you'll just have to do."
Jupiter tried to retort, but only succeeded in coughing up blood.
"All you assfucks treated Mercury, like shit, but he's worth a thousand of you! Any given day! Any fucking time!"
"Aw, Em," Mercury started.
"Shut it, you. I'm still kind of pissed off at you for giving up in the desert. You're such an asshole too, but you're my asshole."
"Don't know if that's how you wanna phrase it."
"I said, shut up! No one gets to be all condescending towards you except for me! And not without my say!"
"Wow. That really warms my heart."
"And another thing!... Did he just die?"
Emerald shook the body impaled on her hooks, but got no response.
"Good job, Em. You bored him to death."
"Well, fuck. That's rude."
Emerald let Jupiter's corpse limply drop to the floor with indifference. There was an odd moment of pause, before she reached down to pick off the steel mask from her victim's face.
"Huh. Thought he'd be uglier. Always the worst personalities with the handsomest faces attached. Such a waste," she commented, while examining the mask.
"Are you actually planning on wearing that?"
"Souvenir. I'm thinking of hanging it up somewhere. Maybe the mansion when we get back to Atlas?"
"Sounds petty, I like it."
"Anywho," Emerald pocketed the mask, and turned to her partner. "Hey, honey. I'm here to pick you up from school. Hope the bully didn't beat you up too bad."
"I'm still kickin'. Well, not kickin', per se," Mercury wiggled the metallic splinters of his prosthetics.
"Alright, crippley. Upsy daisy." Emerald bent down to haul him onto her shoulders.
Noticing some tenderness at the motion, Mercury eyed her partner curiously.
"You don't look too good yourself," he commented. "Did you get sunburned?"
"Yeah, something like that. Forgot to put on sunblock before Yang's emergency jump into hyperspace travel thingy. Which, by the way, still has a lot of kinks to work out. Only one of them being fricasseed by seven flavors of scorching hell."
"So that's how you got here so fast. Wait, didn't Cinder tell Yang to keep that top secret?"
"Yup."
"Still did it, anyway."
"'Course."
"Sorry you had to use it on something so stupid."
"…"
In the wake of Emerald's sudden silence, Mercury couldn't get a read on the girl's face, which still had some lingering tension.
"Yeah, you're a real stupid. 'Course we used it—"
"Had to save your sorry ass."
.
X
.
…
In a world that closely resembled funhouse mirrors, Neo strode through its halls.
Time lost all meaning in this place.
Each panel she walked by, her image distorted and began playing some memory of her past. Her heels clacked with the piercing ring of chimes on the glass surface. She ran her hand across the mirrors lining the walls.
Quite a few of them showed Torchwick. A number of them projected her time with Cinder's faction, before Beacon's Fall. And the largest mirrors, that could have been giant monitors floating in the sky, displayed Neo's recollections of Team ENMY on endless repeat.
Emerald had once ventured into her dream.
Apparently, Neo had been asleep for a day now, and her teammates were worried. But after learning the girl was relatively safe and sound, Emerald made her exit.
She did offer to hallucinate Neo a pleasant dream to rest to, but the owner of the dreamscape refused.
And so, the petite girl wandered through her personal maze.
She didn't know since when, but Neo found herself standing on a large stained-glass platform. In the distance, she could see pathways of similar designs leading to more platforms.
It took her a moment to see that the floors depicted her most significant moments with Yang.
Left with no other path, Neo traversed from platform to platform. The next chapter of their story together told with each monument. Some were good, some were bad. The last plateaus displayed the events of recent troubles.
Until finally, Neo came upon the last one—empty.
She could make out some of the grooves in it, but couldn't see what the picture depicted.
One by one, the girl materialized colored shards to fit into their respective slots. Slowly, the image of her next moment with Yang came to be…
With each piece of the puzzle laid, some of Salem and Blake's words echoed back. Not everything they said was true, but some of them certainly were.
Neo and Yang's relationship was far from perfect. It had its glaring flaws from the very outset. They were different. They were damaged—but damaged differently. And it's true Neo took advantage of the other's circumstance at the beginning.
No one would say they were meant to be.
In comparison, in almost any other world, Yang was probably fated to be with Blake. Blessed with eternal bliss and happiness, still part of her old team. It was practically scripted.
That was simply the course of things.
In the back of Neo's mind, she already knew what the picture was. She always knew. She tried to avoid it, but the dream only made the future that much more clear.
It was fun.
…
I was truly happy.
Neo inserted the last piece into the last slot.
A design of Yang and herself parting came to completion. Their arms outstretched in a sign of longing, but also farewell. A heart fractured down the middle was placed between them.
Neo crouched down and wondered if she ever thought she could have changed it, before the floor shattered apart.
She fell along with the glistening shards of mirror into the dark abyss.
And fell…
Farther,
And farther…
…
…
In the private hospital room, Neo stirred from her sleep.
Her wounds ached, which indicated she was no longer dreaming.
Bandages wrapped all around her limbs and bruises blemished her skin. The last impressions of her dream were still fresh in her mind. Sickening depression and realization gripped her chest, and she wanted with everything for it to go away.
"Mmm…"
It was then, Neo noticed the girl sleeping across her lap, still clutching her left hand. The familiar gold mane of hair was accentuated by the rays of morning light peeking through the window. She felt like the sun itself was resting near, keeping her warm while she recovered.
And as much comfort as the thought brought her, the more it hurt.
I should let her go.
Neo couldn't help but think.
I…
I can't be with her anymore.
While Yang slept Neo pet her head with her free hand. The girl's locks licked lingering warmth across her fingertips.
I can't do this to her anymore.
I can't force her to love me.
"Mmmm…!"
One eye opened, and then the second.
"Hey, babe," Yang yawned sleepily.
Hello, you.
Her partner sat up, still keeping a firm hold on her hand.
"I need to say something."
I know. So do I.
"Do you mind if I go first?"
…Okay.
Yang's glowing, but faltering smile made pincushions of Neo's insides. She wondered how different that would be from now on. Would it hurt more than it did now? Would just the sight of Yang make it as hard for her breathe as it does now?
"I, uh, I think things are gonna be really different going forward…" Yang began awkwardly. "We can't really keep going like this, right?"
Yeah, Neo nodded slightly.
"Sorry, babe. But I think our honeymoon phase is over. Well, the weird, murder-thrill-wild-sex phase, anyways," she gave a light chuckle. "It was fun, but I think we've been kinda scared about what this is long term. I know I have at least. But I've been giving it a lot of thought."
Neo swallowed hard. She dreaded the next words to come. She expected it, she wanted to say them herself and end it, but it didn't make it any less painful.
…
But Yang's smile burned with the cheer of a thousand stars.
"My mom, Summer I mean. She regretted taking so long to say how she really felt. She loved Raven and I don't think she ever really understood why."
"…"
"I can really relate. Hehe!"
"…?"
"When I think of all the crazy stuff that's happened with you and me, I can't help wondering how this happened either. But I learned something from reading my mom's diary."
What?
"…When I asked myself how I can be with you now, all I can think is—"
Yang let go of Neo's hand.
"How could it have been anyone else?"
After her initial confusion, Neo looked down.
…?!
"I should've done this a while ago. Surprised you, huh?"
A gold ring shone brightly around the petite girl's finger.
"Neo?"
Yang had pushed back her chair, and was now down on one knee.
What...?!
"Will you marry me?"
"…"
…
Yang was afraid.
She probably never felt so afraid or uncertain in her entire life. She didn't know whether there would be an immediate answer, or if Neo would have to think about it. She didn't even know if her partner believed in things like this. The girl could have laughed, or played it off like nothing.
A swift refusal was never out of the realm of possibility either.
But,
For Yang, the moment felt right.
And the girl couldn't help but wait expectantly for an answer.
Neo's expression twisted with overwhelming emotion. There was joy, and pain, and sorrow. Her free hand grasped her mouth, as she trembled with shock. Tears glistened, as they traced down her face.
…
Then, a sound akin to crushing glass could be heard.
Almost like a screeching of jagged crystals grating against each other—a single pained tone.
But to Yang, it was the most beautiful thing she had ever heard.
"…yEs."