I didn't intend this as a Monty Oum tribute or anything else special (I wrote it a few weeks after he died), but I had just read another tribute (the one by Chris7221, the guy who writes Emergence), so…I guess this sort of turned into a tribute for everyone dead, Oum included. It also got a lot larger than I anticipated, for a chapter which only advances the plot a little. Sorry about that.
Welcome to Remnant 0.7
Rose
The Undersiders—Sabah and Lily having pretty much fully accepted the title by now—stayed in the village of Meadow-Creek for a few weeks. They learned all sorts of things about the world. They also learned about its inhabitants—the massive and friendly Hasenkamp family, the quiet Napolini family of faunus, little orphan Amara and her friends Alice, Minerva, and Rinus who all wanted to be Huntsmen, Ryan the hunter who also wanted to be a Huntsman, Aster's nephew Paul Acea, and all the rest.
They also learned about the four Huntsmen, who usually weren't in town (at least, not this one). After the first couple days, they went to make sure the boarbatusk they killed was, in fact, gone; after that, they wandered between villages in the area, checking for reports of Grimm. They came back to Meadow-Creek fairly often, probably because of Lily. The Huntsmen were probably mainly interested in her because of her power, which they figured would be good for a Huntsman.
Which, in all honesty, it probably would be. It did save the Undersiders from that boarbatusk. Maybe she'd make a good Huntress, maybe there was a chance that she could get into Beacon, the Huntsman school, but then she almost definitely couldn't be with the rest of the group, especially not Sabah. Lisa had said that they wouldn't accept Sabah unless they wanted someone really good with cloth. That hurt, but Lisa quickly noted that she didn't expect most of the other Undersiders could make it. Most didn't fit the proper psychological profile, she said, and the ones who did weren't good enough at fighting in ways that worked against Grimm. The only one with a chance was Brian, and it was an even slimmer chance than Lily's.
Sabah hoped that Lily felt as bad about the idea of her leaving the rest behind to go to Beacon as Sabah did.
They didn't learn just about specific people. They also learned more general facts. Female Huntsmen were called Huntresses. Faunus were once confined to a place called the Menagerie, a place whose name was so uninspired and tactless that Sabah figured Empire Eighty-Eight would have condemned the namers. Atlas was a center of technology (lots of tinkers, maybe?) and also had the only standing military not composed of Huntsmen. ("Yet another thing that makes them like knights," Lisa had said. "How long until Remnant's Agincourt?") Basically everyone had one kind of outfit that they almost always wore, except when the circumstances required formal wear of some kind, and sometimes replaced for a different one that they always wore for the next while. Some faunus were fighting against oppression by blowing up things. ("Glad we don't have that kind of thing in our world," Lily had said. "Oh, yes, supervillains are much better," Alec countered.) People had a wider range of hair and eye colors—little Lily the faunus had pink eyes, while one of the Hasenkamps had bluish-gray hair. And so on, and so forth.
They knew a lot of the outlines, but not the details. They didn't know what all Dust could do, or why. They didn't know if there were trigger events, though Lisa was pretty sure that superpowers were either what they called Semblances or nonexistent. They didn't know why Grimm attacked people or how to fend them off. They didn't know what was up with the moon, which broke apart and came together instead of going through normal phases. They did know that Aura was important to Huntsmen, and other people who fought, but not what it was, except that people thought it was connected to Semblances. Each time Aura, Dust, and so many other unanswered questions were brought up, Lisa was more sure that they were ones that even people living in the deepest wilds should have known. It sure would be nice if she was omniscient.
She was a good liar, though. She managed to weave their tangle of mistakes and slips into a story that convinced basically everyone. Sabah had been from Mystral (taken directly from her own clumsy cover-up), but her parents moved to the lands outside of Vale to get away from the crowds. Lily was from the same town they moved to, where her parents moved to from some islands to the west, and we eventually moved farther from Vale to enjoy nature more. Rachel had been from deep in the wilds, but her village was destroyed so she and other survivors came to their village. Brian and Aisha were from Vale, but they ran from home, not unlike Alec, whose fictional father was fittingly based on Heartbreaker. Taylor and Lisa hadn't made any mistakes and didn't pose any potential issues, so they were just born and raised in the village. It got destroyed by Grimm, they fled, mostly having been friends and acquaintances before. Not completely lying there—their hometown was destroyed by monsters, repeatedly, they were varying degrees of acquaintanceship, and they did leave, if unwillingly.
The days turned to weeks, blurred into each other. Finally, Brian and Aisha were healed. Aster remarked that it took longer than she expected, though it didn't scar much so there was some positive. The four Huntsmen wanted to go to Vale, and some other people did, too. The Hasenkamp cousin was going to pick up some supplies they couldn't get in Meadow-Creek. The Napolinis wanted to move to Vale, supposedly to be around other faunus, but Lisa said they were most likely considering joining the White Fang. Amara almost came with, too, but her friends wanted to come along, their parents refused, and that was that. Four unofficial Huntsmen, four mouse-faunus, a farmer, and eight aliens set out on the road to Vale, the village sharing tearful goodbyes for the residents and less emotional ones for the guests.
~0~
The road was long. If they had a car, they probably could have made it in a few hours, but cars were for the wealthy in Remnant. Walking, it would take about a week, and walk they did.
The road was mostly dull. They talked with the other travelers some, and once a couple creatures which the Huntsmen identified as young beowolves attacked the group, but aside from that, little happened. Considering their journey to Meadow-Creek, Sabah wasn't complaining. Certainly, they learned a lot. The Hasenkampf cousin, Piroska, felt left out by her distant relatives due to their closer familial connection. The Napolini parents and elder brother were distrustful of non-faunus, but Lily didn't mind talking to the humans journeying with them, even Rachel, who still scared Sabah a bit. Nardi Brak was sarcastic and unkind on the surface, and as far as Sabah could see, he was like that to the core; Rini Houtman liked him, but he was crazy.
Just outside of Vale, the Huntsmen wanted to visit somewhere not quite on the path. It was up a cliff, they explained. They wanted Lily to come with, but didn't mind one way or the other if the others did. Piroska and the Napolinis decided to head onwards, Vale being in sight, but the Undersiders decided to accompany Lily and find out what was so important.
They climbed up the steep mountain path, clearly well-used but not maintained or developed, little more than a line of earth compacted by just enough feet that little grass was growing on it. At times, it grew steep, at one point almost being more a climb than a hike. The air grew cold, and eventually they saw snow. Eventually, they reached the end of the path, and found themselves atop in a forest, far above the city below.
It was a breathtaking sight. Below the cliff's edge lay Vale, a massive city, bigger than Brockton Bay, probably about the size of Chicago or New York, maybe even as big as those cities had been before the Endbringers destroyed some and made the rest shrink from fear. The buildings looked more graceful, though, almost unreal, more like a painting of a city than the real thing. Beyond Vale was the ocean, deep blue and vast, and above floated a number of aircraft of alien design. Sabah thought the view alone was worth the climb, but the Huntsmen disagreed. They continued along the cliff's edge, standing a healthy distance back.
"Rini," asked Brak, "is there any particular reason you haven't made that path a bit…less taxing?"
"This is no a town, to be shaped to the whims of man. This is a wild place, and home to one whose rest is not to be disturbed."
Arthur apparently noticed the concern on some of the Undersiders' faces. "She's dead," he reassured.
Rini didn't seem to notice. "I reshape the earth when I must, and here, I must not."
The two of them bickered a bit for the next minute or so, before lapsing into silence. Some time later, they reached a clearing. Sabah saw what looked like a rock, but evidently was what the Huntsmen were visiting. As they approached, she could tell that it wasn't just a rock—it was a carved rock, angular, a marker of some kind. Probably a grave, considering what Rini and Arthur had said.
They arrived at the gravestone. It was a simple geometric shape, a couple rectangles at angles to each other and the ground for the front and back, forming triangular sides. The inscription was what interested Sabah and the others. The upper half was dominated by a large rose, he tips of the petals bent, almost looking like flame. Sabah glanced at the words below, before studying the rose more. It was simple, but elegant.
"Summer Rose," muttered Alec. "Thus kindly I scatter."
"Just so," breathed Raul.
"In case you can't guess—" whispered Brak, "—which, let's face it, you can't—this is the grave of Summer Rose, a Huntress."
"Um…" Sabah wasn't sure what to say. "Was she…a friend?"
"No," Raul muttered. "None of us ever met her."
"Then—"
"It's not often that a Huntsman dies," muttered Arthur. "Certainly not so young."
The Undersiders glanced at each other. Sabah couldn't claim to know exactly what any of them were thinking. Perhaps Leviathan, or the Nine, or Noelle. Perhaps Lily thought of someone she lost in New York, before she came to Brockton Bay, and perhaps the others were thinking of someone they had killed or maimed. Sabah was thinking about her friends and dependents, casualties to the Nine, modified to look like some of the worst serial killers in the world and then released as decoys. One thing was for certain, they were all thinking about how different Remnant was from home.
Arthur continued, unaware of these dark thoughts. "When one does, it's a tragedy that is felt by the entire kingdom, and every Huntsman in the world. The real Huntsmen all sort of know each other, at least by name. People like us, we know them. Summer probably wasn't the best Huntress in the world, but she was…better than most, I think. She wasn't just a full-time Huntress, either, she had a family."
The Undersiders were numb to the story the Huntsman painted. Sabah, at least, was thinking of the New Wave, a family split apart by being superheroes. Some were injured, some died, two of the daughters suffered worse. To say nothing of their personal trauma. Sabah hadn't pried, but she guessed Taylor's trigger event involved Shadow Stalker…and whatever it was, the very fact that it qualified as a trigger event meant it was more horrifying, terrifying, traumatizing than the worst experience most people had in their entire lives. The same applied to everyone there—Brian apparently had to endure that kind of trauma twice. It wasn't death, but Sabah wondered if it was any better, at the time. After they triggered, things were been better than during the trigger...but they were often worse than before triggering. And "before" was already pretty nasty for many of them.
"We're here to honor a fallen hero, and…a bit to make sure you understand the risks of being a Huntress, Lily. Yes, people die, but not all that often. Summer Rose was the most recent to die in Vale, and I think there's only been one or two since."
"Not saying much," Lisa pointed out, "if we don't know when she died."
"What was it? Ten years ago?"
"Something like that," agreed Rini.
"It's not that," said Lily. "It's…I don't want to leave my friends, and I'd probably have to if I went to Beacon or something."
The Huntsmen were silent. "The path would have been hard," admitted Arthur.
"Not much chance of success, without a weapon or good parents," said Brak.
Raul nodded. "Now that that has concluded…I believe I saw some beowolf tracks earlier."
"Same. Keep an eye out, kids. Pay your respects to Summer, or someone else, if you want."
The Huntsmen left, creeping into and through the woods like they were forest creatures. With their absence, the Undersiders stared silently, at each other and the gravestone.
Alec spoke solemnly. "'I'll not leave thee, thou lone one! To pine on the stem; since the lovely are sleeping. Go, sleep thou with them. Thus kindly I scatter, thy leaves o'er the bed, where thy mates of the garden lie scentless and dead."
"Nice," muttered Aisha. "Just…nice. Didn't know you were a poet."
"I'm not," Alec replied. "'The Last Rose of Summer,' Thomas Moore."
"Didn't know you were a poetry buff, either."
"If there's one thing my dad did right in raising us, and he sure didn't get much more than that, it's that he gave us a good education. Well, he made sure we had an education that wasn't just Internet."
"The poem doesn't really fit, anyways," Lisa pointed out. "Unless her friends and family are all dead. And this is Remnant, so…"
"Yeah, but…'Thus kindly I scatter.' Summer Rose."
Silence.
"Um, Lisa…it's…it is just a coincidence? Right?"
"Not omniscient."
"Right."
Silence reigned.
"I feel like we should…do something here," Rachel said.
"I know," Brian replied, "but…"
"…Maybe…" Sabah paused. "Um, maybe we can honor heroes who died, back home?"
Lisa nodded. "…Hero. Good place to start."
"Yeah," Brian said. "Dauntless and Velocity, Manpower and Shielder, Gallant and Aegis, Strider, and the other heroes who lost their lives fighting Leviathan in Brockton Bay, and all the other Endbringer attacks. It's one thing to fight when you can win…it's another to do so when you can't."
"Myrddin and the others who got killed by Noelle, too," added Aisha. "I mean, unless that counts with the Endbringers…"
"Shadow Stalker," Alec added. "She was…" He glanced at Taylor. "…not the nicest person, and yeah, she's still alive, but we still destroyed her life. Dunno if that counts."
Taylor nodded. "On that note...Coil. He deserved to die, I think, and definitely needed to, but…I wish he didn't have to. Wish I didn't have to..."
"Not a hero," Alec pointed out. "Shadow Stalker was. Technically."
Ignoring Alec, Lisa added a couple names. "Battery. Also Sphere, even though he was a rogue."
"Everyone else killed by the Nine," added Aisha. "And Panacea and Glory Girl, even though they're alive, and it wasn't the Nine's fault. Directly."
"Everyone else in the Birdcage who shouldn't be there," said Brian.
Silence reigned again, to be broken by Taylor. "…Not a cape, but…my mom."
Lily nodded. "My parents, too. I don't remember them much, but I miss them."
"My dad's not dead," said Brian, "and he wasn't a great dad, but he did his best. I miss him."
Taylor nodded. "I miss my dad, too. He deserved a daughter that didn't run off and turn into a supervillain."
"…You know, I miss my parents, too," added Lisa. "…And my brother."
Alex said, "My family was…dysfunctional, but I still miss them. …Well, some of my siblings, at least."
"Dysfunctional?" Brian asked. "Wasn't Cherish trying to get you killed?"
"Like I said, some of my siblings."
"Still, dysfunctional? I'd think—"
Lily interrupted. "I don't really have a family, unless you count the Wards. They were pretty dysfunctional, too, but I miss them."
Sabah added, "And my family, too. Even my annoying little cousins."
"I miss Mom," said Aisha, trying to hide some tears. "She's as 'dysfunctional' as Alec's dad, and I still miss her."
Rachel spoke up. "And my dogs. And some of the people in my territory. They were like family."
"And the people in my territory," Taylor agreed. "And Atlas, my beetle."
"And my territory," Brian muttered.
"And my lieutenants," added Lisa. "And my…my parents' cat, now."
Sabah nodded. "And my hamster."
At long last, the Undersiders had nothing left to say. So they said nothing.
~0~
Some time later, maybe five or fifteen minutes, the Huntsmen returned.
"They're dead."
"The beowolves, I hope?" asked Lisa.
"What a clever deduction," Brak sneered.
"Oh, do you really want to start this? I've had it—"
"Calm down, you two," Rini boomed. "Yeah, the beowolves are dead. Lots of 'em. We found evidence of a pretty good battle. Almost certainly an actual Huntsman, with a good weapon, good training, probably lots of talent too. Probably trained since he was little."
"Maybe one of Rose's family members?" suggested Raul.
"They are more likely to visit than other Huntsmen, but we don't know."
They headed back through the forest, down the path, and to the road for Vale. All the way, Lisa was jabbing at Brak the way he did at everyone, with a bit of Tattletale deconstruction in the mix. It would have been nice if the way down had been peaceful, but Sabah didn't mind too much. Their time at Summer's grave had basically just been everyone naming people who mattered to them, but somehow she felt closer to the other Undersiders after that. Everyone had opened up, a little, and shared some of their concerns, their sorrows and fears.
