Nora Valkyrie landed in a bed of flowers.

She lay there for a long time, staring up at a vaulted ceiling, at the hole she'd put in it. And past that, at the night sky.

She wondered: That was a hard landing, right? Too hard? Or had the ceiling slowed her enough?

She wiggled her toes in her boots.

She remembered that half her classmates were dead. Whole teams of huntsman were annihilated along with her country. And among them, Pyrrha. Her heart ached.

Nora sniffed back her tears. She was going to Mistral, with Ruby and Jaune and… And Ren. She still had Ren. She could keep on going as long as she had Ren.

Her aura sparkled and tingled, suddenly reforming along her body with a hushed whoosh.

Her senses refocused. Here and now.

The flower bed.

The ceiling.

The night sky.

That couldn't be right; it was daytime. Had she passed out? Where was the moon?

Stars twinkled in space.

Doves passed over the building.

She couldn't see the shattered moon, but rays of pale light angled through the hole and illuminated dust in the air.

In the heavens, a star flickered, then extinguished.

And then the pain of impact thrummed through her body.

Nora groaned "OOOOoooooowwwww."

She stretched, grunting and groaning like a boar.

Purple petals. Jaune had shown these to everyone. Proof they were near Shion.

But where the heck was Jaune?

Where the heck was Nora?

She sat up and dusted her pink combat skirt, then hefted Magnhild. The Grenadier Warhammer wasn't dented, and neither was she.

She reassured herself, "Any landing you can fight from…"

Her voice echoed in the hall, over pews, around columns.

She stood and looked at the altar.

This was a chapel. With a flowerbed in the center.

The doors creaked open, and a woman entered in a raspberry dress, ankle length. Russet hair down to her waist. Green eyes. An empty hand basket.

She stopped in the entryway, bewildered.

Nora connected the handbasket and the flowerbed, and realized, "Oh. Uh. Sorry." She stepped out of the crushed shrubbery and scratched the back of her head. "Sorry about your flowers. I didn't mean to… Where am I?"

The flower girl stepped into the moonlight and smiled at Nora. Not the way you smile at someone who's okay.

Softly, she answered, "My name is Aeris. And this world is Traverse Town."

They stared at each other.

Aeris clasped her hands together and forced a brighter smile.

Nora asked, "This what?"

Aeris' smile soured down to sympathy. She cringed. "May I ask… What do you call the world you live on?"

Nora peered at her. "Are you okay in the head?"

Aeris looked down, licked her lips, then looked up with her smile renewed. "I came here to pick some flowers," she decided. "If you can wait for a moment, then I can show you around. It might be easier that way."

"We're near Shion, right?" Nora pointed at the flowers.

"These are Shions," Aeris nodded. She knelt beside undamaged blooms and collected them into her basket.

Nora scratched her head. Shion was supposed to be a village. How did it have a cathedral? How did she fall through the roof? Where was the team? Where was this place?

Aeris collected a few flowers, gently snipping the stems.

Nora checked the chapel's shadows for motion. Weren't there Grimm nearby? Wasn't there a fight? She cupped her hands and shouted at the hole in the ceiling. "Ren? Ruby? Anybody?"

Aeris flinched, tossed her a sympathetic glance, then stood from her gathering, and gestured out the front. "Shall we?"

They pushed open the doors.

Traverse Town.

Nora raised her eyebrows at an urban center, raised her chin to look up eight-floor buildings made of red tile roofs and gray brick. A banner atop the skyline waved in the wind.

The cobblestone street was flat and neat as if machined. Gas street lamps with warped stems brought heat and light to the city night.

It sounded like the Vytal Festival, all commotion and motion. And the people dressed just as oddly. No two outfits seemed to match. Cultures and colors clashed like a patched blanket.

It smelled like a faunus labor camp. Like sweat and desperation.

Aeris walked briskly, made her way through crowds and foot traffic with elegant posture. Nora tried to keep up while she took in the sights. Every public wall was covered- layers deep- in missing persons posters.

Down winding streets and across unorthodox intersections, they arrived at a building- cozy like a cottage, but decorated as a place of business.

Aeris stopped at the door to dust her shoes.

Nora squinted at the business cottage, then read the sign above. "H. B. R. C…" She wasn't good at this kind of thing. She folded her arms and asked, "What color is that?"

Aeris raised her eyebrows. "Hm?"

"HBRC. That's a huntsman team, right?"

Aeris cringed again. "Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee." She pushed open the door and invited Nora to follow her.

Nora hated waiting rooms. Like post offices, but only for bad news. This one didn't have any plants. Just strange paintings on the wall- the kind that can't offend or delight.

She tested the traction under her boots. Carpet. Nice carpet. Looking down, she noted a dirt clod on her shin. Just an hour ago, she'd been walking in sunshine and wilds. Where was she now? And when? It looked like midnight outside. Had she hit her head in the fall?

And why was Aeris so shy about the issue?

Nora nervously pressed her toe into the carpet, eyes traversing this clinically comforting room. "Sooooo… Hollow- HB- thing. You guys fix castles?"

Aeris was distracted. Behind the greeting desk, she'd stopped at a framed picture: a young man with spiky, black hair and a cavalier smile. Vases flanked the picture, and Aeris replaced their flowers with those she'd picked.

Jaune had explained the blooms' meaning: I Won't Forget You.

Her ritual maintenance complete, Aeris set her basket on the desk, and gestured for Nora to approach. "So, what do you think of the town?" Aeris opened a drawer and slowly hefted a huge book from it.

"Uhhh…" Nora put her hands on the desk. "It's, uh, great? It's big! I've never heard of it. Are we… Where are we? Are we in Menagerie or something? Was I, like, in a coma for a month? I had a friend that happened to. Stop me if I'm talking too much, I'm kinda nervous right now. Who's he?"

Nora pointed at the picture.

Aeris looked at the picture. "Zack," she answered. "Zack Faire. He was… He's a hero."

Her gaze lingered. As if looking away was painful. But looking was more painful. She wrested herself from memories, and looked down at her open drawer. At the big book.

She hefted it onto the desk with a thump, then carefully opened it. The weight of so many pages was difficult on the spine.

"There," she sighed. "Now, where did you say you were from? Before we take your message, I find it's easiest to review others first. This can speed up the process. You know, in case your friends have left a message already."

"The Process. Right." Nora looked at the pages.

She saw a word in bold: Vvardenfell. Was that near Vacuo?

Then came names she couldn't pronounce, and messages beside each.

"Vale," she answered. "I'm from Vale."

Aeris licked her thumb and turned back the massive page.

These names, and the missing persons, connected in Nora's mind. She wondered if they ever connected in real life.

And the night sky looked so odd. Something was menacing about it. Too dark. Too… Something was missing from it. The moon. The whole damn moon! Its asteroids and wreckage. She hadn't seen any of it.

Nora stepped back from the counter. Her heart thrummed like a heavy drum.

This wasn't happening. She'd probably landed on her head and was having a bad dream. But then why had she fallen in the first place? Maybe those really weren't safe mushrooms they'd eaten last night.

Or, maybe, this was real, and she was never going to see her friends again. Not any of them. No more Pyrrha. No more Ren.

Exactly five weeks ago, she'd looked up from a game on her scroll, high-fived Pyrrha, and tried her luck at a faire grounds competition. Her worst problem in life was What if I'm not popular?

She covered her mouth, tried to hide her panic.

Everything was falling apart.

Aeris had her head down in the book. "Let's see… V… Valinor… Vaaaale…?"

Aeris had never heard of Vale. It was clear in her tone. And the whole damn moon was missing from the sky. Or, maybe this was a different sky. Exactly how lost was Nora?

Aeris looked up from her list. "Does your world have an alternate name?"

Nora swallowed. "Umm… Q-Quick question… Am I dead? Is this the afterlife? Because, I always imagined-"

Aeris shook her head. "No. We're… We're alive. We're the survivors. But you're coming closer to understanding. Do you mind if I tell you? Are you okay with… Talking about this now?"

"By 'Tell' me… You mean tell me what's going on?" Nora felt dizzy. This was gonna be weird and uncomfortable, she knew. She folded her arms. "We're not on Remnant. Are we?"

Aeris asked "Remnant?" without a hint of recognition.

Nora took a knee, to avoid falling over. "Hoooo boy," she strained.

Aeris flipped through the big book. "R… R… Rapture… Rivia… Oops… Remnant! And look, I have several entries already! We might have you back with friends in no time!" She forced a practiced smile that didn't reach her eyes.

Nora didn't answer. She'd believed, with Ruby, that they could go to Mistral and finish their training. That they could walk there without a compass. She'd used exactly the phrase, "I mean, come on! How lost can we get?"

Well…

Aeris leaned over the desk to smile down at her. "Do you know anyone named…" she checked her book and sounded out "Yang Xiao Long?"

So she wasn't alone. Nora nodded. "Yeah. She's my teammate's sister. Is she here?"

Aeris consulted the book. "Miss Blake Belladonna left a message for her. It just says, 'I'm sorry.' Could you pass that along if you find her?"

Nora rested her face in her hand. "Sorry doesn't cut it. Yang would probably punch me if I said that."

Aeris frowned. "It's important that we-"

"I'll tell Yang she said hi." Nora sighed. She didn't want to get up from the floor.

Aeris looked upset with her, but diverted her glare to the book again. "How about a Miss Neapolitan?"

Nora shook her head.

"Roman Torchwick?"

"Ruby watched him get eaten by a Griffon, so… He's dead."

Survivors, Aeris had said. We're the survivors. So what exactly had happened to Vale? To Remnant? To Vvard-whatever and these countless other worlds?

What had Cinder done? And why? Why in the hell would someone murder Pyrrha and destroy a whole world?

Aeris asked "How about Mercury Black? Does that ring a bell?"

Nora knew that name very well. All of Remnant knew that name. Cinder Fall, Emerald Sustrai, and Mercury Black were a team. They were responsible.

She felt something cold and calculating assuming control of her. It had focus, like when she was studying; passion, like when she courted Ren; and anger, a unique anger that she only felt for those names.

Nora perked up and feigned her normal attitude. "Is he here?"

Aeris nodded. "Yes. But first-"

"Where are they?"

Aeris looked up from the book, concerned. She'd noted the change in tone. Nora scolded herself silently- always wearing her heart on her sleeve. This was a job for Ren.

Aeris asked, "Do you know Mercury?"

Nora took a breath and readied herself for the cold anger, for the discomfort of becoming it and relying on it. She'd once asked Blake what it was like, to be a killer. How to do it, emotionally. She'd described something like this. The calculating predator wore her face and lied, "We're friends."

Aeris looked down into her book. "Mercury left a message for someone named Fall."

Nora stood, no longer dizzy, and repeated, "Where is he?" With perfect innocence.

She felt like she'd swallowed a bug.

Aeris answered, "He's waiting in the non-human quarter with-" but stopped when she looked up. She glanced to Nora's fist- Clenched- then stood straight and backed away.

Nora relaxed her fist. "Look, I wanna see my friends ag-"

"Your eyes," Aeris noted. "They were blue in the chapel."

Nora touched her face. "What?" She shook her head. "Oh. Yeah, my aura turns them green sometimes. Look-"

"They're gold," Aeris corrected. She stepped back again, away from Nora. "I want you to leave."

Nora frowned. "I wanna leave a message for my friends."

The door opened, and a man's boots scraped the entry rug. Nora turned to see spiky, blonde hair, a red scarf, and blue eyes that shone like a huntsman's. Over his shoulder was a sword no normal man could carry.

"Cloud!" Aeris sounded scared. Like he had to save her.

And Cloud seemed poised to do exactly that. He halted when his eyes met Nora's.

"Another one," he noted.

"Another what? What's wrong with my eyes? What do you mean they're golden?"

Cloud held open the door, then gestured through it.

Nora frowned harder. Whatever. There was a faunus district somewhere with Mercury Black in it. That at least gave her something to do. She didn't like that these people didn't like her.

She grumbled, "Sorry I upset you all. Thanks for the help, Aeris."

Aeris didn't answer. She looked at Nora like a Grimm.

Nora walked out, and Cloud shut the door behind her.

The smell hit her again. Desperation. Unkempt city streets. People slept in doorways and piled against streetlamps. They looked as if all hope and motivation had left them.

Of course. Their worlds were destroyed. They were refugees.

Like her.

No. Nora wasn't broken yet. She still had passions. She wished for a second chance to die fighting in Vale. That counted for something. She had to reunite with Ruby and Jaune. And Ren. Her friends would keep her going, too.

And then there was the matter at hand.

The gods had given her enemies, to keep her sharp.

Nora hefted Magnhild.