I start a new job Monday! Well, part time. It's just helping kids with violin.
Anyways, please enjoy this chapter. Here's the Discord: /cgFmXz3qJ5
Ruby had been around animals most of her life. Zwei, those lovable raccoons in her house, other woodland creatures, and they were all very, very polite for her. However, cats were an entirely different story for Ruby. They were sly, independent creatures that kept to themselves and didn't seem to care much about human interaction. Cats were just strange creatures.
No offense to Blake or Neon.
"Kitty! Kitty! Kitty! Wait! No, no! Uh… Here kitty, kitty, kitty! Here kitty, kitty, kitty! Oh… c'mon, kitty."
Ruby was calling for the Curious Cat as she roamed the Crimson Forest. The brightly-colored scamp had run off...where to, though?
"Eek!" Little suddenly cowered in Ruby's hood. "The cat's hindquarters!" Ruby glanced to the left, spotting the Curious Cat's tail sticking out of the tall grass on the side of the path.
"Um… Excuse me?" Ruby called out.
"You're excused."
Ruby jumped as the Cat's voice came from behind. Little got scared and hid inside Ruby's hood. Team RWBY watched the Curious Cat walk out of the tall grass... without its hindquarters.
"Book never mentioned that." Blake muttered, as the Cat's body rejoined together.
"I mean, their head did kinda," Yang silently made a "popping" motion with her hand, reminding her ninja girlfriend of that little stunt the Cat pulled back in the Castle.
"...fair enough, I guess."
"Uh, hello cat! Um...Mr. Cat? Curious Cat?" Ruby floundered a bit, "What uh, what do you go by?"
"Hm? Oh, silly girl! I don't go by. That's for the days and the years! But if you are asking what I am, then indeed, I am a cat! A cat most curious!" the Cat explained. If they wore a hat, Weiss could just imagine them taking a bow like a circus ringmaster as they introduced themselves, hat in one of their paws.
"Uh...r-right! Of course, of course! Silly of me," Ruby nervously chuckled, "Look, uh, me and my friends really need to get to that giant tree. Nothing we've tried so far has gotten us any closer."
"In fact," Weiss interjected, "It looks like we're even farther away!"
"Weiss. We are like six inches tall. Everything's gonna look farther away now," Yang deadpanned.
"The tree… Tree, tree, tree, tree," The cat hummed. "Of course. That is most definitely impossible. You do not go to the tree, the tree goes to you. Unless, of course, you're me, you see."
"Stop doing that." Weiss frowned, fed up with this cat already.
"Well, that's your problem. It's a matter of perspective, I'm afraid."
"But you've been there before, right?" Blake asked, "You could take us there again."
"Exactly, I have! So why would I ever want to go back?" the Cat rolled their eyes as if the reasoning should be oh so obvious to everyone.
"Because-" Ruby began.
"I'm glad we understand each other! No sense seeing a sight once seen!" the Cat interrupted. Their short attention span was suddenly gripped by a new object of fascination. With an audible gasp, the feline's cyan eyes locked onto the fluttering wings of a yellow butterfly as it perched atop a blade of grass. Their eyes went wide as they lowered themselves closer to the ground, preparing to pounce.
"Stay right there, my little friend," the Cat purred before they pounced at the butterfly with a small but still audible "meow."
Blake groaned. "Please. You helped Alyx when she was-"
The Cat froze up. "Alyx? 'Alyx' Alyx? How do you know her? Are you friends of hers? Lifelong nemeses? Wait. Don't tell me." The Cat paused. "Changed my mind, tell me."
"Oh, well, we don't know her personally. Just uh…" Ruby looked for an answer.
"She wrote a book about her entire adventure in the Ever After." Weiss explained.
"A book? I never took her as an author. Is it well liked?" the Cat wondered, tilting their head as they floated in front of Ruby.
"It's a childhood favorite for a lot of people where we're from," Yang answered.
"Really?!" the Cat's ears bolted upright to their full height, "Oh please, I must know more. What did she write about? How was I portrayed? And-" they paused for a moment, their small nose wiggling as a scent reached them. They took a few sniffs in the air to make sure the smell was real.
"Do I smell a mouse?" the Cat questioned. Upon hearing the question, Little discreetly, but quickly, dodged behind Yang, putting a paw on the blonde's shoulder, shaking in fear as they peeked their head out from behind the long golden mane that was Yang's hair. Blake quickly put herself in front of Yang, shielding her and Little from the gigantic feline.
"From uh, one cat to another," Blake began, pointing to her cat ears, "could you please give us a minute?"
"Oh...so they're spoken for," the Cat sighed, saddened but accepting, "Well please, please hurry. I have so many questions for you!"
As the Cat chased the butterfly away, Weiss groaned in Ruby's ear. "Are we sure they're not called the 'Constantly Annoying Cat?'" Weiss grumbled.
"Boom. Roasted." Yang smirked.
Blake rolled her eyes. "Guys, the Curious Cat was described as an ally, with an appetite for information. Just because they don't want to go back to the tree, doesn't mean we can't lure them there. "
"So just...keep them interested in us as we go?" Ruby asked.
Are we REALLY going to add 'lying to a cat' to the list of 'Questionable Choices I've Made Lately?' the cruel doubts mentally asked, less outright venomous and more just incredulous at the idea.
It's not a lie...if we tell them something interesting. Ruby shot back.
"Hey, Cat!" Ruby yelled. "You ever hear of something called the Omnitrix?"
"Um, Ruby?" Little piped up.
"Yeah?"
"The Cat's gone," Weiss deadpanned.
"...GAH!" Ruby frantically looked around, but managed to find the Cat when they pounced on the butterfly. "Whoa, wait up! I, uh...have something INTERESTING to share."
One of the Cat's ears swiveled around as they heard that. Their interest was piqued. They turned around after they had seemingly eaten the little yellow butterfly, which thankfully wasn't a talking fairy tale character, and walked out of the grass towards Ruby. Only their front portion though.
"I sense a 'but' approaching," the Cat said as its hind quarters quickly jogged through the red grass and rejoined with the rest of the feline's body once again.
"What? No! No catch! We do still need to get to the tree, buuuut that'll take ages. And that means plenty of time to tell you about all the things from our world! Like the Omnitrix or Scrolls!" Ruby pulled out her Scroll and gently shook it in her hand like she was jangling keys, "See? Ooooooooh!"
The Cat gasped, moving forward closer to Ruby before reaching up with and disconnecting their fore paws and grasping the Scroll.
"Luminous rectangle," the Cat whispered as if they had seen the divine. They took the Scroll from Ruby, reconnecting their paws and forming a whole cat, before laying on their back and looking over the device like a child with a new toy.
"Oh! What does this button do?" the feline wondered before pushing said button with their paw. The Scroll flashed once, taking a picture of the Cat, much to their confusion. With an audible purr, they began spamming the button.
"Why is it painting tiny flat versions of me? How is it even doing that? Magic? Clockwork? Oh my, is that what I look like when I smile? I really must file my fangs better..." the Cat ranted before they popped up in excitement, "Ho ho, how exciting this all is! All the questions I have for you! If you'll indulge me?"
The Cat soon came across a few interesting images, pictures of Ruby posing with Ben's aliens. Fist bumping Four Arms, riding on Diamondhead's back, snuggling an Echo Echo, hugging Cannonbolt and so on. Their eyes lit up.
"What...are these?"
"Aliens." Ruby said.
"Aliens? Are those like Afterans?"
"Hook, line, and sinker," Weiss smirked, holding out a hand. Little looked at her hand curiously.
"There's...nothing there," Little pointed out.
"What? No, I'm not giving you something. You're supposed to hit it," the heiress explained. Yang showed Little how it was done by giving Weiss' hand a firm and quick lo-five.
"Like that," Yang nodded.
"Ooooooh. I get it," Little understood.
"Easiest thing we might have to explain all day," Blake added.
"What are...aliens?" The Cat asked.
Ruby pointed up to the sky. "They come from up there...but further."
"Tell me MORE." The Cat's eyes were practically glowing.
Sometime later the group had continued on their way, following the dirt path through the red fields. The Red Kingdom was far behind them now, the only signs of civilization out this far being the stone chess piece monoliths that dotted the landscape. Practically each step Ruby took was accompanied by another question from the floating feline. Little was enjoying all the stories that the four girls were regaling the Cat with, themselves, but the girls seemed to have gotten tired of the non-stop stream of asks. The Cat had constantly gone back and forth from aliens and the Omnitrix to Hunters and the Kingdoms. Even some of the secret history of Remnant that the girls had only relatively recently become aware of themselves. Recently compared to Ozpin and Qrow anyway.
"So, the old man and the boy share a body now? I do not like the implications that brings up! Who thought that was a helpful method of reincarnation? The same people who put a city in the sky? And speaking of Atlas, I'm so glad that this Ciel character managed to help you out in such a meaningful way! In some stories she might be related to a one-off cameo and never mentioned again! So many people, so many faces, how do you keep track? Wait a minute...I had an original question buried here somewhere. What was it?" the Cat rambled.
"Blaaaaaaake," Yang groaned, exhausted, "It's your turrrrrrrn..."
"You were asking about the origins of Remnant," Blake answered with a sigh.
"That's right! Those two Brothers! Haha, talk about a god complex, am I right?" the Cat snickered at their own joke, earning groans from Yang, "In all seriousness, quite the entertaining summary! Only complaint was that some of the character voices felt a bit uninspired."
The Cat then flew around Ruby to be eye level with the tiny Weiss.
"Looking at you, Oh Wise Huntress," the Cat purred.
"Again, it's Weiss. Just Weiss." Weiss frowned. She wanted to sort of pick this cat up and shake it. Or place a cucumber by it.
"Apologies." The cat chuckled. "To your credit, you lot certainly know more about the beginnings of Remnant than Alyx did, and that girl could barely see past her own nose. "
Ruby tilted her head. "What...do you mean?"
Curious Cat raised an eyebrow. "Don't you know? Just hilariously concerned with trivial things. She did learn her lesson in the end, though...Oh, would you look at that. The edge of the Garden's Acre!"
Just like when the Tropical Jungle transitioned to the Red Kingdom, these two different acres were connected by two differing styles of bridge. The Red Kingdom's half was just like the bridge connecting to the Jungle acre, a white marble bridge with small crenels like a castle wall, but the Garden's half of the bridge was more natural. It was just an overturned log with a path carved into it, various forms of multi-colored fungus growing on the edges of the log bridge, a drape of moss dangling over the sides into the abyss of clouds below. Beyond the end of the log, the four girls could see a dark forest, the day caught in perpetual twilight, with purple clouds and a starry night sky. Beneath the forest canopy were several more of the brightly colored fungi, each one glowing brightly and giving the impression of neon lights. Even larger fungi jutted out and above the forest, dwarfing some of the trees like giant signal towers.
Team RWBY stood in awe at the sight as they made their way across the bridge, the clack of Ruby's boots against the marble replaced with light wooden thuds as she crossed the threshold from one acre towards another. As Ruby moved closer towards the night forest, several leaves began to fall from the sky above, carried on a light gust of wind. The leaves themselves were diamond-shaped and glowed iridescently with hues of gold, purple, and green. The green shone in the middle of the leaves, transitioning to gold and then purple at the edges in perfectly symmetrical amounts.
"It's...beautiful," Blake said, awestruck.
"And a little confusing. This whole place feels like you just mashed together a bunch of random puzzle pieces. How does anyone make sense of that?" Yang asked.
"Each acre is specifically made for its inhabitants and their roles!" the Cat cheerfully answered, "The 'randomness,' as you say, makes perfect sense to us! Is it not like that on Remnant?"
"No?" Yang answered back, surprised by the feline's question.
"Strange. I never thought to ask of that before. Ha!"
Weiss raised her hand. "I have a question I'd like to ask. How much longer before we're back to regular size?"
" Not long at all. The garden is just down this path and is sure to have all the ingredients we need for a lovely Grow-gurt Parfait." The Cat said. "Just don't go talking to anyone without me. If you're not careful…"
"We die." Blake frowned.
"Die? No, no, nothing like that. I'll explain later, but all I'm saying is that you lot do seem to have a tendency of attracting mischief!" the Cat beamed, "All you Remnant folk just love trouble, don't you?"
"Well, I'm sure we'll attract a lot less when we're back to normal," Weiss muttered, pinching the bridge of her nose in annoyance.
"Pfft. I don't see what all the fuss is about. I know plenty of people who stand only six inches tall! Some of them are friends, best friends even! If I were you I'd be more concerned about that big spooky witch you told me about! What was her name? Sasha? Salim? No, no, that wasn't it. Uh, oh! Salem! That's the one! How many more Relics does she need to destroy the world again? How do you intend to stop that from happening with Atlas gone?"
Ruby paused.
They're right, you know.
Ruby's hand trembled.
Ben can't do it alone. Ben can't handle an entire army. Sure, he can power through people...but he can't do enough.
Ruby's mouth felt dry.
Remember that ONE Ben who lost his friends and family? How tired he looked? How lost he was? How...distant?
You just subjected your best friend to that.
You're such a hero.
Ruby stopped in her tracks and just clamped her eyes shut. The Cat was talking about something right now, the word "watch" being the last thing Ruby really heard before it all faded away, replaced by a high-pitched, panic inducing, constant ringing sound in her ears. Her heart began to beat faster and faster in her chest, almost to the point of hyperventilation. She wanted to yell, she wanted to scream at that nagging voice in her head, tell it to shut up. She didn't subject Ben to any of that! It's not like she chose to fall into an endless abyss and land in a fairy tale brought to life! She was ripped away from her friends by a pair of monsters who wanted nothing more than to watch the world burn and its people suffer.
For all you know, Ben's up there in Vacuo, right now, crying his eyes out at the idea that the love of his life might be dead. Sure, he said that a creation of the Staff couldn't kill but the longer you're gone, the less true that theory becomes! People will tell him to move on, that he can't keep deluding himself into waiting for you to magically come back. It's not healthy. After all, isn't that what you helped him realize after MAX died?
"DON'T YOU EVER SAY THAT NAME!" Ruby yelled, turning around as if the voice was a physical person she could scold.
The miniature WBY gals and Little flinched, while the Cat looked on in confusion.
"What's...so wrong about Ben?" they chuckled nervously.
"W-what?" Ruby stammered, snapping back to reality. She just said that out loud. Her hands shot up to cover her mouth, not a single word coming to mind on how to explain what just happened.
"I thought you said you and him were close. Were you just trying to be polite about that?" the Cat asked.
"I...I, uh..." Ruby stammered.
"Ruby, what were you yelling at?" Yang asked, sisterly instincts clocking into overdrive. "Are you okay?"
"It...i-it's nothing," Ruby lied, "Really."
"That was not nothing." Blake frowned. "Ruby...if something's up, you can tell us. We're your friends."
"It...it's fine. Just...just some lingering stress from...y-you know, everything. I just remembered Salem talking about my mom in Ironwood's office. That's all," Ruby tried to cover. She was banking on all the chaos of that two-day war, blurring her teammates' memories a little. It wasn't that she didn't want to explain things...she just couldn't, not yet. Not when she didn't even know if these were her own doubts or some messed up side effect of being in the Ever After that Alyx never wrote about.
Weiss blinked. "...where'd the Cat go?"
Ruby sighed. "I'm not sure if I have the mental fortitude to carry on with this wild cat chase."
"Of all the characters from the book, why did it have to be the Cat?" Weiss said. "Why couldn't we have gotten help from the Lively Carpenter or the Rusted Knight? One was sweet, one was handsome, and neither of them had the attention span of a goldfish."
"Let's just find this...freak, use their services and let them roam off." Ruby sighed. "I can't take their crap anymore."
Yang frowned. Ruby would never say something so...rude. Sure, she could have a mouth off, but it was always so proper, for lack of a better word. Never spoke rude about anyone who didn't try to kill them.
She wished she was normal size.
Just so she could give Ruby a break from dealing with everything.
"...are you SURE we're going the right way?" Ben asked the Cat in his hoodie.
"Positive!" The Cat nodded. "...mostly positive! Somewhat positive."
"Every time you change your answer, I die a little inside." Ben groaned.
"I apologize for any...inconveniences," the Cat apologized, "But if I may, since we have time. Your watch...what did you call it again?"
"Omnitrix. It lets me turn into any number of alien species so long as it has a scan of the species in question. It was originally meant to be a diplomatic thing, walk a mile as another species, learn their culture, make connections. I used it to be a hero, help people back where I'm from."
Conveniently leaving out the times you failed, the cruel doubts jabbed.
Ben rolled his eyes at that. "It's really just a tool for...just about anything."
"Just about?" the feline tilted their head.
"Yeah. Understanding, fighting, vibing..." Ben listed off.
"Conquest?" The Cat asked.
"...I'd frown upon it, but sure." Ben said after a pause.
"That's what our favorite squid wants it for," Emerald chimed in.
"Really? He's going that simple?" Ben asked.
"I don't know everything about it. Breach dropped him in out of nowhere while me, Hazel, and..." the Jaded Thief trailed off for a moment, "and Charmcaster were giving a report. Salem talked to him, proved her immortality, and then promised him revenge. Revenge against who, I got no idea."
"The Fulmini. They...they destroyed his planet, his people."
"How do you know?" Emerald asked.
Ben winced. "He...sorta kidnapped Kevin when we were kids to steal the sample from his AntiTrix and rejuvenate himself. He's just all 'I am entitled to the Omnitrix to save my people' and I'm like, 'cool motive! still kidnapped and effectively mutated my friend'."
"So you beat him to a pulp."
"Me, Ruby, Anna, Kevin, Grandpa Max. In the end, I thought I'd killed him. Hit 'em with the power of a sun before knocking him into another one. Or at least I thought I did. Dunno how he came back, but..."
But now you're going to finish the job when you get back? his doubts asked.
"Maybe." Ben frowned. Ben wasn't usually one for killing; it wasn't his choice to decide who lived or died on a whim. Sure, sometimes a threat needed to be neutralized, but there was a difference. Take this for example. Compare two evils.
Cinder Fall: Terrorist. Aided in the downfall of Beacon and Haven. Has and will try to kill Ben and Ruby and anyone connected to them on site. And a long list of other crimes alongside that.
Trombipular: He stole a lot of peanuts, Ben's one real weakness. Didn't really try to harm civilians.
Which one would YOU be more worried about as a civilian?
Unless you have an allergy, then the obvious choice would be Cinder.
"You have such an interesting story," The cat bemused, as the sky suddenly turned dark. Ben looked up to see storm clouds forming.
"You could say that, yeah," Ben muttered as he saw the storm forming above, "Hey...how bad do storms get around here?"
"Oh well that depends I suppose. Ponderstorms can be intriguing if you're caught, but if you just mean rain, sleet, hail or snow...mmm, well, it depends. Sometimes strong enough emotions can make them worse. Winds can pick up, lightning can strike, the usual," the Cat explained.
"In other words, we need shelter," Emerald said, looking around for someplace that the trio could hold up until the storm passed. Since they started following the Cat's paw, they'd made good time, walking over the sandstone bridge of the Timeless Desert and across the marble bridge into the Red Kingdom. Emerald was a little less familiar with this place than she was with the Desert.
"Over there," Emerald pointed out, taking the trio over to a small cave that bored into the base of one of the red checkerboard patterned hills, a chess-piece styled monolith looming over them from atop the hill.
The group quickly sprinted over to the cave, just in time too. It sounded like it was about to start thundering really bad out there. The second the group got in the cave, it began to storm. Not the 'oh, light rain, I can walk in this' sort of rain. Full on torrential downpour.
Ben shuddered. "Yikes."
"Ohhh, someone's in turmoil..." The Cat mused.
"You can just...tell?" Emerald asked.
"Oh of course! I'm quite adept at reading the weather. Literally! Storms like this are quite rare, but I've still seen one or two before. Always something to be wary of."
"How long is it gonna last?" Ben said.
"Who knows? Minutes, hours, days...depends on how strong the emotions are. Sometimes it can turn acidic." The Cat claimed, followed by a little shiver, "Not a pretty sight."
"...well, I'm not taking my chance with that." Emerald said, noticing some sticks in the cave. "Hey. Help me build a campfire."
"Oh what a purrfect set piece! Where better to share your stories and answer my questions than around a nice cozy little hearth?" the Cat beamed, floating in the air next to Emerald as she gathered up as many sticks as she could.
"Any leaves in here? Could do the same method I used with Mercury," Ben said as he got up and began collecting some more fuel for the flames as well.
The Cat paused. "I may need to inspect those leaves before we do that."
Ben looked puzzled. "Huh? Why?"
"A certain type of leaf, when burned, can induce vivid hallucinations in small amounts. Larger amounts can...well, best not talk about that," the Cat answered.
"Good idea," Emerald said. "I don't feel like having an acid trip tonight."
"Let me find them myself! I'd have a better time identifying." The Cat said, as they hopped out of Ben's jacket...and something dropped on the floor. The Cat and Emerald looked over to see Ben hastily picking up a dagger and shoving it back in his jacket.
"S-sorry! That's...that's nothing." Ben said, all flustered.
"It's just a dagger, isn't it? Why are you all," Emerald motioned to Ben's change in demeanor.
"Don't worry about it." Ben interjected. "Just...just build the fire, okay?"
The Cat, surprisingly, didn't ask. They just trotted off to see if there were any leaves around the cave. Emerald raised an eyebrow, but shook her head. "Uh, okay." She mumbled.
With that little hiccup out of the way, getting a fire started was easy enough. The Cat returned with a mouthful of red leaves, almost like maple leaves from the normal world, and placed them atop the pile of sticks that the duo had managed to arrange for fuel. Ben quickly formed the sticks into a teepee shape, putting the leaves in the middle before working to set it alight.
Ben and Emerald stared at the fire, not speaking at all. Ben seemed pretty upset, and Emerald could just feel the awkward air settling in.
"Was that knife important?" the thief asked.
"You could...say that," Ben answered, not really comfortable with going into all of the details.
"Was that for Ruby?"
Ben didn't answer.
"If you didn't want us seeing that…I'm gonna assume it's for something big."
"Drop it," Ben lightly snapped.
"...alright, alright. I didn't see anything," Emerald surrendered, not pushing the topic. She knew when pushing something would only lead to trouble.
"Ah-ahem," the Cat cleared their throat, "If that's not a topic of discussion, may I try and broach a different subject?"
"Sure. Just keep it away from the last five minutes." Ben sighed.
"How is your home right now?" The Cat asked, acting like their innocent ask wasn't a bombshell of a question.
"We...we don't know," Emerald answered somberly, "A lot...happened for us. It's still so weird that for me it was three years ago but for you it was just a few hours."
"Yeah...weird," Ben sighed, his eyes focused on the fire.
"...I haven't seen Hope in nearly four years."
Ben's expression let up after that. He looked up at Emerald, looking sorry. "O-oh. I...I didn't realize..."
"It just hit me...you know. Almost four years...it seems like such a short time when you compare it to, say, ten or twenty, but for me, it's felt like a lifetime," Emerald continued, "I've gone over what I'd say to her whenever I see her again. Apologize for...for everything. For being such a...a selfish excuse of a girlfriend."
"Where was she, during...everything?" Ben asked. Ben didn't realize it, but Charmcaster hadn't shown up once during the fall of Atlas. He didn't really question it until now.
"She's been in Vacuo since we sort of...took her back to Ledgerdomain for something. Lots of stuff happened...including us losing the Forever Knight." Emerald said. "Salem wasn't exactly happy about losing him."
"Wait, what?" Ben asked, "You...you LOST the Forever Knight? He...he's just gone?"
"He bought us time, and we never found out what happened after."
"Here I was thinking he was just...waiting. In all our fights, he was never one to just lash out. He planned, he strategized, he bided his time. He wasn't like Salem's other allies. Tyrian's a psycho, Cinder's power-hungry, from what I've heard, Hazel's not that bad, just...misguided."
"He wasn't," Emerald confirmed. Ben's eyes went wide. He recognized that tone of voice when Emerald said "wasn't."
"What-?" Ben started.
"He realized he was...wrong. He helped me and Oscar try and get off Monstra before we ran into your friends. Then Salem and Vilgax found us. He sacrificed himself so Oscar could..."
"...oh." Ben muttered, looking at the fire. "I...had that happen with me too. Someone sacrificing themselves so me and the other Outcasts could carry on."
"Was it just as unfair?" Emerald sighed.
"Yeah. For me, it was my Grandpa." Ben explained. "My hero."
"Was...was it-?" Emerald began.
"Salem? Sort of. Viktor did it, before I even knew about her in full. I thought the big bad back then was Zs'skayr..."
"Sorry for that."
"Not your fault. Don't blame yourself."
"I...don't mean to interrupt," the Cat chimed in awkwardly, the look on their face conveying that awkwardness, "But um...who exactly are you talking about? As an unfortunate third cart wheel here, I feel like I'm a tad out of the loop."
"Which one do you mean? Salem, Viktor, or Zs'skayr?" Emerald asked back.
"All of them. But based on context...sounds like you two have quite the dragon to slay."
"You can say that again." Ben huffed. "Twin dragons, maybe even triplet dragons."
"Usually there's only a single dragon to the heroes of the story," the Cat mused.
"I'm...I'm not a hero where I'm from. Not even a villain anymore really," Emerald sighed.
"...I'm not even sure if I can really call myself a hero after what happened in Atlas, either." Ben said.
"Wait, seriously? But I thought you said you evacuated everyone you could." Emerald said.
"I did, sure. But I don't even know what's going on up there." Ben admitted. "And it's driving me crazy. For all they know, I'm dead. And for all I know, they could be dead. Then...there's just the way Vilgax kept me preoccupied. I was so focused on fighting him that I couldn't help my friends. Could you call yourself a hero if you couldn't defend those around you?"
"May I interject?" The Cat asked.
"Sure," Ben said, humoring the offer.
"Heroes aren't defined solely by their successes, but by their intentions and their actions, even in the face of challenges and failures," the Cat offered with a thoughtful expression. "It's about doing what you believe is right, even when the odds are against you. Sometimes, circumstances force us into situations where we can't protect everyone, no matter how much we wish we could."
Ben sat up a little. "Wow, that was...pretty wise."
"I may be called the Curious Cat, but my knowledge is quite worldly." The Cat smiled, as it plopped itself in Ben's lap. Ben chuckled, deciding to pet the creature.
"Good kitty." He mused.
Emerald sighed. "I've been there myself, feeling regret for everything I've done, especially with the chaos I once sparked." Emerald admitted. "I know the world might never fully forgive me for my actions, and I might not even be able to forgive myself entirely. But there's something I've learned, the present and the future matter more than a past that might not even matter if everything ends. So...working towards that is sort of imperative right now."
Ben looked at Emerald with a mix of surprise and understanding. "You've changed a lot, haven't you?"
Emerald looked down at her hand. "In more ways than just a physical sense."
"...hey, not that it's any of my business, but what do you like most about Charmcaster?" Ben asked.
"Hope. Well, it's her determination. Even when things were at their darkest, when I was at my lowest, she never gave up on me." the illusionist explained. "What about you? What do you like about Ruby?"
Ben paused. So many good memories, so many good qualities; what could really define Ruby?
"I'd say the same about her, honestly." Ben chuckled. "Ruby's... she's like this constant source of optimism and energy. She has this unwavering belief in doing what's right, even in the face of overwhelming odds. She's got a kind of courage that's infectious-"
Ben suddenly recalled the empty look in her eyes as she fell.
You failed. The cruel jab muttered.
Ben went quiet. Emerald noticed the shift in Ben's demeanor, his words trailing off as his gaze grew distant and solemn, fixated on the dancing flames before him. As the fire continued to burn, the trio remained in silence, listening to the rain fall outside.
That was the end of their conversation that night.
Ben awoke the next morning, the cave illuminated by the soft light of dawn. He stretched and yawned, rubbing his eyes as he adjusted to his surroundings. However, something felt different. He noticed that both Emerald and the Cat were gone. The storm that had raged outside seemed to have let up. Crap, they didn't ditch him, did they? He wasn't that heavy a sleeper.
Deciding to step outside and see if he could find any traces of them, he got up and made his way to the cave entrance. As he stepped out into the open, the air was damp and refreshing, carrying the scent of rain and earth. It didn't take long for him to spot something unusual in the distance, an odd-looking tree standing amidst the greenery, adorned with a collection of intricately designed clocks.
Ben's eyebrows furrowed in confusion, and his steps slowed as he approached the peculiar tree. He had seen a lot of strange things in his adventures, but this was definitely a new one. The clocks hanging from the branches varied in size and design, each one ticking away with its own rhythm.
Ben reached for the clock, to examine it.