Awakening
Pyrrha's lungs seized.
Emerald eyes ripped themselves open as she collapsed to her knees, pain shooting through her chest.
Cinder. She'd been fighting- she'd fought- she'd lost against Cinder. The arrow-
Gloved hands clawed at her breastplate for an arrow that wasn't there, her lungs gasped for air that they shouldn't have been able to inhale and yet were-
The arrow to her ankle, the arrow to her chest, she couldn't breathe, through the pain or the damage as her mouth gasped and gaped for breathe that wouldn't come and Cinder was walking toward her-
Then nothing, then falling, then this-
The systems of her body began to work for her again, years of training to control baser instincts finally kicking back in. Hands stilled from trying to rip out an arrow that was not there, her lungs finally realised that they were working, that she could breathe, the pain, initially sharp, dulled to a low throb in her chest and ankle.
She fought the urge to throw up, and failed. The Beacon pre-bout dinner she'd eaten before the fight with Penny coated the strange bark between her knees.
Penny
The name echoed through her head with a shade of horror that subsided faster than it should have.
What she'd accidentally done to Penny had broken her before Ruby's arrival. The guilt was still there, but it was… muted, dulled.
Most likely just the adrenaline and the hours of fighting since, the distance between then and this. Yes, that had to be it.
Pyrrha allowed herself a moment, her ragged breathing eventually returning to normal as she wiped the last of the vomit from her lips.
Pyrrha Nikos lifted heavy-lidded eyes, gazing around her at the multi-coloured branches of the Great Tree. Signs of battle were everywhere. Deep gash marks and cavities blasted open in the branches, strewing shattered bark everywhere. Fallen branches still aflame, summoned ice melting and dust-round cartridges littered the battlefield before her.
Whomever had fought here was gone, there was no trace of anyone, save the wreckage they had left in their wake.
There was nothing else, the tree itself hemmed her in. No way out, no other opening, save one.
An immense Gate, bordered in gold and filled with swirling colour.
"Am I dead? Is this… whatever comes after?"
The thought turned her blood cold as the image of blonde hair filled her mind. A kiss forced upon a boy she loved to distract him just long enough to send him away.
The betrayal in his eyes in that last moment cut through her heart like a knife.
He'd never know. She'd never get to tell him-
Her grip on her weapon tightened, and it was only now that Pyrrha realised she was holding Miló and Akoúo̱
Which was impossible. Miló had been destroyed in the fight, Cinder had melted it to slag with her power.
Even if she hadn't, if this was the afterlife, why would she need her weapons in a place where everything was already dead? Why would she even have them?
The scent of the burning leaves drifted into her nose and made her blanch, mind filling with images that made neither sense nor fit, but one recurred, of a steel woman in a blank place.
Pyrrha's head hurt.
She sighed and wafted the smoke away with Akoúo̱, casting her gaze around once more, using what her grandfather had taught her to apply logic to the situation.
Someone had fought here. Fighting is irrelevant somewhere everything's already dead, which meant wherever the hell she was she wasn't in the land of the dead. Somehow.
She'd also taken an arrow to the heart. She had died, she had to have. But it was beating now, she could feel it. Hear it, if she tried to.
Miló had also been destroyed, but also apparently hadn't, because she had it in her hand.
None of this made any sense, but thinking wasn't helping the headache. There was no option but to move, try to find someone to ask what the hell was going on.
The only thing that offered a way out was the bizarre swirling gateway on the other side of the wrecked clearing.
Bronze greaves clinked with her stride. Exhaustion haunted her movements, both a problem and further welcome evidence that she wasn't dead.
The dead couldn't feel tired, right?
Hesitantly, Pyrrha's hand touched the shimmering surface between the two draconic doors, and felt something tug at her, almost as though it was asking a question. Of where she wanted to go.
Jaune's face was the first thing that came to mind, and suddenly the resistance on her hand vanished. The flame-haired girl stumbled through the door into-
Nothing. An eerily familiar nothing, as small floating blue lights wafted past her. A woman, half-again as tall as she was, and Pyrrha was far from short, stood, hammering away at an anvil.
"Hm? Found your way through faster than I expected."
"Do I know you?"
It hadn't been a thought this time. Pyrrha's lips had parted to ask the question.
It simply hadn't passed them.
She tried again, nothing. Growing frustrated, she inhaled and tried to shout, but the best she could manage was a strangled rasp.
Fear tore through her. Her voice wasn't working. She couldn't speak.
"Ah. I see. Your heart knows itself in some ways still."
Pyrrha's confusion must have been obvious, even as the steel maiden sat at a desk topped with wooden carvings of extraordinary creatures.
"It is not my place, I think, to give you those answers. From me they would not help you. Your voice is yours, as it will ever be, but who the person that voice belongs to is…"
If a steel plate was capable of exuding sympathy, this woman's face seemed to.
"Well, it is complicated. But that is what existence is, complexity, and you shall find rhythm to it again as you have in your pasts, child."
Irritation rose in Pyrrha's chest, and her head only hurt more. The sympathetic look on the woman only served to cause the irritation it to rise higher.
Where was she? Where were her friends? What happened at Beacon? Did it fall? Was Jaune safe? What about Ren & Nora? Or their sister Team, Team RWBY? Why COULDN'T SHE GET THESE QUESTIONS OUT!? WHAT THE HELL WAS GOING ON!?
"It has been some time, since you left the world, child. Some time indeed."
Pyrrha was struck dumb by the statement.
How long? How long was she gone!?
"The gate will take you where, and when, you are needed most. It will be hard, it always is, coming back, but if I may leave you with one more piece of advice…"
The kindly woman looked deep into the emerald eyes of the scarlet spartan, and this time Pyrrha was not irritated, or angry, for once she felt a little more herself. Warmer, more patient.
"You know, in your heart, what you want more than anything. You have many reasons to continue, but only one will make you happy. Trust it, and trust in the people that love you. Because, despite how the world has changed them from what you recognise, under it all, they still, and will always, love you, just as you now will learn to love them."
The questions that started bubbling upward from within would be met with no answer. So caught up in the conversation was she that Pyrrha hadn't noticed the woman guiding her toward the portal that seemed to show an immense city in a desert under starlight.
A gentle push, and the woman with flaming red hair found herself in the freezing dunes of the Vacuoan desert.
A/N: I only do these at the end of chapters, because at the start you just wanna get into it & I get that. This has been getting some traction so I figured I'd update as fast as possible. Some answers to some questions you may have;
No, this isn't Pyrrha through Neo's imagining of her, nor is it completely Vol 3 Pyrrha's back and whole either. This really is Pyrrha, truly, but the woman did literally die. That's gonna leave some trauma. Equally, she's not just Pyrrha. There's a lot of Neo's unconscious kicking around in there and there always will be, that's the nature of Ascension as it's been explained, and as we've seen from the Red Prince, ascending doesn't necessarily make you a better person. You've gotta put in the effort for mutism is intended to reflect how much Neo is still kicking around in there, and also add to some drama later.
As for pairings, I honestly don't know yet. It will either be Arkos (And thus, technically also Silent Knight, kinda, ish, I guess?) Or White Knight, as it's been in the works for a while narratively and it really does fit well. I don't know which way I'll go, I doubt I'll do both as that just doesn't feel right. If you wanna find out hang around, but I will do both girls justice. Both Pyrrha and Weiss are great characters and I'm not gonna shit on one or the other just to push a ship. Currently, I'm leaning toward Arkos eventually with some White Knight closeness but not actual relationship. IT WILL BE SLOW BURN EITHER WAY.
Thirdly, Semblance. Which one will Pyrrha have, Polarity or Illusions? I have no idea. Honestly, zero. One would just make the whole crew still believe it's definitely Neo (Which it isn't.) And would drive arguably too large a wedge between them, the other just feels like an easy cop out into "Yup it's definitely Pyrrha!", and I don't know how to combine the two, suggestions would be appreciated. For now it's not going to be used, because trauma & two souls in one body would understandably screw with the ability that is based around one's soul.
Please review! It really increases the likelihood of me writing more because knowing people are reading it makes me like writing it more.