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ActionsEntire Work ← Previous Chapter Next Chapter → Chapter Index Comments Share DownloadWork HeaderRating:MatureArchive Warning:Graphic Depictions Of ViolenceCategories:F/FF/MM/MMultiOtherFandom:RWBYRelationships:Penny Polendina & Ruby RosePenny Polendina/Ruby RoseBlake Belladonna/Weiss Schnee/Yang Xiao LongBlake Belladonna/Yang Xiao LongBlake Belladonna & Ruby Rose & Weiss Schnee & Yang Xiao LongCinder Fall/NeopolitanCinder Fall/Emerald SustraiMercury Black/Yatsuhashi DaichiJaune Arc/Pyrrha NikosLie Ren/Nora ValkyrieJaune Arc & Pyrrha Nikos & Lie Ren & Nora ValkyrieRaven Branwen/Summer Rose/Taiyang Xiao LongCinder Fall & Ruby RoseCinder Fall & Yang Xiao LongJaune Arc/Lie Ren/Pyrrha Nikos/Nora ValkyrieCharacters:Ruby Rose (RWBY)Yang Xiao LongWeiss SchneeBlake BelladonnaQrow BranwenTaiyang Xiao LongZwei (RWBY)Cinder FallCinder Fall's StepmotherCinder Fall's StepsistersEmerald SustraiMercury BlackJaune ArcNora ValkyriePyrrha NikosLie RenOzpin (RWBY)Penny PolendinaRWBY EnsembleBeacon Staff (RWBY)Beacon Students (RWBY)Creatures of Grimm (RWBY)Adam TaurusRoman TorchwickOriginal RWBY Character(s)Additional Tags:Wolf Faunus Ruby Rose (RWBY)Grimm Ruby Rose (RWBY)Good Cinder FallGood Emerald SustraiGood Mercury BlackGood Neopolitan (RWBY)Overpowered Ruby Rose (RWBY)Canon-Typical ViolenceAlternate Universe - Canon DivergenceTrans Blake BelladonnaWeapons Enthusiast Ruby Rose (RWBY)Bird Qrow BranwenQrow Adopts CinderLesbian Yang Xiao LongLesbian Ruby Rose (RWBY)Bisexual Blake BelladonnaUseless Lesbian Weiss SchneeRuby Rose is a Ray of SunshineTherapy CuddlesSibling BondingTeam BondingFamily BondingTrans Yang Xiao LongCute Penny PolendinaLesbian Penny PolendinaAdam Taurus Being an AssholeLanguage:EnglishStats:Published:2023-07-07Completed:2023-12-25Words:357,824Chapters:211/211Comments:2,980Kudos:2,563Bookmarks:344Hits:152,650Black Rose Blooms SilverCyberQueen_JolyneChapter 189Notes:
Merry Christmas! Start from Chapter 176!
Chapter Text
Greetings, little one.
I am the one you call The Blacksmith .
Some may ask if I am the Great Tree, some may ask if I was the Jolly Carpenter… I answer; that I am, but I am many things and more. But I am here to tell you a story.
You know how the story goes already- a team of four children winds up in a strange land and, by some circumstance, becomes intertwined with the history of two worlds and through no fault of their own creates a stable time loop paradox, as some might call it. Through their compassion and actions, through their love for each other and the people around them, they help two lost youths along their way
This is not the story of Jaune, of Nora, of Pyrrha, of Ren.
It is not the story of Alyx, of Lewis.
It is not the story of the Brothers, nor is it the story of their creations.
It is not the story of Summer Rose, of Somewhat, of Juniper.
It is the story of everything and yet nothing at all. It is a story of great importance- and yet, it does not matter at all.
After all, our story begins many, many eons ago. Before time was time, before space was space, before anything was something, and before nothing was nothing.
In the darkness, there was a girl.
In that girl's pocket, was a seedling.
In that seedling, was the spark of everything that is, was, and will be.
In that spark… was everything and nothing.
It was not a darkness like the cover of night, nor a darkness like a shroud of malice upon the soul. It was not a darkness in any way except it was the total absence of everything including absence.
Your mind might better imagine it as an empty black void. Or a white void, if you're particular about it.
Regardless…
The seedling was planted. The girl died to nourish it with her body, and the sapling grew.
It grew in a great, infinite expansion of space and time, and it stretched across the uncountable infinite void as an absence of absence became an absence of things . And with that growing tree, that so dearly loved the girl whose heart it sprouted from, the body of the girl became the basis of everything. Her hopes, her dreams, her memories, her fantasies. Every last iota of the girl became something new, something strange, something powerful, something beautiful.
Something terrible.
The girl was caught between two worlds, and in her brightest moments and darkest depths came an odd sort of balance- paradoxical and unstable, but a balance all the same.
Balance.
Everything relies on balance. Push and pull. Give and take. Life and death. Love and hate. Everything in the universe is a constant tug of war between those factors, and I would be remiss if I did not try to remind the wayward brothers of that, every now and again.
They seem to think themselves the arbitrators of what is true and what is not, but each of them is utterly unbalanced- finding balance in the other, yes, but unbalanced all the same. I pity them, the dear first creations of the Great Tree.
They were born into a land that had everything and yet nothing at all, where everything meaningful to exist was already there, but it was hollow. Lacking. The Great Tree did not always understand balance as it does now, and unfortunately even things that are treated as gods can be fallible and make mistakes.
Perhaps, if the Brothers had shared half of themselves with the other, such that both had Creation and Destruction in equal measure, then the Ever After would not have strained to contain them both. Perhaps they would not have been forced to make their own way in the vast expanse that was everything outside of the Tree they called home, but still within the nestling branches of the Great Tree in its fullest extent.
Perhaps that which they called Remnant would not have been deemed a failed experiment- one of many among the planets that they seeded with creation and life. Perhaps if they tried to understand things from the perspective of those they ruled over, perhaps if they had not grown so used to their godlike power…
But these things are long in the past, and while they can be changed… change is not something that comes so easily to certain events.
The girl always finds herself in the endless dark before all things.
The tree always sprouts from her heart.
The Brothers are always there, drifting from place to place to try and make a place they can call perfect .
But they never will.
Of all of the things that do not exist, Perfection is the one that cannot, will not exist. It has never existed, does not exist, and will never exist. I pity them, those sad, misguided brothers. So lost in their unbalanced lives and attempting to make a balance that does not exist- they create life and death, but in death things do not come back to life. A soul, when lost in the worlds they create, can only drift away slowly, making its way inexorably back to the gentle arms of the Great Tree, whereupon it is reborn as something else, here in the Ever After.
A soul, torn asunder by a Jabberwalker, still sinks down into the roots of the Great Tree, whereupon it is repaired and sent away to be reborn again, until the cracks of its passing have healed time and time again until what's left is an entirely new soul- completely different to what came before.
A remnant of what came before lays in the shadow of what is new.
A Remnant…
Have you ever wondered, just why it seems that there are so many holes between Remnant and the Ever After? So many little blips in time and reality, so many places to get lost and find oneself in a place you never expected?
I wonder indeed.
Even I am not privy to the construction of all things as the Great Tree is- I am merely the avatar of the oldest, grandest thing in existence. I am simply a messenger, a creator. A blacksmith, a carpenter. A reshaper of forms, and a dispenser of gentle advice.
And, sometimes… I am aware of my past selves.
Looping on and on through history, Blacksmith, Carpenter, Stonemason, Woodcarver, a simple puppet on strings, a branch, a little seed, close to a girl's heart.
An endless chain of mounting purpose as the eons pass and my role becomes ever more refined.
I wonder what I'll be next- don't you?
Well… I suppose that's part of the story too. A tale that has not yet been told.
A mystery, just as all things can be and are if one finds themselves curious enough.
But I digress.
At the end of the day, I suppose the point is that the little rose wolf and the little clockwork girl are more important than they know. They are important as they are, and they know they are, but even then… they do not yet know the full extent of it.
There are events in motions and in play that they could not even possibly conceive of. Things in motion that tie into the very fabric and core of the universe itself.
Their love is powerful, strong and new and pure of heart, and their actions and appreciation for each other only encourages them to grow more- grow faster. Even if little Penny cannot grow the traditional way, of course.
She has a little piece of Lewis' soul in her, and Ruby herself has been touched by the magic of the Ever After. They balance each other but they also balance themselves. It is a beautiful dance between the two, and the way they work together…
Love is the core of this universe, after all. Love and care, kindness and hope. And two girls that love each other so much… why… how could they not have reached a magic of their own?
Ruby Rose. Scatter. Bloom. Burst.
Penny Polendina. Speak. Sing. Dream.
Their souls are entwined together, and they only grow closer and closer over time.
I wonder, which it is that becomes responsible for what will happen soon? Which of these two autumn children sets it all in motion, sets the wheel of fate and the world itself spinning?
Perhaps one, perhaps both.
Perhaps, indeed, it is something for us all to simply watch and see as time goes on.
Things that have happened before happen again. Things that have never happened before happen again. All things and all places will happen and happen and happen.
Even so…
The Great Tree does not know all.
There may be a surprise in store at the end of this journey- for you. For I.
But that will have to be a story for another time.
It is late, and there are things to attend to. Items to forge, souls to collect. Purpose and promise and providence all to manage at once.
So go.
It's time to go.
After all- it's almost time for-
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