章節 1915: 145
Chapter 145Notes:
(See the end of the chapter for notes.)
Chapter Text
It came slowly, that feeling of wakefulness.
It had been a long, slow journey of growth, of reconciliation. Of self inspection. Of introspection.
She'd spent a lot of time thinking, locked in her own soul and wondering just why it was that she couldn't wake up. It couldn't have been the grimm mass that she'd eaten. It couldn't have just been the damage she'd taken. It might have been both, really. She'd never eaten a grimm that big or that malicious before. She'd never taken that much damage all at once before, even when she'd accidentally blown up a Dust supply cache some years back.
Normally she'd regrow within a month or so, rip her way out of a fleshy sac and shake herself dry of the weird black goo that came with her. Normally she wasn't at all affected by the grimm malice, having dealt with the mindless hate and rage without pause. Normally, she wasn't all but completely knocked out from a combination of the Dust explosion damage. Normally she didn't make her condition even worse by blasting her Silver Eyes at maximum power- her will to protect melding with Penny's to the point that the flash of light had washed over the world and completely drained her Aura to the point that her soul had become too weak to stay awake.
And then…
And then her mind began to dream. She… didn't really know what she was dreaming about for a long time. It felt like she was trapped in a twisted land of brambles and darkness, the sky above red and the world itself nonsensical. Maybe it was the echo of something greater in her, but it felt like she was just barely separated from something amazing , something or someone that understood her on the deepest possible level, who watched her with nothing more than acceptance and love . Not the same kind of burning, beautiful, passionate love she shared with Penny- not the same kind of love that led to endless cuddles and kissies and hugs and so many quiet moments just rambling at each other and just looking at each other like they were the other's entire world.
It was… love. Like a parent to a child. Like something so great and powerful that it couldn't even be described had looked down on her and said that she was worthy. That she was enough . That she was perfect just the way she was. That it loved her and found everything she did endlessly fascinating no matter how many times it had been repeated throughout history.
But she'd needed to find it first.
It had taken time. So much time.
She worked her way through weeds and brambles, breaking through the grasping, twisted vines that tried to drag her into the depths of the spikes and thorns, found herself realizing that she needed to follow that little spark of green back to the world of the waking. Green like her firefly. Green like Penny.
That spark of green had dimmed for a while, disappearing into the distance but Ruby had still followed that spark as far as she could, wishing it would come back to her, would return the light to the darkened world. She didn't blame it, though. She could still feel the love and joy that spark felt, even while she dug through the brambles.
It wasn't like that time before, it wasn't like that time when she'd been stuck in a morass of hatred and anger and bloodlust. It hadn't been a desperate crawl through her own soul where she had to remember who she was.
Ruby had known the entire time who she was. She was just… trying to get back. To get through the bizarre dead world full of twisted black brambles and strange hexagonal tiles. Honestly, if she hadn't known that she was dreaming and stuck in her mind the entire time, she would have thought that she was somehow in a twisted, dark version of the Ever After described in The Girl Who Fell Through the World .
It would have been interesting to see the actual fantasy wonderland that had inspired so many works of art in the decades since it had been released worldwide, but alas, she was just stuck doing some kind of weird spiritual journey where she had to confront the ghosts of her own existence and realize such and such about herself with every weird obstacle.
She had , oddly enough, had a really vivid hallucination about seeing Team JNPR at one point, and they'd looked surprised to see her, but that had vanished after a moment.
She didn't recognize the kids they were with, though. Huh. That really was a weird hallucination. Like that one bit in the story where Alyx and her traveling companions found a wandering ghost that vanished into thin air as soon as they came close.
Huh.
Odd.
Whatever the case was… Wakefulness came way too slowly to Ruby. She had moments where she thought she could hear someone talking to her, but the vast majority of her journey had been pushing through brambles and cursing her own mind and soul for doing this same thing to her again . She already knew what and who she was, dangit! She didn't need to tell herself that she was a protector of the innocent and a hero and that she was Ruby Rose, a Huntress , again for the second time.
Okay, maybe she might have needed a little reinforcement there but in her defense she'd been a little shaken up at the time. Regardless.
Ruby knew who she was and what she was and what she wanted to be and how to achieve her goal. It might have been a terrible, thankless goal at times what with how much time she'd need to spend out in the endless wilderness and such but she was a Huntress all the same and she didn't care how long she'd have to spend hunting grimm after grimm after grimm. She was a Huntress .
And… she also needed to learn how to accept herself.
Accept that the full range of emotions she had was a full range of emotions. All of the good things- happiness, joy, love, laughter, fondness- and the bad things with them- rage, hate, anger, wrath, bloodlust. She had to learn how to let herself learn her own balance- after all, she'd pulled so far towards humanity that she hated the reminder of her own grimmness, didn't she?
It wasn't overt, it wasn't something she thought of, but she'd always called it a good thing when she was more human, hadn't she? When she didn't feel any emotions that made her want to destroy. When she was safe, warm, happy, in love. When she reveled in the joy of soft things and her dearest firefly.
Her firefly…
Still, though. Those vague moments of irritation and annoyance were the most she let herself feel- she was never truly angry. She never let herself be angry because she feared how much damage she could cause, pushed those emotions back down until she had no idea how to deal with them when she was forced to confront them.
And so-
She'd spent a long, long time remembering how to be a balance . Animal, Person. Grimm, Human. Destruction, Creation. Light, Dark. Good, Evil. Scatter, Bloom. Joy, Rage. Happiness, Anger. Love, Hate.
Odd how she was actually more balanced when she was a half feral little thing that grew up in the woods killing bandits and only having positive contact with Uncle Qrow. Odd how that balance was entirely different from how she was now.
She felt different now, honestly. Probably looked different too.
In the end, her journey had been… odd. She'd spent so long digging through her own emotions and spirit and, really, it was just… odd. Odd how she'd needed another spirit journey, odd how she'd felt like something really big and important was there with her every step of the way, odd how everything had played out.
In the end, her journey ended at a pedestal at the edge of a cliffside, a familiar sword stabbed into the stone along with a rose and that spark of green- a firefly that had landed atop the petals and…
She'd breathed in, had felt the comforting grasp of a familiar soul against hers. She'd felt the invisible presence of Crescent Rose against herself, had known instinctively that it was time to wake up.
And then-
And then…
And then Ruby awoke slowly, eyes fluttering open ever so delicately in the light of the afternoon sun as birds chirped in the distance and the scent of spring and roses filled the air. She realized after a moment that everything was filtered through a web of familiar orange strands, that there was weight on her lips, that there was a beautifully familiar scent that made her heart flutter with joy.
She pressed upwards, and felt Penny's lips against hers, the two of them reveling in the moment of quiet as golden light filled the area and made everything feel… soft. Warm. Delicate. As though it were a quiet moment that she wanted to last forever.
But… all too soon, Penny pulled back, and glowing eyes met the most vivid emerald that she'd ever seen in her life.
She was different now, too. Slightly older looking, slightly taller, slightly more filled out. Penny Polendina was, once again, the most breathtaking person that Ruby Rose had ever seen, and their Auras pulsed together so strongly that a storm of rose petals filled the air in a near instant.
"Good morning, wishing star," Penny's voice sounded out- calm and melodic and so, so musical that it made Ruby almost tear up as she leaned forward and gently took her dearest beloved's face in her cupped hands. "You've slept in quite a while… we're late for class."
"Heh… good morning firefly… sorry I'm late, I got a little lost in my dreams," Ruby answered, a tearful smile crossing her face as Penny smiled at her.
"As long as you're here now, beloved. That's all that matters."
Their lips joined again, and all was right in the world.
每周推薦票狀態
-- 推薦票
榜單 
-- 推薦票