What Remains ~ RWBY

Part 14

The song ends and static screams through the speakers.

"Sorry about that folks," Neptunes voice laughs sheepishly through the microphone, "Qrow's got something to say."

I cock my eyebrow quizzically. My uncle was never really the speech type, what the hell is he doing?

The grey haired recovering alcoholic steps up into the sound system.

"Right," he says into the mic, "Is this thing on?"

We all give him a nod of approval and he continues.

"Yes, well. I know you're all having the time of your lives right now, which is why I thought it might be the best...safest....moment to tell you we have some visitors."

A confused murmur breaks out amongst the group. I instinctively grip Oscar's forearms, my panic rising. It's ridiculous and unreasonable. There's nothing for me to fear, and yet there's a pit in my stomach making my legs go numb. Oscar pulls me closer to him, steadying me as if he knows exactly what I'm feeling.

Qrow covers the mic with his hand and whispers something to Neptune, who then runs to the doors.

"Now, play nice okay?" Qrow says sternly.

Neptune opens the doors on Qrow's cue, looking just as confused as we do, and we all gasp in shock.

A green haired girl and silver haired boy stand nervously behind them, holding one another's hands for support.

Yang smashes a glass on the back of the chair and holds the now lethal spikes in front of her defensively, pushing Blake behind her.

"What the fuck are they doing here?" She yells, risking a glance at Qrow.

Weiss rips a leg of a chair and arms herself with it like a sword, Illia holds one of her pointy heels above her head.

"Hey, settle down!" Qrow booms.

My heart pumps in my throat. Emerald and Mercury, the kids we thought were our friends...the kids who helped Cinder infiltrate Beacon...the reason Penny and Pyrrha...

"Everyone please stay calm." Penny instructs, flying in front of them defensively. Emerald cowers at the sight of her.

"Penny!" Yang screeches, "These two are half the reason you got chopped up last time remember?"

"Yang!" Weiss hisses.

"What?" She yells, "It's true. These two are the reason beacon fell. Are you all forgetting that?"

"Emerald takes a step forward and Mercury catches her arm.

"Merc, it's okay. I need to speak."

The silver haired boy lets her go hesitantly, his feet planted and ready to whisk her away and run. Why are they here? Why are they so scared of us?

"I don't expect forgiveness for the role we've had to play in everything over the years. There's too much sin in our past for us to even dream of it." Emerald shakes.

"Cinder was like a mother to me. She was all I had. That kind of love is blinding. But Merc and I started to see that no matter what Salem had given us, and what we had to lose if we left her, we couldn't keep going the way we were. That's not who we are, not anymore. So just before Salem went out, we packed up our things and ran. A few months ago Qrow found us, living on the streets again. He got us back on our feet and showed us kindness, real kindness, not kindness in order to gain something like Cinder did."

"So the two little rats lost their mommy and decided to crawl back to us huh?" Yang sneers. Blake squeezes her hand sternly.

"Yang, let her keep going."

Yang huffs frustratedly and nods at Emerald to continue.

"I'm sorry for all the trouble we've caused you," Emerald whispers, tears pooling up in her eyes, "And I'm sorry for everything you've lost because of us. If we could take it all back we would."

"What about him?" Yang seethes, "You got anything to say cyborg boy?"

Mercury's face twists, pain flashing over his eyes. I realise then that Yang has more reason to be angry then any of us. She lost her reputation because of Mercury, her chances of ever being a favoured huntress. He didn't just take the last five years of her life away from her, he stole her future too.

"I'm sorry." Mercury spits.

Emerald turns to him angrily and he looks at his shoes guiltily.

"I really am," he tries again, the sincerity in his voice evident this time, "As a kid I was nothing. My father made me believe that. Cinder and Salem, they made me feel important, worth something. I let that get in the way of ever really learning right from wrong."

Emerald holds his hand comfortingly and looks back to us as we watch in silence.

"They're kids." Qrow says softly, "Kids who have been fighting a war for five long years just like you have. If your beginnings had have been a little different, you could have easily been in their position right now."

Jaune takes a step forward and everyone shifts slightly.

"Cinder took everything from me." He seethes. His tone makes Emerald and Mercury cringe, but Jaune's face quickly softens.

"But you're not Cinder." He says gently.

I find myself smiling. Something about seeing him there, with so much kindness on his face. Deep down, under the pain that keeps me from thinking her name, I know that Pyrrha would be proud.

I take Oscar's hand and take a step forward too.

"The war's over. There are no sides anymore."

"Ruby..." Yang begins.

"The war is over." I reply sternly. My sister backs down quietly, sensing there is no room for negotiation. "You're both welcome here with us."

The two teenagers look at one another hesitantly and I can see that they never expected it to be this easy. They came here ready for rejection, maybe even hoping for it. When you internalise the idea that you're a terrible person, sometimes all your really want is for everyone else to agree with you. That makes it easy. That eliminates the need for growth. Emerald and Mercury don't deserve easy, but they do deserve a chance at forgiveness.

"Ruby is right." Penny agrees, "Now here!" She zips around the room and shoves two cups of punch at the two dumbfounded teens.

"This is a party!"