The Games We Play

DISCLAIMER: This story is NOT MINE IN ANY WAY. That honor has gone to the beautiful bastard Ryuugi. This has been pulled from his Spacebattles publishment at threads/rwby-the-gamer-the-games-we-play-disk-five.341621/. Anyway on with the show...err read.

Burial

We followed Keter into the wilds of Patch, taking the long way around Taiyang, Qrow, and their house. I wasn't certain whether or not they sensed anything from us, but if they did, they didn't try to follow and Raven didn't look back.

But then, I suppose looking forward was a requirement of sorts, in our line of work.

As we went deeper into the forests and the last signs of civilization faded away, however, I began to notice something odd. It was a subtle transition, so much so that I only noticed because of the breadth of my senses, but it was definitely there and it stood at when I looked back there way we came.

"There are more flowers here," Raven noted as well, turning her gaze towards Autumn, who'd paused and reached out to one of them. Further back, there'd been a few—a bit more than one might expect, but nothing particularly noteworthy—but here, they were pretty much everywhere you looked. Not to the point of layering the grass or anything, but enough to pick a few out wherever you turned your head.

Frowning slightly, I nodded as Autumn laid her hand over the flower. When she pulled away, it was gone without a trace, but…

I turned forward, looking ahead of us. Now that I had some idea of what I was looking for, it was easy to guess where we were headed and I didn't hesitate to continue walking.

"Come along, Autumn," I murmured quietly. "We'll have time for that later."

Autumn, who'd been about to reach out to another flower, paused and dropped her hand back to her side without complaint, moving to follow me. The forests around Patch were covered with wide, crawling roots and it quickly grew dark beneath the tangling tree branches, but none of us had any problem moving through it. As we went further, Raven's brow began to furrow and she started to frown as well.

"Is this…?" Raven began to ask before shaking her head as if it were a silly question. She paused for a moment to stare into the distance, reaching out with her power to look ahead, and then closed her eyes for a moment. "Ah. I've never taken this route to get there before, but if there was anywhere…yes, I suppose it would be there."

I nodded wordlessly, looking at the same thing she was. Ahead of us, when the forest faded into fields and lead up to the cliffs around the island, there was a small, simple stone with words engraved upon it.

Summer Rose

Thus Kindly I Scatter

It was her tombstone. There was no body beneath it, as near as I could tell, but that didn't change anything—funerals were for the living, rather than the dead.

Or was that really true? Thinking about it, I wasn't sure. Now that I knew more about souls and such, a lot of things began to seem more plausible. A lot of cultures made a fairly big deal about last rites and while I sincerely doubted it was as simple as 'Do it or they'll never rest and come back as ghosts or zombies or something', maybe there was some significance to it. From what I'd learned and gathered, the way you died could hold some value to a soul, so perhaps the act of being buried or mourned or even just remembered did something as well.

All I knew is there must have been something to it, because from the base of Summer's gravestone to the edge of the forest, there were flowers. Hundreds of thousands of flowers covered the open plain, spreading out with all the colors of the rainbow and then some. There were roses, of course, and tulips and lilies, peonies and sweet peas, asters and carnations and daffodils and countless other things, weaving together a tapestry of natural beauty that would have stunned and amazed anyone without allergies.

If I'd been anyone else, I probably wouldn't have though anything of it. It was a beautiful place, of course, but it wasn't particularly unusual to bury someone you loved in such a place. If you couldn't find the body, if you had no idea what had happened or where they'd been or how it had happened….well, who wouldn't want them to be someplace beautiful? Burying her here wasn't that odd when you thought about it.

But I was me—and my daughter had grown from a rose, so stuff like this drew my attention. And, as it happened, I'd done a fair bit of research into the subject of flowers when I'd taken one in, enough to say I knew my shit when it came to them, which meant I knew enough to know that not all of these flowers would grow in the same place on their own. Hell, even if they did, this field didn't seem to care much about the season; not of these flowers should have been in season now, this early in spring. I could say with a fair bit of confidence that this field hadn't always been like this.

Some of it had probably been the work of family members and loved ones, bring flowers or planting them around her grave. But even with the most loving husband and the closest friends, raising and maintaining a field of flowers would be difficult for pretty much anyone without plant controlling powers, especially outdoors where anything could happen and the Grimm could go about their randomly dickish ways. It would take a lot of work to do this, the type of work that left behind traces and signs that I just didn't see, at least not on the scale that would allow this. It was beautiful, amazingly so, but it wasn't normal in the slightest.

Normalcy is overrated, I thought, laying a hand on Autumn's head as we reached the edge of the forest.

"I think we've found what we're looking for," I said aloud, making Raven nod silently as she scanned the field with a wary eye, looking for signs of any hidden dangers before nodding to herself. I could have told her that it was remarkably clear of danger for a place on Remnant, but I didn't; she wasn't actually worried, she was just falling back on what she knew as a Huntress after being shaken a bit. It was a natural thing to do and I steadfastly didn't comment on it.

"It wasn't like this when I came before," She answered at last and then paused for a moment, looking a bit embarrassed. "But…it's been quite some time since I was last here."

I nodded in understanding; nobody liked to be reminded of what they'd lost, especially when they'd lost it because of their own failure. Whether that failure was real or imagined, it didn't make much difference—I'd only been to my father's grave once. Granted, part of that was because I lived on another continent now, but honestly I wouldn't visit much even if I lived a block away from it. After all, I remembered him and how he died with a detail most people couldn't imagine; there just wasn't much point in visiting a slab of stone. Besides, if he could hear me and was watching over me, he could do it wherever I was and he'd probably prefer it if I wasn't looking down while he did it.

"However long it's been, these didn't grow naturally—and under the circumstances, I'm guessing it has something to do with Summer," I said before turning my head to look at Autumn. "What do you think, Autumn? Does any of this feel familiar?"

Autumn didn't answer, white cloak concealing the swarm of moving coils and thorns that severed as her face. After a moment, she began to rise, her cloak shifting slightly as she grew back into the six legged form she seemed to favor. Her humanoid upper body remained the same, but she turned her head slightly as she surveyed the field before moving forward slowly, limbs stabbing deeply into the earth.

"I'll assume that was a yes," Raven said wryly.

"She's just shy around strangers," I explained. "She's usually more talkative, but I don't think she knows how to act around new people yet."

"How old is she now?" Raven asked.

"A few months, technically," I answered. "That's how long it's been since I awakened her Aura, at least. She's only been able to walk for a little less than two weeks though—that's how long it's been since I taught her to make a body."

"Ah," Raven said, as if that explained it. "I take it she hasn't been around many people then?"

I shook my head.

"I've introduced her to several others, but really it's just Gou, Adam, and I," I replied before tilting my head. Raven was staring at Autumn's back and it didn't take a genius to see that she was looking for signs of Summer. On one hand, I wasn't sure if that was a fair thing to want to expect from a young girl, whoever she might have been. On the other, fairness didn't really have anything to do with it; Summer had been Raven's friend and Raven had been Summer's. It was naturally to want to find what you've lost and having walked away from Taiyang and Qrow again—and through them, from her own daughter…

I held back a sigh and considered it before nodding.

"Actually, perhaps you can help her with a few things," I mused aloud, drawing Raven's attention. "We've been training a lot recently and she's very smart, but she only has a few weeks of experience with a mobile body. I'm going to start teaching her to protect herself soon, though I'm not entirely certain of where to start. Perhaps you could assist me? It may not be my place to ask, but it might be a good idea to show her a bit of Summer's fighting style."

"…You don't have to do that," Raven whispered, seeing through it.

I smiled slightly and nodded again.

"Maybe, but…the two of you were parts of each other's lives," I stated. "I have to ask that you don't expect anything unreasonable from her, but…it must have meant a lot to Summer, too. So it's only right that I give you a chance to find it again, or at least try and build something new."

Raven was silent for a long moment before nodding very shallowly.

"Thank you," She said. "Perhaps I'll take you up on that."

I inclined my head at her and then followed after my daughter who was slowly moving through the field. The right sleeve of her cloak flapped once before several appendages reached out from it—human arms, but far longer, lacking anything like elbows or bones. They stretched out, touching individual flowers for several moments before moving on to reach out to others.

"Find something, Autumn?" I asked as I came to stand on the other side of her, looking up at her face.

She was quiet for a moment, her eyes staring at nothing as her arms slowly moved. After several seconds, however, her hood turned towards me, silver glinting in the shadows.

"They're like me, Father," She whispered at last. "Like I was before."

Before, I wondered, looking down at them. They were normal flowers but for the fact that they were growing in an abnormal place—none of them possessed an awakened Aura that I could see, which meant that she wasn't talking about before she had a body or a mind of her own. Then did she mean before she met me? But then—

"All of them?" I asked, surprised as I glanced over my shoulder at Keter. The Light Elemental didn't bother walking through the field but simple turned his attention towards a million different points. Though he didn't have an recognizable expression…maybe it was because he was me, but I thought he looked contemplative. After a moment, the expression of my soul appeared at my side, showing no sign of covering the space in-between, and knelt to place a hand on the ground.

Light raced through the earth, flowing outwards in a web of white energy. It raced across the field, touching upon flowers and making them glow from within until every flower petal around us seemed to be made of solid light. I felt my energy drain at a startling pace as the network expanded, but just as I was going to interrupt, it suddenly stopped.

"Keter, what was that?" I asked, frowning with a touch of annoyance.

"As I thought, these flowers seem unusual," He replied, sounding interested.

"What do you mean?"

"I mean that she may be right," Keter stated. "It is if a soul had been separated into a million cells and the pieces had been planted here. The addition to each is negligible and yet…they feel connected, even across so many bodies. It would seem we've found what we are looking for."

I looked at him for a long moment before surveying the field again, lifting a hand to my chin.

"So Summer's soul really has been scattered here?" I mused, analyzing the various flowers again. Despite the breadth of my senses, I didn't see anything odd about them physically, but this wasn't a physical issue. I trusted both Keter and Autumn, though, and if they said there was something there, I believed them.

"So it would seem, at least," Keter replied, touching a flower and leaving it glowing for a moment. "Nonetheless, it is strange…"

I tilted my head with a slight frown, pretty sure I knew what he meant.

"You said they were connected?" I asked. "How?"

Keter was silent for a long minute, scanning the field with a million different eyes before replying.

"I don't know," He admitted. "I can't say that I remember ever seen anything like this before. A soul reduced to such an extent should simply fade away, yet these do not. Each flower had a tiny, almost meaningless addition, but even that should be impossible. Even if her soul had managed to remain in this world despite the damage inflicted to it, it should have…"

"Scattered?" I guessed.

"Yes," Keter agreed, sounding distracted. "And yet they are all gathered here. Such small elements of a soul shouldn't be able to do such a thing—shouldn't be able to do anything, truthfully. Yet obviously they have."

I nodded at that, looking back at Autumn who had lowered herself to the ground and was quietly looking around at her…siblings? Pieces? Other selves? I wasn't sure what to call them. She's sunk her roots into the grass, but didn't seem certain of what to do next.

"Do you have any idea why?" I asked when Keter fell silent again. After a moment, he nodded slowly.

"It's nothing more than a guess, in truth," He began slowly. "But while I cannot be certain, I believe they are connected simply due to the fact that they are of the same soul."

"I thought it didn't work like that?"

"It doesn't normally," He replied. "So I suspect it has something to do with the nature of Summer's power or of her soul. While the pieces have been scattered, they remain a part of the same whole—no longer solid or in one piece, but still of one soul. I can feel power flowing through this field like it would through a human body, and though the process is a touch different, the core concepts remain. The Sephirot are still here, if in bits and pieces, and energy—Aura—is being used to fill the gaps."

"So the chain isn't broken, per se," I muttered, glancing around again, this time more slowly. "It's just more spread out. Instead of bridging the path from Keter to Malkuth within a single body, it does so across thousands. A fluid rather than a solid."

"Yes," Keter answered. "It's intriguing, I must say."

I grunted and turned away from him.

"If the pieces are all still here, I'm going to take a guess and say that's Keter," I said, nodding in the direction of the tombstone—and at the roses that wreathed it.

"Most likely," Keter agreed. "They would appear to be the core of this arrangement."

I hummed as if that meant something to me and looked at my daughter again, nodding my head towards the grave. She rose from the ground, withdrawing her roots as she did, and began to quickly stride towards it, following my lead. I stopped at the base of the grave marker, a shadow coming over me as Autumn loomed at my back, and continued to watch the roses.

"Was this where you came from?" I wondered, not that Autumn had any way of knowing. "But how did you get from here to that store?"

Autumn shook her head and I reached back to grasp her hand, pondering the matter. I suppose it wasn't impossible that someone had simply taken to collecting flowers from this place. Given the quantity and variety, I suppose it wasn't unlikely that someone looking to make some cash had chosen to take advantage of it. With the Grimm all around us, there was only so much space for…anything, really, and the Agricultural District could only spare so much room for growing pretty flowers instead of food. If someone had found a place like this—a relatively safe location filled with unnaturally growing flowers—I wouldn't have been surprised if they had seen an opportunity to make a quick buck out of it. Sure, the thought of someone harvesting and selling a deceased hero's remains was pretty horrifying, but they wouldn't have known that was what they were doing, and though taking flowers from a dead woman's grave was skeevy at best, it wasn't hard to imagine someone wanting to make money more than they wanted to respect some woman they didn't know.

So yeah, I could imagine that. I could except that it was possible that that was how Autumn had gotten to a flower shop in Vale.

But how had I picked her out of any other flower in there? Had it been Luck? My Intuition acting up without me noticing? Had my Aura unknowingly touched hers and inclined me in her direction, the same way Qrow and Taiyang had spotted us? Or had there been something else at work?

I briefly pondered whether or not I had been influenced somehow, but dismissed it almost immediately. For one thing, I had full faith in the power of the Gamer's Mind to shut down any mind whammies that came my way, so it couldn't have been that, and my intention to pick up a plant that day had been entirely my own as far as I knew.

Then, was it possible that Autumn had reached out to me? Her Semblance, Gatherer, existed to bring things together, and it didn't take a genius to figure out why. I could believe in coincidence up to a point, but standing here in this field of scattered pieces, it was easy to figure out what Autumn was supposed to unite. But even Autumn hadn't know about any of this. Hell, before she met me, she had no way of acting, knowingly or not. Even if her purpose had been to bring herself together and I had been the one person around who could help make it happen, I saw no way to make those ends meet.

I wondered absently what would have happened had I picked up some other flower. Eventually, Autumn could have just died like the rest of her sisters. Would her soul have returned to this place? Or would it have faded away? And what if I'd picked up a different part of her; a tulip from this valley instead of a rose?

Would I have ever found my way here? Would I have ever figured out what had happened, what was still happening? Would anyone? Or would Summer's soul just keep on waiting here?

I signed and shook my head before smiling up at Autumn.

"Well, I guess that's at least one thing I'll never know the answer to," I said. "We're here now."

Autumn nodded, setting down against the earth again and splaying her six legs wide. Reaching out with one of her hands, she touched the smooth surface of the tombstone, tracing the words.

"Thus Kindly I Scatter," She voiced before dropping her hand to the line below. "Summer Rose."

"Mm," I hummed, confirming that she got it right. "She's been scattered like this for years now, but I don't know if I'd call it kind. So…I'd say it's about time we brought the pieces back together, right Autumn?"

Her legs twitched as she nodded, sharpened tips sinking deeply into the dirt. As she did, I reached out to touch the stems of one of the roses, whispering a few words underneath my breath before letting going and grasping the next to repeat the process. After I'd laid my hands on each of the rose plants, I rose and turned back to the fields, reaching out to grasp flower after flower. After a while, I began to reach out with my Psychokinesis as well, channeling power constantly as I made my way through the field.

"What are you doing?" Raven asked, catching up to me at a sedate pace.

"These flowers are the scattered pieces of Summer," I stated. "We're getting ready to bring them back together."

Raven nodded at that, accepting it easily.

"How?" She asked. "Through Autumn's Semblance?"

"Partially," I stated. "But before that, I'll awaken their Aura. In the past, it seemed to make the process more effective, and in this case…well, hopefully it'll help bring a few things out."

Raven looked at me for a moment and then looked over the field of thousands upon thousands of flowers.

"All of them?" She asked. "That may take a while."

I chuckled and shook my head in reply. While I could feel her desire to aid her friend, she was also worried about the scope of such a project. Awakening something's Aura wasn't effortless and with this many flowers to attend to…well, her concern was understandable. It wasn't something that could be completed in a timely manner, most days. But…

"Not to worry," I said. "I'll handle it. If it's just something like this, it actually shouldn't take too long."