RWBY Through Worlds

185: Second Life

Tyrian was no help whatsoever. He had only asked every day if they weren't nearly there by now, and when she said "no" he seemed disappointed... and she didn't care for that.

Lastly, after the Irasci, Salem was more enraged than before and actually let more details go.

"That young fool, Mercury Black, has Silver Eyes," she said angrily.

"I knew it!" Tyrian said, with a psychotic laugh. "So... we'll add him to the collection."

Salem intended to, but also... two of them? On the same team... That wouldn't be a problem, would it?

[AMV by Kitty Kaluver. Yet another Beth Crowley song that just seems perfect for these characters. "Empire". I meant it for Salem, but it really fits them both.]

* * *

Wally found Pyrrha, Jaune, and their company sometime right around dawn, when he finally saw the last of the Deimos fly away.

The attack seemed over for now. They apparently only bit once.

Wally wasn't sure where everyone was. He'd run looking for them, and they'd all been moving too much, and there were too many obstacles in the landscape. Even he could spend hours looking for them.

He took the group he did find back to Shine, who was still waiting for any sign of anyone else.

"I would have thought Qrow would find us by now," she said.

"I hate to say it," Theo said, "but we can't stay here forever waiting. If they're all alive, they'll meet us going West. We'll get cleaned out if we stay here."

"We'll get cleaned out if we go," Vara said. "We don't have enough people now."

"We have as many as we have," Shine said. "Anyway, two Maidens and us probably gives us the distinct advantage. But I don't understand where Ruby and Oscar went."

"We looked all over." Pyrrha sounded tired. "If they were there, they aren't now. Perhaps they fell down the side of the hill and back into the wasteland itself. I can't believe they'd just leave us there, but things were so uneasy..."

"We don't have time to wait for them," Cinder said testily.

"No one asked you," Vara said to her snippily. "As if you'd wait anyway. Selfish b----."

"Hey!" Shine said sharply. "I think Theo just said the same thing."

"Yeah, but I like him," Vara said.

Theo smirked.

"Dude, don't be proud of that," Wally said. "That's just not fair."

"I like unfair if it's in my favor," Theo said.

Jaune shook his head. "We can't leave everyone."

"Sadly, Jaune, looking for them may not gain us anything in the long run," Shine said, after a moment of considering it. "We have to keep moving and hope they run into us. Come on... I don't think we slept hardly at all, but it's dawn now."

So it was... though it was always so hard to tell here.

Reluctantly, they resumed their journey westward.

They kept looking back for any sign of anyone else following them, but so far nothing.

To help resolve this, Shine sent more letters to the other people to update them and got responses that told her who'd grouped up. They all agreed to just try to catch up.