[Late note: I wrote all of this arc before volume 9 came out. I decided not to change anything after seeing volume 9.]
Ruby came to consciousness slowly, not sure what happened.
Cinder had knocked her out when she sent her off the edge, and she thought she remembered falling...and then just blackness.
She opened her eyes to bright sunshine and trees...but no sign of any of her friends.
* * *
Yang was caught between a tree root and a rock, in a kind of river. The cold water was what woke her up.
She rubbed her head and pulled herself out.
"Hello?" she called. "Anyone there?"
As far as she knew, it was just her who'd fallen. But she thought maybe someone else was around.
But she didn't see anything.
* * *
Blake crashed into some bushes, no clue where she was, but she got branches everywhere, even in her ears.
* * *
Weiss hit some sandy strip next to a beach of sorts.
"What happened?" she murmured, sitting up, rubbing her head.
The strangest thing was she didn't really feel like she'd hit the ground hard, she was just disoriented.
* * *
Pyrrha opened her eyes.
"I'm...not dead?" She sat up, brushing dirt off herself.
Looking upward, all she saw was blue sky...no sign of the black abyss.
Was this the afterlife?
No...she didn't remember the afterlife, but she was sure it wasn't like this.
She got up slowly, not really sore but shaken.
"Hello?" she called. "Jaune? Yang?... Ruby? Blake?"
She started to stumble along the ground. It just looked like a forest...but not quite a normal one. Brilliant colored plants were everywhere, and small bugs and birds...but she didn't see anything she recognized, except something that looked like palm trees... Maybe there was beach or desert nearby?
Suddenly she hit her foot on something metal and bent down.
It was her shield.
Well...at least she didn't land on it, or her sword.
She used her Semblance to kind of scan the area, and suddenly her sword flew into her hands out of some bushes.
It was about at this point Pyrrha realized what happened.
She'd fallen into that abyss... This couldn't be Remnant, then, could it?
It had to be somewhere else... Perhaps...it was where the Relics were kept? Hadn't the girls said something about it being outside Remnant?
Or was it...another world?
She rubbed her arms.
"The Girl Who fell Through The World..." she murmured to herself. "'She brushed off her bumps and bruises, for nothing hurt worse than the loneliness in her chest...'"
She put a hand to her chest.
"I don't know about lonely, but...this is crazy... A lot to take in..." She glanced around.
Strangely, she didn't feel afraid at the moment, she was too dazed.
It was also way too warm here for her Atlas coat, she realized a second later, and discarded it, tying it around her waist.
Aimlessly, she kept wandering, keeping her hand out, trying to sense any more metal in the area, since it was her best bet at finding anyone else.
For a while nothing happened, but then she began to get something.
Following it, with some trial and error, she came to some thicker trees. It reminded her of the Forever Fall forest a little.
She stepped around one, and finally, to her great relief, she saw Jaune hanging of the branch of one... The tree was purple, but other than that it looked kind of like a regular sycamore tree... The leaves were 6-pointed, however.
"Why won't this break?!" Jaune was muttering, trying to snap the branch he was caught on by his hoodie.
He pulled out his sword clumsily and hacked at the branch, then it snapped, and he fell and hit one of the branches below it.
"Ow..." he muttered, Aura flashing.
He slowly started trying to climb off this one.
"Do you have any spots left on your team?" Pyrrha stepped around the tree she was by and into view.
"Ah!" Jaune jumped and slid the rest of the way off the branch and hit the ground about 10 feet below him.
"Oh, Jaune, I'm sorry!" Pyrrha rushed over. "I was just trying to make a joke."
"Ow..." Jaune blinked and looked up, then he sat up. "Pyrrha? What are you doing here?"
"I...fell..." Pyrrha said.
"Fell?" Jaune said. "But..." He looked upwards. "Where did we fall from?"
"I don't know," Pyrrha said. "But we probably shouldn't have survived it... Somehow we did. I have no memory of what happened after the abyss swallowed me."
"Me neither." Jaune rubbed his head. "I feel like we fell for a long time, but that's all..."
Pyrrha held out her hand. He took it, and she helped him up.
"Time was you'd not have gotten out of that tree yourself," she said. "I guess things have changed."
"If you can call falling the rest of the way getting out..." Jaune rubbed his shin. "Oh, right, you said that back on that second day at Beacon...when I didn't have a landing strategy."
"I guess some things haven't changed," Pyrrha said.
"I do have a landing strategy now!" Jaune protested. "I just was unconscious while I was falling. That so does not count."
"I was kidding," Pyrrha said.
"I know," Jaune said. "But, like, still..."
"But we weren't the only ones who fell," Pyrrha said. "Yang, Ruby, Blake, all of them...and weren't there some others that Cinder blasted off?" [Love how the show forgot that. ]
"Yeah, where is this?" Jaune asked.
"It has to be another world," Pyrrha said. "That's the only explanation that makes sense."
"The only one?" Jaune said. "Really? I mean, I'm sure there has to be some other explanation that could make sense..."
He looked around.
A bird that looked unlike anything they'd ever seen ran across their path and peered at them, then ran on.
"I'm not sure there is," Pyrrha said.
"Oh my gosh." Jaune grabbed his face. "This is another world? But...I... This... We... It can't...How?"
"The Staff...it must be connected to it somehow..." Pyrrha said. "If Shine was here, I have the strongest sense we'd be getting a lecture on how dimension travel works right about now."
"Why would she know?" Jaune said.
Pyrrha put a hand on her hip and tilted her head at him.
Jaune looked around, then looked back at her. "Because she's from another world," he said.
Pyrrha nodded.
Jaune let out a long sigh. "Whoa...actually somehow I feel like I should have known that from the beginning. I just...didn't think it was a thing."
"Wally is also," Pyrrha said. "Not the same one, however."
"They're from two different worlds.... How many are there?" Jaune said.
"Since I somehow don't think this is theirs, at least 4 that I count," Pyrrha said. "But from what they told me, it's even more than that. Remember that comic book series we liked, and how they had alternate timelines in it? I think it's like that."
"For real?" Jaune said. "When did they tell you this?"
"A few days ago," Pyrrha said.
"Oh...why didn't they tell us?"
"Up till now, would you have bought it?" Pyrrha asked.
"Maybe...probably," Jaune said. "I mean...it's not like it's...unheard of, right?"
"There's also the issue of people abusing their powers," Pyrrha said. "I think they wanted to protect them. Not unlike the Maidens... But I suppose, now, it's no use to keep it a secret."
"Protect it from me?" Jaune was hurt. "Like I'd abuse it?"
"Perhaps not, but someone could try to look for people who knew about it," Pyrrha said. "The more you know, the more risk, right? Same as with Ozpin... It's not that they don't trust you."
"But they told you."
"Well..." Pyrrha gestured around and to herself. "I kind of am already involved, so there's not much point in not filling me in. My existence is enough to a raise questions. I begin to think this is why they don't take it so lightly to talk about themselves, seeing as how us using the Staff to try to do what they did has...landed us here, quite literally..."
"You think their powers do this too?" Jaune asked.
"I don't know, but if so, I can see why they used them with caution," Pyrrha mused, looking upward. "I wonder if they could find us down here..."
"I hope so," Jaune said. "Unless you know how to get back."
"I don't," Pyrrha said. "I've barely even begun to use this new power."
"New..." Jaune paused. "Pyrrha...did you do something to become...I don't know, like them, I guess?"
"Yes." Pyrrha didn't even try to dodge the question, just looked at him simply.
"Oh..." Jaune said. "Okay...uh...so...how's it working out?"
"Fine so far," Pyrrha said. "Feels as if I should have a long time ago, actually. I just didn't know..."
"Oh, okay," Jaune said.
Pyrrha realized she still had her pack with her then.
She held out her hand, and Jaune's sword flew into it from the ground. "You might need this."
"I'm surprised it stayed in its sheath," Jaune said.
He still had his shield too.
"I suppose I was using mine, so I lost my grip," Pyrrha mused.
She checked her pack to see what was still there.
A few food items, water, medical supplies...and the copy of the book Shine had given her, a small one, too.
Curious, Pyrrha pulled it out.
"Perhaps this could help," she mused.
"What is that?" Jaune asked.
"Shine and Wally's book they read to know what to do," Pyrrha said. "Wally told me it's like a manuel for how to live your life. Shine said it has a lot of truth in it that we don't know about. I can't quite understand it all... I admit, though, it's been making a little more sense the last couple days since--" She paused. "Anyway, if it's from their world, perhaps it has something about other worlds in it."
"I guess that makes sense," Jaune said. "And we should look for the others... Walk and read?"
"While not advised by Glynda, as long as one of us is looking where we're going, it should be fine," Pyrrha said.
"Well then, onward." Jaune pointed his sword forward. "Come on." He took her by her forearm.
Pyrrha was a bit surprised, but this freed up her hands, so she opened the book to look more carefully.
She had no idea what to look for, but she opened it to somewhere in the middle, a section labeled Isaiah. She had no clue how to pronounce that.
Her eyes fell on the top of one page, which read as follows:
"And though the Lord gives you the bread of adversity, and the water of affliction, yet your teachers will not be moved into a corner anymore, but your eyes shall see your teachers.
"Your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, 'this is the way, walk in it.' Whenever you turn to the right hand or the left."
[Isaiah 30:20-21. What was weird is I thought of this passage while writing this, but didn't remember where it was, and I just heard Isaiah 30 in my head, and there it was. Strange, right?]
"Jaune, listen to this," she said, reading it out loud.
"What does that mean?" Jaune asked.
"I'm not sure," Pyrrha said. "It sounds straightforward, but I don't know how exactly that would happen. I see no one else here..."
"Well, it's not like it's just going to happen just because it's in a book," Jaune said. "I mean, it happened...like, ages ago probably."
"I got the impression from them that it all happens now," Pyrrha said.
"But that doesn't make any sense," Jaune said.
"I suppose not, but things don't always make sense," Pyrrha said. "Still, I don't know how to read this..."
Jaune stepped over a root and turned to the left right then to avoid a rock, altering their course a bit.
"Don't go that way." Pyrrha heard that in her head clear as day--though it was not loud, nor did it exactly sound like a spoken voice. It just was.
"Wait," she said.
Jaune stopped.
"Not that way," Pyrrha said.
"Why not? I mean, we have no idea where we're going," Jaune said.
"Yes...but I think we should go...this way." Pyrrha turned back towards the rock and stepped over it instead.
"Why?" Jaune asked.
"I heard something..." Pyrrha answered vaguely.
"Well...I guess it doesn't matter..." Jaune followed her uncertainly.
Pyrrha couldn't really explain what happened for the next few minutes, but every time she began to veer one way or the other, she heard the same thing in her head to stop, and she'd alter her course accordingly.
Jaune went along with it because it wasn't like he had any better ideas, but she began walking so fast, he had to quicken his pace to keep up.
And then Pyrrha walked almost right off a ravine.
Jaune caught her right before she stepped off the edge that had been hidden by some bushes.
"Whoa!" She looked down.
Jaune pulled her back right against him, and they fell over.
Pyrrha hit him with her ponytail by accident.
"Sorry, sorry," she said, struggling to scramble up and tripping anyway.
"No problem..." Jaune was beet read. "Just stop kicking me--ow!"
Finally Pyrrha got a grip on a rock and pulled herself up, then she brushed herself off.
"I guess this wasn't the right way..." Jaune said.
Pyrrha looked over the edge.
The ravine fell down into oblivion...and there was a huge tree growing out of a big chunk of rock in the center of it...that appeared to either be floating there or suspended by some support too small to be seen from the edge.
"Well..." she began.
"That is the way," she heard before she could finish.
"No, this is it," she said aloud. "I think that's the way back."
"What do you mean? No way that's the way back, it's just a big ravine with trees in it," Jaune said.
"Well...we fell down a hole..." Pyrrha said. "Maybe a hole leads back."
"No way," Jaune said. "That's crazy. We'd have to jump down what? What if there's rocks at the bottom...or, you know, dirt?!"
"What if it is the way, Jaune?" Pyrrha said. "Besides, I thought you said you had a landing strategy."
Pause.
"Well...yeah, but..." Jaune looked down. "It's...a long way down."
"You have a better idea?" Pyrrha could be rather sassy when she chose to be.
Jaune didn't.
"But what about the others?" he said.
Pyrrha did pause then.
"Well...yes, I suppose you're right," she said. "We should make sure the others are with us first."
Funny...she'd almost forgotten about them.
Wait, that wasn't funny at all.
How could she forget that?
"I just don't get how we fell down that far and didn't get hurt," Jaune was saying, looking up.
"Jaune, do you remember who else fell down here?" Pyrrha asked.
"I didn't see anyone but Yang," Jaune said.
"Not just her, there was...Ruby...Blake..." Pyrrha put a hand to her forehead. "And I think Cinder knocked some people down also."
"Okay..." Jaune said, "they have to be around here somewhere. If we survived, I'm sure they would have."
He peered around. "Maybe just follow this ravine for now? So we don't lose it."
Pyrrha nodded slowly, and they started doing this.
The landscape was distracting, so many bright colors and strange plants.
Pyrrha had this song going through her head. She couldn't quite place it, but the passage before had put it in her mind.
Finally she realized she'd heard Shine sing it in the bathroom while they were still at Atlas Academy.
"Step by step You lead me, and I will follow you all of my days..."
The light began fading much sooner than they thought, based on how bright it had been when they started, and the forest looked different at night.
They ended up moving farther away from the ravine in order not to fall in by some misstep.
It was odd that they still hadn't found anyone else, but Jaune speculated that maybe the others had all moved the opposite direction from them, in which case, they might find them once they stopped for rest...if the two of them didn't stop for rest.
Pyrrha didn't even fell tired yet, strangely enough, or hungry or thirsty.
Was this normal in other worlds, or was this one just strange?
Jaune didn't say much for a while, but finally he said, "I'm still trying to wrap my brain around if this is another world for real, and how the heck we got here... Did you learn anything else about it from them?"
Pyrrha told him all she knew...which amounted to far less than she wished at this time.
"So...they go from world to world to help people," Jaune tried to follow, "and they came here because of Oscar. And us... And they didn't tell us that because people could abuse their powers... I guess that checks out."
"I got the impression they spoke from experience there," Pyrrha said. "Makes me wonder what they deal with."
"And this didn't weird you out?" Jaune said.
"No, not really." Pyrrha saw nothing odd with this answer. "I guessed part of it the first day I met them because of how they spoke. When they filled me in on the rest, I was just glad to learn their true intentions."
Jaune just looked at her.
"What?" she said.
"Pyrrha...someone just told you they were from another world, something that's, like, unheard of except in books, and you just figured it checked out?"
Pyrrha shrugged. "I suppose that's unusual..."
"I forgot how weird you are." Jaune probably blurted that without thinking it.
Pyrrha felt embarrassed then. "Oh...it is weird, huh?"
"That came out wrong," Jaune said. "I meant...unique."
"That means the same thing," Pyrrha said.
"No, no, it's totally different." Jaune gestured for emphasis, not very convincingly.
"In all fairness, Jaune, I just resurrected an hour ago on the same day." Pyrrha made an odd face. "I suppose nothing could really beat that for me, so what they told me just seemed secondary on the weirdness scale."
Jaune finally laughed. "I guess that's true. That was pretty bizarre...cool, but bizarre. I was just thinking of the first day in the forest at Beacon."
"Oh, that?" Pyrrha said.
"Yeah, remember when I didn't know what Aura was?"
"And you tried to make me think you did." Pyrrha didn't let him have it that easy.
"Yeah, yeah, it was embarrassing," Jaune said. "And you just said all the mysterious stuff about it. Where did you learn that?"
"Books...class..." Pyrrha said. "Come to think of it, my mother always did say I talked like I should narrate a movie."
"Yeah, kind of," Jaune said. "But I mean, it worked. I definitely remembered that explanation later."
"I still don't know how no one ever told you what Aura was," Pyrrha said.
"I don't know. My great grandpa was in the war," Jaune said. "He must have known about this stuff...but my dad and mom just weren't interested in the whole fighting thing, so they never really learned about it or got us in any school about it. My sister was about the only one who ever thought it was a cool idea to leave home...so..."
"Well, at least she did," Pyrrha said.
"I still got the feeling she didn't really think I should do this whole dangerous adventure thing while we were in Argus," Jaune said.
"Well, you know, Jaune, your family can't define you," Pyrrha shrugged.
"Yeah," Jaune said. "Still, I sorely underestimated how hard it would be at Beacon... Looking back, it was really dumb to try to fake my way in with zero training... Ren said something about it the other day."
Pyrrha was surprised that Ren would bring it up at all.
"When did he find out?" she asked.
"I told them a while ago," Jaune said. "It didn't seem like it mattered. And I thought they didn't care... Guess I was wrong."
Pyrrha folded her arms and thought.
"Can I ask, why didn't you think that?" Jaune had wanted to ask Pyrrha that for a long time, most especially after her...death. But had never had the nerve before that point.
"Why didn't I think it was stupid?" Pyrrha said.
"Yeah," Jaune said.
"Oh, I did think it was stupid," Pyrrha said.
Jaune winced. "Oh..." He looked down.
Pyrrha smiled. "But," she said slowly, "I thought that people pursue a dream however they can. Stupid or not. Anyway, who was I to judge? I had everything given to me--talent, support, recognition...and in the end, I wasn't any happier for it. And it's just a coincidence I happen to be able to succeed easily and I happen to have a Semblance that makes it easier for me to win. I always wondered how it would feel if I had to work really hard, harder than anyone else, for something. I'd never been in that position, and at times I wondered if I was really brave, or unselfish, or smart...or if I was just riding my talent, and if I was ordinary--or just unlucky--I'd be no different than anyone else. Plenty of people outside the kingdoms don't get formal training... Who's to say they may not be even better than some of us?... It's all chance, it seems like. I suppose that's why I thought destiny isn't something given to you. It's determined by a series of choices... I'm not sure that's entirely true, now. Or perhaps it's true, but there's more to it. I suppose I thought you were foolish to think you'd succeed without training. But I didn't think trying was foolish."
She pushed her hair back.
"And that you didn't give up even though you were at a disadvantage. That thing that I wanted to be able to have, you already had it. If that makes sense."
[I completely buy this as her reason. The show didn't fully explore it, though we got hints, but given what Pyrrha did express about her view of herself, I think she'd wonder this and appreciate that Jaune couldn't be faking these qualities based on talent--he must just actually have them. It's one of the things that makes them oddly alike even if they are outwardly very different.]
Jaune had no idea that had been her logic. He should have, since she'd almost said as much in the past, without exactly saying it.
"I thought you said it was because I treated you like everyone else," he said.
"That too," Pyrrha said. "But you could have done that because you were just rude or stupid. But given your effort, I thought it was more that you just thought everyone should be pursuing their dream, and in that way, we were all equals. More like, it never occurred to you to treat people differently because they are stronger. Because that has nothing to do with how they feel inside. Perhaps you think it was unlucky that you never got training, but, in the long run, I always wondered if it would end up being an advantage. Perhaps you'll surpass me."
"I doubt it," Jaune said. "I mean, especially now, any chance I had to catch up is probably gone."
He wasn't sure that was okay to say, but Pyrrha laughed, so it must have been okay.
"Well, sorry I ruined that for you... But seriously, who knows anymore? Nothing is the same."
"One thing is--you still don't look at things the way anyone else does," Jaune said. "It's like being here doesn't even freak you out."
"Does it freak you out?" Pyrrha asked.
"Yeah, kind of," Jaune said. "But not you... I just don't know how that is."
"Considering our new friends don't seem freaked out by it either, perhaps it's just something you have to get used to," Pyrrha mused. "Oscar certainly didn't seem to have an issue with it either."
"Yeah, both of you are just a little different," Jaune said. "Though, I don't know, I think Ruby might also not be that bothered by it. Who knows?"
"I guess we'll know when we find her," Pyrrha said.
Silence prevailed for a while after this.
Jaune had his own thoughts. He'd spent a long time wondering why Pyrrha believed in him at all, and if she had just felt sorry for him... Towards her last days at Beacon, he'd questioned that part more, but...he couldn't say that the events since then hadn't shaken his confidence at all.
He wondered if he still wanted the same things anymore. He'd kind of just become a huntsman...but Ren had a point--he was less qualified than the others...at least, in training before Beacon.
At the same time, he'd held his own somehow up till now, even without Pyrrha covering him...and actually Pyrrha had always stepped back when necessary and let him just do things. [Something people seem to forget she did when they say Jaune wouldn't have grown with her around.]
Because of all this, he'd been wondering what went wrong up in Atlas. He thought he had some idea: Lying and not working together was the start of it, but something had been off for longer than that...
Could it be the team really was trying to do things before they were ready?
"Pyrrha," he said, "can I ask...did you ever feel...ready to be a huntress?"
This was an unexpected question.
Pyrrha looked up. "I know Ozpin thought I was ready," she said. "But if it were true...would I have failed?"
"It's not like it was a normal situation at Beacon," Jaune said.
"No...but I've had time to reflect on it all now," Pyrrha said. "I think it was arrogant of all of us to assume we were ready for what we couldn't predict. Grimm are one thing. We know how they were...or we did... Even now, Salem seems to be making new monstrosities. So what is ready? That's just...an illusion, isn't it? Unless we just mean we're ready in that we're emotionally ready to undergo the challenges of being a huntsman--to put others first, risk our lives, and try to save them."
"Yeah...that," Jaune said. "Ren thinks we weren't ready to make these decisions. That everything we've done has been wrong... I'm starting to wonder if he's right."
Pyrrha considered.
"Maybe he is," she said, "in that...we had no idea what to do. I didn't before. I don't now. But in another sense, Ren is missing the key point."
"You think? What point?" Jaune asked.
Pyrrha looked upwards. "Ozpin was given this burden to unite mankind. Miss Shine thinks that's impossible. I've never heard her, or Wally, ever talk about being ready or even worthy of making these choices and doing these things. In fact, they expressly say that it's not about what we deserve. Did Ozpin deserve that mission that ended up being a curse? Doesn't it look different now than it did to him at the time? That's the trouble with trying to guess if we are ready...we don't know how difficult something will be. We can't measure up to a future that could change wildly from what we thought. That's been made crystal clear to me. I don't feel ready for all this...but ready is not the point... I think...if you have what you need, to do the right thing...that's all you can ask for."
Jaune considered. "Two people who can travel worlds--and they don't think that it's about what you deserve."
"Shine told me that she had the gift to do World Walking," Pyrrha said. "She never said she earned it. They always call it a gift. I suppose that's how I look at my talents also...a gift... I didn't earn them. Perhaps even the privilege of saving people is also a gift. Think how it depends on timing, and if people want to be helped, and so many other things we can't control. What else could it be? Perhaps the trouble is that we've all been told we have to earn it, like a license...but that's not how saving people works. A license doesn't make you more or less likely to save someone in a real crisis. Even being brought back to life, Shine said it was a gift..."
Suddenly she stopped, and her eyes widened.
"What?" Jaune said.
Pyrrha laughed oddly. "I just remembered that I asked her what the purpose was at the time... She wouldn't tell me. She said it wouldn't help if I knew then...that they wouldn't demand anything of me, and so I didn't really need to know the reason...and later I thought it was about being able to do more, now. But I think I just got it. Really.... Freely you recieve...freely give."
She looked up again. "We're all given life for free the first time, aren't we? Should saving it be something we pay for? Perhaps we'll give up everything in order to save people, but it's a gift... It can't be demanded. You can't lie and trick your way into it and expect it to work. That's not how it works. Salem eats up people's lives in her quest to end the world, and Ozpin has in his quest to save it. And it's all the same, isn't it?"
Jaune was silent, but he nodded.
"Life is a gift the second time," Pyrrha said. "Every time... Ozpin is bound to his by a curse. The gods have a demand on him now--he has to earn rest...Salem also... That's what's all wrong about it. That's not why we should be alive...not as a punishment...or a trial... It's a gift."
She rubbed her arms. "I'm not here because I needed to atone for what I did wrong, or I needed to finish something... It's just a gift... Now that I look at it, how else could it be? I mean, whatever I accomplish, of course, I want to live a good life, but that's...not the reason, at least not all on its own...and it shouldn't be for them either. We don't...earn a place in the world... We're given it. I mean...the idea that we can earn anything is...laughable in the long run, I suppose."
"You mean we shouldn't work hard?" Jaune said.
"No, we should," Pyrrha said. "Because we have to keep things the way they should be...but it's just not about deserving it. We've got to stop thinking like that. What good has it done us so far?"
It was odd how she didn't even know Winter had the Maiden powers and had come to see it the same way, as a gift, to come to this conclusion. But truth is funny like that--if you're looking for it, you tend to find it, whatever route you take.
"That's pretty deep," Jaune said.
"Do you not agree?" Pyrrha asked.
"I think you're onto something," Jaune said. "I've wondered why those two never asked us for anything. But I think we can be worthy of some stuff... I'm just wondering where that fits into it all. What do we earn?"
"Maybe being worthy and earning something are not the same thing," Pyrrha speculated. "Maybe people don't always get what they deserve, but perhaps there is something else that determines what they get. Perhaps God does."
"But what does he go by?" Jaune asked. "Why are you here? And not so many other people? I mean, I'm grateful, really, really grateful...but I don't know what this God demands of me or of the rest of us. And it feels wrong to expect nothing, like maybe we should have to show something... Even maybe that you should, if you look at it that way."
"Service perhaps," Pyrrha said. "But somehow, service doesn't quite seem right to me..."
"I keep thinking of what Shine asked me the night before they...you know," Jaune said. "All this stuff about you, and what I thought, and I think it was a test. But she never told me why I passed. Or if I did... There has to be more to it. I mean...it's just...not everyone lives, right? Not everyone gets the happy ending they want...so isn't there more to it than that? And why is it different?"
Pyrrha was silent for a moment, then she said, "I don't know the answer to that, Jaune. But..." She held up the book. "...perhaps it's in here. And I think you have a good question, honestly. And I'd like to know, but...I'm not sure it's something I can just...figure out. It seems to me these things become clear when we are ready to hear it... Here."
She held the book out. "You should read it also... I don't want to try to hog all the answers. Maybe you'll find something I won't."
"You want me to read this?" Jaune said. "But isn't it...pretty important that you have it? They gave it to you."
"I don't believe that's how we should treat it," Pyrrha said. "It's not just for me. I want
you to read it too... We've always shared books anyway. I can take the lead for a bit... I mean, we're never going to have more time than we do right now to discuss this, if we get back...so...yes."
Jaune took it, gingerly.
"I have no idea how to read it," he said.
"Me neither, but perhaps it will just come to us," Pyrrha suggested.
Jaune opened the front cover.
"Hey, there's a book called John in here," he said.
"Well, there you go," Pyrrha said. "Perfect place for you to start... I didn't even notice that before."
[And I fully believe Jaune would pick based on that.]
Jaune slowly opened to the designated page.