09x09 - A Tale Involving a Tree

[bunniefuu]

[theme music playing]

♪ Sinking down into depths of nowhere ♪

♪ I am undone ♪

♪ Clasping tight onto memories
I know they'll be overrun ♪

♪ By a girl ♪

♪ We must live with balance
But balance is blind ♪

♪ Lost her world ♪

♪ Vengeance is a riptide ♪

♪ In a fairy tale ♪

♪ She'll find ♪

♪ Inside ♪

♪ A new me, I'm ready
But who will I find? ♪

♪ Inside ♪

♪ I've gotta let go
But could I lose my mind? ♪

♪ Inside ♪

♪ Our worlds unwind ♪

[page rustles]

[Summer] "A door opened for Alyx at the Tree.

[leaves rustle]

Before she went back home,

the girl had a great many questions to ponder.

After all the lessons she'd learned
and the friends she'd made and lost,

who had she become?

Would she still be the same Alyx
when she went back home?

The leaves of the tree rustled,
and on the wind, Alyx heard one more question.

'What... are you?'''

[dramatic music playing]

[Jaune] I don't understand.

Alyx. The Pleasers. Now Ruby.

What does this place want?

[whinnies]

I don't understand.

What did I do wrong?

We can figure this out.
There's got to be a way to get to the Tree.

[voice] Hello there.

You appear upset.

Would you be so kind
as to tell me how I can help?

Perhaps you are hungry.

Huh?

Uh, no, that's okay.

[placid music playing]

If I can get you anything else,
please don't hesitate to ask.

That's what I'm here for.

What...? What are you?

[Gem 1] We are the Genial Gems,

and we have arrived here
to clean up this beautiful land

and create something wonderful and pleasing.

This is them, isn't it?

They're back.

It's just like they said.
They came back from the Tree better.

[Yang] No flood or fire will ever hurt them again.

By trying so hard to save them,

I stopped them
from becoming what they needed to be.

I was being selfish because I...

I wanted the rush of rescuing someone.

And I got that here.

I think you're asking too much of yourself.

We've been telling ourselves
that failing means we're no good.

But I can guarantee
even the best Huntsmen in history,

they've all lost.

But they were still incredibly brave.

And good.

[sobs softly]

Weiss.

[chuckles]

Maybe that cat was right.

Maybe I just needed to accept it.

It's not a place you go.

What?

[birds chirping]

[ethereal music playing]

It's a place you know.

[Weiss grunts]

[gasps]

Ruby?

[grunting]

We have to get her out!

I think I get it.

This is how we got here--
Or why the Tree brought us here.

Acceptance.

We've done everything we can.
Now it's up to Ruby.

Whatever happens next,
we have to welcome that.

But what if she isn't Ruby anymore
when she comes back out?

-[wood splintering]
-[gasps]

[yawns]

[Blake] Maybe...

that's not for us to decide.

[Yang sniffling]

[mystical music playing]

[metal clanking]

[Blacksmith] I didn't expect you here just yet.

I wasn't expecting to be here.

Are you the Tree?

[chuckles] You could say that.

But that is a simplistic understanding
of the Tree and what it does.

What's going to happen to me?

Am I gonna die?

The only thing that can happen
to you here is what you want to happen.

The choice of what you become
and where you end up is yours to make.

You don't know what you want, do you?

[thumping in distance]

[thumping intensifies]

-[banging nearby]
-What's that?

[banging continues]

[stirring music playing]

Is that...?

Our way home.

-[bang]
-[yells]

[growls]

-[bang]
-[yells]

[Cat's voice] Oh, good, you made it.

I guess your little plan
to get out of here isn't working?

You've always been the worst of the bunch.

So Neo can't go through the door.

[hisses]

No. She has no attachments to your world,
nothing to return to.

She has failed me, just like Alyx did.

Like Alyx?

[hisses]

That cowardly, wretched girl whose story
you've been foolishly following all along.

The same girl that I followed too,

because she promised me
she would bring me back to Remnant with her,

when, in truth,
she had no intention of taking me.

No, after talking to the Tree,
she had a sudden crisis of conscience.

Decided she wanted to fix everything
she'd broken in the Ever After,

including poor Jaune.

And so Lewis went,

and at the very last moment, Alyx didn't.

What did you do to her?

What anyone would do
with a broken, useless thing.

No, you... You didn't.

You... You monster!

[suspenseful music playing]

[gasps]

She's still here.

Yes! All my work, it's not lost!

Deep down, she wants nothing more
than to return to Remnant and play hero.

I just need to cut her out

and she will take me there!

No. Whatever happens to Ruby is up to her.
Not you or anyone else.

Then I'll put you in the ground.

[mystical music playing]

[Ruby] What are these lights?

The souls that are moving on
to whatever they become next.

Do they choose what their next life will be like?

[Blacksmith] Such concern
for souls you don't know.

Or is it for yourself?

[dramatic music playing]

There's no way we're letting you get to Ruby.

But don't you see?

What comes out of that tree
might not even be your sister any longer, hmm?

[yells]

I wanted to be the hero.

Like the stories that my mom read to me.

I just wanted to do the right thing,
but every step of the way, it's like...

It's like there is no right thing.

I've tried so hard,

and I may have just done
more harm than good.

I don't understand who I need to be.

Because who I am right now, she's not cutting it.

What if you could be anyone?

This whole time,
I thought Alyx made it back home

and lied about everything that happened here.

But you were the one who k*lled, who lied!

You were never a brave knight either.

Just more fairy-tale nonsense!

[hisses]

[gasps]

-[groans]
-No!

[mystical music playing]

Who did this belong to?

It's not about who did but who could.

Can you feel the woman who might hold it?
The weight of who she is?

She could be you.

You could put any one of them on
and leave Ruby Rose behind.

[Ruby] It's all so heavy.

It's the only thing I can feel anymore,

and it never ever goes away.

The feeling of not being... enough.

[Blacksmith]
And how would you measure "enough"?

[Summer] "Before she went back home...

Mom?

...the girl had a great many questions to ponder.

'What...

are you?'''

[tranquil music playing]

♪ So this ♪

♪ ls what life is ♪

♪ No trouble now ♪

♪ Just quiet ♪

[singing indistinctly]