A/N: The original version of my songfic 'Haifisch' was, in my opinion, terrible, rushed, and overly dramatic. Therefore, I've uploaded a new version that I think may be better than the original. I've kept the original fic up for anyone who liked it.
As always, the song is property of Rammstein, the characters all belong to Rooster Teeth and Monty Oum, and read and review!
A/N 2: Reuploaded this with translations from the original German.
A/N 3: Changed as needed, and updated the formatting. Sorry for the inconvenience, those who fav'd the original fics :(
Haifisch
Wir halten, zusammen.
Wir halten miteinander aus.
It was snowing today. It always seemed to snow since she'd died. Weiss had noticed- the snow wasn't comforting and kind and brilliant, like it had always been.
It was a sign of death. Cold, pale death.
The heiress was standing in a small field, covered with pale white snow. The area was empty, and ringed with tall, dead trees. Only one thing occupied the field itself- a single, tiny slab, dug into the earth where she'd fallen.
Inscribed upon it was a simple message, but a harsh one.
Ruby Rose
Finally alone
Weiss looked down on it, emotions rushing through her mind, and her mind flashed back to that moment-
"Stick together! I'll distract it, you three get ready!"
Ruby had been planning a way of taking the Nevermore that had been stalking them in the forests. Team JNPR was handling a group of Beowolves elsewhere, unable to help. Yang, their main bruiser, was unconscious and badly wounded.
Ruby had already run off to distract it, and Weiss had been tasked alongside Blake a simple thing; make sure the Nevermore doesn't see her, distract it, and hurt it if you can.
Yet, as everyone now knew, that plan went horribly wrong.
Team RWBY had been one of the more effective teams in Beacon. Ever since they'd formed about a year ago, they'd been unstoppable; their performance in missions was unrivalled. Ozpin had trusted them with a mission to retrieve a rare artifact, which was said to be pursued for reasons that he could not easily disclose.
They, along with team JNPR- Nora had jumped at the opportunity to claim the treasure and practically strong-armed Jaune into it, despite his, and her friend Ren's, protests- had been dropped into the Frozen Wood, reputed location of the artifact and where they needed to take it from.
Ruby didn't think it a challenge, and neither did Yang. Blake, as per usual, sighed and shook her head at their sisterly antics; nobody had any reason for them to believe it would go wrong.
What could go wrong? They were the most cohesive team in Beacon, and the most effective. They couldn't necessarily fail.
Und der Haifisch der hat Tränen...
The funeral was a short affair. Only teams JNPR and the remainder of team RWBY visited; even her beloved uncle Qrow was nowhere in sight. What was left of her body was inside a closed coffin- Yang had already nearly broken down at the thought that her beloved sister was dead and gone. Weiss had the image clear in her mind….
Ren and Nora held back the blond brawler from the coffin, as she struggled to run to it. Although the pair of them were physically quite strong, they were visibly struggling to hold Yang back.
"No! She isn't dead! She can't be dead!" Yang screamed in anguish as she attempted to break their grip.
Blake was just sitting there. She barely reacted and didn't even seem there; it was as if a doll had replaced the already aloof girl. Weiss, now the leader of the team, was trying to process the situation.
Yang continued shouting at Ren and Nora to let her go, despite their protests that Ruby was gone. Jaune hadn't been seen since the beginning of the service, and Pyrrha, in her concern for her leader and lover, had gone off to find him.
The heiress, meanwhile, was struggling herself with problems. Ruby had been her best- nearly her only- friend, her confidante, and her leader. She'd always been strong, always been unfazed by whatever life had to throw.
And now she was gone.
Weiss had resolved she couldn't be weak- after all, why should she expect Yang and Blake to toughen up if she, their new leader, was a crying wreck- but it was hard. Even sharks cried, she thought, even sharks cried.
Shortly after, Yang stopped struggling, and settled for sitting in the aisle, unperturbed by anything, an unblinking stare in her eyes, as if she couldn't believe what had happened. Eventually, Ren and Weiss had to carry Yang home- the brawler refused to move of her own accord anymore.
All the while, Weiss wondered why she couldn't just do the same.
Wenn einer nicht mithält
dann halten wir sofort
The team, for all their show, hadn't necessarily been on the best terms in the fortnight leading up to the fateful mission.
Firstly, Blake had been secretly spying on Yang, citing that she had to keep tabs on the entire team in case anyone of them got hurt, an excuse neither Ruby nor Weiss bought. The Faunus had a clear crush on Yang, clear as daylight. However, Yang didn't share her orientation, much to Blake's dismay when she'd seen her blatantly flirt with Jaune- the young leader was left blushing as Pyrrha appeared, sighing, to drag him away.
If Ruby hadn't known better, she'd had said that Blake was in one of her moods that night. In reality, she felt betrayed and heartbroken- after all, who wouldn't be? For the next couple of days, Yang had attempted to figure out what was wrong, to no avail. The aloof girl had avoided her teammates outside of classes and missions, and kept communication to a minimum.
Secondly, and something that Weiss blamed herself for, was the argument that she and Ruby had had the night before.
The heiress and the scythe-wielder had been studying up for a stressful exam. Tensions were high already, not to mention with Blake refusing to speak to Yang at all, and Ruby was getting stressed over her sister's worries. Weiss had elected to go on studying for the night, being blissfully free of worries.
That was not to last long.
Exhausted though she was, Ruby had decided to stay up with her to revise. They'd stayed up until nine, whereupon Ruby began packing her things.
"Hey, Ruby, where are you going? I thought we were studying."
The silver-eyed girl blinked tiredly at her, slinging a bag over her shoulder. "I need to get rest today. I haven't had a good day today, y'know?"
"Yes, but Professor Port's exam is tomorrow! We need to study for it!" Weiss looked worried about said exam.
Normally, this would have not resulted in an argument; Weiss was willing to acquiesce and Ruby wasn't normally stressed.
But, her pent up anger born of worry and stress spilt over.
"So WHAT if he's got a damn exam tomorrow, huh, Weiss? Huh?"
The heiress was taken aback by this. She too was tired, and in said tired state, she wasn't willing to tolerate Ruby's attitude.
"Don't you CARE about your education? Don't you?"
"I have more important things to care about, Weiss, and I don't think a little exam is one of them!"
"You're ALWAYS LIKE THIS! You never pay attention in class, you never-
"Never what, listen to YOU?! No, I'm ALWAYS having to put up with your bitchy, whiny-"
"Bitchy?" Weiss laughed hysterically. "No, look at yourself! You're being the bitch here!"
"Me? You always treat us like crap, you never care about our feelings, and you ALWAYS put YOUR FUCKING REPUTATION BEFORE THE REST OF US!" Ruby panted heavily, her eyes full of anger towards Weiss. Her hand was raised, and Weiss couldn't do a thing about it.
The younger girl slapped Weiss as hard as she could. The girl was knocked aside, her face throbbing red with pain, and she clutched it.
"R-Ruby! You slapped me!" She said it as if she couldn't seem to believe it.
"Yeah? Well, you deserved it! I'm going to sleep, Schnee, and you can go study for your beloved exam by yourself!" With a huff, Ruby walked out of the room, slamming the door behind her.
Weiss could only stand there, stunned and on the verge of tears.
Vier Herzen die brennen
Das Feuer hält euch warm
Most people who knew her assumed Yang would be the one to comfort the team after Ruby died. She was the archetypal big sis, the protector, and the heart of the team, as it were.
In fact, she had shattered the most when Ruby died. At first, she'd refused to believe it. When she'd seen her corpse, the brawler had cradled it, telling her to wake up, telling her that it was fine to wake up now. Blake eventually had to remind her that she was dead, and then immediately-
"No, you're wrong! Ruby's alive! Come on, sis, wake up! Tell them you're alright, sis, come on!"
Blake was stunned, and tried to shake some sense into her, to no avail.
Blake herself wasn't the least broken. Slowly, somewhere between the shattered Yang and the barely holding together Weiss, she'd broken herself.
The once aloof girl turned outright emotionless and lifeless. At first, it wasn't as obvious- she was keeping to herself as usual, and nobody saw anything out of the ordinary.
Eventually, little hints started showing up, little cracks in the façade of normality- Weiss had noticed that Blake had seemed to phase out during lessons, and didn't even bother to take down notes that she would have normally studiously wrote down and religiously study. She barely read her so-beloved books, instead staring into the distance at night. During the day, she refused to speak to anyone, even Yang, and the pair of them were simply unresponsive, despite the best efforts of Nora and Jaune to get them to talk.
And as for Weiss herself….
She'd been taught, from a young age, to look strong, to be strong. Her father had instilled upon her that keeping up a cold face was the key to looking confident. The young Schnee had taken it to heart.
She put it to use, now that team RWBY lacked a leader. Ozpin, in the aftermath, had made her temporary leader, and she, with a face of stone, had taken the burden. Now, she had to deal with her own team being broken, in addition to herself.
Despite the moniker of 'Ice Princess', Weiss had a warm heart. Ruby knew that, having seen her go googly-eyed over sharks at that one aquarium trip Beacon had organized, and that she could be nice when she wanted to be- Weiss had saved her teammates countless numbers of times, claiming that it was for pragmatic reasons. Ruby, however, saw the blush on her face when she looked away.
Ruby was of paramount importance to the young duelist.
Friend. Leader. Classmate. Teammate.
And also, her secret love.
Weiss had fallen for her during the day they'd first met, she'd realised, one day, while having lunch with her, and she'd only had realized it then.
At first, she mistook the feeling for hatred, then, for immense kinship, once she'd gotten over Ruby's status as a 'dunce'.
However, it wasn't to be. She'd planned to tell Ruby of her feelings after the mission was over.
She did. She told them to her cold corpse at the funeral.
Weiss had nobody to turn to, she'd found.
Team JNPR had slowly grown apart from team RWBY; Jaune started avoiding them, and Pyrrha with him. Nora, once the bouncy, cheerful girl who'd lugged Magnhild, her grenade launcher/hammer around with a smile, was now more sombre, and Ren was trying to cheer her up, to no avail.
Within her own team, Yang's mind was still of the delusion that Ruby was simply asleep, somewhere in the world, and refused to think her dead. Blake had essentially shut down- she'd essentially been replaced with a cold, robotic doll.
Weiss had nobody to turn to, and never had she felt so lonely.
She'd grown up a lonely child; as the only heir to the biggest company on the face of Vytal, Weiss was kept isolated from all others, trained in hellish conditions to be the best she could ever be.
But even then, she had at least her servants to turn to.
Now, she had nobody.
Not even her beloved Ruby.
Man kann von uns halten
She looked around. Nobody had seen her go to this place. Nobody was following her.
She collapsed to her knees, looking down on the thing in her hands.
It was a toy shark.
Weiss was initially surprised at Ruby's generous gesture, back at the aquarium. Ruby, having seen the white-haired girl gaze in amazement at the sharks within the vast tank, decided to buy her a souvenir.
It was a toy shark. It was made of comfortable, fluffy fabric, its belly white and back grey. The eyes were small and beady, and its mouth was open, exposing large, cartoonish white fangs.
To any other person, it would seem garish. To Weiss, it was perfect.
"R-Ruby! You didn't n-need to get ME this!"
The scythe-wielder smiled. "Oh, no, Weiss. I saw how you looked at those sharks. I know you loved them."
"But….what am I supposed to do with this?" The girl held up the stuffed shark.
"Keep it. It's a reminder of when we went here."
Weiss nodded and turned away. If Ruby had seen her face, her feelings would have been laid bare; her face was redder than Ruby's hood.
Weiss looked at the shark.
Along with Crescent Rose, her beloved scythe, that was to be sent to Qrow later in the week, the shark was Weiss' last reminder that Ruby had even existed.
That, and the large, indelible slab of stone that commemorated her passing, the one she had found herself kneeling upon.
She found herself looking at the slab, conflicted feelings rushing through her mind.
Shock that had not gone away, shock that would never go away, that Ruby was gone.
A mild, twisted pleasure, that the rookie, the foolish, brash, dunce of a leader she had was gone. She quashed this feeling. She hated it.
Loneliness, from the fact that nobody was there for her, when she needed it most.
Sadness, for the friend, leader, teammate, love she'd lost.
Weiss felt the tears well up behind her eyes, and tried to hold them back.
Doch der Haifisch lebt im Wasser
so die Tränen sieht man nicht
She felt betrayal, slightly. How could Ruby have died so early? How? She was young. She didn't deserve to die, not so early.
And she felt ashamed. Ashamed at the fact that….
Weiss was flung to the ground again, parrying a feather projectile away from Blake. Ruby was circling around it, looking for the opportunity to hook it.
"Weiss! Now!"
She couldn't remember what in particular she'd wanted her to do that day, but she'd tried to leap towards the Nevermore, and was flung back with a swipe of a wing.
As the heiress was slammed into the ground, the raven Grimm turned its tail feathers towards her, preparing to fire.
Weiss prepared for the worst, unable to dodge.
The feathers hailed upon Weiss, but then Ruby-
Ashamed at the fact that she'd been the reason Ruby died. Ruby had to push her away from the feathers, being impaled herself.
She died instantaneously. Not a chance to say goodbye. The girl had been bisected by the feather.
This push was the final push that she needed.
No longer able to hold back, Weiss fell upon the slab.
"I'm so sorry….Ruby, I'm so sorry….."
Her tears rolled down her face freely and copiously.
"Please….I'm so sorry…."
Her loud sobs punctuated the stark silence of the snow covered plain.
And so, for the first time in years, Weiss Schnee cried.
A/N: I have got to STOP breaking Weiss :(
On a more serious note, now that I've rewritten Haifisch to a standard I think might be better, the next fic in the series will come soon. It will be based off 'Rosenrot', starring guess who!
As always, read and review, and see you next time!