Darkest Shade of Red
Pt. 1
How Could You Be My Enemy
Comrade, I did not want to kill you... But you were only an idea to me before, an abstraction that lived in my mind and called forth its appropriate response... I thought of your hand-grenades, of your bayonet, of your rifle; now I see your wife and your face and our fellowship. Forgive me, comrade. We always see it too late. Why do they never tell us about that your are poor devils like us, that your mothers are just as anxious as ours, that we have the same fear of death, and the same dying and the same agony-forgive me, comrade; how could you be my enemy.
-Paul Baumer after killing a french soldier.
The Blood-Soaked Rose
Pt: I
Nothing ever ends poetically.
It ends
and we turn it into poetry.
All that blood
was never once beautiful.
It was just
red.
-Kait Rokowski
An endless black surrounded her as the floor shook and vibrated under her thick boots. She could hear nothing but the deafening whine of Dust powered engines as the aircraft continued on its way towards its destination. How many times has she done this? six, seven times already? Time blurred in the head of Ruby Rose, she did not know for how long this battle had been going on for, or when it actually started. Her thoughts were taken from her when a loud buzzer broke the haze of her idle mind, and a light bathed her in crimson.
In front of her, the rear ramp began to lower and a hot wind whipped her faded red cloak back and forced her dark, crimson tipped hair out of her silver eyes. Below her, the Second Great War was in full swing in the ruins of one of the larger cities in Vacuo. A city called Ritrr. Behind Ruby, a full platoon of Valenese Reclamation Army soldiers were doing last minute checks over their gear before they dropped onto the hot sands to help defend a home that was not theirs.
The city of Vale had been lost ever since the Fall; Grimm owned that city and no one could get within ten kilometres without coming under attack from Nevermores or Beowolves. It had been four years since the Fall of Beacon and the kingdom of Vale, displacing thousands of people and drawing in an insurmountable amount of Grimm. The following year, Atlas attacked without warning, adding to the total number of deaths since the fall, and marking the start of the Second Great War.
Taking a few steps out onto the ramp, the wind was whipping her red cloak out behind her, and the hot Vacuoan air drained the moisture from her lips. She could see the flashes of rifle fire and explosions as buildings collapsed under Paladin fire. She was glad she had decided to change into lighter clothing; a white blouse with her black and red corset, torn black stockings under her battle skirt, and her large boots to finish it off.
Taking a deep breath, she held it as she listened to the orders that were shouted over the wind to the soldiers behind her. Push back the Atlesians, protect the Vacuo Resistance and ensure that civilian casualties were low. She heard a second buzzer and the order to jump was given. A steady stream of bodies ran past her and leapt off the ramp, pulling their parachutes and floating to the ground. She took a step off the ramp of the dropship and plummeted towards the war below her head first. Ironically, as the wind whipped past her body forcing her tattered cloak to trail behind her like a failed parachute, she found a few moments of peace to reflect and think. Nothing but her and her thoughts.
She remembered when she heard that Mistral and Vacuo had joined forces to defend against Atlas. How Mistrali forces attacked Atlas, and how Atlas retaliated with an army occupying Vacuo as a show of force. Between the excessive show of force and the Grimm, Vacuo had Fallen just like Vale. She remembered when she heard that with her friends Jaune, Ren, and Nora. She remembered the one night where Jaune had a complete breakdown after they had found Pyrrha's weapons at the top of the CCT tower in Vale. What was supposed to bring closure only brought pain as he lashed out at his friends. When the fight was over, all of them were bloody and broken.
She remembers standing outside the surgery room, holding Nora still as they waited for Ren to pull through, praying to anyone who would listen. She remembered holding Nora back as the once vibrant Ginger began to scream and shout in a fit of rage and tears when they told her that the damage was too extensive and they couldn't save his legs, that he would be confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. She remembered the long nights of staying in Ren's hospital room, watching him sleeping, hoping he would wake up; if only for Nora's sake.
Opening her eyes, she saw the ground coming up on her quickly. Flipping over so her feet were below her, she pulled out Crescent Rose, her hand build sniper-scythe, and opened it in its full scythe form. Firing into the air, she sailed to the ground in a controlled spiral, leaving a flurry of rose petals in her wake. Seeing her nearest target, she slammed into the Atlesian soldier feet first and knocked him to the ground. She felt his ribs bend and shatter under the impact, his armour doing nothing to defend against her. She knew he was dead, or at least would be dead in a few horrible seconds. Her silver eyes darted around, seeing the rest of his unit react to her sudden intrusion, aiming their rifles and handguns at her. They were too slow.
They were always too slow.
Swinging her scythe around, she released the hinge and the blade angled up into the war spear configuration as it reached the knee of the first soldier. Firing a round, the momentum carried the sharp blade through both of his knees, coming to the waist of the next unfortunate soul in its path. Cleaving through him with ease, the unhinged scythe continued on through the chest of the third soldier who, judging by the scream, was a woman. Finishing off by decapitating the last man of the five-man team,
a sound caught her attention. The sound of a painful, soft cry of someone near her. Her eyes looked down at the man with no legs; now blood stained the sands around them as he cried out in pain, reaching out to grip his legs, desperately trying to stop himself from bleeding out, prolonging his life for as long as he could. Reaching behind her, Ruby offered to help him in the only way she knew how now. His cries stilled and his body relaxed as Ruby pulled out a handgun and put a round through his head.
How strange was it that she could take another's life just as easily as she could kill a Grimm with the skills and mastery that honed her body to hunt down the bane of human existence. With ease, she turned those skills to kill what she was so devoted to protecting. Looking around the area, she saw more Atlesian soldiers with robotic Knights making up the bulk of the force as well as Paladins mechs for heavy support. Hidden behind walls and burnt out buildings, she saw others in red and black camouflage, the colours of the Valenese Reclamation army.
Ruby remembered when she first heard of them, and how excited she was about joining up to actually do some good instead of just doing nothing. Their original goal was to reclaim Vale from the Grimm and reestablish the CCT. Shortly after enlisting, she found out that it was only a pipe dream. She remembered the first time she went out with a group to scout out any way into Vale, only to come under attack by Atlesian soldiers halfway there. She remembered the panicked chaos that followed a second after the lead transport exploded suddenly.
She remembered rolling into a tree as she jumped off the transport as it took a hit, falling to the ground and covered in dirt and leaves. She remembered the sounds of people screaming as Atlas soldiers came out of nowhere and began to open fire on them with assault weapons and dust activated blades. She remembered the one soldier that walked up to her, pistol in hand, and placed it against her head. She remembered the choice she had to make, to kill him or let herself be killed. She remembered when she stopped being a Huntress.
She remembered when she became a soldier.
Leaping through the air, using her sniper rounds to push her further than her semblance would normally; she defended her allies and comrades in battle against their common enemy. Swinging her weapon as bullets bounced off her aura, she was again reminded that body armour would have just slowed her down. Her Aura was more than enough to stop any bullet from piercing her skin so long as she kept it up, but they still stung when she was hit.
Jumping from soldier to soldier, she killed man just as efficiently as machine, soldiers and Knights falling under the weight of her blade. Dashing from side to side, Crescent Rose dripped with blood as Ruby ran from skirmish to skirmish, person to person, becoming just another cog in this machine of war. Rounding a corner, she was face to face with an Atlesian Paladin, she heard its weapons rev up and only had a second to sprint as fast as she could through several buildings to avoid the chain guns mounted onto the advanced war machine.
Even with her Aura, if she took too many shots it would fail and she could be seriously hurt. She had found that out the hard way. It was just after her third battle that she realised how easy it was to take a life; a slash here, a shot there, being at the wrong place at the wrong time and there would be no more pain. She did her best to kill people as quickly as she could, lest they suffer from their injuries. Seeing all the hurt and injured at the medical camps while she was being treated, she couldn't help but wish that no one would go through this, not even her enemy, so she would make sure they would not suffer.
With her previous experience in fighting these machines, Ruby knew where their blind spot was. Jumping through a window, she sprinted through shattered buildings and around bits of cover as she advanced towards it. Her trail of rose petals was torn apart by auto-fire as she slipped between the Paladin's legs and placed the blade against the thin joint that connected the leg to the rest of the body. Slicing clean through it, she got out of the way before it toppled over onto its side.
Leaping on top of it, she sliced off its arm so it couldn't shoot her while she stood on top of it. Without looking, she drove the scythe into the cockpit of the Paladin, killing the pilot before he could eject. It was all muscle memory to her now; without looking, she could disable and eliminate the Atlas Paladin walkers with ease. Pulling the crimson painted blade clear of the twisted metal, she jumped off and was about to sprint off in another direction; her legs tensed and she felt her Aura shimmer around her body, bracing her for the impact of going near the speed of sound.
"Ruby?"
She stopped. Her blood went cold. Her breath caught in her breast. No one called her Ruby, not here anyway. Yang used to call her Ruby, but that was before she left three years ago. Last time she had seen Yang was at her father's funeral in Patch. Blake called her Ruby, but she hadn't seen the cat faunus since the Fall. Ren called her Ruby, but he was back at VRA HQ, one of the last cities in Vale that people still lived in relative safety. Jaune used to call her Ruby, but that was before he blamed her for Pyrrha's death and stabbed Ren in the stomach during their fight.
Nora used to call her Ruby, but now she doesn't really speak much at all. The woman went silent after Ren was forced into a wheelchair and she took her frustrations out on anyone who was unfortunate enough to be in the way when she swung her hammer or fired off grenade rounds. The members of SSSN and CFVY used to call her Ruby, but she hadn't seen any of them for a very long time. The soldiers she fought with never called her Ruby, it was either Sergeant Major Rose Or Ma'am. That only left...
"Weiss?"
Silver eyes looked back towards the Atlesian front. Several meters away, she could see her snow white hair, tied to the side as she always had done. Her beautiful pale skin was tinted copper and shone in the hot Vacuoan sun. Her bright blue eyes were sparkling as they met silver. Under an Atlesian breastplate, she wore a deep blue shirt and skirt that matched her eyes and fit her form perfectly. Silver eyes trailed down her body, tracing her bare legs down to the fashionable, yet practical boots that were around her feet. It was only after seeing that, did Ruby see the glint of Myrtenaster, her Multi-action Dust rapier, in her hand, its tip painted red with blood.
Forcing her body to breathe, she opened her mouth to say something, anything! Nothing came forth, her brain was stuck in fight mode. There's no need for talking when you're fighting, only bloodshed. Weiss moved her hand. Ruby flinched and tightened her grip on her scythe. Weiss brought her hand up to her ear, never moving her sapphire eyes away from the red-cloaked woman. Ruby noticed from the side of her vision that the tip of Crescent Rose's blade dripped lightly onto the stained sands.
"This is Specialist Schnee," Weiss began, "The Red Death has been spotted in the Engagement Zone..." That was another name Ruby had picked up, The Red Death. It was given to her mostly by the enemy, they would scream it out when someone spotted her trail of rose petals or a red blur flew through the front lines. It was the last name on most people's lips when her scythe sliced through Atlesian soldiers. She had hated it at first; but just like how she learned to take lives with ease, she had learned to wear that name like her cloak. No matter where she goes, she will always be the Red Death to them. "Specialist Schnee, now engaging." Weiss had put her hand down and stared at Ruby.
Slowly, Ruby shook her head. Feelings long dead began to stir within her. "Don't do this," Ruby asked gently. It wouldn't be the first time she had fought other Huntsmen and Huntresses on the battlefield, they were easy to spot since their weapons and clothing never matched those around them. But this was Weiss! Weiss Schnee! Her friend. Her partner. Her teammate! How could she even think of fighting her? Sure she had fought her before back at school, but those were spars or arguments that never spilt over into violence.
"Weiss! Please, take your men and leave!" Ruby called out. She had begged people before to leave the battlefield when a fight broke out; but they always laughed and fired on her, so eventually she had just stopped asking. She watched Weiss close her eyes for a moment, taking a deep breath, and open them again. Any hesitation was gone from her blue eyes. She lifted her chin, her shoulders moved back, her right foot came forward, and then slid back just a bit. She pointed the tip of her rapier at Ruby and narrowed her eyes.
Shaking her head again, Ruby closed her eyes. She didn't see Ruby Rose anymore, all she saw was the enemy. Taking a deep breath, Ruby opened her silver eyes to reveal steel. Shifting her weight to her back foot, she slid her right foot forward through the sand. She gripped her scythe tightly as her finger traced the trigger, getting ready to begin her attack against her former partner.
Taking another breath, she looked at the Atlesian woman; she was no longer Weiss Schnee, the hot-tempered heiress who studied and loved to play with Zwei, she was Specialist Schnee now. Just as she was no longer Ruby Rose, the loveable, hyperactive girl who loved cookies and strawberries, she was the Red Death. Gone was that girl, a soldier now stood in her place. The battle continued to rage around them as a Paladin fired its rockets and collapsed a husk of a skyscraper behind her. As it fell, Ruby took deep breaths, calmed her nerves and narrowed her eyes. When the building hit the ground, she sprinted forward in a flurry of petals.
In the blink of an eye, Ruby was at Weiss' position, scythe coming down at her. She had anticipated the attack and lifted her right hand to block the attack, her hand forming a glyph as it stopped the red tipped blade of Crescent Rose. In the same movement, Weiss moved to thrust at Ruby's stomach, but she had learned that staying in one place for more than a second meant death when dealing with other Huntsmen and Huntresses. Spinning out of the way, she brought the scythe with her and tried for a bottom-to-top slash against her.
Weiss parried it and jumped out of the way long enough to ready another glyph and charged in with another thrust, her blade glowing red with flames licking off the steel. Ruby blocked it with the staff of her weapon and fired up, jumping over Weiss as she went for a downwards strike, only to find that Weiss wasn't there. She used another glyph to move out of the way. Another series of fast slashes and slices sent Weiss backtracking, doing her best to deflect the heavy scythe before finding an opening to thrust, tearing another hole in Ruby's tattered cloak.
With a sudden shift in momentum, Ruby brought the back of her scythe down hard, connecting it to the back of Weiss's head, causing the white-haired woman to cry out in pain as her Aura took the brunt of the attack. Steadying herself, she lifted her weapon and charged at Ruby, her thrusts and slashes coming in too fast to properly counter, forcing her on the defensive. Thrust, thrust, slash, thrust, slash. Her weapon elegantly flew through the air, with Ruby barely deflecting the thin blade enough to simply cause light cuts on her skin; her Aura already healing whatever surface cuts she accumulated.
A light trail of blood ran down her cheek as she swung her weapon and spun it around her. Building momentum, she wielded the scythe with grace as she flawlessly chained slices with blocks from the spinning tool of death. Her blade caught Weiss across her arm and she jumped back and held her bicep, blood seeping between her fingers as the blue fabric hung in place. Gritting her teeth, she took a deep breath and swung her weapon in a complex pattern as a glyph formed behind her. Ruby looked up and watched as it began to grow in size until it was three times as tall as she was.
Watching as a massive armoured hand gripped the edge of the glyph, a massive, blue, glowing suit of armour pulled itself into their reality, brandishing a massive blade in its hand. Spinning her weapon, Ruby stuck the blade into the ground and released the near-empty magazine, letting it fall to the ground with a heavy thud. Grabbing her gravity rounds, she slotted the magazine and loaded a shell into the breach with a satisfying click. When the Armour was finished materialising, Ruby went on the attack.
Launching into another strike, she hit the Giant hard with her scythe, only for it to block with its massive blade; giving enough time for Weiss to jump up on more Glyphs she made and try to thrust up into her from below. Spinning into a block, the Giant turned suddenly and attacked her with the combined momentum from a spin and the heavy weight of its weapon, sending Ruby flying into the air and away from the guardian and the summoner.
Recovering in the air, she stood on the blade of her scythe and fired several rounds to slow her down enough before she hit the ground with too much momentum. Rolling to her feet, she loaded another round, drew a bead, and tensed up. The Giant was going to be a problem, but all she needed to do was kill the enemy and it was gone. A tiny voice in the back of her mind reminded her that her name was Weiss, but Ruby quickly shoved it down into the darkest pit of her mind as she got ready to attack again; to kill the enemy Huntress. Charging full speed towards her, she watched as the blade of the Giant came down at her in a slice.
Doing a quick dodge, she ran up the side of the blade and jumped into the air over its arm; firing a shot to send her spinning, the scythe cut clean through the Giant's arm and Ruby landed in front of the enemy. Surprised, she tried to block the quick flurry of attacks, but each second, Ruby's speed only increased. Firing shot after shot to speed her up even more, she fired one more shot and jumped over the Atlesian Specialist, her scythe slipping past her guard and hooking under her arm; another shot, and it tore through her chest.
Landing on her feet behind her, Ruby froze. The tiny voice was now screaming in her brain. Weiss . Her name is Weiss.
Her name was Weiss.
She knew that feeling, the familiar sensation of her blade slipping through flesh, cutting bone in half as the sharp edge and the weight of her weapon did all the work for her. The world stopped. She couldn't breathe. She refused to breathe; if she breathed, the world would resume, and she would hear the wet thump of a body hitting the ground. Her lungs burning, screaming for air, she willed her body to obey; but it betrayed her. Gasping for air, she released a sob as hot tears attacked her eyes and spilt over her cheeks. The realisation of what had just happened hit her gut like a cannonball.
Slowly, she turned to face her friend, her partner. Maybe it was a dream, a nightmare. Anything but the truth! She begged within herself, to any god or devil that would listen to just have Weiss Schnee still standing there when she turned around. Inch by inch, she turned to face her fate. Her brain betrayed her next. Instead of Weiss standing there, she saw Blake.
The woman wore a long white coat and a small black top. Blinking three times to make sure she was actually seeing what was in front of her, she watched as the image of Blake slipped in two, where Ruby had sliced Weiss in half just moments ago. Before the two halves separated, Blake's form shimmered and disappeared in black smoke. When the shadow left her vision, she saw the real Blake, holding Weiss by her shoulders. Weiss's hand was holding her side where Ruby had cut her. The three women stared at each other, still wondering if this was real. Slowly, Blake corrected Weiss so that she was standing on her own two feet.
Weiss looked just as confused as Ruby felt seeing Blake here. Making sure she was alright, Blake looked to Weiss and commanded, "Pull your forces back, Nora's on her way now..." Ruby could already hear the explosions from Nora's grenade launcher, but how did Blake know that Nora was here as well? Weiss looked in the direction of where the explosions were coming from and slowly nodded. Looking back at Ruby, she placed a hand on her ear and spoke.
"This is Specialist Schnee, all Atlesian forces are to pull back, we've been here for too long." She removed her hand and continued to stare at Ruby for a long while until an explosion destroyed a hollowed out building nearby, sending debris everywhere. Everyone flinched and took cover, but not before a chunk hit Ruby in the head, knocking her to the ground. She could feel blood seeping down her forehead, and her Aura sealing the wound.
Slowly getting up to her knees, she looked back to the building burning with pink flames. Looking back to Weiss, her former partner was already running away with the rest of her forces; and Blake was nowhere to be found. Getting to her feet, she held her pounding head. A few more shots zoomed past her as her brain tried to make sense of it all through the muggy haze. She pulled her right hand back from her forehead, wet with blood from her wound. Tears fell from her eyes and washed away the crimson paint that covered her hand as Weiss disappeared from sight.
"How..." Ruby croaked out, "How could YOU be my enemy."
