Penitent Tangent
By the Incongruous Obscenity
A tangent for another, thus no pledge.
I
It was simply beautiful, despite the fear and the crushing weight of defeat. There were no birds or little critters about, only an endless field of flowers. Whatever direction one might look.
Starting at the furthest edge—where they stepped from the door in the ruins of Yssil, onto ground covered with purple grass—it was poppies and daffodils, colored bright shades of blue and gold and pink. A few hundred feet from there the purple grass was instead swallowed up by hydrangea and goldenrod. Further still and it became roses and sunflowers, various families of nightshade and anemone. Then, just before they found it again, it was lilies and monkshoods.
So far as the eye could see, lilies and monkshoods…
"I told you not to follow her," said the creature, and Ruby's attention snapped back.
She looked up from the flowers. Her hands went numb and the massive revolver slipped from her grasp. It clattered on the ground, crushing the flowers and grass beneath its cold metal bulk. Didn't matter though, as it was spent and she had no more shells to reload. Neither did Weiss for hers. Which was why…
"I told you…" The thing, clad in tattered black rags, its orange eyes shining bright despite the seven suns in the sky, withdrew a sickle from Weiss's stomach. "I said to stay, where you were. In your world. In your place, you stubborn shite…"
A wave of viscera followed the retreating sickle, which was in fact itself a gun. A nasty, twisted, ruined revolver sporting a sickle beneath its warped, black barrel. Now slick with the red-flowing life of the heiress. Yet, the thing did not look pleased with itself in the slightest. One might even have thought it to look sad.
Though, with the fangs and horns, the glowing orange eyes and rotted, scaly skin, remorse seemed quite beyond the nightmarish creature.
"Last Rose of Summer," said the thing, looking away from the wounded Schnee. "Is this what you wanted? Is this what you intended? Is this love's last reward?"
Ruby took a step forward; they were hardly a stone's throw away. Weiss took a step back and, her knees going numb, collapsed onto the lilies and monkshoods. The creature only continued to look at Ruby, staring into her teary, silver eyes.
"Take the time you need," it said, turning away at last. "There's only one more door. I'll be waiting, so take your time."
It began to walk. The nasty gun disappeared from its grip and the thing reverted, back to what it had been. A sickly, living corpse wrapped in ancient, putrid rags. Then, it was just gone. As if it had never been there at all.
The seven suns shined bright in the cloudless sky over the two women below, now the only occupants of the endless field.
II
Her feet were numb. Her knees were clattering as if with palsy. Her eyes were quickly going blind with tears. Her chest felt tight, her blood ready to burst from her veins, stomach on the verge of turning inside out.
But somehow, she managed to move, one foot after the other.
By all the gods, known and unknown, it felt like ages just to cross a few yards. And oh, she tried to hurry, tried desperately to push herself forward quicker. Weiss was laying there she knew, bleeding and coughing on the ground. She had to go faster. Had to move quicker.
Had to get to her…
"Weiss!" she wheezed hoarsely.
At last, she reached the heiress.
Ruby fell to her knees, leaving indents in the soft earth and crushing a number of beautiful flowers. She paid nothing else any mind as she gently scooped her hands beneath the heiress, one under her neck and the other at the middle of her back. As carefully as she could, Ruby lifted Weiss, hoping she could start to catch her breath.
"Did he get me?" the heiress moaned.
"Shut up," said Ruby.
Weiss coughed—flecks of red spattered across Ruby's cheek—and tried to grin. She fell just short of a disgusted snarl.
"Come on. Can't be that bad…"
She tried to look down. Ruby shouted, "Stay still!" and stopped her.
"Now see here," said the heiress, relaxing her head into the cup of Ruby's elbow, "don't you start that, Ruby Rose. I didn't come here for you—I did so for me, and you know it."
"I told you to stay too, Weiss," said Ruby. She was quickly losing the fight against her tears.
A few drops flitted down on the heiress's cheek. She closed her eyes.
"And I didn't listen, did I?" Weiss mused aloud.
The silver-eyed woman tried to say something more. Her voice failed her—refused to cooperate—and stuck in her throat, becoming instead a fatigued wail. Sounded like an injured child that has just realized their wound.
"Must be autumn," said Weiss.
"Huh?" Ruby managed.
"All those suns in the sky, but it's kind of cold don't you think?"
A jolt ran through Ruby. It made her heart skip a few beats and her teeth begin to buzz. Without thinking, she freed the hand under Weiss's back and moved it to her forehead. She was beyond alarmed to feel cool, clammy flesh.
Then, looking at the heiress's closed eyes, she noted the sunken and darkened appearance of them.
"Damn it, Weiss!" Ruby shouted, laying the heiress down as gently as she could. "I've got to bandage you up! You're losing too much blood!"
She started to work the buttons of the heiress's shirt. It was one of the garments they had been given in that first strange city, where gods walked among humans and monsters were hunted for sport. But it worked like any other, as a button is a button no matter where it comes from.
Weiss's hand stopped her though, cold and weak though her grip was.
"Save it," she said, voice getting quiet and thin. "I was stupid. I know how bad it is, Ruby. Don't waste your energy."
"Shut up!" the silver-eyed woman screamed. "I'll get you patched up! You'll be ok! You have to be ok!"
She tried to work the buttons again, now half way down. The heiress tightened her grip somehow and stopped her once more.
"Are you really going to waste it?" she wheezed.
"Waste what?!" shouted Ruby.
Weiss looked into her silver eyes and said, "Whatever time we've got left; are you really going to waste it trying to do the impossible?"
Ruby's hands went slack.
III
It was probably only ten minutes, all said and done. Once she got into the groove of conversation though—pushing aside her panic, her despair, her encroaching insanity—Ruby managed to roll with it. It helped.
"Remember Mistral?" asked the heiress. Her voice was almost too weak to hear now.
"Yeah," said Ruby, running her hand gently over Weiss's left cheek. "You're always so fancy. Checking us into a five-star hotel? When we're trying to lay low?"
"Heh, uh huh." Weiss coughed a few times, grimaced when the fire of her ripped belly coursed through her whole frame.
"And then you went and rented out an entire damn beach?" Ruby continued. "I mean, jeez. Why not just wear signboards? 'Hey, we're laying low!'"
"Incognito," said Weiss, followed by more coughing, more grimacing and weak swearing.
"Oh, hey." Ruby swept her hand over the heiress's forehead, brushed the bangs from her face. "Remember the bell tower?"
"The belfry?"
"Yeah, that. Gosh, the stars were so beautiful there. No city lights, no smog, nothing but us and the bell tower and the stars…"
"Our first kiss as lovers," mused the heiress.
Ruby's face flushed, recalling the moment and what had come after.
"I was sore the rest of that week," said Ruby.
"Sorry," said Weiss.
"Nah, don't be. It was fun, and I had no idea you were so… freaky when you get into it."
"And I had no idea you were so willing."
The heiress gave a wan smile. She looked up toward Ruby, but it seemed as if she were looking through her. Ruby had no idea her love's vision was already gone. She had no clue how close it was now.
"Oh, what about when we ended up on that mountain?"
"Mountain?" echoed the heiress.
"Yeah." Ruby nodded her head. "Where we talked to the dragon. A freakin dragon, Weiss! I still can't believe it…"
"I remember the ruined city better." Weiss tried to laugh, only coughed more instead. A few more specks of red dotted Ruby's tear-streaked cheeks. "Didn't they tell us it was because someone got cremated?" she asked once the fits passed.
"I think that guy (Hershel, wasn't it?) said a goddess got cremated, or something like that…"
"Talk about fireworks at a funeral," said the heiress.
Both laughed at that. It brought a last bout of fits to Weiss, shaking her entire form. Ruby tried to ignore the surge of warm dampness running over her thighs at each motion of her love. She was sure they both sat in a pool by then and surely had no intent to look and see.
In all truth, the scene was like something out of an ancient tragedy. Two beautiful women sitting amid an endless field of so many flowers. One lying in the lap of the other, taking her last ragged breaths as they reminisced over their short time together. The other supporting her, choking back sobs and killing as many tears as she could, trying to be comforting and loving until the end.
Ruby stroked her love's hair and cheeks, alternating with no sense of thought. She'd stop every now and again—interrupting the now babbling heiress—to plant a soft, weeping kiss at the corner of her mouth. Ignoring the thin trail of blood, she did this many times over. Right up until the moment came.
"I don't regret any of it," said Weiss.
Her words came out slow and deliberate, like she was fighting off a truly exhausted sleep.
"What?"
"None of it, you hear me?" Weiss insisted. "How we met. How we fell in love. How we snuck around that first six months. Not even how we parted the first time…"
Ruby tried to smile. She ended up sneering instead. Didn't matter though, Weiss's sight was quite gone.
"I'm so happy I found my way back to you," the heiress choked out, now gasping for air with every other breath.
"I'm not," said Ruby, unheard.
"I've seen things I never would have seen." Weiss shuddered violently, coughed a few times. "I've experienced things I thought I wasn't worthy to…"
Another shake ripped through her. Ruby squeezed her closer, in a hug, as soft as she could. She was afraid of causing the heiress more pain but sorely wanted the embrace. Her eyes refused to hold back by now, and she sobbed freely onto Weiss's neck. Sadly, her love felt none of it.
"I don't regret you," whispered Weiss. "I don't regret… loving you. I don't…"
"Just hush," Ruby pleaded.
Unheard.
"I don't… regret… us…"
For just a moment, Ruby found herself amazed that Weiss could speak in her condition. The pity of it brought a fresh wave of sobs into her, through her, and out of her. Then she felt the heiress's shoulders slack, her weight go limp. An odd breath escaped Weiss's lips—smelling stale, oddly—and Ruby jolted her head back.
Her silver eyes found the heiress's icy-blue, staring straight at the sky.
"Weiss?"
Gently, she shook her love. She got no response.
"Hey, this isn't funny. You gotta stay awake, Weiss, ok?"
She shook the heiress again, a little more briskly this time. Still no response. Only that heavenward stare.
"If you fall asleep it might get really bad," Ruby pleaded, gradually shaking harder and harder. "You have to fight it, Weiss. Fight the exhaustion! Fight the sleep!"
Ruby shook and shook, and eventually lost herself enough that she smacked one of Weiss's cold cheeks. Not hard, mind, but enough to jostle her. Still nothing.
"Wake up, Weiss," she whispered. "Don't leave me please. Not like Yang. Not like dad and Qrow." She leaned her face back onto the heiress's neck. "Please… don't leave me…"
A calm breeze swept the field.
Ruby felt nothing.
IV
Ruby stayed like that for a while. Huddled up over her love, face buried in her neck, shaking with violent, silent weeping.
When she finally got a hold of herself enough to move, the seven suns were just where they'd been from the start. It looked as if no time had passed at all. Yet, as she tried to lay her love on the ground she felt stiffness already entering her body. It was mostly the arms, but her back, too, had picked up some amount and caused her to lay at an odd angle. Until gravity helped, that is.
She rose on numb feet, having no idea what she meant to do. On looking down at Weiss—who looked unreasonably peaceful—her stomach flipped.
Ruby stumbled away as far as she could, collapsed to her knees again and vomited onto the purple grass and flowers. It ended up being little more than stomach acid since she'd not eaten in gods-knew how long. The retching continued for a time though.
Yet again, Ruby pulled herself together. Not unscathed—what with how her stomach burned and her head spun—but with a sudden determination.
She looked back at Weiss, then, averting her eyes, at the massive revolver only a few feet from her cold left hand. The silver-eyed woman stumbled over to the gun, leaned down and picked it up. It was so damn heavy in her grasp, but somehow felt so right. She pulled the hammer to half-cock, dropped the latch and looked at the cylinder. Spinning it slowly, she counted two unfired rounds.
"You could've taken a shot," she whispered to no one. "You didn't have to take the hit…"
The urge to vomit resurfaced as the scene played through her mind.
That creature and its ungodly speed. That creature and its deadly, deadly weapon. That creature and how it shook off every effort they made to injure it. Sure, they were no fighters, she and Weiss, no huntresses or gunslingers. But they had given absolutely everything they had to give. That thing just shook it off, stepped around every flying bullet, laughing and smiling cruelly the whole time.
Then, it had gotten her dead-to-rights, lined up the perfect strike.
"You could've knocked it away," Ruby whispered again, once more to no one at all. "There's no way that thing could dodge a bullet in mid-strike. No way…"
But thinking on it, Ruby wasn't entirely sure that was true. Maybe intercepting was the only way Weiss thought she could save her.
Didn't matter now, though. What was done was done.
Gripping the big-iron in her shaking left hand, Ruby shut the latch and dropped the hammer back to rest. She then slipped it into the large belt she'd been given in ruined Yssil and walked over to her own, discarded big-iron.
"Can't believe I got to meet Roland of Gilead," she mused aloud, crouching to pick up the empty revolver. "Can't believe he gave us his irons. The Guns of Deschain…"
She looked the massive thing over, her hand calm for some reason. It was at least as long as her arm, from shoulder to the tip of her middle finger. Had to weigh fifteen pounds too, surely not an ounce less. But it felt so right in her grip. So natural…
Ruby pulled the hammer to half-cock and dropped the latch. She peered at the fired shells, turning the cylinder slowly and popping them out as they came. When she was done, she shut the latch and dropped the hammer, then stood.
She turned her silver eyes to the heavens and looked at the seven suns. Each shone a different color but all sported a corona of purest white.
Without really knowing why, Ruby stopped herself from slipping the second big-iron into her belt. Instead she began to saunter back to Weiss, who sat there looking so very, unreasonably peaceful despite the circumstances.
When she reached the motionless heiress, Ruby crouched down and began to cry once again.
It wasn't violent, it wasn't loud.
It was only release…
V
She ended up using the entrusted big-iron as a makeshift shovel. With its size and ridiculous weight, the thing worked a charm. It also helped that the ground under the purple grass was quite soft, relenting easily to each jab of the barrel.
Ruby cared not that she was clogging the ancient, mythical weapon with dirt. She cared not one whit that, under the abuse, it would never be useable again. The only thing on her mind was that, no matter what, she simply couldn't leave Weiss lying there, under the seven suns, in the middle of this endless field.
And so, Ruby dug at the ground with the Gun of Deschain she had been entrusted. Gouge after gouge she speared from the earth, working tirelessly for who-knows how long. One strike after another. One pull after another. Scoop after scoop she went, gradually working out the shape and depth of a proper grave. She still recalled Yang's, at the funeral, and how deep, wide, and long it was. She resolved to make Weiss's just as nice.
When she was finally finished, Ruby's back felt ready to lock and her muscles were sore as she'd ever known them. Yet, satisfaction burned in her when she looked at the hole, shored and neatly carved as best she could manage.
Weiss still lay where she'd left her. Ruby approached, knelt down and put one hand on her forehead. It was cold as ice. She looked so peaceful.
At first, she thought to simply pick the heiress up and deliver her as she was. A breeze came, however, and billowed Ruby's cloak out in front of her. All seven feet it its crimson glory passed across her vision, and Ruby knew what she would do with one of her sister's final gifts.
It was only right, after all, wasn't it?
A short time later, Ruby had Weiss wrapped up nicely in the cloak. She then lifted the heiress and ferried her to the grave.
The woman's silver eyes ran with silent tears the entire way. It blurred her vision, and with the passing wind, nearly blinded her. But still she went, step after step, one foot after the other. Until she stood before the grave. Ruby then stepped down into the hole and set her love on the bottom, as reverently as one might touch the hem of a god's robe.
She knelt down beside Weiss one last time and planted a final kiss on her purple lips.
"I love you, Weiss," she whispered. "I'll love you forever. So very, very much…"
Unable to bear it further, she withdrew and stood, then exited the grave.
Ruby spent the next long while filling in the grave, almost incapable of tossing the dirt over the heiress. She could not just leave her out in the open though. Simply couldn't…
And when she was finally all but done, she decided to leave the entrusted big-iron as well. Ruby tossed it onto the dirt and filled in the last foot by hand alone. The revolver entrusted to Weiss poked at her stomach the entire time, as though it, too, were trying to bid farewell.
When the task was done—and when Ruby managed to collect herself enough to speak again—she stood tall and clasped her hands together, interlacing her fingers. The woman craned her forehead to her knuckles and began to speak.
"This is Weiss Schnee," said Ruby, her voice strong in her reverence. "May her heart be healed of this sorrow and may she be raised from the darkness of the earth; I say please. May her spirit be filled with light and succor, stripped of the suffering of flesh and the woes of life. May she be brought hale and whole to the clearing at the end of the path; I say please.
"If she comes to the clearing hungry, may she be given great feast; I say please.
"If she comes to the clearing thirsty, may she drink deep of the waters of life; I say please.
"This is Weiss Schnee, who was a true friend and honest love, who gave her every and all until the end. She was caring and she was genuine. She loved fiercely and honestly. She was funny and she was strong. I could not have come this far without her; I say true."
Ruby's breath left her suddenly. She sucked in a fierce gust, shuddered for a moment and forced herself to continue. To hell with her clattering knees and numb feet.
"This is Weiss Schnee. She has paid the debt of death we each owe at birth. Give her peace in the clearing, I beg."
Done at last, Ruby opened her eyes and looked on the grave. It still did not look finished though, so she decided to add a final touch. She undid the clasp of her broach—the silverwork rose paired with her cloak, from Yang—and laid it on the dirt over Weiss's head.
"Please," Ruby whispered, trying not to tear up. "Please give her peace…"
Ω
She stared at the grave for a long while, the Last Rose of Summer. When she looked up she saw something that, though she didn't expect it, filled her with anger rather than surprise.
It was a door that looked to be made of solid, black marble. The handle was a gilded bronze with scrollwork depicting, in tiny detail, a scene of heaven and angels. The surface was featureless otherwise , save for a single large symbol that looked like a horseshoe. Looking it over, she saw it had hinges—just as the ones before—that hooked into absolutely nothing. It only floated there. And she knew, if she were to walk around behind it, the door would disappear altogether as soon as she looked from its side.
Ruby Rose took a deep breath and said, "Good bye, Weiss," before stepping around the grave.
She took hold of the gilded bronze handle and twisted.
The door opened without a hint of effort.