I'M BACK, BABY! God, I haven't posted anything for a good long time, since last year I think. As for the reason for the delay? God-awful writer's block. It is truly the bane of the universe, wanting to write but unable to. It was a struggle, but I've finally got my creative juices flowing again.
Now, there's basically one person that helped me through this, and her name is KarmaHope. She is my awesome, awesome beta, and someone I'm proud to be able to call a friend. Karma, whenever you read this, thank you.
As for the main event, it basically spawned itself after listening to All Our Days. I... seriously, don't try to write if you listen to it, you will cry. Bucketloads. This is not a story that will make you feel good, this thing is born from my raging emotions and need to post a story that will, hopefully, make you feel something as well. Eventually, I may be persuaded to continue it...
Thank you for giving my little story the time of day.
I do not own RWBY or it's characters, that honor goes to Roosterteeth.
Cinder tried to scramble away but slipped on the blood-soaked ground, fear in her once-predatory eyes. Around her, the worst battle ever to be recorded in Remnant's history was drawing to a close after a long week filled with heartache and, in Yang's case, complete and utter fury. Hundreds of bodies littered the battlefield - Grimm, White Fang, and Hunters alike, as each side had never given an inch in the bloody struggle.
Hundreds of years from now, when the Forever Fall's scars finally healed, people would say they could still smell the blood and death soaked into the very ground itself. But here, now, in the present, Yang strode towards her prey. She was an enemy no longer, not after what she had done to Vale. Cinder was a parasite, a leech to be burned with her own fucking fire.
Yang reached down with her remaining right arm and hauled the battered woman back to her feet before drawing her in close.
"WHY?!" Yang screamed as she slugged the parasite in the face. Cinder shrieked in agony, the dust-enhanced buckshot ruining her left eye, and collapsed once again. "None of us deserved this! No one deserved this! What gave you the right!? WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DO THIS, CINDER?!"
Instead of answering, Cinder moaned and spat a glob of blood as she cradled the left side of her burned face. She slowly got to her feet, and then smiled as she met Yang's hate-filled gaze.
"Who says I needed a reason?" Cinder asked, her voice low and seductive.
The effect was instant – Yang screeched in white-hot, murderous hatred as she leapt at the madwoman, focusing all her Aura into one final blow. The shotgun blast echoed over the field, practically blowing Cinder's head clean off her body. It ignited what was left, incinerating the woman into naught but ash before she even hit the ground. Yang stood there, her arm poised to strike again before the fact that the fact that she had just killed Cinder Fall - the madwoman who had brought Vale to its knees and had nearly dragged the rest of Remnant down with her - registered in her mind and she felt all the strength leave her body.
Yang groaned as forgotten pains made themselves known, collapsing to her knees now that her fury was no longer holding back the sheer amount of damage she had taken. There was a pain in her abdomen from when she had been bowled over by a Boarbatusk – internal bleeding. Several ribs were broken and there was a searing pain in her ankle, which was twisted at an unnatural angle. Her left arm had been taken by Cinder in the final confrontation, blown off above the elbow when she had been distracted by… Ruby!
Fear filled the blonde, and she staggered back to her feet as she clutched her stump in an attempt to stem the bleeding. Stumbling across the eerily quiet battlefield, Yang had the thought that she was the last survivor, though distant clashes of metal quickly dismissed that. Stepping around a pile of broken and twisted White Fang corpses, Yang had to struggle to move on when she saw her partner, her favorite kitty cat, in the middle of the throng with nearly a dozen blades through her body. She was kneeling, having died leaning against Gambol Shroud as she'd tried to get back on her feet.
Yang felt tears prick her eyes even as she smiled, knowing that even against dozens of enemies - and even against death itself - her partner had refused to fall.
There was Ren and Nora, both having died in the other's arms when a sniper got a bead on Ren. Nora hadn't realized that the bullet had enough power to go through at least ten of her.
Yang heard the distant wails of Pyrrha as she clutched the halved remains of Jaune, who protected her exposed back from the Lieutenant. Not a second later, the Invincible Woman turned her gun on herself.
That massive black smudge over there was all that was left of Weiss after she had pushed Blake out of the way of Cinder's sneak attack.
And Ruby…
Yang's heart broke at seeing her Rubes. She had snuck off in the night to try to negotiate with Cinder, to try to stop the senseless killing. Ruby had been unarmed, alone, but she still had the courage to do the right thing, something that even Ozpin hadn't been able to do before he was assassinated. And she had been repaid for her efforts when Cinder slowly burned her body, playing with her before rallying her forces for battle.
Ruby's arms and legs had torched beyond recognition and there was a black handprint on her breast where Cinder had burned her heart inside her own body. Yang sobbed as she fell to her knees and crawled to the desecrated remains of Ruby Rose.
"Ruby," Yang choked out and laid a hand on her wonderful, her courageous, her beautiful baby sister. Instead of twisted in ugly anguish, Ruby had died smiling, knowing she had done her part and knowing that her friends would be able to finish the job she hadn't been able to complete. Ignoring how quickly her blood began pouring out of her body, Yang laid herself beside Ruby and held her against her chest, ignoring how cold her sister was as she herself began to feel more and more lightheaded.
"We made a promise, didn't we?" Yang asked the air. "I will stay with you all our days."
The air grew colder.
"Hey, don't be sad, Rubes. I want this. We did our part… now let's go see Mom," she said with a grin. Slowly her vision began to blacken, narrowing into a tunnel. With the last slowing beats of her heart, Yang pulled Ruby's body closer and laid a kiss on her baby sister's head.
"I'll see you there, Ruby."
Her body grew lighter and lighter, drifting up towards the sky. Was she afraid? Yes. Yang knew she wasn't the most virtuous person, and she had done things she always regretted in order to keep her sister happy and safe. But the knowledge that she would soon join her gave her peace, and she faded away smiling.