[ OOC : A drabble idea that was born following the Volume 5 finale of RWBY. This is also how I think this is going to get resolved, by the way. Warning – Major Character Death. All characters, titles, and recognizable intellectual materials are owned by Roosterteeth; no copyright infringement is intended by this fanwork. ]

Let's Just Live (Together)

Yang Xiao Long heard the whipping of those frightening, squirming tentacles, from that terrifying Creature of Grimm that had appeared before them, speaking in hellish whispers and taunts in the voice silky and icy voice of their greatest enemy, Salem, before the Grimm had attacked. RWBY had held their own very well; and for that, Yang was proud; both of herself and her teammates– but without Jaune, Nora, Ren, and without Ozpin and Qrow– they didn't stand a chance against this powerful enemy.

The tendrils from their enemy drew closer, before rising up and striking downward. Yang's eyes widened, but she didn't have time to move. She might have seen a bright flash of light; she heard voices, and her life flashed before her eyes. Things seemed to go in slow-motion as Death came so impossibly close to her, she swore later that she could feel him behind her back, breathing on her neck.

"Yang!"

She heard her name yelled, coursing, echoing and sharp, inside the room where the dark granite hallway seemed to extend forever, and it broke the moment. Yang just wasn't quick enough to look up before something black, scarlet, and heavy shoved into her chest, knocking the young Huntswoman backward and nearly causing her to lose her balance. There was a loud, piercing buzz in her ear, and her eyes were closed so tightly that she was seeing stars. But after a few moments; when she didn't feel the pain, Yang opened her eyes.

A pair of bright scarlet ones looked right back at her, not even an inch away.

" . . . Mom?"

The woman who had given birth to her didn't speak; and after a moment of blank staring, Yang realized several things at once. One, Raven was shaking violently; both of her hands were holding the younger woman's shoulders, tightly; almost using her as a post to keep herself upright. It was also then that Yang looked down, and saw that the front of her own coat was drenched in scarlet blood. It wasn't her own. She then looked back up, and that was when Yang noticed, lastly, the Grimm behind her mother's back.

Those sharp, poisonous tendrils that had been trained on Yang herself were now deeply embedded in Raven's back, arms, legs; her usual scarlet armor had cracked and shattered under the sheer strength. Bits and pieces of it were falling off onto the ground at their feet. Yang watched with ever-widening eyes as the tendrils ripped themselves out of her body in a cruel spray of scarlet.

And then she watched as Raven Branwen seemed to fall slowly. She hit the floor just as yet another flash of red flew past her, unleashing holy vengeance; backed up quickly by the forms of black and white; telling Yang that the rest of RWBY had recovered from the shock.

The young Huntress hadn't. She falls a moment later, and as she slams rough hands on wounds that went from one side to the other, that were bleeding so much her hands were already submerged in crimson—Yang suddenly remembers doing the same what felt like years ago now, in Haven Academy. Falling to her knees, tears rolling down her face, following such a difficult conversation with the woman now shuddering violently and struggling for breath before her.

"Mom," Yang tries, but to no response. She pressed harder; this time, a gasp escapes the elder Huntress and her eyes open; there were unshed tears in pained eyes, and just from the look of them… "Mom!"

Blood… Was already pooling underneath the Spring Maiden. Her eyes opened at the second calling of the title used to rouse her; and Yang was never more pleased to see those disapproving scarlet eyes than right that second; it meant that, for the moment, Raven was alive.

"Yang."

The young Huntress started, and her fingers jolted in shock, causing her mother to wince and close her eyes, tightly, from the pain. She immediately resumed the impossible task of trying to stop the flow of blood; her teammates, who had finished the Creature of Grimm in quick time, were now rushing back toward their teammate and her mother; but Yang stopped them with just a flick of a robotic finger.

"Good." The breathless laugh came, unlike it was likely intended, gently. "You get it."

"Why?" Yang demanded, suddenly, and the bitter venom in her mouth surprises her, even as her team takes several awkward steps back, to give much-needed space– "Why did you protect me, damn it?!"

"Because I did," Raven responded, a bloodied and defeated hand, shaking, pressing against a wound and, coincidentally, against Yang's hand holding a wound on her chest– "I didn't think about it. I moved."

"You said– you said I'd only get one! You made such a big deal of– and now this!"

"I know," Raven interrupted, and it's drowned by the sheer pain in her voice. Yang freezes in place as her breath pauses, labored under the pressure of keeping such a pained being alive long enough to speak. The young Huntress felt tears pooling in her eyes– out of frustration, assuredly– as the Spring Maiden coughed. Her blood soaking her daughter's clothes, she repeats, almost dazedly, "I know."

Yang watches as her mother withers and fails. Her body was greying with the loss of blood, despite the pitiful attempts to keep her alive just that much longer; because RWBY knew– just as damnably well as Raven herself did, most likely– that Qrow and Ozpin were on their way. If she could just hold on…

"Mom," She tells her, urgently, and scarlet eyes flicker open, "Just keep talking. It's… Going to be okay."

Looking into the fellow fallen Huntswoman's dimming scarlet eyes, Yang knew this simply wasn't to be.

Her hand was gripping Raven's, and tightly. The traitorous tears that she had tried to stop were now pouring down her face like rain, and they dripped onto her mother's face as she leaned over her, trying in vain to keep her wounds from bleeding her body dry. What drove her was the hand that gripped hers, firmly but quickly weakening under the strain of keeping herself alive.

"Let me memorize your face. Please."

Yang's eyes couldn't help but open and widen as she cried; fat, ugly tears still dripping steadily onto her mother's pale and sickly, wounded and pained face. She didn't, though, disagree, or otherwise pull away; instead, she leaned down even further, letting her own eyes sink into scarlet blood-drop eyes.

And Yang? Yang couldn't help but smile widely. It's a sad smile. But it's a smile.

"Of course… Mom. Anything."

So it was that, for the first time in both their lives, Raven truly looked at her daughter. She noted the goldilocks hair that Taiyang commented on; the hair so soft, unlike her own bristled locks. She saw the healthy color on bright cheeks, and while the scarlet stains of war marred a beautiful face, her skin was unmarred and milky. She also noticed her eyes; bright and full of life, unlike her own, which were dark and lifeless, and would be now and forevermore after tonight.

Raven wasn't crying, Yang assured herself. She wasn't.

"Aren't you scared?" The words tumble from her mouth before Yang can stop them. Raven's eyes were failing, and something told the younger Huntress that, once they closed this time… This time, they wouldn't reopen and give her the chance to speak to a mother that was only… Only ever there when her life truly depended on her intervention. "Mom?"

"Yeah, I am. But I'm not running."

Yang looked up again, meeting dying scarlet eyes. Her hands were still submerged in her mother's blood, and she still felt the presence of RWBY behind her; always behind her. The young Huntress could only shake her head in response, the tears rendering her unable to speak.

"That's what someone strong once told me." Yang's head suddenly dropped, and she gave a cry worthy of a dying animal when the tinge of death began to tint Raven's words, leaving her breathless and weak in their wake, "Yang… Please. You know what's going to happen. I… Won't ask for the Tribe. But… Do what you think is right with these powers. If you've proven anything… It's that you're stubborn as hell. Just… Just like me. Ha. It'll… Serve you well. Don't let… Let others tell you how to use these powers."

"Mom, please," Yang begged, pressing her forehead against her mother's, trying to give Raven that simple physical contact that might just happen to save her life– "Mom. Please. I don't want to lose you– I don't even know you, damn you!"

"Lucky you, Yang... Lucky you."

"NO! You can't just– MOM!"