Nightmare
DISCLAIMER: Team RWBY, and all related references to RWBY, including locations, characters, weapons, monsters, dialogue, and Weiss are the creation of the late Monty Oum, and are owned by Rooster Teeth, a subsidiary of Fullscreen, Inc. I make no claim of ownership to said properties, and do not profit in any way from them. Under the fair use clause of international copyright law this work is 100% legal and not an infringement of copyright. This disclaimer will not appear anywhere else in this work except for purposes of clarification if and when original characters are involved.
Chapter 1: Reunion
He who does not trust enough, will not be trusted. -Lao Tzu
She was tired of running, she wanted to stand tall and face her problems. But not this one. She had to run, she had to flee before she was spotted. What was Ruby even doing there? Wasn't she still recovering? And even if she wasn't, there was no reason for her to come back... was there? It ultimately didn't matter though. Ruby was here, and Blake needed to run before-
"BLAKE BELLADONNA I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!"
-she was spotted...
Ruby wasn't sure what she would find in the ruins of Beacon. She trusted Qrow's words that Cinder's trail lead to Haven, and she didn't think she would find anything useful.
Maybe she just needed closure. Maybe she needed to see the frozen Grimm for herself. Maybe she just wanted a chance to say goodbye to two of her closest friends, even if they'd never hear those words.
Jaune, Ren, and Nora had gone to the top of what was left of Beacon tower, but Ruby had stayed behind. She couldn't go back, not yet. She instead patrolled around the city, making clearing Grimm as she went.
Having just destroyed a Boarbatusk, she scanned her surroundings for any further troublemakers when she noticed a flash of black out the corner of her eye. A familiar black, one that she wouldn't associate with Grimm.
Ruby spun to look properly, shifting Crescent Rose into sniper mode to get a better look, and her hunch was right. It was Blake.
"Blake..." she softly said to herself, before noticing that Blake was about to run again. Putting her weapon away, and preparing to run faster than she had ever run before, she vanished in a burst of petals, practically running up the side of a nearby building. Landing neatly on a rooftop, Ruby inhaled deeply before shouting at her teammate.
"BLAKE BELLADONNA I AM VERY DISAPPOINTED IN YOU!"
Somehow those words were more terrifying to Blake than any horror she's ever faced before. She froze up knowing she couldn't escape even if she wanted to. She didn't want to be caught, she just didn't want to make Ruby more annoyed with her.
Unfortunately, Ruby failed to realize that Blake had stopped running, and crashed right into her, sending both toppling from the roof into a nearby pile of insulation. Coughing, Blake tried to get up, only to find herself pinned by a glaring, tear-eyed, and very angry Ruby.
"You JERK!" she shouted at the Faunus. "You cowardly, selfish, promise-breaking JERK!" Blake had no response, and simply let Ruby yell, tears now flowing freely from Ruby's eyes onto Blake. "Do you even realize what you've done? You've broken your promise to Weiss! You broke Yang's heart! You've betrayed me!"
"Ruby, I..."
"SHUT UP, BLAKE!" Ruby yelled before Blake could say anything, "I don't CARE why you run. You still RAN. When Yang, your friend, your partner needed you the most you ran.Like a coward. Like you blamed yourself for what happened. Like... LIKE A BLAKE!" Blake winced, she deserved every word of it, but it still stung.
Ruby had stopped yelling, only because her tears had taken over. Collapsing onto Blake, she wrapped her arms around the cat, ignoring the itching from the insulation as she sobbed into her chest. Blake recognized that she wasn't moving any time soon, and simply held her leader, slowly letting tiredness take over.
It was thanks to her life in the White Fang that Blake had always been a light sleeper. Being a light sleeper meant that she could stay alert if the watch spotted something, or if an enemy got the drop on them, or if Adam was…
She cleared her head before she could dwell on the monster she once called a lover. Moving very carefully so as not to wake Ruby, she slowly started to get up, planning to make her escape while her leader was still sound asleep.
This is when she noticed that somehow Ruby hand managed to handcuff the two of them together, a longish chain keeping them bound. Even more frustrating was the fact that her semblance wouldn't help, thanks to the handcuffs, she was stuck to her former leader.
"Really, Blake?" A grumpy looking Ruby asked. "You honestly thought you'd be able to escape?"
Blake sighed. She should have figured it would be like that. Ruby wasn't their leader just for a whim, after all. "I really don't give you enough credit," she eventually replied. "When did you slip them on?"
"When you started drifting off," she replied proudly. "When your arm loosened its hold, I slipped it on. Then I pretended to be asleep, knowing you'd try to escape."
Blake would've been impressed if the situation wasn't so frustrating. 'Am I really that predictable?' she thought, before sighing in resignation. "So what now?" She asked.
"First we're going to find Jaune, Nora, and Ren," Ruby replied, unable to hide the sadness in her voice, which Blake noted. "Then make camp before heading out for Mistral."
"Mistral?"
"Uncle Qrow said that Cinder's trail leads to Haven. She was pretending to be a student from there, so it's the only clue we have to finding her." Blake had noticed that anger had seeped into her tone; it was unsettling.
"Ruby?" Blake ventured, "What happened up there?" Blake almost immediately regretted asking, as the question brought Ruby nearly to tears.
"I… I was too late, Blake," she responded, "I got up there just in time to watch Pyrrha die… and… and I was just so… so angry, and then everything went white and I woke up in my room a week later to a missing Cinder, a frozen… dragon thingy, and Vale in ruins." Ruby looked up to glare at Blake again, "not to mention a depressed Yang, a Weiss-napped partner, and a runaway Blake." Ruby punctuated the last point with a sharp poke to Blake's forehead.
Backing up slightly, Ruby crossed her arms. "And if you think for a second I'm going to let you run again, you're a dummy."
"So why the handcuffs?"
"Because I knew you'd try to escape the second I wasn't paying attention."
"And where'd you get them?"
"T-that's not important," Ruby stuttered, clearly flustered.
"My…" Blake drawled, noticing Ruby's flustered state, "Ruby, I didn't know you were so… kinky…" She smirked when Ruby's face rapidly turned a shade of red to rival her cape.
"B-BLAKE!" Ruby stammered, "I-It's n-not like that!" She pulled the hood of her cape over her face, trying in vain to hide it.
Blake chuckled briefly. It had been far too long since she'd been able to laugh. At the same time, she sighed inwardly. She had hoped that getting Ruby worked up like that would trick her into releasing the cuffs. Ruby was a lot more stubborn than she thought.
"C-come on," Ruby finally managed to stutter, "let's get to the meeting place. We need to talk before the others get back." Blake, knowing that she wasn't going to get away, simply followed.
The two teammates sat across from each other in a simple campsite hidden in the ruins of a building. A heavy, awkward silence between them. Eventually Ruby cleared her throat, gaining Blake's attention.
"Talk." She said, glaring at Blake again.
"What?"
"Why did you run, Blake?" Ruby leaned forward. "Spill it. Now."
Blake was taken aback. Whatever had happened had dramatically changed the innocent girl she met months ago. Sighing she looked down at her hands.
"When the Grimm breached the city, Weiss and I headed back to Beacon to help fight the White Fang. Weiss and I split up, and then… I found him."
"Him?"
"Adam Taurus…" she responded shakily, "leader of the White Fang… and my old partner."
"The one you said had turned into a monster?"
"Y-yeah… He was there… and before I knew it, he was right back into his old ways with me…"
"Old ways? Blake, were you-?"
"Please," Blake interrupted, "not yet. I can't go there yet…"
Nodding, Ruby backed off, letting Blake finish.
"I tried to fight him, but he overwhelmed me quickly… he said he'd destroy everything I ever loved… and that's when Yang found us and attacked… Y-you can probably guess the rest."
"Y-yeah, I saw…" Ruby looked down to her feet. "But you managed to save my sister's life, and I'm grateful for it."
"But she lost her arm because of me!"
"She lost her arm because of Adam. Not you. You saved Yang's life. She would be dead if not for you."
"But… but I…"
"She doesn't blame you, Blake. Not for that." Ruby didn't say it, but she didn't hide the anger and sense of betrayal that Yang had felt either. "And let me guess: you ran so Adam couldn't hurt us, right?"
"Y-yeah," Blake muttered, rather humbled by how easily Ruby had read her.
Ruby just sighed, "Blake, you're a valuable part of the team, a good friend, and one of the strongest people I ever met… but DUST you're an idiot."
Blake jerked her head up. She wasn't expecting the insult. "W-what did you say?"
"Blake Belladonna," Ruby started, punctuating her next words with a poke, "You. Are. A. Moron." She sat back and crossed her arms, not bothering to be careful about the cuffs and pulling Blake from her seat.
"I… don't understand…"
"How exactly would running save us from Adam?"
"What do you mean?"
"I mean; why would Adam need you around to kill us? He could easily find everything he needs to know without you. You aren't holding a big sign that says 'I love this person, please kill them', are you?"
"N-no…"
"So, Adam knows you love all three of us, and he doesn't need you there to kill us. All you've done is make the team weaker."
Blake was stunned. In a few words, Ruby had brought everything crashing back down. The walls around her heart once again demolished by somebody pointing out the error of her logic.
"I'm sorry," she finally said, tears in her eyes.
"I'm not the one you should be apologizing to," Ruby replied, "but we're too far from home to see Yang right now, so save it."
"Can you at least release the cuffs?"
"Nope!" Ruby replied, popping the 'p' in her usual style
'Damn it,' Blake thought. "Fine, then I guess I'm coming with you."
"Yep!" Ruby stated, popping the 'p' once again. She sat down beside Blake, pulling her into a tight hug. "I really missed you," she mumbled into Blake. "Please don't do that again. I don't think Yang or Weiss will forgive you a third time."
Blake's ears perked. "Does that mean you?"
"Are you still cuffed to me?"
"Yes?"
"Then you have your answer." Ruby sighed. "Blake, you broke Yang's heart, but once she bounces back, and she always does, she'll forgive you. You broke your promise to Weiss, but she'll forgive you. But you betrayed me, Blake. I trusted you not to do this and you did it anyway. That's WHY I cuffed you."
Blake's ears flattened, Ruby's words cutting her deeply. She knew she deserved them, but that didn't make the pain any less deep.
"Give me time, Blakey… Time can heal all wounds, even this one."
In that moment Blake broke, and, wrapping her arms around her leader, she began to cry. Ruby simply held her close.
"I'm sorry," she sobbed into her leader's arms. "I'm so sorry."
AUTHOR'S NOTE: First of all, consider Jailbreak abandoned at this point. Rizzles and I were all set to write more, and had three chapters planned, and then episodes 9-12 happened.
TOO SAD! CAN'T MAKE THAT AU NOW... they said, in the AN of a story that will be pretty angsty.
That said, it's going to be another 3845734095834597 days until Volume 4 begins, so that leaves plenty of time for what I'd like to see happen.
And what I'd like to see is so much Ladybug. We'll see ReNora and friends too. As well as Weiss and Yang. Maybe even Glynda. I actually have plans for this one, and motivation to see it through… assuming I don't get distracted by Skyrim.
Anyway, I'm done for now. Asky AWAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY