Hello everybody and welcome to the next chapter of When Two Worlds Collide!
I'd like to call this chapter: Looking into one's self
Last time on WTWC: "You're just barely a step above Cardin on the racist ladder bitch!"
"WHOA HO! Hold up there cowboy!"
"T-h-anks for saving me."
And so it continues.
The tension between Austin and Weiss got so thick you could slice it with a very, very, VERY dull blade as they walked to the infirmary. Not a single word was spoken between anybody the whole way there, Austin had tried to beat them there, but due to his injuries he could not move very fast, at all. Mark was actually listening to music along the way there, but little did anyone notice his hands and legs were slightly glowing and his semblance got a little out of control in the way that it would arc from time to time.
After what felt like the longest silent walk anyone had ever been apart of, they did manage to make it to the infirmary, that's when Weiss noticed Mark's glowing. Finally breaking the silence, Weiss asked "Mark, why are you uhh glowing?"
"What?" Mark asked while taking off one of his earbuds.
"You're glowing from top to bottom." Weiss stated while pointing at his arms and legs. Mark went to look and when he noticed it, he said "Huh, no wonder why I felt tingly."
"I, don't think that's normal." Blake added in as Austin checked himself into the infirmary and was escorted by doctors to a room to get checked out.
"Ehh, At this point I don't really care anymore." Mark said with a shrug as he was also escorted to another room.
Blake and Weiss went to go check on Ruby while they were there, Yang was still in the room when they entered.
"How is she?" Weiss asked, concerned for her partner, she wanted to make sure she was okay.
"She'll be fine. Doctor's say it's just a minor concussion and she just needs to rest for a little while." Yang answered without taking her eyes off of Ruby. "I'm going to kill Mark."
"Why? He didn't do anything wrong. It wasn't him that did any of that, it was CRDL. Cardin hit Ruby, not Mark." Weiss explained, defending the dolt only to not have her teammate commit premeditated murder, and partially for her partner.
"Then first I'm killing Cardin, then I'll kill Mark."
"Why do you want to kill Mark so bad?"
"Because if it wasn't for him Ruby wouldn't be in here right now!" Yang stood and faced her two teammates, eyes burning red.
"Then why don't you do it right here, right now?" Mark asked as he got out of the room, fresh full of bandages to cover up his wounds.
Yang immediately stood up, rushing past Blake and Weiss, and grabbed Mark by the throat. "Give me one good reason why I shouldn't do it right now!" Fire was beginning to become visible.
"I don't have one so go right ahead." Mark said as he started to lose consciousness. "I've faced worse."
Yang reared back to punch Mark with all her might, but stopped when she heard a voice she did not expect to hear for another few hours. "Yang, what are you doing?" A tired Ruby Rose asked as she rubbed her eyes, looking at her sister with her back to her and a fist half cocked.
Yang let go of Mark and immediately ran to Ruby, her eyes turning iliac again and the fire disappearing "Oh thank dust you're awake." She hugged her sister, and smiled.
"What happened? Last thing I remember was kicking Dove in the face, which was awesome, and then everything went black." Ruby asked to everyone in the room that she could see, Mark not being one of them.
Yang looked back at Blake and Weiss with hope for an explanation. "Cardin hit you in the head." Blake answered bluntly.
"So that explains the huge pain in the back of my head." Ruby said wincing at the touch of said injured area.
"Yeah, the doctor said you have a minor concussion, so no physical activity for at least a week." Yang explained with grievance, she knew Ruby wasn't going to like the sound of that.
"I don't like the sound of that." See? "A whole week of not doing anything? How am I supposed to train?" Ruby complained as she repositioned herself to a more comfortable position on the bed.
"I know it sucks, but if you don't wait and hit your head again, it could kill you." Yang cringed at the thought of that "So, you're going to train mentally, instead of physically, okay?"
Ruby thought about it for a moment "Okay, I can do that." She turned her attention to the rest of her team and raised an eyebrow "Where's Mark? Is he in a room getting patched up too?"
Yang immediately widened her eyes while Blake and Weiss looked at each other in panic.
"Where did he go? He was just here." Weiss said as she looked back at the doorway, but there was no Mark, just a hallway, and Austin leaving the room he was put in with plenty of bandages on, cause Weiss to immediately to look away from the doorway and back at Ruby.
Austin made his way in a few seconds later "Well, I have three broken ribs and a bruised sternum." He said as he entered the room "Where's Mark?" The four looked at him with the same expression.
"You mean he wasn't with you?" Ruby asked as her eyes widened.
"No, I thought he wa-Oh crap, no!" Austin took off running out of the infirmary and Team RWBY quickly followed, Yang picked Ruby up and carried her on her back.
"What's going on!?" Ruby asked panicking at Mark's disappearance.
"Mark told me that he had "regrets" flashing back to him." Austin explained, running for his and possibly Mark's, life.
"How does that factor into his disappearance!?" Weiss asked as she started to slow down due to her running for too long.
"It factors in more than you think, he sounded extremely depressed and even told me that he tried to commit suicide multiple time." Austin said getting near to the cliffs.
"WHAT!?" All of team RWBY exclaimed at the same time. They couldn't believe it. Mark, The loud, hyper, energetic and optimistic part of team AM was depressed to the point of attempted suicide.
When they got to the cliffs they saw Mark standing near the edge just sitting there and looking at the stars.
"Hey guys." Mark said as he waved slightly at them. He sounded different, not loud, not scraggly no. He sounded like a mixture of depression, awe-inspired, sad and wise all at the exact same time.
"Mark, I know what you're thinking DON'T DO IT!" Austin said as him and the rest of team RWBY started to walk towards Mark in case he would jump.
"Do what? Commit suicide? Please, I've tried to do that a long time ago." Mark said as he motioned for the others to sit.
"Then why did you just vanish like that?" Blake asked as she and the others sat down.
"After a certain incident." Mark said while taking a quick glance at Yang. "I've snuck out and decided to go to the cliffs and think."
"About what man?" Austin asked putting a hand on Mark's shoulder.
Mark sighed before saying "I've been looking at my life as a whole, thinking about what I did both right and wrong. I've went through many psychological things that most people would never think about, loneliness for one. I've been alone in my early childhood, ignored by the ones that would grow up to become "popular" and "cool"." Mark said putting air quotation marks on popular and cool.
"Can you just get to the point already?" Weiss asked irritated before receiving a nudge in the ribs from Blake.
"Alright Snowflake I'll cut to the chase." Mark chucked while receiving a "HEY!" from weiss and chuckles from the rest of the group.
"The point is that even though reality will always come crushing down on you, you gotta keep moving along, Just gotta keep swimming." Mark said while standing up and patted the dirt off of him.
"Don't worry about me guys, I won't commit suicide I've already beaten that horse to death and then some." Mark chuckled at his own joke.
Everyone was silent, after a few moments Austin stood up next to him. "Mark, don't you ever scare me like that again man." He pulled Mark into a hug and took a deep breath, holding back any tears that even attempted to show.
"C'mon man let the tears out." Mark said while patting Austin's back. "Just let it all out….that's what she said." He muttered the last part while Austin was slightly laughing.
"Only you can make the worst situation into a joke man." Austin pulled away from the embrace and looked at Team RWBY, he headed back towards Beacon "Damn, I'm hungry." As he walked by Ruby he whispered just quiet enough so not even Blake heard it "He's a keeper." Ruby's face lit up and Austin held his hand out to Blake "Care to join me?" Blake nodded and they headed into Beacon.
Weiss tapped Yang on the shoulder and motioned for them to go inside and leave them to be alone, Yang resisted at first, but Weiss eventually got her to come with her, leaving Ruby, with her face bright red from Austin's comment, and Mark, who was still looking over the cliff.
"Well time to get up." Mark said as he stood up and stretched. He then noticed Ruby blushing and went up to her face and snapped his fingers. "Hello? Ruby?" He asked as Ruby managed to snap out of her trance.
"Huh what?" Ruby stuttered as she snapped out of her trance. "Where is everybody?" She asked confusedly
"They all left." Mark answered for her as he pointed a thumb at Beacon. "It's only you and me." He said as he noticed something on her cheek. "Hold up, you got something there." He said as he put a hand on her cheek.
"Oh thanks." Ruby muttered as she looked up in Mark's eyes while Mark looked into hers.
'Goddammit she looks pretty under the moonlight.' Mark thought as he slowly turned red as well. The two stayed that way for what seemed to be hours before they slowly leaned in on each other and kissed. Time seemed to stop for both of them as they stood there and hugged each other. When they released from each other, they immediately went red and started to stutter.
"T-t-that was a thing." Mark stuttered as he stood there blushing. He just couldn't believe it, he kissed one of the cutest girls he ever knew.
"Y-y-yeah." Ruby stuttered as well while looking down at her feet.
"You know, you felt really warm." Mark said still red but stopped stuttering.
"T-t-thanks, you too." Ruby said while still looking at her feet. Mark felt bad for her and decided to embrace her.
"You looked sad so I might as well do this." Mark smiled looking down at Ruby.
"Thanks, you're a really nice hugger." Ruby said as he poked Mark's stomach. It jiggled back causing Ruby to make a cute giggle.
"Thanks, you're really comfy to hug as well." Mark said as he poked her back. He could have sworn he heard Austin yell "I ship it!" but he didn't care, he kissed the cutest girl he knows goddammit! They stayed that way while looking at the stars, safe and warm inside each other's embrace.
AND LA FIN!
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