Part 10 | end of a beginning | 4,691 words
Post-Season 2. There will be spoilers to some degree.
BGM: Of Monsters and Men - Wolves Without Teeth
. . .
Captivity, last day.
"No, no no - ! Winter, don't do this to me! Don't - don't you dare!" Weiss was choking out a sob.
Her sister was in her arms, and she was trying desperately to stamp down on the blood that continued to flow and pool on the cold floor.
She had tried to get the weapon loose, away from both of them, but she was in too much pain and too weak, and Winter knew.
Winter, who remained steadfast, holding the weapon steady between their hands, angling it towards herself, pressing both their fingers to the trigger -
"Oh, be quiet," her sister finally grumbled, despite gasping for breath. "It's done and I want you to live. Do you hear me, Weiss? Live."
"You can't do this! You can't -please, don't - Winter - !"
"Shush."
Her vision blurred.
"Listen - listen to me closely, Weiss." Winter coughed. "I know you. You are stubborn and prideful… just like me. Like our family. And y-you are the last of us."
She felt hot tears by her eyes.
"But that doesn't mean you don't have others whom you can depend on," her sister murmured. "I've seen your team - they c-care for you greatly. I could tell. Am I right?"
She could only shudder out a shaky nod.
"Good. I know you won't take care of yourself. So you'll have to let them take care of you. Am I clear? P-promise me."
Her grip on Winter tightened, and she was shaking her head. "Don't you dare die. Don't you dare!"
A strained chuckle. "You know as w-well as I do that only one of us could have come out of this alive. That man and h-his machinations... are the work of the devil. Promise me, Weiss. Let your team care for you."
"Winter - "
"Promise me."
"I - " her voice cracked. "I promise."
"Good," Winter breathed out. "That's g-good. And you will know how to see me if you ever need to, don't you? I think… I think that's the only gift I can give to you, n-now. But you shouldn't open the gift until you are ready. Do you u-… do you understand?"
She was crying now. She, Weiss Schnee, was crying.
Their eyes met, one last time, and Winter smiled up at her. "I would've liked to hear you sing again, little snowflake. Your songs were always mesmerising."
How long had it been since her sister called her that?
"I'll sing for you when we get out of here," she promised with a choked voice.
"Mm." Slow breathing. "I would like that."
It would be another two hours before her team would break through the door, causing chaos and destruction of all sorts.
Two hours too late.
They would try to revive her sister - oh, how they did.
But it would be too late.
. . .
Present.
Blake's ears were ringing horribly, drowning all other noise there could be.
Raw, burning heat crawled on her skin, and it made her gasp with pain. Dimly, she realized that she was leaning back against a tree - when did she even sit up? - and it made her press back harder against the trunk in an attempt to gather her bearings, and to better feel her aura working to wash the burns away.
An explosion, her mind recognized. The car… the car exploded.
Despite the white edges in her vision and the way everything in front of her blurred, she could see the fire crackling, dancing on blackened metal in the distance, and smell the ash mingling with the scent of grass in the air.
The beeps.
It was a bomb. There was a bomb in the car.
Her mind went back to the person she was supposed to protect, and her stomach lurched.
"Weiss!"
But she didn't need to look far. In fact, all she had to do was look down on her lap, where Weiss had a tight arm slung around her waist - a hold that tightened just enough for her to realize the other was conscious, with eyes shut tightly and blood trickling down her temple.
The smaller woman was bleeding. But why? That type of explosion wouldn't have hurt them that terribly when they were younger, much less now, when they were all trained enough to have aura protection up on instinct.
Then she remembered.
Weiss had cast her glyphs with the bare second she had, and crashed them both out the glass window just as the car exploded, flinging them into the forest where bushes of leaves could slow down their momentum.
And those glass windows had been reinforced to hold against attacks.
Now that she was looking, she could see the skid marks from the car to where they were, grass flattened and soil overturned as a testament to how roughly Weiss got them out.
Blake's lips flattened into a thin line. Her friend must have pushed most of her aura towards the glyphs, shielding them from the worst of the explosion.
"The - " Weiss's voice was rough, slowly getting up. "The driver - Jonas - and Mick - "
Something sank in her stomach. Any rebuke that was on her lips vanished at the reminder. The two men who were in the front seats of the car…
The explosion had come from there. If they hadn't died, they would be severely, severely, injured… especially given that even both Weiss and Blake were hurt and disoriented, despite having the split second warning to dig into their aura reserves to protect themselves from the worst of the explosion.
And even that was only after Weiss had reacted quickly enough to pull them out of the car.
A wave of rage hit her.
Those were good people, employees, friends.
Shakily, she reached for her scroll to activate the silent emergency beacon. She couldn't risk them making too much noise now, not when they didn't know what could be lurking around them.
She only hoped that her signal would not be caught by anyone unsavoury.
"Can you stand?" Blake redirected her attention to her friend, one hand gripping the shoulder to steady Weiss as she sat up.
Weiss gritted her teeth, pressing a hand to her face only to pull away after a moment, blood now staining pale fingers.
The president took in a deep breath. "Concussion," she growled just as quietly, something dark and angry in her shaky voice. "But I will be fine. I'll - I'll get my summons to look around."
"Weiss - "
"Just until you get back your bearings, Blake."
The faunus bit back her protest, knowing what her friend meant. An explosion that close wasn't good for her heightened senses, and her ears were still ringing terribly.
She nodded back sharply, and Weiss pressed a hand to the ground, forming a white, glowing glyph.
The tip of a small nose appeared from the glyph first, followed by a white head, white eyes, and white fur.
A beowolf.
A Grimm, the full height of it that would reach Blake's waist had she been standing; looking so real and quite frankly, intimidating, despite Blake knowing that it wasn't literally a living creature, and that it would never harm Weiss.
Then another two more beowolves emerged.
Blake squeezed her shoulder. "That's enough, Weiss. You have a concussion."
The president gave the barest of a nod, her inhale of breath still shaky - shakier now, given that she was supporting three summons.
One of the white beowolves padded closer, until the tip of its nose nudged at Weiss's cheek.
Weiss reached up, pressing a gentle hand against white fur that really wasn't fur at all.
"Go," the white-haired woman whispered. "Scout for us."
They did, moving in three different directions.
Blake stood then too, a little shakily at first before steadying, scanning her surroundings. She couldn't afford to stay idle - or at least seated - when threats may be out there. At least when standing, she did not have as many blind spots.
Weiss hadn't bothered to move, trusting Blake to protect her; the pale hand was still pressed on the ground where the white, glowing glyph rotated.
It was silent for a short few minutes before Weiss snarled a vicious sound that made her look back sharply. That wasn't a good sign. "What is it?"
A long moment passed before Weiss spoke.
"There doesn't seem to be anything - or anyone - around us," the white-haired woman said through clenched teeth. "This might be a case of a simple hit and run."
Hit and run. How easily Weiss could just say that, when it was in actuality a case of bombing with intent to harm or kill.
But that was good news in light of the current situation, and certainly not something to snarl about. Especially since there was likely no other innocent bystanders nearby, given how rarely this road was used.
No, there was something else that made her friend angry.
"...And?"
"They are both dead." There was fury in her friend's usually curt words.
….Of course Weiss would've sent one of her summons to check on the two men.
"Find out who did this, Blake." Weiss was hissing like she wanted to rip the perpetrator apart. "Find out."
The softness and vulnerability that the white-haired woman exuded moments prior to the explosion had vanished, in its place a hardened president whose Schnee blood sang true like ice.
And Blake would, not just because of the death of the two men. She would, because she saw traces of the friend, whom she knew like the back of her hand, being chipped away again; replacing it with this person who continued to tread on the thin line between light and darkness.
It made rage and sadness claw back in her chest, poisonous and consuming, so reminiscent of that time when Weiss had been unmeasurably difficult to deal with after the hospital -
She sucked in a deep breath.
Would they ever get past that time? Everytime - everytime - when Blake felt they had made a good step forward, something would inevitably happen and push them two steps back.
She wanted Yang here.
Yang, who had been the one to pull Weiss back from the edge when Ruby had been too guilty and terrified to try and ultimately, left.
Yang, who had done what neither Blake and Ruby had been willing to do.
Yang, who had protected Weiss from herself when they couldn't.
And for a moment it was as if it was happening again - the way Myrtenaster had pierced right through Yang's tattered, gloved palm hanging limply, the entirety of the palm encased in melting shards of ice that sizzled with the fading semblance of heat and fire; how the blonde had forced Weiss close, the one good arm that wasn't dripping blood all over the floor curling around the smaller frame in a steely, protective hold as Weiss shuddered for breath and -
Her teeth clenched.
It was an irrational thought, she knew. Because she had seen a Weiss who wasn't Weiss, and comparing this person who could grieve over two of her employees to that would be the worst insult she could ever throw at her friend.
"I will find out who did this," she said, forcing calm back into her voice. "I swear it, Weiss."
The ringing in her ears had finally stopped, and with it gone she could finally hear the sound of vehicles moving on the road in the distance. High in the sky, she could see choppers bearing the Schnee insignia traveling to where they were.
She couldn't help the breath of relief that was let loose upon seeing the symbol that she once hated and now worked for, knowing that, as long as nothing happened between now and the arrival of cavalry, Weiss would be safe.
But at the same time…
Blake looked back at Weiss again, watching the tension lining those shoulders.
"...Are you okay?"
The president responded by lifting her hand from the ground, letting the glyph disappear with a slow breath.
After a pause, Blake offered a hand - one that the other took after a moment of staring at it - and pulled the smaller woman up.
"How are you feeling?" Weiss asked instead of answering, sharp blue eyes looking over her.
"The ringing has stopped." She squeezed that hand gently, understanding that her friend wouldn't answer without knowing how she was first.
The briefest of nods; Weiss released her hand. "I'm fine as well."
No, Blake really wanted to say, eyeing the blood that trickled down her temple. You aren't.
A hand rested on the pommel of Myrtenaster out of habit, and Weiss breathed in again, calmer and steadier. Blue eyes stared at the blackened metal and burning fire past the edge of the forest.
"The leak must be plugged, Blake."
"We are close," she promised. That the explosion occurred at all was a giveaway as to who could have been involved.
For a long moment, Weiss said nothing else.
But the grip she had on Myrtenaster tightened.
Blake did not like how her friend looked. It was too cold, too emotionless, too hard. It made the hair on the back of her neck stand, and something coiled tightly in her stomach.
"Weiss…?"
Another long pause.
"Whoever did this wants a war." A quiet murmur. "Don't they?"
She couldn't disagree. "Yes."
Weiss's eyes were like stone.
"They shall have it."
. . .
Ruby slapped a hand to the panel, not caring how her hand stung for it, shifting from foot to foot impatiently as the door slid open.
Inch by inch, the slender back of Weiss Schnee revealed itself, white hair loose and reaching her waist with the late afternoon sun coloring her pale skin a burnt orange from where she stood by the window.
She was still dressed in her workwear, crumpled and stained with dirt and blood.
And even then, she was still breathtaking.
With a few quick strides, Ruby crossed the hospital room until she was standing directly behind the older woman.
The younger huntress itched to touch her. But instead, she took in a deep breath.
"Weiss? Are you okay?"
A moment of silence passed; Weiss turned to face her with unreadable pale blue eyes and folded arms. The tie around her collared blouse had been loosened, and there were specks of blood staining the white collar.
Ruby, despite herself, felt her gaze stray to the small bandage taped to the temple, bare hints of red seeping through white cotton.
"It's not as bad as it looks." Weiss's quiet voice, in that moment, was like a sound that managed to penetrate the cloud of anxiety that built up in her.
She reached out then, letting her finger graze gently against the dry gauze and brushing against soft white hair. Weiss allowed it; beyond a flicker of something in her eyes, the older woman did nothing.
And Ruby couldn't help herself.
Her other hand lifted, and then she was framing her partner's face between her shaking hands, peppering soft kisses to the bandage, forehead, nuzzling her cheek, breathing in the scent of ash and fire, feeling the cold metallic earrings grazing the back of her fingers…
"You're okay," she breathed out, relief warring with raw fear in her chest. "You're okay."
She had blanked out when she received news of the explosion - it had been Yang's fierce reminder that they were alive that shook her out of her stupor. Having seen Blake moments earlier, who seemed weary but otherwise fine, had only lessened the nervous thrum of fear in her marginally.
In front of her now - Weiss's blue eyes were blazing with an intensity of something she couldn't describe, couldn't understand. Before she could even begin trying to guess at what they were, Weiss was already reaching for her, one hand fisting in on her shirt, lips slanting over her own with practiced ease.
The white-haired woman was rarely the initiator between the two of them - but today, apparently, was different. Ruby's back was suddenly pressed against the wall next to the window, her hands sliding down the slender back, and she felt the curve of the spine beneath her fingers.
Weiss did nothing to discourage her touch, only pressing closer for the briefest of the moment - and then she was breaking off the kiss but still leaning against her. Blue eyes remain closed, but there was a furrow in those aristocratic white brows that reminded Ruby not all was right then.
"You need to decide," the older of them whispered.
"Decide… decide what?" she asked in her confusion, still half-dazed by the kiss.
"I…" Weiss breathed in heavily. There was a strange and sad note in that quiet voice, something that told Ruby how weary the other was. "You need to decide if you really want this thing between us."
Her confusion all but grew, and the other must have felt it, because Weiss was speaking again.
"You know there's a target painted across my back. And now, you."
The grip she had curled around her partner tightened; in contrast, Weiss had flattened the hand she had on Ruby's shirt, faint heat emanating through it to her skin.
"Whoever's behind these attacks," Weiss was saying, quiet and calm, "grows more daring with each try. I was supposed to be at the Dust processing factory today, and the time of the explosion matched the time of my intended arrival."
An explosion combined with the volatile properties of Dust. Everything would have been leveled to the ground, and the aftershocks of it would have reached the city.
All the damage that could cause...
Ruby swallowed. "But you weren't there."
"No." A ghost of a humorless smile flickered, but then it was gone as quickly as it came. "I wasn't."
If she had been there, things would have been very different.
Unreadable mist blue eyes opened to meet her own. "So you need to decide if you really want to be with me, Ruby."
She blinked, utterly baffled. "What do you mean?"
Weiss retracted her hand, stepping back and away from her embrace. Blue eyes traveled over her for a moment, before looking out the window again.
"It's going to happen again," Weiss said finally, folding her arms once more, face like stone. "When it does, it may cause more than two deaths this time." A pause. "And I can't promise that nothing will happen to me, or you."
Ruby frowned. "We have talked about this before, and I told you - "
"And if I lost control?" A simple, direct question.
She clenched her fists. "I won't let that happen."
A smile did quirk up at that, on Weiss's lips, but there was absolutely nothing humorous about it. "How do you intend to make sure of that?"
"I'll do whatever it takes," Ruby said firmly. "You know I will."
Something like sadness seemed to curl around Weiss's shoulders then.
"At any and all costs?"
"Whatever it takes," she repeated stubbornly, unwilling to budge.
"...You killed Adam, and it haunted you."
Ice flooded her veins. She still remembered the feeling of her scythe sinking into flesh, feeling the warm blood splatter on her cheek, hear the choked cough the man gave -
Crescent Rose was intended to be a weapon against Grimm, not against human or faunus. She built it, maintained it, enhanced it - all for the purpose of protecting humanity from harm and to fulfill her dreams.
But on that very day, with her precious weapon, she had consciously spilled the blood of one such man despite knowing she could have captured him.
It didn't matter that he was vicious or destructive or even driven by hate for the one person she would always want to protect. It didn't matter that he was the reason rage overtook her. It didn't matter that he had hurt Weiss so terribly that the scars would stay with her for life.
All of that didn't matter, because none of them changed the simple fact: It was deliberate murder.
"He was the reason you left." Weiss's soft words seemed so far away now. "The reason why you couldn't bring yourself to touch me then, let alone look at me."
She couldn't respond, throat locked, paralyzed where she stood.
It was all true. She couldn't, because Weiss felt so fragile then - so how could she ever let herself touch her partner with those hands that were stained with blood?
"For a while," Weiss said quietly, "I thought it was because you couldn't bear to look at me as I was ultimately the reason you killed him."
She jerked from that statement. "What?" The dots connected a second later: Weiss had been blaming herself. "No! Weiss, that wasn't - "
The other shook her head. "I know." A pause. "I just didn't know it then, Ruby."
There was a hint of something raw and hurt in that soft voice, almost so indiscernible that Ruby probably wouldn't have detected it had she not been looking for it.
She felt guilt wash over her.
"Weiss - "
"Please," Weiss cut in with a long inhale of breath, the faintest of tremors visible in it. "Let me finish."
Her mouth clicked shut.
"My point," the white-haired woman begin again, "is that regardless of why, how, and the end results of it - is that you've killed for me. It's a debt I'll never forget, nor can I ever repay it."
A long pause.
Another deep breath, and Weiss turned to meet her gaze again.
"Being with me will hurt you." Her partner looked as if exhaustion had sunk deep into the bones. "I'll never willingly hurt you, Ruby. But you will get hurt, either by my own machinations, yours, or others. Do you understand what I'm saying?"
The ramifications of them all weighed down on her shoulders.
This was what it meant:
i) Injury or death.
Targets painted across their backs. What more could be said? They might bleed, had bled, and still walked into danger with eyes wide open anyway. It was their career, their lives, their choices.
ii) Adam.
She killed him. For Weiss, Ruby Rose had murdered. And she would have done so willingly again regardless of the consequences to others or to herself.
iii) Weiss Schnee lived in a world of morally gray, and Ruby Rose was someone who would always want to do what was right.
That part of Ruby who learned what it meant to be a leader had realized this early on - the white-haired president could be ruthless. And it wasn't as if she couldn't understand it - she could. Despite how brilliant and successful Ruby's plans may be, she had to learn the hard way what it meant to prioritize, to do what was best as opposed to what was right.
But that didn't mean she wasn't hurt by the consequences. Ruby Rose was someone who felt deeply, and her every choice as a leader had affected her greatly.
So whatever Weiss might choose to do… whatever Ruby herself might decide because of that… they would all affect her. None of them would have been unavoidable.
"It seems like you do understand," Weiss said softly, watching the turmoil of emotions in her gaze.
Her partner sighed again, and then there was a faint, sad and self-depreciating smile on those slender features. "But I'm selfish, too," the murmur floated to her ears. "So you need to decide, here and now, if you still want this thing between us."
But why? Why now? Why ask this now, after everything they had already gone through to get where they were at now?
And she must have spoken them aloud, because there was a flicker of something in mist blue eyes, followed by a calm response.
"Because if you do, I don't think I can let you go anymore."
Silence reigned.
It was Ruby who broke it.
"Weiss," she breathed, half astonished and half speechless, reaching out to let her fingers brush against moisture on pale cheeks, framing that face again with both hands like it was a fragile, precious thing that would shatter at the slightest touch.
Her partner's eyes were blue and bright and beautiful, with hints of burnt gold and orange from the late afternoon sun reflected in that gaze; her entire posture speaking of the sort of steel and fragility that could have come by only after enduring all she had.
"Don't cry," Ruby whispered, begged. "Please don't cry."
Weiss closed her eyes again, hands clutching at Ruby's elbows, as if uncertain as to grip tighter or push her away.
Ruby didn't give her a chance to decide. She brought her close again, pressing lips against tears, gently angling her partner to be better able to kiss her. She kept at it, kept at it, until the other responded fully and a noise that sounded like surrender caught in Weiss's throat.
"I want you," Ruby whispered then, against her lips. "I want to be with you. And I'm never letting you go, Weiss."
For the briefest of moment, Weiss seemed to waver, as if she didn't know whether to let Ruby do this or reject it, despite knowing that the younger huntress meant them anyway.
It was a conundrum, of sorts, because even though Weiss had many reasons to let it end, Ruby had just as many as to why she would not, if not more.
And the most important reason of them all?
"Want to take a guess as to why, Weiss?" Her question was solemn, but there was something that felt light and almost mischievous in those words. She nuzzled against pale cheeks; touched their foreheads together as she curled her hands around the slender waist instead.
Blue eyes opened to meet her own, seemingly incredulous at the sudden question and affection that seemed so out of place when taking into account what Weiss was trying to do.
But her partner did respond, if rather mulishly. "No."
"Really?" Ruby started to rock them gently, which made Weiss grip at her sleeves once more.
"Yes, really." Weiss exhaled, seemingly exasperated by this turn of events.
"Not even a tiny mini little guess?"
A twitch in white, aristocratic eyebrows.
"Ruby."
Ah. And there her partner was, replacing that person who looked as if she had the weight of the world on her shoulders.
Ruby felt herself grin at the look of discontentment on Weiss's face, because she knew Weiss wasn't actually mad.
"The answer to thaaaaat…" There was an air of exaggerated solemnity Ruby had that was blatantly an act, and one that made Weiss all the more exasperated.
Ice blue narrowed at her. "Don't test my patience."
"...Is that I can't let you go anymore either, Weiss."
Shock flickered past those eyes. Ruby didn't let her gaze or smile waver and tightened her hold, rebelling against the very idea that Weiss might just try to escape.
All cards were on the table now. Not that they haven't been for a while now - but sometimes, just sometimes, Weiss actually needed a reminder to look at them and remember that their cards were a mirror to each other.
So Ruby waited, watching the storm of emotions in the depths of that gaze.
Too many times now Weiss had tried to give her a way out, and each and every time Ruby had denied and even rebelled against it. But things were changing again now.
The things that made them work, the little pieces of gears that made them them, had been displaced for a long time - and now… now they were finally sliding back to where they belong.
And then:
There was the shaky breath that felt too brittle, the look on Weiss's face that spoke of so much and made her feel like her heart had been grasped by an ethereal fist, and words that would cement what were to come for however short their lives may be.
"Then... I am yours. And you are mine."
In those words there were neither victory nor loss - just something raw, precious, and bittersweet.
Finally. Finally.
. . .
A/N - I'll admit I sort of laughed every time I got called evil because of the previous chapter. Sorry!
Spoilers inbound here for S3 RWBY below, so read on at your own peril.
As you may suspect, because Weiss being able to summon has become a canonical fact, I did end up altering this chapter some. I can also say that I liked this version better than the one I first half-finished before watching S3.
That said… even though I did pick up on the summoning and Winter's characterization, majority of other canonical facts from S3 would still be set aside, chief among them characterization of certain characters that has since changed from S1/S2. I'm not usually one to stray to what-will-now-be-deemed-ooc-if-S3-is-taken-into-consideration if I can help it, but. In this case, I'm just going to wave a white flag.
Ahem. One more update is incoming - there will be some revelations, and some… interesting moments. Do stay tuned.
Many thanks again to birdhymns from AO3 for helping beta this. Reviews/Criticisms, as always, are welcome and encouraging.
Thank you!