Death Magnetic: All Nightmare Long

It was night. The sun had set outside and all the lights in the halls were off. Everything was dark, and it seemed to stay that way even near an open window, the night proving moonless. Everything inside Beacon was dark and silent.

Pyrrha believed in ghosts. She hadn't up until this moment, but she found her views on the subject rapidly changing. When she turned to look behind her there was no one there, yet when she continued walking she would hear footsteps behind her. She scanned the shadows more than once, sometimes certain she had spotted a silhouette, but she was beginning to wonder if her mind was playing tricks on her. Perhaps it was some sort of mental consequence for what she had done, but still it seemed the best explanation was ghosts.

After wandering in what turned out to be circles, she found her way across the courtyard and into the dorms. The feeling of being followed never left until she turned the last corner. Her team's room was now in sight, and right across the hall from it was team RWBY's door. Standing out in the hallway were Yang and Ruby. They heard Pyrrha approaching and straightened up, slouching again when they realized who it was.

Pyrrha waited until she got closer, not wanting to disturb other teams in their own rooms, before speaking to them. "What are you two doing out here?"

Ruby looked too nervous to talk, so Yang answered. "We're waiting for Blake. Weiss is hurt pretty bad, so we're not going to go to sleep without Blake."

Pyrrha looked down, avoiding eye contact. "You want to make sure she's alright."

Yang nodded. "Yeah, exactly."

Ruby piped up. "You, uh... she said she wanted to go check something, and she was gonna have you go with her. We haven't seen her since, so... do you know where she is?"

Pyrrha sighed, defeated. "Yeah... yeah, I know where she is. Just give me a second. I need to get something from my room."

Without waiting for a response, she opened the door and stepped in, closing it behind her. She slid down the door and onto the ground. The room was dark, but it seemed as though there was someone watching her. She knew who it was, judging by just how close they got to her face.

Pyrrha just closed her eyes, groaning in irritation. "Why didn't you tell them about Blake?"

Nora's voice, lowered to a whisper, answered from mere inches away. "I thought it would be best if they heard it from you. If you tell the truth, I'm sure they'll understand."

"The truth..." She pulled herself away from Nora, keeping her voice down so as not to wake the boys. "Nora, I'm tired of this. I can keep going like this any more."

"Hmm." She couldn't see Nora, but it felt like the other girl was squinting at her. Examining her, even. Nora eventually had an answer. "Then don't keep going."

"What?"

"Don't. If you try to keep going when you're so tired, you'll only run yourself into the ground." Pyrrha felt Nora sitting beside her. "You'll wake up tomorrow and it will just keep going. But if you tell the truth, then everything can be over tonight."

Pyrrha shook her head, though she knew it was too dark for Nora to see. "No... if you knew the truth as I know it, you wouldn't be saying that."

"You might be surprised." Pyrrha felt Nora pressing something into her hands. It was her spear. "But if you don't come out and tell the truth, then I will."

Pyrrha took her weapon from Nora, unable to stop a snarl from forming on her face. "Oh yeah, and what might your truth be?"

"Far more shocking than what you'd have us believe." And then Nora was gone. Pyrrha knew she was somewhere in the room, but it was too dark to see anything. The girl could have been anywhere. Her voice came back to haunt Pyrrha one last time. "Watch out for ghosts, Pyrrha. I hear there's one wandering the halls of Beacon. The ghost of a student murdered by her friend."

The door closed behind Pyrrha before Nora was even finished. Back in the hallway, she shuddered to herself before remembering that Ruby and Yang were right there. She looked up at them. "S-sorry for making you wait so long. Nora was spouting some stupid nonsense."

Yang nodded slowly, her arms crossed over her chest. "Yeah... what's with the weapon?"

Pyrrha looked down at the spear in her hand. "Oh, uh... this is going to sound a little stupid, but..."

Ruby smirked. "I like stupid. It reminds me of my sister."

Yang smacked Ruby across the back of her head. "That's odd. It reminds me of my sister too."

Pyrrha rolled her eyes. "Never mind."

Yang insisted. "Oh, come on. We won't make fun of you. We promise."

"Unless it really is stupid."

Yang gave Ruby another smack. "That's enough from you."

Pyrrha started weakly. "Well, uh... since what happened with Weiss... I'm sort of... scared, I guess. If someone could do that to her, then they might be able to do that to me, and I don't want to be caught off-guard."

Ruby laughed nervously, rubbing the sore spot on the back of her head. "Oh, it's just a precaution? That's not stupid at all."

"Well, that's not all of it, though. On my way here... it felt like I was being followed by someone."

Yang grimaced. "What, like a pervert?"

Ruby elbowed her sister in the side. "No, she means she thinks it might be the same person who attacked Weiss."

"Either way..." Pyrrha hoisted the spear. "I feel safer now, so let's go."

Yang and Ruby obeyed quietly, letting Pyrrha lead them through the halls. They didn't even ask any questions when she took them across the courtyard. The closer they got, the more nervous Pyrrha found herself being. They couldn't possibly suspect nothing, could they? Nora had to have told them, and they were just waiting to see for themselves. How did Nora know, though? Did she know, or was she just messing with Pyrrha's head?

She worked her mind into a frenzy thinking about it. Now it the main school building, standing in front of a door that led into a stairwell that would take them up to the hallway where Blake had died, she found she couldn't turn around. She didn't dare to look behind her at the two girls. They had to be thinking of how they would rip her apart. She would see it on their faces if she turned, and they would she how terrified she had gotten thinking about it.

Unable to speak without her words shaking, Pyrrha pushed the door open and headed up the stairs. The sisters followed, slowly climbing the stairs behind her. When they reached the top, she stopped again. The hallway was on the other side of the door facing her. She couldn't go in there with both of them. It would be the end of everything for her. There was only one path to take.

It was dark enough that they probably wouldn't have seen it anyway, but she made sure they were behind her first. Holding her hand out, she let the dark glow of her aura envelope it and grab hold of the heavy metal door in front of them.

Yang called out from behind her. "You use the crash bar. That's how those doors work-"

The door suddenly bent in towards them, the sound it made deafening them and echoing in every direction. At the last moment, Pyrrha jumped out of the way and flattened herself against the wall. The door flew off its hinges, crashing into the wall at the other side of the stairwell. Pyrrha's eyes were closed, and she didn't want to open them, but she had to.

Down the last flight of stairs, on the landing, Ruby was on the ground with her hands covering her head. She looked up, her eyes wide and terrified. Wasting no time, Pyrrha jumped out into the hallway and made a show of looking both directions for some sort of perpetrator. She looked back down to Ruby, trying her best to look confused and scared.

Beside Ruby, Yang was still standing. The door had embedded itself in the wall more than a foot. Ruby hadn't looked behind her yet, so she couldn't see it, but the door had hit Yang. Moments passed it utter silence before Yang finally fell over, a chunk of her head missing. Ruby finally noticed when her sister landed on top of her.

"Yang... Yang!"

Pyrrha jumped down the stairs and grabbed Ruby, pulling her away from Yang. She pulled the younger girl up the stairs, trying to block out the screams of agonized grief. "Ruby, there's no time! We need to get out of here! They followed us! They're here!" Dragging Ruby through the door, Pyrrha shoved her down the hallway. "Now run!"

Ruby wanted to run, but she wanted to run back to her sister. It was only by the urgency in Pyrrha's voice that she was convinced. She turned and made to run, but something stopped her. She froze, the scene before her destroying any reason she thought she had left to escape. Ruby collapsed to her knees.

Shattered glass covered the floor, the frame for the long stretch of windows running the length of the hall on one side having been pulled out of place. Lying on the ground and covered in blood was Blake, one eye staring in blank horror. Large glass shards jutted out of her throat and other eye. Ruby covered her eyes, the tears already pouring down her face.

The mechanical sound of a weapon switching modes, followed by the feel of the barrel of a gun pressing against the back of her head, made Ruby finally realize what had happened.

"I never wanted any of this to go this far."

Ruby turned to look up at Pyrrha, more tears welling in her eyes. "Y-you... did this?"

"For what it's worth, probably nothing now, I am sorry. Weiss is dead too, but... turn around."

Ruby didn't turn. She just stared up at Pyrrha. "...Why?"

"Don't make this any harder than it already is, Ruby. Now turn around. Please?"

"Pyrrha, why? Why did you-"

"Turn around damn it!"

The gun went off in her hand. She hadn't wanted to see Ruby's face when it happened. She accidentally pulled the trigger before she had intended. Ruby fell to the ground, and fresh blood poured onto a pool on the floor. Pyrrha dropped her weapon. One way or another, it was over.

And then that feeling returned. Someone was behind her. Pyrrha spun, already reaching out with her aura to pull her weapon back into her hand. She found herself face to face with something inhuman. She had all of a second to analyze the red dot staring into her before a metal hand slammed into the side of her head. She hit the wall, turning just in time to see the fist collide with her face.

...

When Pyrrha came to, she was fastened to a table. She could feel the cold steel clamped around her wrists and ankles. She could feel something jabbed into her arm, pumping something through her veins. Whatever it was, she sensed that it was meant to prevent her from using her semblance.

"And they said you were a prodigy."

Pyrrha looked up, seeing the figure standing beside her. Long white gloves reached up to their elbows, and a high collar covered their neck. Instead of eyes, it was a cold robotic visor that stared down at her. The braid of white hair told her who it was.

"Weiss... but I thought-"

"That you killed me? You were tricked, Pyrrha. You were tricked, and... you killed four people. Four people who I held most dear, as a matter of fact. Trust me when I say that I'm going to make sure you pay dearly for that."

Weiss started to walked away, but Pyrrha called her back. "Wait, Weiss! I... I'm sor-"

"You're being incarcerated, Pyrrha. They're putting a spike in your brain that will disrupt your aura permanently. No, I'm sorry, I was wrong. I'm not going to make sure you pay. I already have. Your sentence has already been passed, and you're never coming back. Goodbye, Pyrrha."

Weiss walked away. The door closed behind her, leaving Pyrrha in darkness. Darkness that would last years.

Somehow...

"Next group!"

After a few minutes of sorting themselves out, forty students stood together smiling at the camera. Professor Ozpin stood behind the camera and off to the side, watching the cameraman ready the shot. The students all stood together, smiling.

The cameraman called out to them. "Alright, graduating class number three... teams CRDL, JNPR, RWBY..." He listed off the other teams, ten in all. "These are the fourth-years, right?" Ozpin nodded to him. "Alright then... say "cheese"!"

Most of the students did as asked, though Ruby and Nora stuck their tongues out, causing Weiss to roll her eyes. The camera flashed and everything went white.

And the next second, Nora Valkyrie was laying on her back, hot pain shooting through her body.

This can't be real. I can't believe it's happening. There's no way it could happen. Not here. Not like this. I want to wake up. Let me wake up!

Graduation: Irreversible