Author's Notes: Soliloquies on the prowl.

Ruby fully expected to find Beowolves, Ursas, soldiers, Paladins, or even a Demon lurking in the shadows, ready to pounce on them at any moment. However, the reality was that their journey was a peaceful one - Too peaceful, in fact. Trouble usually found its way to her regardless of how many precautions she took. So, when there's a war/battle being fought and she wasn't in the thick of it, she actually felt uncomfortable. Impatient. It was weird. I wonder how Yang is doing. She should be on route to our rendezvous point by now.

At the end of their short fifteen minute jog was an unexpectedly large room. The ceiling was barely tall enough to accommodate a Paladin, but the metallic tile-set seemed to spread endlessly across the floor. Their only light source was the glowing Beowolf leading at the front, which was only bright enough to illuminate up to five feet away from them, the rest being complete darkness. Trusting in her instincts, Ruby thought that this place could possibly be even as big as the dome above her.

"What is this place?" Ruby asked as she followed Weiss. The Queen cloaked in white had slowed down and was watching the tiles beneath her feet intently because she no longer had a linear path to guide her. The darkness before them made it seem that this would certainly be a long walk.

"An emergency shelter. This is a military-built escape path, so naturally there is a resting spot to accommodate either troops or refugees."

"Here?" Ruby disbelievingly said, "Under this hill that seems as if it's about to collapse at any moment?"

"Don't jinx it." Some frowns did not require an expression, "Also, you're underestimating the strategic value of this place. It's easy to defend and it's also the perfect place for a last stand against the Grimm or other enemies."

"And why is the Grimm not an enemy again?"

"All Grimm are killers, and some had lived long enough to outskill and outsmart nearly every man alive." Ruby froze up a little, but thankfully Weiss did not seem to notice anything, "But thankfully, most Grimm are instinctual and stupid. They don't normally attack unless you're close or feeling especially awful; which makes them jerks really but that's besides the point. However, a human can, and will, scheme against you from ten thousand miles away if they found an opportunity to rob you for a fortune that was in actuality a penny because they did not do their homework. So no. Grimm and enemies are not the same."

Ruby looked surprised for a moment, but then she nodded, "You have a reason to be angry."

"You think so? I must be slipping then. A queen should never reveal her emotions unless it is for a purpose."

"Do you really believe that?"

"I do." the former queen slowed down and looked at Ruby, "Do you have a problem with that?"

Ruby shrugged, "No, not really. In fact, I used to follow the exact same philosophy."

"Really? What made you change your mind?"

Ruby opened her mouth to answer, but then she stopped herself. She was surprised by her own words because she actually believed it. Barring the year she spent living together with her Master and the few months she spent recuperating at Mrs. Amberson's, the majority of her life had been spent making one cold calculation after another. After all, you did not need to become a master in expressions and emotions when you've frozen your heart in ice.

"I met... a friend."

Weiss suddenly increased her pace before stopping in front of a support. There was a blue sign board above with various labels such as 'Pilot's Sector', 'Administration Office', 'Laboratory', an entire list of 'Crowd' A to Z et cetera and most importantly, Exit A, B and C. The moment Ruby read the board and nodded the queen immediately walked past it and continued towards Exit B, three kilometers away. The familiar darkness returned.

"A friend." Weiss said.

"A friend." she affirmed. Weiss shot her a strange look before turning back towards the front.

"Is something wrong?"

"No. Yes." Ruby looked at her in surprise. This was the first time she contradicted herself. "I've only known you for a while, but you... don't seem like a person who would say something like that."

"You don't know me."

"I don't. But I'm trained to recognize the signs the first time. Let's talk about your friend." Ruby never liked talking about herself, but as if she had eyes on her back Weiss changed the subject before Ruby could shut her out, "Who is she? Is she part of the team that came to rescue me?"

"And Penny." Ruby added automatically. A few seconds later Weiss sighed, "Correct me if I'm wrong, but we are eventually meeting up with your team, right?"

Ruby finally admitted, "She's the one who gave us the warning. Yang's the name."

"Okay, Yang, Chinese I presume. So, why the reluctance?"

"I'm not comfortable talking about others." Ruby said curtly so that Weiss would catch the hint. She ignored it.

"Well, you better get started then, because even though I agree with you that it's a necessity in life. Otherwise you going to create misunderstandings that you might regret for life."

Suddenly Ruby had flashbacks about the fire. The scream. A lone figure vanishing behind the mist. The sharp retort behind her teeth suddenly died before its wake, "I am not the most expressive person. I would do anything to achieve a goal because the demerits are often negligible in the larger scheme of things. I still do. But... little by little, she... changed me."

"Was it like a drama?"

"You watch drama?"

"Hey, just because I was a queen doesn't mean I don't have time to myself, okay?" Weiss complained before muttering so silently that Ruby almost missed it, "Sure, it was to decide which show had the proper social influences before releasing it to my people, but still, I own my time."

Ruby decided not to comment. Instead, she slightly adjusted the rifle behind her waist and continued, "I suppose it was. A little. Like I said I wasn't really expressive so I was quiet pretty much all the time. But her personality was the exact opposite of mine, so things got pretty bad for a while there."

"You could've parted ways. I mean, no need to force yourselves together and sour a friendship, isn't it?"

"It was our first mission, and for the record, we did."

"Um."

"Yes."

"I was going to say -"

"Yes."

"Sorry." Weiss didn't turn around, but she probably wasn't sure if she could keep up the right face. At least her tone sounded sincere. For a few minutes they proceeded in darkness while Ruby's eyes wandered about the ceiling, the lamps, the floor, the darkness, and finally the symbol behind Weiss' back.

"Do you have a friend, Weiss?"

"..."

"Hello?"

"Sorry." This time Weiss turned around completely and gave her a measuring look. For the first time her eyes lost its piercing gleam and warmed just a little. "I think that's the first time you call me by my name."

Ruby thought back for a moment and was surprised to find that it was true. "Huh. Do you want me to call you something else?"

"No. It's fine. Weiss, is fine." that last phrase seemed to be directed at herself, but she had turned back to the front before Ruby could deduce anything, "To answer your question, no. Maybe there were a few names that I would declare had I been younger, but the past is the past." Weiss paused for a while and started just as Ruby was about to reply, "You think that I'm a stereotype now, don't you?"

"Actually, no. At least you don't match any of the stereotypes in my head." Ruby replied.

"Really? I thought the royalty with no friends is pretty common?"

"Unlike you, I really don't watch drama. Now then, onto the next question."

"Hmm, well I suppose that's acceptable. What is it?"

"Who is that person on the throne right now?"

Tap tap, tap tap, tap, tap, tap. Weiss stopped. Ruby stopped. The Beowolf took a few steps further until both of them became covered in half shadows. The distance between them was a perfect ten feet, although she hadn't turned around. For some reason Ruby thought that a smile was forming on Weiss' lips, "Is this really the best time?"

"What an odd thing to say, because I'm pretty sure that we're alone in a hidden base that is as desolate as a tomb. Don't disappoint me."

Weiss turned around. She was smiling; a thin and dazzling and mirthful smile that only fools would mistake as harmlessness, "My apologies. It seems I may have underestimated you a little."

"I gave you information." Ruby said bluntly.

The former queen frowned. "Losing your patience already? We had some good rapport there."

"I'm a mercenary," Ruby unleashed Crescent Rose abruptly and placed it lightly against her shoulder, "and I hate working for free. You will answer two of my questions to my satisfaction, or I can't guarantee what might happen next."

"I don't think I owe you anything. After all, you did not save me out of good will, did you?"

"It doesn't change the fact. On the count of three." her right hand gripped onto Crescent Rose's hilt.

"You waste that innocent face of yours on unnecessary cruelty. Or is it the world around you that made you put on such a mask? Never mind." Weiss sighed in mild pity before she shrugged once with open palms, "I agree to your proposal. But do tell me your second question first so I can answer them both at once. We really are running against the clock after all."

"Why are you still alive?"

A different person might have mistaken the question for something else, but when directed against the exiled Queen of Shiva it had taken a different form entirely,

"To answer your first question, she was a second Lieutenant from Atlas, the surrogate daughter of General James Ironwood, and my blood related sister. Her name is Winter Schnee. You may have guessed my next answer, but it isn't a hard thing to guess in the first place, is you?"

She had left the Order for two years now, and maybe that was why she reacted the way she did. But when Weiss lifted the corner of her lips by just a fraction, turning an enchanting smile into one so hateful that the singular scar over her eyes seem to bleed with red, Ruby couldn't help but shiver,

"I'm taking back what's mine."

- and her weapon was kicked away just when she was mustering some strength to use it. What a horrific situation. If she heard Ciel's declarations right, she would have less than sixty seconds to make a getaway or suffer the rest of her days in a test tube or worse, converted into a mindless drone who would chant Atlas' glorious name in her sleep. Blake had thought that Adam had realized her guilty pleasure and broke character just to tease her about it, but when he passed her the reports she found that she couldn't laugh. Part of the reason she left him was because of that creeping feeling that one day she would gaze too long into the abyss and turn.

... Now she was so delirious that she wasted precious seconds on pointless thoughts. Blake coughed out painfully a clot of blood and felt the muzzle pressing harder against her head. Not only the bitch was a careful one she was a devious schemer to boot. With her face on the ground and the cold, hard metal pressing from the back any person would have thought that Ciel was standing right beside them and thus present with the opportunity of a surprise reversal. In truth, the dark skinned soldier stood about four feet away about the left direction of her armpit, which was too far and an awkward angle to execute an attack and too close to try anything that might escape her watchful gaze. If she had one such ally to support her she could take a General's head with no one the wiser. She was getting distracted again.

Can I take her?

It was a moot point. She had just reasoned very clearly inside her head that it was all but an impossible task.

Can I escape?

She wanted to say yes despite her injuries - especially because of her injuries, because Ciel had no concept of the uniqueness of her body and thus most likely would underestimated the rate at which she recovers, giving her the one and final element of surprise she would gain in this battle. But it was easily a double-edged sword even when everything else was already against her. She did not have time. She really shouldn't think be thinking about time. In the middle of a flat grass there was nowhere to hide, and the closest cover was a full street and a half away. She didn't think she could do the impossible three quarters dead when she had failed when perfectly functional. There was of course, the final resort wherein she opens a gap right beneath her and slips into the Shadow Dimension, but even that had a couple of problems: One, she had never had to go inside while she was about to die, so whether it would even accept her entry was a gamble she dared not wager. Two, even if she did the Shadow Dimension was literally a different plane of existence that just so happened she had the ability to cross forth and back, and although she had never run into one she could perceive somehow that there were things inside there that in her current condition much rather not need to face. Finally, there was the time limit. With every bit of her dark powers being channeled into healing her riddled body, she wasn't sure how long she could stay inside before being booted out unceromoniously like a miserly beggar in a high class restaurant. It would be exceptionally deadly if she revealed her ability and could not hide behind it for less than a second.

This is it.

She could hear and feel the rumbles of footsteps running towards their direction. Had it been sixty seconds already? What a terrible use of time if the only conclusion she could surmise from it was eternal suffering.

The term to use here as a Player would be Game Over or GG. Elliot would be horrifed, and May would scoff before secretly weeping at a place I can't see.

"Excuse me, ma'am. Team B-11 was taken down by the White Rabbit and the other target and I had to -"

"They will be fine, but the sixty five seconds you dallied might have killed a most important suspect. It's a miracle she's still alive. Sixty eight."

"Y-yes ma'am. I will perform the medical procedures right away."

Adam... he'll probably be happy to see me go. He hated humans. He hated traitors even more, and I was once closer to him than anyone else in his world.

"How does it look?"

Squelch. "This is... strange. The bullet holes are obviously there, but this feeling -" Blurp. Blurp. Squelch. "The depressions are shallower than I thought -"

"- Even if Blake may be a monster in body, I will believe that she has a human heart. Even if Blake herself thinks that her life isn't worth living for, I still think she deserves a chance."

She acted. The first arc took off the medic's neck, so as to ensure further discoveries remained forever behind bulging eyes and a hushed gasp. If Ciel had known of her powers, she would've destroyed Gambol Shroud instead of kicking it away. The second attack was a straight toss at the dark-skinned bitch's face, which the latter easily sidestepped and retaliated with a hundred rifle shots and a surprising roar; he could have been someone who was important to her. Good, this wasn't even the beginning of the pain she would eventually return to her tenfold. Blake took a crazy risk and stopped every bit of regeneration inside her body - if a bullet lodged itself in her head, even if she survived she would be as helpless as the day after Ruby Rose 'killed' her - before slipping right into the dimensional hole that she had been prepping to do since the beginning. In a life-or-eternal-suffering situation Blake dared not leave things to chance even if she had to expose her greatest power. Almost immediately she appeared at the point she had set, which was the gun katana she had flung out and ignored largely by her opponent because she had believed it no longer a variable. Behind Ciel was also the one spot that would take a second and a half for Ciel to recover from her shock, turn around, and shoot her down like a dog. Again, that was probably not something she wanted to think about right now. On another note Blake could now confirm that she could not stay inside the Shadow Dimension for long when she was nearing death, which made it infinitely less useful than she thought but was something that she had to think about later, if she somehow got out alive. She ran with all of whatever remaining strength she had left towards the cliff edge; the one and only place in which she could truly be free of the influence of her enemy.

A volley clipped her in the shoulders, then a few more in the back. Blake stumbled, but persisted and jumped when she was still seven feet before the edge.

A bullet went right through the center of her head.

She collapsed and rolled and almost skidded to a stop. Ciel had moved exceedingly fast and made a grab for her flailing legs. She missed.

Then, she fell over the edge and plunged through the fog as thick as white curtains into the welcoming hands of a black maw.