There were two uploads this week. Make sure you read Chapter 32 - Hell Breaks Loose! Thanks!

"Blake, you need to snap out of it!" Weiss shouted. Blake charged Weiss who met several swipes from Gambol Shroud with her own blade. Blake shifted next to Weiss using a clone on the last exchange, allowing her to bat Weiss away. Weiss quickly steadied herself with a glyph and blocked a diving Blake with the next, but she leapt through as her clone took the hit and sliced Weiss across the stomach. Weiss leapt back with the assistance of a glyph, watching for a fleeting moment as her aura healed her scar. "Blake!" It was no use though, and Weiss sprinted across a line of glyphs towards her, meeting her halfway and clashing weapons again. Weiss maneuvered Blake's gun quickly, causing Blake to fire to each side of her, but never allowing herself to be hit. Weiss formed a gravity glyph behind her friend and kicked her through it, launching her away.

"Salem says that you can't be allowed to live!" Blake yelled at her. Weiss was taken off guard. Salem? The same one that killed Ozpin, she's behind all of this?! Weiss was hammered by the blunt side of Blake's sheath blade, Blake's regular blade slicing Weiss's right forearm. Weiss quickly maneuvered away through a series of backflips, landing a considerable distance from Blake and blasting ice Dust at her. It swirled through the air, freezing three of Blake's clones but she kept coming. "Salem says that if we go with her, she'll give all of us great power!"

"Do people buy that line of crap?" Weiss asked as she slammed Myrtenaster into the ground, a sheet of ice surrounding her. Blake slid across it, losing traction and slipping past Weiss as Weiss quickly changed to earth Dust, planting Blake's feet to the ground. Blake loaded a gravity clip and shot out of the stone boots, lashing out at Weiss with blazing speed, Weiss barely able to keep up and taking a cut to the side of the neck as she missed one towards the end. Weiss launched herself through the air, perching high above using a glyph. "Come on Blake! Isn't it wearing off yet?" Blake leapt up, jumping from glyph to glyph that Weiss used to reach her, but Weiss hit her again with the earth Dust and sent her tumbling to the ground. Blake's clone shattered as she landed, leaving the real Blake to fire her gun towards Weiss.

Weiss swung her hand down, preparing to blast the gun back, but the clone dissolved before it made it halfway up and the real gun wrapped around her hand from below and behind her. It snapped back quickly, pulling her weapon away and she leapt off to grab it. She reached it halfway, but not before finding Blake's ribbon wrapped around her body, she pulled Weiss to the ground and she slammed against it, leaving an indent in the earth, unable to move for a moment. Weiss summoned several Ursai to distract Blake as she gathered her bearings and she slowly found her feet. Weiss threw up another glyph, launching several shots of fire Dust through it, they slammed into several clones before Blake slipped up for a moment and was thrown into the woods once more.

Weiss waited for a moment, but Blake never came back out. She slowly made her way towards where she had last seen her, keeping her guard up as she held Myrtenaster in her left hand, her right hand behind the blade and ready to create any glyphs that may be needed. Weiss lingered for only a moment, quietly and precociously crept deeper in, the snow starting to fall a little heavier now which would normally give her the advantage, if not for the backdrop of trees around her.

"Blake! We have to get back to Ruby! She probably needs us!" Weiss demanded. Blake leapt down from above, crashing through an ice clone of Weiss. She turned slowly in confusion, looking for Weiss in every direction. Since when was Weiss capable of such things? Blake felt the rapier at her back moments later.

"How long do you want to keep this up before you get back to your precious Ruby?" Blake asked. Weiss smirked as a darkness covered her face.

"As long as I need to. I'm not leaving you, Blake, you mean as much to the rest of us as Ruby. She can handle herself, I've learned that much since I lost her five years ago. So, Blake, you can snap out of it, or I can do this the hard way," Weiss told her. Why bother? What if Ruby really does need my help and Salem is just trying to stall me?

"We're getting closer! I think we should be pretty close to being in range of Neo being able to teleport us the rest of the way!" Ruby exclaimed. Ruby was dragging Dorian at this point but was stopped short as the reached a crest in the rolling landscape and spotted a familiar figure at the bottom of the hill.

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby exclaimed. "Where have you been?!" She called out to him as Dorian resisted against her trying to pull him down the hill with her. She turned back and looked up at him, a slight confusion in her eyes. "Come on Dorian, it's just my uncle."

"Stop!" Dorian demanded finally wrenching free from her. "Look at his eyes!" Ruby looked out at her uncle, he removed his sword from his back slowly and it took its scythe form. "Jade captured him a few days ago and turned him into an angel." Dorian removed his sword and held it out in front of himself, ready to take Qrow on if need be. Ruby shook her head and looked back down at Qrow.

"He's too strong for you Dorian," Ruby told him. "Back me up for now! If either of us dies, there will be no way to fix this thing! Leave him to me." Dorian looked at her, her eyes intense and the silver light inside flickered as she tried to contain the power. He nodded and she took off down the hill, both of their blades glancing off of each other's as she reached him. She spun her body, the scythe dancing around her as it struck out at Qrow but was deflected. She came out of her spin, swinging the blade wide, and Qrow blocked it with his sword. He blasted her back with his gun and she slid across the ground.

"This is it, Ruby…" Qrow spoke to her. "This is the moment I learn if I taught you everything that you'd need to know…" Ruby hesitated for a moment and he batted her away, following her, light on his feet, and quickly striking out again. She blocked his second attack as she spun through the air and managed to land on her feet.

"Uncle Qrow?" Ruby asked. He ran for her, sword behind him and slicing through the rose petals as she reformed behind him and struck out. He blasted the blade away, firing into her chest as her body swung back the other direction.

"Jade broke my body, but she wasn't able to break my mind. I'm not in control of myself, but you have to get past me and carry on with your plan. They filled me in before they sent me out! It's the only way!" Qrow told her. He blasted her again and as she fell onto her back she rolled out of the way of his blade, launching herself into the air with her gun and sliding the scythe out. He leapt after her, his sword continually meeting her scythe as the clashed in the air. Dorian watched feeling a tad helpless. He had never seen fighting like this before, and this was Ruby without having to use her eyes. He shuddered at the thought of what it might look like if it came to that. All that he could do was tremble from the top of the hill, barely able to keep a grip on his sword.

Ruby landed in the trees, sprinting across them with Qrow behind her, firing at her as she weaved in and out of his sights. Dorian ran down the hill towards them, hoping to slip by and make it to the bunker unnoticed as they were busy fighting each other. He fast-forwarded himself like he had the other night and sprinted past without being noticed, determined to make it to the bunker before he could be stopped again. He couldn't explain why he was doing it. His father had killed his mother and then taken his own life, and Weiss was all that he had left, but as badly as he wanted them to be together, he knew that he'd never be able to stand in the way of Weiss's love for Ruby. The only thing that he had left to do with his life was making sure that things were made right.

He reached the bunker and found it empty with the exception of Neo as he ran past her and down the stairs. She turned to him, quickly chasing after and grabbing him. She pinned him against the wall and extended her blade, holding it to his neck.

"Hey! Hey! What's going on?!" He asked. Neo pointed up the stairs, looking in that direction before shoving him harder and lightly pricking his neck with the tip of her weapon. "They're coming!" This answer didn't seem to satisfy Neo and she spun away from him, twisting her parasol around in her hands and using the hook to pull open his jacket. She reached in and snatched out his watch, holding it tight. "Be careful with that!" She gave him a twisted smirk, placing it in her cleavage. She winked and disappeared, leaving him standing there alone in a slight state of shock. This was bad.

The stage was set for Weiss's victory as they both remained motionless, Weiss's sword tip pressed lightly against Blake's back as they both tried to out-think the other for a long moment. Weiss had already thought of her next move, keeping Blake in place as Blake weighed up every possible scenario. Weiss hesitated for a moment before stepping away, a glyph attached to Blake's body and holding her in place as she tried to struggle out of it. She walked around to face her friend, Blake formed a clone and it shattered, but she was instantly snapped back into place and she grunted hopelessly.

"Blake, I've already caused you enough hurt. I don't want to hurt you anymore," Weiss explained to her. Blake's eyes were still filled with a green rage as she lashed out.

"This is all your fault, Schnee! If you weren't so worried about yourself, no one would have had to get hurt, and you wouldn't have been fooled so blindly! If Ruby fails, it's all because of you! You'll have failed Ruby, failed everyone! You'll have been no better than your father!" Blake screamed at her. Weiss's eyes narrowed and filled with darkness as she quickly reached Blake and slapped her across the face. Everything flooded back into Weiss's mind and she felt herself lose control. All of the memories, all of the hate, all of the uncertainty, all of the pain. Everything that Weiss had known for the last five years had rushed back into her lungs and body, and build up with renewed strength, her promise to Summer filling her.

"I will fix this!" Weiss screamed back at Blake, their faces separated by only a few inches. A glyph appeared on the end of Weiss's fist as it smashed into Blake's stomach, doubling the girl over. Weiss quickly placed her palm on Blake and pulled, the green venom slowly seeping out and dissolving as it gave a sort of hissing and squealing noise as if it had its own intelligence. Blake's body arched away from the glyph behind her as she gasped, the color disappearing from her eyes as the poison dissolved in Weiss's clutch. Weiss smirked at Blake who trembled, falling off of the glyph and landing on her knees.

"How did you do that?" Blake asked.

"I learned it in case any of the angels ever turned on me," Weiss explained.

"Weiss. I didn't mean all of that," Blake told her. Weiss chuckled.

"You dolt…" Weiss cringed in pain as her body tensed, she looked down at her hand which was covered in bruises and fell to the ground, Blake unable to catch her, as her own body was trying its best to catch up to everything.

"Weiss!" Blake moved to her gingerly and picked her up slightly in her arms. "Weiss, are you okay?" Weiss coughed, her breathing sounded labored as she looked up at Blake.

"I think the ice clone may have been overdoing it," Weiss gasped.

"Overdoing it indeed," came a voice from the woods. The figure slowly made its way towards them and Blake gently set Weiss down as she found her feet and gripped Gambol Shroud.

"Who are you?" Blake asked. Weiss craned her neck to see who was speaking and her eyes widened as the individual came into view.

"Jade?!" Weiss called out.

"At one point, yes." The voice replied. The sun broke through the trees and lit her face as she reached the small opening. Blake gritted her teeth, her chest still heaving as her aura struggled to repair itself.

"Salem," Blake spoke out loud.

"I see you've broken free of the venom that I had deployed. What a shame. I was hoping that we would do great things together Ms. Belladonna." Blake twitched but held her ground as Salem came to a stop at a respectable distance from them.

"Mrs. Belladonna-Xiao Long," Blake corrected her. Salem offered a warm smile.

"Now that just seems like a mouth full," Salem replied. She turned her attention to Weiss who was trying to move, despite the immense pain that she was in. "I would also like to thank you, Ms. Schnee. If not for the contributions that the dust company made to the cause, we never would have been able to bring me back, and that's really the only reason that Jade reached out to you in the first place. Every last thing that happened in the last 5 years happened exactly as I planned them and as Blake said before, all of that was thanks to you." Weiss was incensed at the words and tears of anger filled her eyes as she used Myrtenaster to help herself to her feet.

"We're going to stop you," Weiss told Salem. She formed a glyph behind Blake and sprinted for her, tackling her through and they both disappeared. Salem gave an amused sigh as she continued towards the bunker, following her Grimm as they greeted resistance.

"Why is all of this happening?! Who is behind all of it?!" Ruby asked as she clashed with Qrow again. They mirrored each other movements with their scythes, the blows full, but completely the same and glancing off with every attempt at each other.

"Salem," Qrow told her. Ruby's mind flashed back to Ozpin fighting Salem and what Salem had told her about Team RWBY and Qrow landed a hard blow that planted her against a large tree. It's true. Everything that Salem said ended up being true. We are the ruin of Remnant. Everything had gone to hell, and it's all because of us. Another blow slammed into Ruby and she gasped as it dropped her, Qrow's sword slamming into her face and knocking her against the ground. "Ruby, get up!" Ruby felt dazed as Salem's face filled her mind and gripped her with fear.

"This is all our fault! Salem knew she could play us from the beginning! There was nothing we could have done and there's nothing we can do now! There's no guarantee that the idea we came up with is even going to work!" Ruby sobbed as she felt Qrow's scythe cut through her aura and slice through her arm. She drew it back quickly in pain as she was batted away once again, her aura close to broken. She couldn't use her eyes or else she'd be vulnerable immediately afterward, which would ruin their chances at fixing everything. The idea of defeat was crippling and the fear that there was nothing they could do about it hurt even worse. Had she really been broken so easily?

This was the end. Her mind had never been so conflicted as it was in this moment, and she found herself unable to justify trying anymore. She had finally realized the pain of everything that had happened, and the pain told her that it would just be easier if she gave up. It had never been a fairy tale. Ever since the day that she had been born, her destiny had decided, and her destiny was that she'd be the driving force in helping Weiss blindly destroy Remnant and help Salem find her way back. Her eyes blurred with tears and she gasped as her aura broke with another attack from Qrow who screamed at her repeatedly to snap out of it. It was over more quickly than she had expected, and she was surrounded by darkness…

"Mommy!" Came a yell from the front door as it crashed open and rattled the small cabin. "Mommy!" Summer Rose closed the oven and set the timer, brushing her hands off on her apron as she untied it and draped it over one of the chairs. Ruby ran into the kitchen doorway, tears filling her eyes as Yang was close on her heels.

"What is it, Ruby?" Summer asked as she sat down and patted her lap. Ruby ran over to her, her eyes filled with tears as she climbed up her mother's leg and into her lap. She buried her head in Summer's chest and Summer held her gently against her body, hushing her and rocking her slightly. "What happened?"

"Don't listen to her mom!" Yang declared looking nervous from the doorway, clearly guilty of something and not wanting to get in trouble. "Whatever she says, it's not true." Summer looked over at Yang as Ruby nuzzled closer, nodding in understanding before unlatching Ruby slightly and pulling her back to look at her face. She wiped the tears from her eyes and smiled at her daughter.

"Tell me what happened my little rose," Summer asked. Ruby wiped her face with her arm and mustered up her words through labored gasps, clearly she had been crying hard and been worked up.

"Yang says that learning how to swing is fun, but every time I try I get hurt. I don't want to swing," Ruby told her. She held up her arm and Summer looked at the minor scrape which she kissed and Ruby grabbed her again, cuddling against her mother. "Do I have to try again?" Summer reached out her arm towards Yang and the little blonde girl padded over, letting Summer draw her in.

"I pushed her too hard! It was an accident!" Yang declared. "I would never want to hurt sissy!" Summer smiled and kissed the top of Yang's head.

"I know Yang. You can go back outside, I'll send Ruby back out in a couple of moments," Summer told her.

"Okay!" Yang exclaimed as she ran back out. "I'll be waiting for you sissy!" The door slammed closed again and Summer gently rubbed the top of Ruby's head, Ruby letting out a long exhausted sigh and she relaxed.

"Do you want to go back out with Yang and try again?" Summer asked. Ruby looked up at her and shook her head.

"I don't want to get hurt anymore," Ruby explained to her. Summer stood, carrying Ruby and setting her on the edge of the kitchen table as she moved to the counter and grabbed a plate of cookies, which she presented to Ruby. Ruby's eyes grew large and she looked up at Summer who laughed softly.

"Go ahead." Ruby snatched up three cookies, setting two on the table beside her and quickly munching on the first one. Summer placed the plate back to where it had been before and moved so that she was face to face with Ruby. "Swinging can be a lot of fun Ruby," Summer explained to her. Ruby nodded in agreement, replying with her mouth full.

"I know, but I don't like when I get hurt. When I get hurt I get scared that I'll get hurt again, and it makes me not want to swing," Ruby told her. Ruby held a cookie out to Summer and she took it. "For you mommy!" Ruby smiled and giggled as Summer kissed the top of her forehead.

"Thank you, Ruby," Summer said as she took a bite of it. Ruby kicked her legs and looked into her mother's eyes for a long moment. "Do you want to go out and try again?" Ruby shook her head again, pouting slightly, her lower lip quivering.

"I'm scared to. I don't want to get hurt." Summer brushed Ruby's cheek, causing Ruby to grab her hand and snuggle against it.

"I think you should go back out and try again," Summer told her. Ruby clung tighter to Summer's hand.

"Why mommy?" Summer picked her up and held her in her arms, Ruby's little arms wrapped around her neck and clinging as though her life depended on it.

"Sometimes things that are good for us to do hurt us. The more we do them, the less they hurt us later, and the less we have to worry. When mommy first started fighting monsters, she wasn't very good. I got hurt a lot. But I knew that the more I practiced, and the more monsters I fought, the better I would get and the less they'd be able to hurt me," Summer explained. Ruby looked at her in thought for a moment.

"The more I swing, the less I'll fall off?" Ruby asked, starting to understand. Summer nodded with a warm smile on her face.

"Exactly. It only hurts for a little bit Ruby." Summer lifted Ruby's elbow and showed her the scrape. "You don't even feel it anymore, do you?" She set Ruby down and Ruby giggled as she shook her head.

"No! Your cookie made it feel better!" Ruby smiled and stood on her tiptoes as Summer bent down and kissed Ruby. "I love you, mommy!"

"I love you too my little rose." Ruby grabbed the cookie off of the table and ran out of the kitchen. Summer waited as she heard the door open and slam quickly and sighed. She turned towards the hallway and moved down to Ruby's room, sitting in the rocking chair that faced her bed and she watched the girls playing out the window.

"Mom," Ruby's voice said as she placed her hand on Summer's shoulder. Summer looked back and up at her daughter and smiled.

"You look just like me. Tai always said that you would, but I never imagined that we'd look this much alike," Summer told her, reaching across her body and grabbing Ruby's hand. Ruby trembled as she watched the girls play out the window.

"Am I dead?" Ruby asked. Summer rocked slowly and shook her head as Ruby let go of her and sat on the bed so that she could face her.

"The unconscious works in a funny way when you're on the brink of death. Memories that are completely inaccessible normally are brought to the surface if the situation calls for it. Now tell me my little rose… You don't actually think that everything that you've done up to this point in your life was a complete waste, do you? Salem hasn't won yet, but if you give up now, you'll end up giving her what she wanted, and she will be right. You can still stop all of this," Summer explained to her.

"But all of the pain that we've caused," Ruby tried to protest. Her mother stood and looked at her.

"That's all behind you. If you give up now, think of all the additional pain that will be caused." Ruby looked at Summer. She hadn't thought of it that way. The distress and anger of the past had clouded her vision of the future. "It's the same thing that I told you when you were a little girl. Sometimes the things that we need to do hurt us, but we learn from that pain Ruby, we don't let it stop us. You can still have what you dreamed of. Moving back here and being with Weiss and Amelia. It's all just within your reach Ruby, but you need to snap out of it."

Snap out of it Ruby!

Ruby!

Ruby slowly opened her eyes to find Qrow's blade swinging for her and she phased through it, dissolving into rose petals and throwing herself into the air. She reformed and slammed a gravity clip into her scythe, firing at Qrow and blasting him back through the woods. Ruby shot through the air and caught him before he fell to the ground, wrapping her scythe past him and holding back her emotions.

"I'm sorry," She told him. He smiled and nodded.

"I knew you could do it kiddo." Ruby let out a scream as she chambered the gravity bullet, knowing what came next. She fired, activating her semblance and rocketing away from him as her blade sliced him in half and she continued to the bunker, not stopping once to look back. She ran through the lookout room and stopped as she reached the main hall, looking around to find it empty.

"Dorian?!" She shouted out.

"Ruby!" He exclaimed as he ran out of the kitchen into the hallway.

"Good! You made it! Let's do this!" Ruby told him.

"Problem. Slight problem with that…" He told her.

"What?" She asked.

"Neo must have thought that I turned on you. She took my watch and disappeared."

"What?!"

Oct. 1st. Chapter 34 - In the End...

Weekly reminder, huge thanks to OrganoidZero (Co-Creator / Editor) who helped me craft this story every step of the way. The overall concept was his idea and I wouldn't have been able to write it without him. Also a shout out to Zephyros-Phoenix (Artist), who drew our characters over on Deviantart. The story is also available on Archive Of Our Own!

Phoenix's fan art for the story can all be found over at silent-celicadeviantartcom/favourites/72050617/Operation-Nightshade (Periods need to be inserted after celica and art in the address). Or if it's easier, look for Silent-Celica on Deviant Art and find the Nightshade folder in my Favorites tab! Let us know if you drop in! Until next week, stay classy.