0+-+-+-+0
Today was the day. It was time. The Reaper always took this route after sunset. Always went to the same park. Always took a shortcut through this alley.
It was out of view of the general populace. Weiss Schnee could not have asked for a better place to spring an ambush. Three Fae Knights lay in wait: one on the rooftop, one in the dumpster, and the third in a small gap between the buildings. This last one had the most important duty: it held the taser.
Weiss herself was at the far end of the alley, hidden behind an illusion that made her appear invisible… so long as she remained stationary. The syringe in her hand was a weighty reminder of the task she would not have trusted to any summon. Anyone else might really hurt her.
It.
Hurt it.
Reapers were inhuman beasts. More animal than the people they tried to emulate. In combat, they would even reveal their bestial nature. Winter had said that it was a result of the animal souls that had been shoved into their reanimated corpses leaking out.
They were not people. They did not deserve to be treated like people. They had not earned the right to proper pronouns.
Or… so she had been taught.
Winter had told her that it was a useful deception to make them feel like you saw them as people. It could get them to lower their guard. To stop seeing you as a threat. So long as you could maintain the illusion hiding the demonic tinge of your soul, they might even believe that they could convince you to join their side.
Not that that last part was something Weiss needed concern herself with. She still wouldn't allow Weiss a contract; still wouldn't allow her to summon demons. And besides which, Winter was the only witch to have ever discovered how to hide it. She'd always promised she'd teach Weiss when it became necessary, but… it still wasn't.
Reapers… she had accompanied Winter in a great many encounters with them. Almost all of them had ended with permanently dead Reapers; driven back into the hells from whence they came.
And not a one had fallen by Weiss's hand.
Even if her father believed otherwise.
But Winter was a crutch. Winter always stepped in to finish the job when she couldn't. Knowing Winter was there… it meant she knew she had something to fall back on. Knew she had a safety net to catch her when her courage failed. Someone to do the hard part for her when the beasts had an all-too-human pleading look in their inhuman eyes.
That's why she had to do this mission solo. Either she would find her courage, or the Reaper would kill her.
And that's what it was! Self defense, not murder! The Reapers would stop at nothing to destroy her and her family. So the Schnees needed to be proactive.
And maybe once Weiss had killed a Reaper… She would finally allow her to summon demons.
Weiss's heart began to pound as the Reaper rounded its way into the alley. This was it! Unfortunately, she was in a ratty hoodie, instead of that scrumptious suit.
It. It was wearing a hoodie instead of a suit. And unlike Winter, seduction didn't exactly work for Weiss. No point in getting caught up in how attractive it was or wasn't.
The Reaper - the one that wore Yang's sister's skin - hummed to itself as it jaunted down the alley with a skip in her- its step. Totally innocuous to anyone unaware of the monstrous creature lurking underneath. Almost cute, really.
One step away from being on target, the Reaper stopped, its head snapping right to her. Silver eyes found Weiss's, and it stared right into her soul.
Had Weiss moved? She'd practiced so long, so hard to make sure she could maintain this illusion. She was certain she hadn't moved, and yet…
The Reaper shifted her focus past Weiss, searching for something beyond her. Had it not required motion, Weiss would have sighed in relief.
"What…?" The Reaper began to ask, taking a step forward.
The knight struck right on cue. It grabbed her arm, and drove the taser right into her neck. The Reaper screamed in pain as the knight moved to subdue her, and the other two lept out to help. The scream was muffled by a powerful, metal hand closing over her mouth.
And Weiss was already moving. Before the Reaper could stop twitching, Weiss moved to straddle her - its, damnit! Its - free arm, holding it down with her body weight as she found the vein in the Reaper's hand. With carefully practiced precision, Weiss injected the potent cocktail. Now they just needed to keep the beast subdued for the 15 minutes or so it would take for the drugs to take effect.
Or maybe it was already working? Weiss let out a heavy sigh as the arm underneath her fell limp. The rest would be easy. She'd take the Reaper back to the warehouse she'd rented, wait for it to go into "Reaper Mode", and then her knights would kill it in reaction. Easy. She needed to do nothing more than just give the-
Weiss was suddenly pelted by a handful of gravel to the face. With an unflattering squawk, she fell backwards off of the arm she was supposed to be holding down.
By the time she had gotten her bearings and stood back up, said arm was holding a loose brick, and using it to bash in the helmet of the taser-wielding knight. Well, formerly taser-wielding; the remains of the device were sparking against the ground.
Her two other knights moved to leap in, but the Reaper slipped through their grasp. It scrambled back until it backed into a wall, with her knights moving to cut off its routes of escape.
Its animal features did not leak out, but the Reaper still gave a beastial growl as it looked at each of the knights in turn, and then Weiss.
Those piercing eyes were on her again, and Weiss's heart skipped a beat. Despite herself, she couldn't help but imagine a different scenario, one with the Reaper growling at her for different reasons. A predatory glare before teeth finding her neck. A gentle bite not to wound, but to assert dominance. To claim her.
Weiss's wide-eyed daydream was interrupted by a dull-red something rapidly approaching her.
And then the world went black.
l- - -l
When Weiss came to, her head was throbbing. She couldn't open her left eye. She brought a hand up to it to feel what happened, and, as she pulled it away, saw with her good eye that it was covered in blood. She shakily stood, finding a brick sitting in front of her, one of its edges covered in blood. Her blood.
Weiss looked up. Two knights stood over an unconscious and bloodied Reaper. The third, the one with the damaged helmet, was nowhere to be seen. Had the Reaper damaged it enough to disrupt its form, and send it back to the Fae? That was… rather impressive, considering it hadn't seemed to make use of any of its Reaper powers. If it had, her knights would have left it dead, not unconscious.
Terror gripped her as Weiss considered the possibility that this was, in fact, just a normal girl, but no. She had seen the suit. Had seen the cloak. Had seen the scythe, and the scattered rose petals. This was the same girl she'd been tracking the last few days.
Still, she needed to make sure the beast would at least attempt to heal itself when it came to. With a nod, she sent the order. Four metal hands found the leg, and started twisting until a sickening snap filled the alley.
If this was a Reaper, it would try to heal as soon as it woke up, and the knights would kill it without Weiss having to really get involved. If not, and it was just some girl, Weiss could hold her until at least dawn: long enough to be certain of her humanity. It would suck about the leg, but that would heal eventually. And a pile of Schnee hush money would make up for it. Weiss would still be forced to face her father's wrath, but…
She'd done the hard parts. If this was a Reaper, she'd already won. Despite her throbbing headache, tonight had been a success.
0+-+-+-+0
Last night was an unmitigated disaster.
The Reaper had behaved unpredictably, and even though Weiss was now certain she was a Reaper, she also couldn't shake the idea that she might also be an innocent girl.
Well, not so innocent as to not understand how to flirt. Weiss… still wasn't entirely sure how to feel about that. On a primal level, seeing the Reaper so beaten down, yet still so cocky, so ready to take control, had… done some things for her. But Logically, she should have been furious. She still kind of was.
Her former student was ready to kill her without hesitation. The Reaper had escaped. There would be hell to pay when word of this got home. She had a concussion, quite possibly lost an eye, and she'd just been… too weak to prevent any of this. Winter would have had a horde of demons to protect them. Winter would have goaded the Reaper into doing something stupid that got her permanently killed. Winter would have turned all of her arguments against her, and would not be sitting here fighting conflicted feelings from having her enemy get into her head.
Weiss had never needed demons before…
...but Winter wasn't around anymore to protect her anymore.
Winter was strong. Stronger than any demon summoner before her.
And Winter had demons.
And She had promised that Weiss's power would one day eclipse her sister's.
Weiss would demand it this time. She would get it. And she would never need Winter to protect her again.
It was time to contact Her again.
It was time to contact Salem.
l- - -l
The circle was complete. Weiss placed herself in the center, bowed her head in reverence, and activated the spell.
This time, she found herself seated in a gazebo. Hot tea and scones decorated the table in front of her. Immaterial to her, but sending the message that she was welcome here. In front of her, Salem was hunched over, wearing a floppy sun hat and weeding her garden. With practiced ease, she turned around, with the barest hint of a smile.
"Weiss, my dear." Salem's voice echoed with power within her domain. "I did not expect you back so soon. Tell me, what has been troubling you?"
While it was pretty clear Salem had expected her, Weiss knew to hold her tongue. Salem was never caught off guard, but she only tolerated so much impoliteness.
"I have come once again to ask for your blessing." Weiss said formally. "It is becoming increasingly clear that I will not be successful without it. Name your price. I will give anything to become what you have said I was always meant to be."
Salem's frown was barely perceptible.
"And that, Weiss, is precisely why I cannot give it to you. Not now."
"What?!" Weiss failed to keep her tone from going shrill, before continuing more calmly. "I mean, why is that? What must I do to earn your favor?"
Salem shook her head, removed her hat, then took a seat at the table.
"Weiss… has Winter shared with you the price she paid for her power?"
"N-No, she always told me that it was… too personal."
"Indeed? It was by design that she would think so." Salem took a sip of tea. "Have you ever wondered why you have named the heir, and not your older, more experienced, more capable sister?"
"Because…" Weiss screwed her eyes up as she tried to make sense of the various answers she had been given. "She knew I'd eventually be more powerful. A better heir. Because she loves me greatly, and cannot get along with father. Because she didn't want to be the heir."
"Oh? On the contrary." Salem smirked over her teacup. "Winter wanted nothing more."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
"It means… that's the price Winter paid." Salem said, somewhere between smug and wistful. "Winter gave up her ability to have children. By any means. Not even magical. Nor can she adopt. Her desire to be a mother was… a powerful one. That power is what I used to make her such an unparalleled demon summoner."
"So… the greater the sacrifice, the greater the power?" Weiss asked. "I told you, I'd give you anything."
"And that's precisely the problem." Salem sneered. "You are desperate. You want it too much. The price does not exist merely as payment, so much as something to make becoming a demon summoner undesirable. Desperate as you are, should I give you the power now, you would be the weakest summoner I've created in millenia. Weaker than if I'd given it to you at any point before now. It would be a waste. But… with what I know of your fate, should I give you time to ripen… one day, it will be the least palatable thing you can possibly imagine. But you will still make the deal. And you will be second only to me. Even the gods will cower in your wake."
"So why tell me this now?" Weiss asked. "Why couldn't you have told me any of the earlier times I'd asked? I could have-"
"You could have done much, and fate would have changed." Salem turned her forlorn gaze towards the garden, before returning it to Weiss with a triumphant glare. "But the die has now been cast. Events are now set in an order which will cascade into an inevitable conclusion. This was merely the final juncture in which it could have been changed; the final act required to make that first domino fall. I am telling you now because now is when I need you to know. You will have what you desire. Everything you were promised. All in due time."
"But not today." Weiss stood up, pushed in her chair, and added under her breath. "So this was a wasted effort."
"No, Weiss." Salem's face warped itself into a predatory grin. "Not wasted at all. I have given you information, something even you should understand the power behind. And, if you stay a while, I intend to give you more."
"Oh?" Weiss's interest was piqued, and she leaned in over the back of her chair.
"First… you should know that your family has lied to you about Reapers."
Weiss opened her mouth to protest.
"Not maliciously." Salem interrupted before she began. "Much of it, not even knowing the truth about Reapers themselves."
"So what is the truth about them?" Weiss asked.
"That is not for me to tell. But you now have someone who can."
An image flashed, unbidden, in her mind: The phone number, written on the crate in blood. Weiss was well-versed in magic enough to know that this thought was not her own. She was seeing it because Salem wanted her to.
"Is that all you have for me, then?" Weiss asked, preparing once again to leave.
"No." Salem said. "There is one more thing." Salem stood, walking around the table and approaching Weiss. "A gift. A sign of good will. Close your eyes."
Weiss gave Salem a wary look, but complied.
She winced as she felt a palm cover her injured eye, passing through the bandages as if they didn't exist. Then, there was a flash, and her eye exploded with pain. Weiss gasped as her legs buckled, her arms on the back of the chair the only thing keeping her upright… finally, as suddenly as it came, the pain was gone.
And Weiss opened both eyes.
"It would have taken months to heal unassisted." Salem said casually. "And I need you to see." She adopted a matronly smile. "You are free to go. I have nothing more for you… for now."
Weiss gasped as she came out of her trance, falling forward out of the circle. Her eye itched furiously under her bandages, causing her to desperately rip them off. Her world opened up to be - once again - stereoscopic, for the first time since she'd been hit by the brick. She brought a shaking hand up to her eye, feeling the raised, but fully healed scar that traced the wound.
Just to be sure, Weiss scrambled into the hotel bathroom, looking into the mirror. Her eye appeared normal, save for the scar she'd already felt… and the oddest feeling that someone was watching her. She looked away, and the feeling faded.
With a heavy sigh, Weiss ran her fingers through her bangs, then pulled out her phone, tapping out the memorized digits from the warehouse.
l- - -l
When the Reaper returned to the warehouse, she was wearing that stupid hoodie again.
"You should have worn the suit." Weiss said as she stepped out of the shadows. "This is business, is it not?"
"I mean, this could be for pleasure, if you want." the Reaper punctuated this with a wink, which caused Weiss to scowl, and the Reaper shrunk back. "I mean… I'm sorry, let's try that again. Hello! I'm Ruby! Ruby Rose!"
The Reaper - Ruby - offered her hand.
Weiss didn't take it.
Ruby awkwardly withdrew her hand.
"Look," Ruby began, "I just… 'business' for Reapers is fighting demons, and… you're not. I'd like to keep it that way. Plus, I don't like wearing suits."
"Shame, I like you in it." Weiss said, despite herself. She shook her head. "But that doesn't matter! This is business! Why do you Reapers keep hunting my family!?"
"I mean, it's not, like, a personal thing with your family." Ruby said, and Weiss scowled again, causing her to flinch back, again. "L-Like I said, anyone who's summoned demons will turn into one, and, y'know, we exist to fight demons, so… don't summon demons, and we're good, okay?"
"Oh? And I'm just supposed to abandon the rest of my family?"
The Reaper looked… remorseful?
"Honestly…" Ruby said, "if Yang had… y'know… like, it'd be my job to… um… destroy her soul, but…" Ruby looked into her eyes. That stupid, soul-piercing stare! "I… don't think I could. The gods wouldn't be happy, and Pyrrha… well, she'd probably smite me. The good kind of smite, where it'd be oblivion instead of the afterlife, but… I don't think I could do that to my sister. So… I can't blame you."
"But you'd do it to mine." Weiss accused. "Or me, if I were part of that group."
"I… wouldn't want to." Ruby said, looking down briefly before meeting Weiss's eyes again. "O-Only if I had to. If there were any other way…"
"But there isn't, is there?" Weiss accused, taking an angry step forward.
"I-I…" Ruby trailed off.
"Then this is self defense." Weiss whispered, her voice icy cold.
Weiss steeled herself. Just like she'd practiced. Just like Winter taught her. She should have been able to do this with her eyes closed.
So she did.
Magic cold spreading past her hand from the glyphs on her wrist. An impossibly sharp blade of ice whistling through the air. The thud of something heavy plopping to the ground. The crumpling of a body following it.
Weiss opened her eyes.
Dead, glassy grey stared back at her. The head sat separated from the body. From the corpse. She had done this. Weiss had finally worked up the nerve to kill.
It should have been a moment of triumph, even if it wouldn't be permanent.
Instead, Weiss found herself overwhelmed by nausea.
Her summoned ice sword shattered as she dropped it, and Weiss fell to her knees, doubled over and trying to hold back the dry heaves. Fortunately, the liquid pooling under her face remained only tears, at least, for now.
"Ugh… that hurt, Weiss! Why would you- Weiss?"
A hand found her shoulder. Gentle, but strong. Another tilted her chin up, and met her eyes.
Gods, she must have looked miserable, judging from the way the Reaper's expression morphed. This was just another failure for Weiss. Another place where she failed to meet expectations. Couldn't even do something so simple as keep her composure in the face of her enemy. No Winter to bail her out, this time. Not that it mattered. She would never be as good as everyone said she was supposed to be. This Reaper might as well just pull out her scythe and-
...Hug her?
"It'll be okay." Ruby offered softly.
A hug was the last thing she'd expected, yet Ruby's arms were wrapped around her.
She should have hated this. This was her enemy, and she didn't need hugs. They weren't a part of her life. The Schnees were too strong for such weakness. Even when Winter indulged in hugging her, she only did so when no one was looking; when no one could possibly report it back to father.
And yet this creature, this… monster before her, was… warm. And comforting. Ruby was comforting her. After Weiss had attacked her! Had killed her.
Her own father wouldn't give her a hug…
...but her family's mortal enemy would. No questions. No expectations. No bartering. Just… saw she was miserable, and gave her a hug.
Weiss shook as she was wracked with sobs, slowly raising her arms to hold the other girl tight. To not let her go.
Not a beast. Not a monster. Not a Reaper.
Just a person, who, despite all logic pushing to the contrary, seemed to care.
Why? Weiss certainly didn't deserve it. She was a failure, and her enemy besides! Why wasn't she just… putting Weiss out of her misery? There was nothing Weiss could do to stop her if she tried. It would have been the smart thing to do. The reasonable thing. If the situation were reversed her father would have demanded it.
Instead, it seemed almost like she had a second person, in the whole wide world, who actually cared about her. Not being paid to pretend. Nor manipulated. Just sincerely wanted to help.
Just like…
Winter.
Weiss panicked.
Ruby would kill Winter, if given the chance.
And Winter would do the same.
So Weiss shoved the Reaper over, and fled the warehouse.
Leaving behind a very confused Ruby, and a burning hole in her frozen heart.
