Note: Oh my god, what happened? We... we made like one post and then the world suddenly exploded. Like, we were studying for midterms, everything normal, and then BAM! Sent home from college. Classes online only. Everything in shambles. The world on pause. Crazy. We hope all of you are safe and washing your hands regularly. Flatten the curve, y'all.
But yeah, we appreciate all of your very kind and encouraging words from last time. Trust us, we're going to keep writing. At a bare minimum, we are finishing out Volume 1. Unless something happens to us, that's going down. We're going to do it for you kind folks because even if coronavirus is ravaging the planet, we'll always have this dumb fanfiction to keep us going. And like... we're quarantined, so it's not like we have anything better to do than write? Right? Eh. Anyway, sorry for the wait. Enjoy.
It was, in a way, remarkable just how quickly Yang ran out of time. Almost as soon as she watched the toad disappear into the black void below, another jumped out of the fog and threatened to crush her beneath its girthy frame. By the time she and Pyrrha recovered, the thin fog that surrounded them dissipated, and it became quickly clear just how utterly screwed they were. So many toads. Everywhere. Getting closer.
"You let her die."
Yin's words were like knives. Dammit, couldn't she just go away? Couldn't she let her mourn?
"She died, and you weren't good enough to save her."
Yang pumped her gauntlets, empty shells falling to the floor. The pained screams of Nora and Velvet rang in her ears, but more frighteningly, attracted the toads even closer. They moved past the hole where Blake had fallen in, blocking even her most pathetic excuse for an escape. She didn't know how the hell she was going to fight out of that. In all likelihood, she couldn't. As far as she knew, the rest of her team was dead. Weiss was taken. Ruby was missing, and Blake…
She swallowed her fears and pulled back her fists, screaming at the encroaching toads. "You want to fight, you bastards? Bring it on!"
Pyrrha straightened her stance beside her, barely sweating. She was out of ideas, and it was unlikely that she could do anything to take down the rest of them. The walls had closed in. But with her teammates still behind her, injured and dying, she had little choice but to take a stand as well. "Yang, how many can you take?"
"Who gives a fuck?" Yang growled.
Pyrrha took that answer unkindly, but she didn't show it. That woman was trying to kill her just a few seconds ago. She was still glistening with sweat, her eyes blood red, and there was a very present part of Pyrrha's mind telling her that Yang would not waste a moment to betray her. But that was a concern that she had to put aside. At least for the others.
"Okay. Let's go."
The toads took one final look at them, surrounding them in a half-ring, forcing them against the wall. Yang and Pyrrha breathed in deep, and then charged, determined to take down as many of the giant monsters as they could physically manage. They both knew they were not going to get out of that maze alive, but as they sprinted towards their final foes, they made a mutual, unspoken vow: to bring those things down with them. A kind gesture between those who were just about ready to kill each other. Yang approached her first target—the toad right in the center of the pack—and readied to launch herself at it.
And then, just before she jumped, the toad croaked, and its eyes exploded.
Yang skidded to a halt, nearly tripping over herself. The toad suddenly collapsed falling forward and smacking its mouth directly into the floor. Pyrrha came to a stop, all the same, confounded at the sight of the toad she was about to attack have its eyes explode as well, followed by the next, and the next, and the next, and then every other toad fell to the exact same fate, stiffening in a heartbeat and falling dead right there on the spot. The incessant croaking came to a halt all at the same time, and the harsh silence was foreign to Yang's senses. Just like that—they were safe.
"Huh," Yin muttered. "To be honest, I didn't see that one coming."
Its screech was horrid. Its normal voice was seductive and dark, but the sound it emitted was high-pitched and etched with torment. The sound of its flesh boiling was audible even to Weiss all the way from her platform, and she could not look away from it as it leaned back and clasped its hands over its eyes. The chains that surrounded it thrashed about wildly in the air, and Blake hurriedly sprinted to Ruby's side as the God screamed in anguish.
"My face!" it cried, garbled and weak. "You burned my face, you wench!"
The black void around them flickered momentarily as a distortion cracked through reality itself. Blake didn't notice as she reached the others, dripping with the gross saliva from her journey down within the toad's mouth. Weiss noticed her twirl a large knife in her hand; she always tended to keep another weapon on her person, usually strapped to the inside of her boot, but since her excursion into Forever Fall, Blake had made sure to be a little more prepared for things to go wrong. She quickly reached down to her other boot and pulled out a similar looking blade, readying both her weapons in each hand as she turned back to face the god, ready to keep up her assault if the need arose.
"Hey, what's up?" she asked breathlessly. "Glad to see you're alive." Weiss stared at her in stunned silence. Ruby gawked.
"Blake? How… how are you… where did you…" Ruby struggled to say, but Blake simply shrugged.
"It turns out the inside of a giant frog's mouth is really safe and squishy, and Weiss, it turns out you were right about the mansion existing under the—" She paused as she turned to greet Weiss, only to gasp at the vertical slash stretching across her entire face. "Holy fuck, what happened to you?"
Weiss resisted a sneer. "Failed a Trial."
"What? You were gone for like five minutes! How do you screw up a Trial in five minutes?" Blake said, exasperated, turning her gaze to Ruby's back, her eyes somehow getting wider. "And what the hell happened to you?"
Ruby bowed her head. "Well, it seems to think that I'm a reincarnation of some ancient deity, and it's mad because it hit on her at some point and she turned it down."
Blake blinked. "Wait, are you serious?"
"Yeah. It did this as revenge. It's—" She winced. "Really painful actually."
Blake had no eloquent way of phrasing her response. "That's… the craziest fucking thing I've ever heard."
"Yeah. Pretty weird," Ruby agreed. "Doesn't make it hurt any less though."
"Sorry to hear that," Blake said sincerely. The Reveler fell to its knees, whimpering and screaming as the acid continued to burn away at its flesh. Blake gestured towards it. "So, putting aside the fact that Weiss's face looks like a sliced open tomato and the whole bullshit reincarnation thing… any chance you're in good enough condition to help me kill that thing?"
Ruby staggered backward nervously. "K-Kill that thing? You can't be seriously thinking of trying that!"
"Of course, I'm serious," Blake stated. "That piece of shit tried to get me eaten like five different times in the past hour. You think I'm not going to kill it?"
"Blake, that's insane. You can't fight against a God," Weiss tried to explain, but Blake merely glimpsed back at her with a cocky smirk.
"You know, for someone who hates debating with me, you never seem to listen much," Blake said confidently. "God isn't real, Weiss. Never has been. Never will be. That thing?" She flicked her head toward the Reveler. "That's just an asshole. And I've killed plenty of those before."
Weiss wasn't sure what she was confounded her more: the fact that Blake was so cavalier about such an insanely idiotic idea, or that she apparently confessed to being—if Weiss understood her correctly—a murderer. There was something so utterly frank about the statement that Weiss wasn't entirely sure if she was delirious again. But Blake spoke with such ease, such confidence. It reminded her of their days training together, when Blake would find some sneaky way to grapple her from behind and win without playing fair, and then mock and gloat about how wonderful she was. It was so pleasingly familiar, and Weiss needed some of that.
She looked at the scars on Ruby's back and gently touched the gaping slice on her own face. Revenge against a god. Absolutely insane. It was exactly what she needed.
"You don't have to kill it," Weiss informed her bluntly. "You just need to hold its attention until I finish this Trial."
"What?" Ruby asked in a panic. "Who cares about the Trial, Weiss?"
"It cares," Weiss said with certainty. "It cared enough to stop me. It could have just attacked me after I finished, but it interfered because I was getting close. It didn't want me to finish this Trial for a reason. I can't explain it, but trust me: I have to finish this."
"What do you think it's going to do?" Blake asked. It was a reasonable question.
"No idea." Not a reasonable answer.
"So why should I go along with this?" Blake wondered, turning to Weiss again. She gave Weiss a blatant look of honesty. She was searching for a reason to trust her, a reason that Weiss did not have at the moment. How insane it was to think of that even being possible even a week ago. Weiss gave the only answer could.
"Blake," she whispered. "Have faith."
Blake paused, taking a good moment to ponder if that was seriously the response that Weiss decided to go with, but in the end, she just rolled her eyes and smirked. "God, you're the worst."
"And if it doesn't work?" Ruby asked fearfully. The God screamed, rising to its feet. Its legs were spread wide and its knees bent, and its shoulder slacked as it clawed its fingernails down its face. The hair fell naturally, and behind them, they could see its eyes, or what was supposed to be there. The skin had melted down to the bone around its eyes, and what was left was glossy, charred flesh fused together from its forehead to its upper lip. Its nose had been sizzled away, leaving two large gaps in the center of its once beautiful face, and remnants of the acid continued to burn on its cheeks, peeling them down to its skull. Despite its blindness, it followed their voices, looking straight at them. Somehow, it was alive, and a bloody gurgle emanated from its drooling lips.
Weiss sighed. "Then we all die."
Blake shrugged. "Cool. No pressure. Hey, Ruby, can you still fight?"
Ruby was going to say that she could not, but Blake casually tossed her one of her knives anyway, and Ruby fumbled with it before snatching it between her forearms. "Not really."
"Can you run?"
"Um… sure?"
"Good enough," Blake stated. Despite the danger, she couldn't help but feel a rush of excitement. Revenge against the god that tried to have her and her friends eaten alive? Not only that, but getting to stab one of Weiss's gods in the face right in front of the girl? That was going to be cathartic in ways she couldn't even imagine.
"You…" the Reveler cried, and it pushed its hands forward. "You… you you you!"
A blind, unintelligible rage. A state unbefitting of a god. At its command, the chains snapped to attention and flew towards the girls, their sharp, golden tips craving the taste of their blood. Ruby and Blake exchanged glances. The time for talking was over. Team RWBY had to go to work.
Ruby panicked. "Crosspoint Blitz?"
Blake nodded. "Crosspoint Blitz."
The chains slammed haphazardly into the ground around them, but they rolled through and sprinted forward. A single chain flew past Weiss's head, missing her by a mile as she diverted her focus back to the Trial at hand. She thought maybe it was possible that its vision wasn't truly impaired, but in reality, it was blinded. They had hurt it. It continued to scream and wail like a banshee, and in its fury, it lashed out the chains in all directions, yet it was aimless. It could not pick a single target. It couldn't control itself. If Blake and Ruby were to survive its onslaught, that might have been their one window of opportunity.
Ruby managed to draw most of its attention by virtue of sound. It was a struggle, but she activated her Semblance and blew past the Reveler in a gush of red rose petals, flying out into the deep black void. Her shape left behind it a gust of wind, and the Reveler followed its sound, sending a swarm of chains chasing after her. They traveled together, dancing around each other, nipping at her heels, and when one got courageous and jumped at her, she barely managed to swerve out of the way as they crashed into the dark abyss-like floor. She jerked, changing directions suddenly, and the chains followed, looping up and back around to follow her trail wherever she went in the void.
Internally, she was dying. Her back was carved up like a pick tracing through marble. The faster she pushed, the more her body begged her to stop, but the adrenaline kept her moving just fast enough to outpace the maddened attacks of the God. When it couldn't hit her in a few seconds, the God raised his fists up into the air, and Ruby had to suddenly stop in her tracks and launch herself in the opposite directions as more chains began to burst from the darkened space where she was almost headed.
She provided a perfect distraction. As Ruby's Semblance and the god's own screams filled the silence, Blake slipped behind the Reveler, quiet like a mouse, buoyed by years of training. She ducked underneath the chains floating around its person, and when it wasn't paying attention, she slashed at the back of its knee with her blade. The knife pierced through its pinstripe suit, only to scrape uselessly off the blue skin beneath—yet the God didn't notice, still caught up in its rage. Blake, thinking fast, leaped in the air and grabbed one of the nearby chains floating above her. She wrangled it down to her level as it thrashed about like a snake in captivity, and she maneuvered her grip up the golden metal links until she wrapped her hand around the spiked blade at its tip. With a determined cry, she raised the spike above her head and forcefully drove the edge into the exposed flesh of the Reveler's leg.
"Gah!" it cried, whipping around and grasping at its legs. Blake slipped around to its front before it could notice. "Where are you, you little bitch?"
Blake was supposed to keep quiet, but lord, she just couldn't help herself.
"Wait, don't you mean, 'Where art thou?' Isn't that how you talk?" The Reveler swatted suddenly at the ground in front of it, but its palm landed on nothing. Blake was hit with a thought as she skirted effortlessly around its waist. "Wait a second… have you been faking that way of talking this whole time?"
A chain flew at her skull. It collided with only an afterimage.
"So, let me get this straight. You say you're a God when you aren't. You say you want to finish the Trials when you don't. And now, you're telling me you fake an old-timey accent to sound cool?" The voice came from everywhere, taunting it. The pain in its face was so intense that it dampened the rest of its senses, limiting its ability to pinpoint the source, and suddenly, the voice came to it like a whisper directly into its ear.
"Damn, is there anything real about you to begin with?"
"Worthless thing! Mocking God! the Reveler screamed. The few chains surrounding him turned their attention inward, driving themselves into the ground in every nearby direction. "Insufferable rodent! I'll crush your bones beneath my heel!"
Blake thrust the spike into its cheek, and it reached up to claw at her. She slipped away before it could reach her. Safe again.
"You know, it makes sense that you can't be omniscient," Blake stated, "considering that you don't know any good insults."
As the Reveler continued to thrash about in the darkness, Weiss worked. Her problems weren't any easier. The pieces of the puzzle were broken. She had to put them back together. First step: remove everything. She stripped each of the mannequins free from their masks and dumped them on the floor. If the Reveler was distracted with the others, she could guess freely without consequence. There were only so many possibilities; she had to stumble upon the correct one eventually.
Right?
She started with Velvet's mask. That one: sWear. She was beyond certain with that one. She returned it to its place. Pyrrha was next. Poisoned with contempt: she was ninety percent confident that was correct too. There were pretty much no other options, so onto the mannequin it went. And then… Blake. Dragon's Glory. She was extremely confident about Nora's placement, but it had to be one or the other, and Weiss was going to go with her gut. If there was one person she understood more than she ever wanted to, it would be Blake. But wasn't there something about the Dragon that caught her off guard? Right before she attacked, it was on the tip of her tongue. Something strange.
Screw it. She placed Blake's mask onto the mannequin and moved on. Maybe it would come back to her, maybe not. No time to think.
Nora. Nora Nora Nora Nora Nora. Where? Where to put her? If not Love, then tradition? Sure. Screw it. Holds tradition as sin. That's Nora enough. She began placing the rest of the masks quickly thereafter, keenly aware that every second the other's spent fighting the Reveler drastically increased the odds of their demises. Failure in all regards: Yang. She had massive self-esteem issues. Bound by jealousy: Ren. If Nora was incorrect, he would be the closest. Jaune was all that was left, and as she looked at the last remaining mannequin, she realized that there wasn't a chance in hell that she was correct, but she threw it on anyway just for the hell of it.
Beast of two minds. Hast let Evil kindle within their Soul and nurtured it—Jaune.
She waited for half of a second, looking around for a sign. She didn't know what it could be. A voice. A slap. A chill down her spine. She waited for as long as she could be allowed to. Nothing happened.
Wrong. Try again.
Jaune was undoubtedly incorrect, so she took his mask and swapped it with the next closest. Holds tradition as sin. Hast engaged in heresy against their family's Legacy. Sure. That could describe Jaune. She knew nothing about him, but it was certainly possible he disappointed more than just his teammates. And Nora, a person who lived by the code of love every day of her life; surely a secret of hers would involve something evil. She switched the masks around and waited. Waited. Waited.
Nothing. Try again.
The fight raged on behind her as she shuffled around more masks. More and more chains sprouted from the ground like weeds, each one ripping through the sky as Ruby dodged around them. It was like trying to sprint through a forest. She ducked and weaved up and down in her crimson form, not even trying to find an endpoint; just survive. She made the mistake of glimpsing back at the God for just a moment, and she was nearly impaled by a spiked chain flying through the air right in front of her, only saved by stopping suddenly and hightailing it the opposite direction.
The Reveler wasn't stupid, but it was blind and arrogant, two things that Blake knew could form a deadly combination. She could maneuver herself just fine, nimbly flipping and sliding underneath the wild chains flying everywhere but its attacks were becoming increasingly hard to predict. Her attacks did plenty to annoy it, but it wasn't getting her anywhere helpful. The Reveler began to gurgle, fresh spit drooling down its lips as its rage boiled and seeped out onto the floor from the fresh cut on its face.
"Weiss, I'm going to really need you to hurry up!" Blake called.
The Reveler's head snapped toward her. "There you are, you little bitch!"
Dammit.
Without even knowing where its attack would come, Blake went to dodge. She couldn't. The chain that spawned beneath her heel didn't have the patience for her antics. It burst forth from the ground and immediately pierced through her left heel, and didn't stop. It continued digging up, burrowing into her ankle, then her calf, finally bursting up and out of her skin just below the knee. The air was blasted out of Blake's chest, and she would have fallen over if the chain did not stake her in place.
"Agh!" she screamed frantically. It was the single, most devastating pain she had ever felt, enough to instantly shut her up, and when the chain quickly jerked and wriggled around the meat inside of her, the stunned cry she gave echoed across the void.
"Blake! I'm coming!"
The red shape was so far away from the God as to be a speck within the darkness. But it came closer… fast. It traveled across the darkness like a bullet, seemingly doubling in speed as it raced toward the giant blue monster eagerly eyeing its trapped prey. It drew its arm back, ready to further impale the girl, but its attention was diverted for just long enough that it misplaced Ruby amongst the chaos. It was just about to strike when the red blur crashed into it, hitting it square in the chest with all of the power of a speeding train. It stumbled back and Ruby crashed onto the floor, reverting to her normal self, looking up at Weiss with a desperate plea.
"Whatever you're doing, do it faster!"
"Seriously!" Blake wailed. Her mind raced to ignore the pain, and she bashed her palm against the blackened floor as she fell to one knee. "Weiss, I hate your religion so fucking much!"
Weiss scrambled to put more masks in their proper places. She tried every possible combination she could think of. Poisoned with contempt: Ren. Nothing. Velvet. Nothing. Beast of two minds: Velvet. Nothing. Holds tradition as sin: Yang. Nothing. She had to be getting close. There were only so many combinations she could pick from. Move faster. Faster. Faster, God, faster.
Ruby kept up her distraction the best she could. She picked herself off the floor and sped towards the Reveler, dashing between its legs and running up the length of its spine to reach its head. Once she was behind it, she dug Blake's knife as hard she could into its face. The weapon shattered upon impact.
"What do you think you can do to me?"
The God reached behind it and grabbed onto her head, its massive hand wrapping firmly around it. It threw her off into the darkness of the world, and she barely managed to twist herself in midair so that she landed on her feet.
"All of your power is gone, my love. You're just a fragment of what you once were."
It extended its hand and launched another flurry of chains, and Ruby sprinted to take shelter behind the closest thing she could find: the body of the massive toad that carried Blake down to them. She dove behind it as the snake-like tendrils punctured its bloated mass one after the other, tearing straight through its thick flesh. Ruby tucked herself into a ball and covered the back of her neck, making herself small behind the toad as chains burst through the meat all around her, each one narrowly missing their intended target.
"You always mocked me, called me too weak. But who is weak now, my love? I am the God of the Gods, and you… you will worship me!"
The Reveler slowly lifted his arm. The chains rose, and with them, so did the corpse of the frog they punctured. It was lifted high into the air, saliva and blood pooling out of its mouth and falling in bucketfuls onto the void floor. Ruby recognized what was happening, and stopped cowering immediately, hurrying to her feet.
Blake turned to Weiss, helplessly clawing at the chain buried into her leg.
"Hey, do you think you can hurry up?" she screamed. Ruby began to sprint.
"I'm trying! I'm trying!" Weiss shouted back.
Beast of Two Minds: Jaune. Nothing. Yang. Nothing. Didn't she try that before? All of her choices were blending together, leaving her with nothing, nothing, nothing.
"Now, join the rest of the Red Rebellion," the Reveler sneered, turning its wrist, "And fade away in oblivion!"
It threw down its arm, and the toad fell. It was like the fist of the god falling to the earth, and it slammed down in the spot where Ruby stood only a half-second before, cracking open and splattering all over the void in a copious bloody mess. A single footstep kept her out of the way of being crushed, but only a footstep, and the force of the blast was strong enough to propel her off her feet and send her tumbling out into the abyss, skipping off the ground like a stone. Her pained screams echoed, and the Reveler locked onto the sound, tongue flickering in its mouth.
Blake threw her knife down in frustration. It wasn't breaking through. She was trapped. "Stop trying to guess random shit and focus!" she shouted at Weiss. "Whatever it is you are doing, it's not working!"
"I do not need your commentary right now, Blake!" Weiss shouted back, frantically switching masks. Dragon's Glory: Blake. Right? Had to be Blake. What else could Blake be?
"Then work harder!" Blake screamed. "You're not the one who's leg was just skewered!"
"Blake, seriously, shut up!" Weiss shut her eyes, pressing her knuckles into her temples. She couldn't concentrate. It was hard enough, but Blake wouldn't stop talking. All Weiss could think about was Blake, Blake, how much she hated that stupid, blabbing woman. She ruined everything she touched. Fucking everything. Stupid. Always trying to tear her down. Always ruining everything.
"Dammit, how hard can it be to put some masks on correctly?" Blake asked furiously. "God, why did I have to listen to your stupid ego?"
"Can you seriously shut up already?" Weiss cried, throwing down her arms in frustration. Blake always had to put her down, even in the most trying of circumstances. She just had to be the worst goddamn person alive. Weiss didn't know why she expected any better, why she ever expected that Blake—even after knowing all the harm her words had caused, would ever leave her alone. She was so stubborn and cruel and loud and hateful in everything she ever did, almost like she was specifically sent to Beacon just to ruin her life. Even on death's door, why did Blake still have to be herself?
And then Weiss's eyes shot open.
There was… something funny about the way the brain worked. How the most meaningless, insignificant details would fade away only to spring back to the forefront of the mind at the slightest trigger. In Weiss's case, that trigger was one careless word that wandered into her mind: Beacon. Its name had almost crept onto her tongue earlier, but the Reveler had stripped it from her, yet at that moment everything aligned beautifully. Like starlight blending together.
Parasitic yet alone. Hast deceived in an attempt to claim the Dragon's glory. Dragon's glory. She was convinced that the phrase must have been a reference to Yang Xiao Long, but the Reveler was being literal. It was talking about an actual dragon—the person it referred to had lied to gain glory at Beacon Academy. Blake didn't care at all for glory, and while she was awful in so many ways, she had the skill to pass Beacon's tests authentically. The person who was lying would be someone who broke into Beacon undeservedly, and of all the options she had available to her, there was only one person who she believed met that criteria. Weiss stripped the masks from the mannequins for the final time. Her hand was steady as she found the mask she was looking for, and her vision, once split and distorted, was clear as it examined the life-like features. She placed the mask over the correct option and spoke as loudly as she could.
The Reveler was blind. She wanted to make sure it knew she won.
"Parasitic yet alone. Hast deceived in an attempt to claim the Dragon's glory: Jaune Arc."
The Reveler's ears perked up. It's head slowly rolled to the side. No. It wasn't.
Weiss continued, another mask in place. "Beast of two minds. Hast let Evil kindle within their Soul and nurtured it: Yang Xiao Long."
"You… you haven't won this."
It hissed at her, but she was undeterred. She had been so close before. How could she not see it?
"Bound by Jealousy. Hast sabotaged their Love's desires to maintain a fruitless bond: Nora Valkyrie."
"No…" it growled, blood pooling from its mouth. "Stop it. Stop it now, by order of your God!"
Weiss slipped another mask into place. "Projects false honor. Hast slain and tortured those they sWear to protect: Velvet Scarlatina."
The Reveler attempted to lunge at her, but a bloody, red shape collided into its side, and with the last of her energy, Ruby successfully managed to knock it to the floor, recoiling in pain. Weiss moved swiftly, realizing her time was brief. The truth was the Trial was never really that hard to begin with, once she understood its premise.
"Poisoned with contempt. Hast let strength pervert into disgust for the weak: Pyrrha Nikos."
The Trial was one of secrets, dark truths that they were ashamed to admit. She didn't know her fellow Huntsmen, never bothered to befriend them. Never thought it necessary. But she never needed their kinship. She understood regret. She understood fear. She quietly slid the sixth mask into place.
"Holds tradition as sin. Hast engaged in heresy against their family's Legacy: Lie Ren."
The final mannequin. The final mask. Weiss held it firmly between her thumb and index finger, gliding her skin over its wooden surface. That final riddle had always stood out from the rest. Its question was one that seemed so out of place in terms of things a person would ever regret. But there was never really another option, was there? That person would rather cut their own tongue out than admit it to be true. And of the seven choices left, it was painstakingly clear.
Because honestly… who else would be ashamed to admit that Weiss was better than her?
"Failure in all regards. Hast believed that thou are Superior to them," Weiss stated calmly. "Blake Belladonna."
The Reveler's scream was incomprehensible, a wail of despair so strong as to break apart time. The world suddenly flickered violently around them, dancing between images of the endless void and bright, white room of the theatre of the God's Arm. Ruby, near the point of unresponsiveness next to the Reveler's feet, covered her ears in horror, while Blake merely looked on at the raging blue thing that distorted the universe with its cries. The Reveler pushed itself up to its knees, and its palm shot forward; a hundred chains launched toward the mannequins and the girl standing between them, snaking horribly through the air and screaming like their master. Weiss stood, frozen, gazing softly at the seven structures around her, each bearing the mask of a Huntsman that all almost gave their lives for hers. The chains approached, metal scraping together creating the sound of a tidal wave, clamoring for her flesh, but she breathed deep and easy. She had done what she could.
The noise approached her, and the gold tips pierced the circle of the mannequins—and then, mere inches from breaking her skin, they stopped.
A hundred spiked, golden chains, piled on top of each other, hovering peacefully in the air. Weiss calmly released her breath, and turned around, facing the metallic monsters that wavered just in front of her very own blue eyes. As Blake watched in confused shock, Weiss casually lifted her pointer finger and pressed it against the tip of the chain. She whispered.
"Trial over."
The chains collapsed all at once, falling together with the sounds of a torrential downpour, mingling together in a useless heap on the void floor. The spike within Blake's leg suddenly retracted, retreating back through the incision in Blake's leg. It stung like hell, and she grabbed onto the wound, pulling her leg to her chest. The Reveler, gurgling, pulled its arm inward, its blind gaze drifting toward its fingertips.
"No… did you…"
The Reveler flinched, and like lightning striking the ground, a flash of white suddenly emerged and consumed its form. It lasted for only a moment, not even long enough for Weiss to raise her hand and block the blinding light, and when it vanished, the Reveler was on its knees, panting and scraping the void with its nails. It gritted its teeth, snarling, fighting against something that pulled at it harshly from within. Something that was trying to pull it back.
Weiss almost could not believe it. She was actually right about something.
"Winter," Weiss ordered confidently. "Pull it back."
Another flash of light, and the Reveler's spine arched back, causing it to cry out in pain.
"You… you can't fight me," it gasped. "I am in control. I control everything."
Except it didn't. Weiss always had her suspicions about how her family's summoning power worked. When she was fighting in her original Trials, she could never help but wonder if her father was in control behind the Gods' visages, proud of his work as he used their strength to butcher her. She let that question keep her up for too many nights, and the worst part was that she never knew which answer would be more comforting to her. But, if she was right—if her father was in control, even slightly—then Winter had to be there as well, just out of touch. Trapped. Bound to the will of the God as it broke free from the constraints of the Trial and sent her down a path of her own personal hell.
Winter's free will had been robbed from her, even before her father tampered with her mind. But as awful as it sounded, there was one direct benefit of his evil ways. He had taken away her love, her resistance, but he gave Winter drive. A single, solitary goal that emerged victorious other every other thought she could ever conjure: fulfill his wishes at all costs. And, as it just so happened to be, his wish was Winter to take Weiss through the God's Arm, Trial-by-Trial. The Reveler's power had blocked her from that goal, its might forcing her into a sleep within itself, suppressing her Soul as it tormented Weiss and everyone she cared about.
But now, the Trial was over. And with that revelation of Weiss's victory, like a message from the Heavens, Winter's mission came back to her, and her Soul came back to it, crawling to the surface. And with that came something Winter did not have for a long time: control.
Another flash of light ravaged the Reveler, and it fell onto its back, exhausted. Her efforts to unsummon it were powerful, but it was using everything it had to hang on, to cling to reality before it was dragged back into its sterile nothingness. It tried to lash out with the chains, but a powerful force held them down, stronger than gravity. Winter wasn't going to let it hurt her sister. Not anymore. The chains did, for just a moment, limply float and falter, and their movements were enough to barely catch Weiss's eye.
So, she picked one spike up off the pile, and as Blake and Ruby watched on, she began to walk, dragging the gold behind her.
"You can't keep her out, can you?" Weiss asked it, each of her footsteps echoing out into emptiness. "She got tired of your bullshit along with everyone else."
"No, you won't let me," the Reveler sneered, writhing around on the ground. "I can't go back. I am the Reveler. I am God."
"You're a summon," Weiss stated coldly. "We don't serve you. You serve her… and she wants you gone."
"No… please, no, no, no," the Reveler begged. To no one, but it begged, pounding its fists against the ground in a tantrum. "I can't go back. Not to that prison. You can't confine me, trap me away from the world. Not again."
Weiss's knuckles clenched tightly around the hilt of the spike. "A prison? After everything you did, you want to talk about your prison?"
It spasmed. "Weiss. Weiss… tell her to stop."
"Why?" Weiss asked, drawing nearer. "Why would I ever do that? After everything you've done, why would I ever let you stay here?"
The Reveler rolled onto its belly, turning toward her. She walked up to its massive form, and it slowly peered up at her. Its suit was torn and slashed, the once colorful outfit damaged to the point of ruin, and though its half-disintegrated face was covered by stringy strands of fading yellow hair, she could make out was what supposed to be a desperate smile.
"Because, Weiss… my follower… Angel of Decum Luna… you are like me. All like me. I was never good enough for them, always worthless. I suffered like you under their thumb. Their rules, their order… they tried to keep us restrained, captive to their whims. But you passed their Trial. You can break their chains. We can. Together. You and I, we can take it all back from them. The Schnees, the Saevas, the Aspects… they can bow before us. We don't have to be their outcasts."
With the last of its strength, the Reveler reached out its hand, palm up and extended to her. Weiss looked down at it quietly, the trembling thing beckoning her.
"Weiss Abailess Schnee-Saeva. I am the God of Freedom. The Fable Who Shall Lead This World. You need my guidance to fight them. Let us engage in the splendors of the flesh together."
Weiss looked down on the despairing God and then closed her eyes, drawing her focus inwards. She quietly turned the spike in her hand so the blade pointed towards her wrist, and then, to Ruby and Blake's shock, she took the Reveler's hand. Its smile widened as it felt her skin upon its own, and maybe for one foolish moment, it thought that it had slid its will back into her mind.
But then, Weiss pushed its hand away. Then she opened her eyes.
"You know something?" she said bluntly, raising the spike over her head. "You're a really shitty actor."
A final yell, and the golden spike was driven hard into the God's skull.
There was a gurgle from the Reveler's lips, and then stillness, as all the air in the endless void seemed to freeze at their master's quick end. Blake scrambled to her feet and ran over to assist Ruby, fighting past the pain in her leg, her eyes locked on the unbelievable sight from afar. Weiss stood there, unmoving, her fingers still clamped around the metal that pierced through the Reveler's forehead. Its mouth slumped open and even melted into its forehead, its eyes still found a way to forever lock onto hers. Its body became limp and slumped forward, the only thing keeping its head upright being Weiss's grip on the chain. She seemed to wait there forever, watching, her expression cold as her gaze.
Suddenly, a crack appeared, splitting down the Reveler's face, almost perfectly matching the fresh scar down Weiss's nose. Another crack appeared on its neck, then its hand, then all over its body, and before she realized what was happening, the cracks suddenly spread onto her hand.
"What the—"
She had no time to react; the cracks spread throughout her body, running up through her arms, her chest, her face. The cracks burned, and then, like fissures bursting, they emitted a powerful, blinding light that quickly consumed the Reveler's entire body—and then hers as well. She screamed as the flash consumed her, fading away into the beauty, and Ruby and Blake barely managed to call out her name before the light exploded outward, taking the rest of the world and forcing it into white.
