Note: This ended up being the longest chapter we had ever written. It wasn't necessarily meant to be this long, but we just kept writing and writing and writing until we were sure we hit everything we wanted to. Even then, we're still not sure we did this justice. But we hope everyone enjoys the chapter, and we hope everyone is looking forward to Chapter 100 next time, which will be pretty important. What's going to happen? Well, by the end of this chapter, you might get a pretty good idea. Enjoy.
Ruby wasn't woken up by the sound of her alarm blaring, but the harsh sunlight hitting her in the face through her window. It took her a long moment to stir, shaking her head gently as she managed to get a fix on her surroundings. She could have sworn she was in…no, wait…the dream faded away before she could touch it, even though it was so vivid just seconds ago. She groaned and reached out to her alarm clock, her glazy eyes focusing on the number written across its face.
11:17 AM
Ruby's lips curled into a frown as she smashed the button down, silencing it and undoubtedly taking weight off the shoulders of anyone else in the house. That was three nights in a row now that she slept straight through it and woke up late in the morning. It was impeccably unlike her; she was always an early riser, even when staying up into the small hours of the night. She prided herself on being able to start the day before anyone else. And now, for the third straight day, she was starting from behind.
Ever since that phone call…
Ruby went about her normal routine like she had every other morning of her life. Pick out a change of clothes. Use the bathroom. Brush teeth. Shower. Groom. Stumble downstairs looking for something to fill her grumbling stomach. On normal mornings, she would see her father mulling about the kitchen, trying to fix breakfast before school. He might cook something akin to a normal breakfast, or when she needed to hurry, she would munch on a protein bar and flesh out her thoughts with plans for how she was going to conquer her school day. On rare occasions—very rare occasions—she would find Yang downstairs at well, complaining about not knowing who drank the last of the milk, even though it was definitely Yang that drank the last of the milk because of course, it was. She would schedule out the next twelve hours over breakfast. Contribute some time to tinkering with Crescent Rose? Prepping for exams? Watch television if there really was nothing else to do?
But Ruby couldn't really do those things anymore. Yang was gone. Her father was out searching for her, and aside from the texts she'd received every few hours saying getting close or still looking, she had no idea what his progress was. Whether or not she'd ever see her sister again was a mystery, and the next time she did, Yang would be doing something far worse than badgering her over milk. She didn't have to think of schoolwork anymore, because she quit her education. There was nothing on television except a constant stream of depressing news. And the only thing that she had left on her mind, the only thing that gave her any drive at all anymore, was so intangible and unfocused that she barely knew what to do about it.
The only other person in the house? Well, dealing with her was complicated, too.
Weiss was sitting at the kitchen table, picking at scraps of a muffin with the tips of her fingers. She slouched in her seat, and when Ruby came in, she barely reacted to her.
"Good morning."
"Good morning," Ruby sighed, opening up the fridge. "What kind of muffin is that?"
"Banana."
"Huh. Didn't know we had those."
"They were in the pantry."
"Huh."
Ruby closed the fridge, and opened her mouth to say something, but thought against it. Weiss continued munching on her banana muffin in silence. In the corner of the room, Zwei was eating out of his bowl, which Weiss had been kind enough to refill in Ruby's negligence. She had been taking really good care of him since she arrived, and Ruby was thankful that she was able to hold herself together. It had been hard to do anything but sit around anymore.
Ruby grabbed a muffin from the pantry and joined Weiss at the table.
She took a bite of it. Chew. Swallow. Repeat.
Weiss stared at the ground, unengaged.
Ruby took another bite of the muffin. Chew. Swallow. Repeat.
Outside the window, she could see a light snowfall. The storm had cleared up earlier in the week, and warmer temperatures had saved her a good bit of driveway shoveling, but it now appeared that her fortunes wouldn't be able to keep up.
Chew. Swallow. Repeat.
And that was that.
Ruby grimaced. The elephant in the room was so large that she wasn't able to breathe. What was even the point of trying to ignore it? She spent, what, twenty minutes of bliss without having to think about it? She couldn't even get that. If she turned on the news, she would see it. When she looked at the empty spaces across from her, she saw it. When she saw the constant disappointment and worry etched across Weiss's face and heard her silence, she saw it.
Blake was a terrorist, and a Faunus, and…and, well, everything. She had destroyed Beacon and possibly killed some of their teachers. She was on the run from the entire Kingdom, and not only that, but she had committed countless murders across the Kingdom of Mistral. She had lied to them, one final dagger in their backs after months of secrecy and deceit. And, in her brashness and stupidity, when Ruby heard of her plight on the call three days ago, she nearly tried to run out and hunt down Blake herself in a worthless attempt to talk some sense into her. Doing so had left a wedge between her and Weiss, one that hadn't shaken their friendship, but left them just…
Like this.
It would have been suicide to chase after Blake right then and there. A clearer head and time alone brought Ruby to the conclusion that her emotions at the time were blinding her to. She had no idea where Blake was. No means to get there or get her back. If she found her, assuming she was a friend, what was she even planning to do? Be polite? Convince her to turn herself in to the cops, who almost certainly beat and mangle her behind closed doors like they did to every other Faunus? Or was she supposed to bring Blake back to her house and shelter an active enemy of the state? That was assuming that Blake even wanted to return at all. If Weiss was right, and Blake was really set in her ways, then going after her would be pointless. Blake would simply turn her away like she had done many times before—or worse, her new allies would consider her an active threat. She doubted Blake would harm her, but those doubts had their limits, and while she may have been willing to test them, she knew that Blake's friends wouldn't be so kind.
At the end of the day, she had come to one logical conclusion: to do nothing. Absolutely nothing. Blake's future was entirely out of her hands. She had come to a realization. One day, she was going to turn on the news. It could be tomorrow. It could be five years from now. But, one day, she would turn on the news, and she would see one of two things. She would see that another terrorist attack had occurred, with dozens or hundreds dead and the White Fang desperately trying to avoid accountability. Or, option two: She would see a mugshot of Blake's swollen, beaten face plastered for the entire world to see. She didn't know which of those two things she dreaded more, but she wanted to ignore them as hard as she could. Thinking about that was a bit like thinking of her own death. Depressing, existential…and above all, inevitable.
Chew.
Swallow.
Repeat.
Weiss cleared her throat, looking around the kitchen absentmindedly. "So…I was thinking we could do something today?"
"Like what?"
"I'm not sure," Weiss said with a shrug. She scratched at her muffin, picking off the last crumbs off its top. "Maybe you could show me a movie or something. Remember, how you said you interested in showing me Valian films?"
"Yeah. I remember," Ruby sighed. "I'm not really sure what you want to watch."
"There are a million things," Weiss suggested. "I would just like to do something over this break except sit around and think about how terrible everything is."
Ruby leaned back in her chair, struggling to come up with even a simple answer. A movie would be good. Would that really benefit anyone, though?
"I'm not sure, Weiss. I'm just not really feeling up to it."
"I know you aren't," Weiss acknowledged. "But we have to do something. I don't want to spend the last of our time together doing nothing at all."
"Right. About that…" Ruby said hesitantly. Weiss felt an uneasiness in her chest.
"What?"
Ruby murmured thoughtlessly, just letting herself speak as she could. "Are you sure you can even go back to Beacon at this point?"
And all of their attempts to avoid the topic were wasted just like that.
"They said on the news that they were planning on re-opening at the start of the new semester," Weiss stated, her lips firming into a scowl.
"That's what they said," Ruby noted. "But with Ozpin still missing, and so many staff injured, and the damages to the building—"
"It'll re-open," Weiss said confidently. "I'm sure they have some plan to accommodate all of the students. It's the largest Huntsmen school in Vale. They have to find some way to let us attend. Maybe we'll board somewhere else if we have to."
"Right," Ruby said wistfully. "But that's not what I meant. I mean…do you still want to go back to Beacon?"
Weiss frowned. She had run out of banana muffin top to pick at, leaving her with just the unattractive bottom still wrapped in its plastic tin. "You know I don't really have a choice. The second my father stops seeing this as valuable, he'll force me to come back."
"Well, maybe there's another way?"
"It's not like I can run away. He controls all my finances, and that's assuming he doesn't just send someone to come and take me in the middle of the night. If he was to get me back into Atlas, there's nothing I could do to fight him. The laws there don't really benefit people like me."
Ruby nodded sadly. "Right. I'm sorry."
"It's okay," Weiss shrugged. "I know what I'm doing. Being a Huntress is my decision now. I'm done doing whatever he wants for the sake of it. I'm finishing my training, no matter who tries to stop me."
"And that's great," Ruby said weakly. "I'm…I'm really happy for you. Just be careful, okay? I don't know how they're going to respond to this. Assuming Ozpin comes back, he might try to change all sorts of things in retaliation. And, since Blake was on our team—"
"We have nothing to do with her. I'll it to them straight."
"I know. But—"
"But nothing. Blake's problems are hers now," Weiss grunted. "Fuck her if she tries to drag us into her messes, too." Ruby didn't respond, and Weiss could feel her disappointment radiating across the table. She brushed it aside with a scowl and slowly stood back up, snatching her muffin and glancing over at Zwei. "Question: can dogs eat banana muffins?"
"Umm," Ruby said, racking her brain. That wasn't really something she had to think about all that often, and her thoughts were already quite crowded. "I know bananas are fine, but I don't think the sugar is good for them."
Weiss shrugged, and after a brief moment of consideration, she threw her muffin in the trash. She considered grabbing something else from the pantry; Ruby's father had been kind enough to always keep a loaded supply of food around even when he wasn't. Yet, despite it being lunchtime, she barely had an appetite. She also didn't have any idea how she was going to spend the rest of her day. Like Ruby, she had spent her hours meandering around from one room to the next, examining the architecture of the house and familiarizing herself with it like it was the back of her hand. In just a few short days, she had come to recognize the water stains in the ceiling of the downstairs bathroom, and she knew that the third ceiling light from the left was out no matter how she turned the switch. She would sometimes turn on the television or look at her phone, and then she would just get aggravated and have to take a sip of water before she punched a hole through the wall. It was miles better than staying in her mansion, of course—every hour there would be spent with dread creeping down her spine as she waited for the next emotional outburst or act of cruelty. In Ruby's house, everything was just numb.
Weiss sauntered out of the living room and headed for the stairs, yet at the last moment, she stopped herself. Was this really how she was going to spend her days, trapped in a holding pattern, waiting for Ruby to snap out of her stupor and start to move on? Weiss gritted her teeth, and then with a firm resolve, she turned one hundred and eighty degrees on her heel and marched toward the television. She planted herself firmly on the couch, and with a firm handling of the remote that she had mastered over hours of lazy, habitual mindlessness, she carefully navigated the television for something to stream.
She had made up her mind. She was going to watch a movie. A dumb, exploitative Valian film with no taste or artistic merit whatsoever. She wanted to rot her brain and destroy every last sense of culture and dignity that she held onto from her Kingdom. What was the benefit of living in Vale if not to experience a new way of thinking of things? She needed something fresh. Innovative. Something that was absolute trash. Yang had recommended a few pieces of such garbage for them to watch at Beacon as a team. Wonderful pieces of low-rent garbage like Hell Stalkers or Blood Hike or Violence Fist or something. Every single time, Weiss had turned her down with a swift, unrelenting rebuke. But now? What else was there to focus on? She had no studies. No school. No training. No future. Just garbage. Lots and lots of garbage. She might as well try to enjoy her new life at the bottom of the rung.
Ruby, with literally nothing else to do in her life, awkwardly followed her into the living room and sat at the opposite end of the couch while Weiss put on a movie called The Decapitator. Its poster depicted a large, burly man wearing a hoodie and carrying an axe in one hand. In his other, he carried—unsurprisingly—a woman's severed head. An actor's name was printed at the top of the screen in large, bolded, spectacular font, and Ruby wasn't quite sure whether the man she had literally never heard of was supposed to be playing the role of said Decapitator or the role of his nemesis. She couldn't remember if she had seen this movie before, but it was possible that she had accidentally stumbled across a scene or two while Yang had it on in the background. Yang was always far more passionate about those types of movies, having been exposed to them at a young age—in hindsight, Ruby might have even picked up her enthusiasm for such gory, violent material was a troubling sign. Then again, how would she ever know? In any case, she pushed those thoughts away. She was going to sit with Weiss and enjoy this movie, she guessed. Even though she previously said she wouldn't. What the hell was the point of consistency anyways? At least Weiss seemed happy with the company.
Within the first five minutes of the Decapitator, two different women took their tops off. Ruby coughed uncomfortably and averted her eyes, but Weiss stared firmly at the screen, taking in the trash for all of its worth.
"Why are they getting naked like that?"
"So, they can swim," Ruby explained.
"They don't have bathing suits?"
"I guess not."
"Why would these actresses agree to do this?"
"Money, probably."
Weiss squinted at the screen.
"Okay, wait…are they supposed to be lesbians? Is that's what's happening here? Because they looking at each other like—oh, now they're just kissing."
"That's…yep…"
"And now they're…oh. Wait. Why is the camera like that?"
Ruby's Scroll vibrated on the couch next to her. She ignored it.
"It's a POV shot. We're watching from the Decapitator's point of view."
"Why would be…wait…"
"Yeah…"
"Oh no…"
"Here it comes."
"What the…oh Gods…"
"Yep."
"Well, her head is just removed now."
"Yep."
"That looks rather realistic—actually, wait. That part looks completely fake."
Zwei scurried into the room, hopping up onto the couch and nestling into Weiss's lap. She did her best to cover his adorable little eyes as she watched the Decapitator chase a woman around a forest with an axe. Poor Zwei didn't need that kind of stress.
"They aren't going to kill both of them. It's been five minutes. They are the main characters."
"Actually, they aren't."
"They aren't."
"They exist solely to die."
"So, you're saying that he's just going to kill both of them like that, without any development or closure. That's so wasteful."
"That's the way these films are made. Otherwise, you won't know how dangerous the Decapitator is."
Weiss pouted in frustration. Ruby tried to look at the screen, but just saw more distasteful nudity and averted her eyes again.
"I think I hate this."
"Most people do."
"Then why did they make it?"
"Sometimes, people just want to indulge themselves. I guess…"
Ruby's Scroll vibrated again. She tried to ignore it.
"Valian people are so strange sometimes. I can't believe that there are people who would actually pay money to see this. Like, specifically this."
"I know. I can't believe there are five of these."
"There are five of these?"
Ruby's Scroll vibrated again, and against her better wishes, she pulled herself away from the utter garbage on the television and forced herself to look at it on the off-chance her father was trying to contact her.
She had received three text messages, and the moment she read them, her heart stopped.
The world seemed to fade out into the darkness. The sounds of the high-pitched screaming faded into white noise, and Weiss said something that Ruby couldn't even hear. All she could do was look at her Scroll and re-read the same three messages, over and over and over again, staring wide in disbelief.
Come outside to your shed.
I need to talk to you.
Alone.
The messages came from Blake.
"Oh. Now the title's here," Weiss said with a shrug. "So, was that all just the prologue?"
Blake…no. That couldn't…was this some kind of joke?
"And now there are all these new characters. Okay, I guess?"
She wanted…she wanted her to come outside…
"I see the acting doesn't improve when you get to these women—oh, more breasts. Thank goodness. It had been sixty seconds since we've seen any of those."
Ruby snapped back to attention. Weiss hadn't noticed her messing with her Scroll. She was transfixed to the screen, enjoying the film in all its awfulness. Ruby's mind raced a mile a minute. Too many options. Could it be a prank? No. Impossible. A trap? With Blake? No. How was she here? Why was she here? She was on the run. A fugitive. Lawbreaker. They could get in trouble. All of them. No. Couldn't be. Was…was she really there?
Weiss turned to look at her, and Ruby planted her Scroll hard on the couch beside her before Weiss could notice. Ruby smiled nervously, trying to hide her shock.
"Oh? Uh, yeah. Real bad," she smirked.
Weiss didn't seem to notice anything off. Ruby knew she should tell her. It was important. Crucial. They were teammates. She deserved to know.
Alone.
That word screamed at her.
Alone.
Blake was coming to her. Only her.
Ruby had less than a second to make a decision. At any moment, Weiss would notice something was wrong, and she needed an answer. Tell her. Leave. Explain. Don't. Too much information. Too much pressure. All at once. Out of nowhere. Everything riding on it. Life and death. The air grew still. Thick. Heavy.
Do something.
Just anything.
Make a choice.
Please.
Choose.
Don't make another mistake.
Ruby's instincts fired, and with what felt like the eyes of the entire world on her, she suddenly spoke and rose up from the couch.
"Hey, um…I think I'm going to go for a walk."
Weiss seemed taken aback. "Oh. You don't want to watch the movie?"
Questions. Pressure. Concentrate. Don't let the truth slip.
"I've just seen it before, you know?" Ruby said meekly. "And I think…I think I just need to clear my head for a bit if that's all right."
Weiss seemed not to know how to respond at first, and for a harsh, breathless second, Ruby thought she had slipped up and revealed something. But, after an uncomfortable silence, Weiss simply pouted disappointedly and turned back to the horror movie, still playing in the background.
"Okay. If that's what you need to do."
Ruby nodded thankfully. Whatever concerns Weiss had, she managed to dismiss them. She was in the clear. For now. How long that would last, she didn't know. She just knew that she had to act quickly.
Ruby raced to put on her clothes. Boots. Jacket. Scarf. Hat. She made sure her Scroll was tucked neatly into her pocket so Weiss wouldn't be able to check, and then she headed toward the doorway. Her hands were trembling as she reached for the knob. She couldn't tell if it was from excitement or anxiety. Probably both. She stopped for a moment and had a horrible revelation: Crescent Rose. Surely, she should bring Crescent Rose with her. Blake was…no, the thought was still too horrible to say without grimacing. But if she was dangerous, shouldn't she come prepared to fight? Then again, she doubted she could even grab her scythe from her room without drawing suspicion, and if Blake really was dangerous, would she even bother texting her? Would she wait? Would there be a single damn thing she could do to fight back if Blake really wanted to hurt her?
She took a deep breath and tried to ignore the fear. It was Blake. Blake wouldn't lay a finger on her. If she needed to, she could use her Semblance to retreat.
Yeah. Of course.
Ruby gave Weiss one final, distant look of goodbye—what was she feeling so odd about? She'd see her in five minutes tops. No need to get sentimental now. She stepped out into the snow, and immediately felt the frigid air hit her like a bolt of lightning. The snow may have melted somewhat, but the chill remained in full force even in the late-morning sun. She closed the door behind her, and allowed herself to stop on the stoop for just a minute. One final part of her told her that she wasn't really about to encounter what she thought she would. Maybe it really all was just some kind of joke. Blake was gone. Long gone.
And then, in the three-inch-deep snow, nearly hard as ice, Ruby saw a set of footprints leading around to the back of her house.
Her legs moved on their own, as she couldn't control herself any longer.
They carried her along the path of the footprints, tracing them exactly through the snow. Her arms dangled loosely by her sides. She could see her breath quicken in front of her face.
She was carried around to the back of her house.
Past the windows. Past the gate.
Into the backyard, where the work shed stood unopposed in the middle of the patch of white. She had barely used it. Her father occasionally kept tools in there to fix the house whenever it fell into disarray. She had stayed out of there, using her family's garage as her main workshop. No one should have been able to enter the shed. It was protected by a sturdy lock—which, as Ruby drew closer, she could see had been split clean in two, lying in a heap in the ice.
Ruby took each step carefully, barely able to keep herself upright. Her heartbeat: rising. Eyes: unfocused. Keep upright. Don't think about the worst. Don't assume anything. Not a damn thing. She stopped in front of the shed, which loomed over her with an intimidating, almost-otherworldly presence that she had never felt before. She grabbed onto the massive metal handles of its door and froze like a statue.
Come outside to your shed.
I need to talk to you.
Alone.
Ruby closed her eyes tight, strengthening herself for whatever she would find. She opened the door to the shed—and when she looked inside the darkness, she saw nothing.
Absolutely nothing.
Well, not nothing. A bench. Some tools. Lots and lots of discarded appliances that her dad never bothered getting rid of. But there was no Blake. No snow tracked inside from the footprints. No indication that anyone was ever there. Ruby exhaled, standing up straight, looking into the darkness as it would somehow reach out and grab her. She cautiously glanced over her shoulder for signs of any attackers but saw nothing. Not a single Soul.
From the darkness, suddenly, a voice. It sounded sad.
"Hey, Ruby."
Ruby jumped back, nearly tripping over the ice before she was able to steady herself. The voice seemed to come from nowhere, but as she focused on the sound, she realized: someone was inside of the shed. They had managed to blend in well with the shadows, sitting down behind the bench and the clutter that made them almost invisible to the naked eye. But jutting out from the dark, Ruby could see the unmistakable outline of a black bow. And after focusing, she could see the shining golden eyes of Blake—or well, Belle Kataliana, staring out at her.
"B-Blake, I—"
"I know. I'm sorry," Belle said, almost like it was a joke. Almost like things were normal. "I'm probably the last person you expected to see after all the shit I put you through."
Ruby stammered trying to find the words to describe what she was feeling. "N-No, it's fine. It's…oh my God, what are you doing here? Where have you been? W-Why are you—"
"Whoa, whoa. It's cool. Calm down." Belle casually stood up from the shadows, and Ruby didn't know why, but she expected her to be broken somehow. Bloodied. Bruised. Yet she looked the same as always. Healthier even. Whoever she was with was taking care of didn't know whether she should run into the shed and hug her or scream for help. Ruby instinctively looked over her shoulder, but Belle sensed her distrust and tried to calm her down. "Hey, it's just me. I promise. No one followed me."
Ruby nervously surveyed the tree line, searching for any signs of other Faunus. "Sorry. I just—"
"You don't trust me?" Belle asked, sounding somewhat pained.
"Can you blame me?" Ruby shot back, trying to hold back the anger in her voice that she didn't even mean to summon. "I…I mean—"
Belle just smirked knowingly. "Nah. I get it. Vale's most wanted just broke into your shed. I probably wouldn't trust me either."
She sounded so calm. How the hell was she this calm? Did not she understand the importance of this?
"Blake, I don't know what's going on anymore."
"Yeah, well…neither do I. That's why I came here," Belle explained, holding up her hands to show that she was innocent. It hardly did much to distract Ruby from the fact that Gambol Shroud was still clipped to her back. "I needed to speak with you. It's urgent. Something we can't do over the phone."
Ruby took a hesitant step backward. "I'll grab Weiss and—"
"No," Belle said quickly. "I want to talk to you alone. Weiss will just…I mean, she'd probably just try to kill me the second she saw me. Am I wrong?"
Ruby paused to think about that. No, she wasn't wrong. Weiss wouldn't let her say a damn word. But something seemed off about the Faunus that she couldn't quite describe. She seemed to be smiling genuinely, but those eyes—they seemed fearful…
"Okay…okay, I'll talk," Ruby said weakly.
"Not here," Belle insisted. "No one can be able to see us. Is there a chance we can talk in the woods?"
Ruby felt a pit growing in her stomach. Belle seemed desperate to get away from the house. Something spooked her when she was away. Still, going off into the forest with a terrorist—even if she was once her teammate—terrified her. Ruby knew she couldn't be trusted. She knew that there was another dagger waiting to be plunged in her back. Yet, there were no other footprints around them. Belle really came alone, just as she said. And that slight waver in her voice…whatever was troubling her, it seemed important. Important enough to risk her own safety and come all the way out to Patch, just to speak with her.
Ruby thought about it carefully, glimpsing back at her house, questioning everything, before she turned back to Belle and nodded. "There's a clearing not too far from here where I used to train. We can talk there."
Belle tried to smile, but it came across as forced. "Thanks. I appreciate that."
She seemed to hesitate as she stepped out of the shed, taking in her surroundings as if she were afraid they'd disappear if she looked away. She took a few steps toward the trees and looked back expectantly, waiting for Ruby to follow her. Ruby thought once more about going inside. She could run and grab her weapon, and Weiss, and call her father and let him know what was happening. But likewise, she knew that taking her eyes off Belle for a second would result in her former teammate vanishing without a trace. Whatever was happening, she was locked into it. With a final shrug of doubts, she led Belle into the woods.
The path to the clearing was something Ruby had long familiarized herself with. How many times had she taken that road in secret, looking to get in some training under her uncle? She was fortunate that their property extended so far, and she was able to have a place where she knew her father would never hear the sound of gunshots. Belle kept a few steps ahead of her as if subconsciously knowing which way to go despite never being there. Ruby trailed behind, listening to the crunching of the snow beneath their feet. Belle kept her focus straight ahead, and Ruby gently prodded her, trying to provoke a reaction. She had so, so many questions on her mind that she hardly knew which one to ask first. She settled on an easy one.
"Are you okay?"
"Hmm? Yeah. I'm fine," Belle shrugged. She didn't look back.
"I've been worried about you," Ruby stated. "You said you were running off, and I was worried about you."
"Really?" Belle asked blankly. "After everything I've done?"
"Yeah. After everything. I even thought about trying to chase after you and change your mind."
Belle snickered. "That would have been pretty stupid."
"I know," Ruby smiled somberly. "But I was afraid what would have happened to you. I haven't stopped thinking about it."
"Well, you don't have to worry about me," Belle insisted. "I've got some good people watching my back."
"Right. Your friends," Ruby noted. "They aren't making you do anything unsafe, right? Like, Adam is treating you good?"
Belle was quiet for a long moment. "Yeah. I'm not doing anything I don't want to."
Ruby couldn't read her face. She desperately wished that she could.
They came upon the clearing within a few minutes: a wide-open space amongst the trees where the snow was still strong and the forces of the wind were at their strongest. Belle wandered immediately into the center of the clearing, shoving her hands into the pockets of her jacket and scanning the area. She pursed her lips as her eyes darted hurriedly around the foliage. Ruby stalled by the entrance to the clearing, cautiously checking behind her to make sure she wasn't being followed.
"So, um…what do you want to talk about?" Ruby asked calmly.
Belle looked up toward the sky. There were clouds coming, blocking out the sun. It could start snowing at any second.
"Do you remember the first time we met?"
The question came out nowhere, and Ruby had to double-take to make sure she heard it correctly.
"When we met? At Beacon?"
"Yeah," Belle said fondly. "It was the first day there. There was some party going on with all the students. I had stepped outside to get some air. You were there, arguing with a statue about how worthless you felt."
Ruby sighed. "Yeah. I threw my shoes at it."
"Exactly. Do you remember what I said to you back then? I haven't forgotten a single word of it. I told you that if you seemed like a good person. I said: You should leave before you lose yourself to them. Before they took away all your morals, and your hopes and your dreams. How did that turn out?"
"I don't need the reminder, Blake."
Belle closed her eyes, breathing in the winter air. "I've been thinking about that a lot lately. Not because of what happened to you. That's sad, and I mean that. I hate Beacon. I hate what it stands for. But what they did to you—to us—that's wrong. Your mom deserved better. I'm…I'm sorry if that's blunt. It's not really my point; I just feel like it needs to be said. The reason I've been thinking about that is that I realized something a while ago. I realized I was wrong."
Ruby was taken aback. "You…you were?"
"I mean, I wasn't," Belle shrugged. "I knew what I was going to do to Beacon back then. Maybe a part of me knew that you could die if you stayed there. If you left then like you left now, you would have survived. But what I mean is that my philosophy was wrong. I had always assumed Huntsmen were evil people. I thought you could only ever join them if you were corrupt, you know? But you were different. You were someone who seemed like they actually cared about the things they said. I wanted you far away from that place, but the truth is, I should have welcomed someone like you. If you hadn't attended Beacon, some jackass from the countryside would just join in your stead. Someone who was everything I hated about Huntsmen. Think about it: if there were people like you keeping Huntsmen in line, maybe they wouldn't be as bad. If you were there in Kuo Kuana, would my father have died? It gave me a lot to think about."
Belle sighed and carefully shook her head. "But you know, I'm not even sure if that's correct. Is that all it really comes down to? A few good people in the right places at the right time? On a small scale, yes, but all over the world? Ultimately, I'm not sure. As long as people with power and privilege can act unchecked, we can never stop it alone. Oppression isn't the fault of bad people, after all. It's what happens when good people are given all the incentives to stop caring about what everyone else does. Something bigger needs to be done if we're ever going to change the world. Something larger than any single Soul."
Belle stopped talking and bowed her head. She seemed to be fighting within herself, and Ruby didn't know how she was supposed to respond. She took a step into the clearing, trying to examine any sudden changes in Belle's posture.
"Blake? What's wrong?"
Nothing. Absolutely nothing. Ruby could see her struggling. That nervous feeling was back again, creeping up her spine, permeating her chest. She took another few steps forward, bracing herself for the worst. She never would have been ready.
"Adam found a Grimm."
Ruby froze dead in her tracks. She stammered, trying to process the news.
"Wha…what did you say?"
Belle's face tightened. She tried her best to remain calm.
"That woman. Glass. She came to him while I was at Beacon. Apparently, they've been working together for a while developing it."
"Are you…this has to be a joke, right? You…you can't be serious…"
The ghost of a bitter smile crossed her face. "I've seen it. It's some sort of hybrid. Different than anything we've ever seen before. Glass has been feeding people to it for months. It's like a fucking nightmare."
Ruby's already chaotic thoughts intensified. Grimm. Another one. They hadn't encountered one since October; she personally hadn't seen one since their first week at Beacon. It was so long ago that she could hardly remember anything but the sheer terror she felt in its presence. If Glass was back, and if Adam was working with her…
"Belle, that's…I-I don't understand," Ruby stuttered. "Why would Adam ever want to make a Grimm? Why would he even do that?"
"Because he's desperate and stupid," Belle acknowledged.
"That's not an answer!" Ruby said worriedly "I mean, he's your boyfriend. Why would he want to create a Grimm?"
"To fight for him, obviously," Belle sighed. Ruby's jaw dropped in shock, but Belle explained it further. "Glass told him—from what I heard—that the Grimm only attack Humans. They are trained to ignore Faunus, at least most of the time. He thinks that he can use them as a weapon to kickstart a Faunus-Human war and gain the upper hand. She's telling him everything he wants to hear."
"That's…that's insane, Blake," Ruby gasped. "You've seen what the Grimm are capable of more than me. Y-You have to talk him out of this. Did you try telling him how wrong this is? If he uses a Grimm, then—"
"It's too late," Belle said simply. "He's already made up his mind. In four days, he's going to unleash the Grimm in the heart of Vale. He'll force it to attack the Atlasian Embassy and everyone inside."
"The Atlas…no, no, no, Blake," Ruby said desperately. "He can't do that. You can't do that. The heart of Vale—thousands of people could die, Blake. Innocent people, Humans and Faunus alike. Do you really trust Glass through any of this? That woman tried to kill you."
"Don't you think I know that?" Belle countered, expressionless. "It doesn't matter anymore. He isn't changing his mind, and we can't stop the Grimm. We never figured out how. Even if I did want to—"
"Did? What do you mean did?" Ruby asked frantically. Belle bit her bottom lip uncomfortably as her younger teammate chewed her out. "Are you saying that you're okay with this? W-We can't let that happen. We have to stop them! I know he's your boyfriend and everything, but even you know this is too far."
Belle swallowed her pride, her lips turning into a bitter sneer. "The attack on Beacon failed. Our chance at fighting back was lost because of me. If we somehow were able to control a Grimm—"
"Somehow? Are you even listening to yourself, Blake?" Ruby asked. She was stuck in perpetual disbelief, trying to understand what had gone wrong inside of her teammate's head, and all the while, Belle just stood there in the snow, barely reacting to any of it. "This has nothing to do with the Faunus. This is bigger than any one species. The Grimm are monsters. They are a bigger threat than anything we've ever dealt with. They almost killed us. We were working to fight against them. That's why you stayed at Beacon in the first place, right? You wanted to fight them. You can't work with them now. If you're scared about beating them, then we can try to find a way to fight back. Yang was able to hold one off. Maybe—"
"This has nothing to do with not being able to kill them," Belle admitted sorrowfully.
"Then what?" Ruby begged. "What could be worth—" Suddenly, Ruby jumped and looked behind her, scanning the forest behind her. "W-What was that?"
Belle squinted past her but saw nothing. "You're imagining things."
"Is that Adam?" Ruby asked, panicked. "You wanted to surround me?"
"Ruby, calm down," Belle instructed her. "I already told you: I explicitly told my guys not to follow me here. It's just us."
Ruby tried to calm her breathing. Everywhere she looked in the snow, she saw no signs of anyone else. No sounds either. Not even a peep. Even though she concentrated as hard as she could, all she could see was the dead nature encircling them. Maybe Belle was right. Maybe she was getting paranoid. She had just heard that Belle was considering working with that glass-made monster. She was expecting daggers, but this? After everything else, she thought Belle might be able to have some integrity left. Just who the hell was this woman standing in front of her?
But her mind suddenly focused in on a single, unobtrusive point. A word that had slipped under the radar. Ruby turned to Belle cautiously, doubting her own ears.
"Wait a second. Follow you here?"
Belle looked up at the clouds.
"What do you mean they knew not to follow you here? Did…did they know that you were coming here?"
Belle didn't blink. She didn't even move a muscle.
Ruby took another cautious step forward through the snow, asking what should have asked a long time ago. "Blake…why did you come here, exactly?"
Belle said nothing.
"If…if you wanted to warn me about the Grimm, you could have done so over the phone," Ruby reasoned carefully. "So…why did you need to come here?"
For half a second, Belle's mouth flickered into a sarcastic, somber grin, and then it faded back into the dullness of her features. "Glass didn't trust me not to sell her out. She gave me a choice. I weighed my options and came to the only one I could think of."
Ruby stared at Belle with quiet trepidation. Her mind sorted through all of the possibilities in a matter of seconds; then, she took a step backwards.
"It's funny, isn't it?" Belle said, rolling her eyes and laughing cruelly. "I mean, I try to do one nice thing for someone, right? I keep one promise in my whole life. Years and years of backstabbing, and I decide that for once, I'm going to open up to someone and tell them everything they deserve. And look where that's gotten us."
Ruby stepped back again. Belle just kept looking at the clouds, waiting for the snow to start falling.
"I mean, I don't believe in God, but if I did…that'd have to be a sign, you know?"
Ruby's legs were shaking underneath her, trembling so fiercely she threatened to trip back and fall. Her words were shaky as they poured out of her lips, and her smile was so pathetic when she tried to hide them that it nearly fractured at the seams.
"I, um…I think maybe we should go back inside…"
"Don't."
The blunt words stopped Ruby dead in her tracks. They were several yards away from each other, but when Belle finally looked Ruby in the eye, Ruby could see all of the sadness pooled into her face despite the smile that clearly said otherwise.
"What?" Ruby asked pitifully. She hoped for one last chance to be proven wrong before the weight of the world came crashing down on her shoulders.
"Don't run," Belle stated. "Because you may be faster than me, but I'll still catch you. I'll hunt you down as long as I have to, and all you'll do is prolong the inevitable. So just don't…don't make this any harder than it has to be."
Ruby had no more words. Her tongue was numb inside of her mouth, chilled by the winter air. Every part of her body screamed at her to run away, run as fast as she could toward the house. She could grab her weapon and then…and then…then what? This didn't even seem real. Belle wasn't really talking about doing this. Because of their talk? Too much information spread? No loose ends? It couldn't be. She refused to believe it. She was frozen to the spot, unable to do anything but question everything that had ever been put in front of her. Maybe she'd wake up back in her bed, tired and out of shape and ready to spend her day moping around doing nothing at all but wait for the world to watch her by. That had to be it. She had to be dreaming. Otherwise, she was about to…no. Couldn't be. She had her whole life ahead of her.
Then, Belle unsheathed the sword from her back.
And Ruby's heart shattered.
"B-Blake, w-wait," she managed to stammer out, holding out her arms in front of her. "Let's just…let's just talk for a second."
"Why?" Belle asked softly, looking at her reflection through her blade. "There's nothing left to discuss."
"Sure there is!" Ruby said with a helpless laugh. "W-We can talk about me not d-dying. I-Isn't that s-something to t-talk about?"
Belle stepped forward, gulping down her regrets. "I guess it isn't."
"But you…you d-don't want to do this!" Ruby said like it was obvious. A flood of tears suddenly pushed at her eyes, and she fought them back in vain, trying to smile through it. "You don't want me d-d-dead. That's c-crazy. We're t-t-teammates. Friends."
"We've never been friends," Belle said, approaching at a steady pace, one foot in front of the other. "I was just using you. And it doesn't matter what I want. This is just who I am. You should have expected this."
"No! Of c-course, I never e-expected this!" Ruby cried. "You would never h-hurt me. That's not something y-y-you'd ever d-do!"
"Sure, it is," Belle shrugged. "All I do is hurt the people close to me. You should know me well enough by now to get that."
"Blake…Belle…this is madness, right?" Ruby said, finding the strength to peddle back on her feet as Belle grew closer and closer to her. "You can't kill me. I…I don't want to die, Belle."
Belle cringed, hesitating for just a moment as she held out her sword. "Please, don't beg either."
Ruby thought of everything she could. Belle: twelve feet away. The house: hundreds. Charge her? No. Too risky. She couldn't. Not to Belle. Couldn't move. Body: wouldn't listen. Breathe. Couldn't breathe. Too much. All too much. Say something. Talk her out of it. Get Weiss. Weiss. Dad. Yang. Anyone. Don't die. Not here. Never here. Too much to leave behind.
Fight.
Run.
Do something.
Ruby had nothing left to lose. She screamed out the first thing she could think of at the top of her lungs. "Would Ilia really want you to do this?"
Belle stopped dead in her tracks. Her pained smile vanished, but the intensity of her gaze remained as sharp as ever. She tightened her grip on her weapon. Ruby held up her arms in defense, bracing for the worst. She expected her to lunge at any second, but to her surprise, she remained perfectly still, stewing in her hatred.
"Don't you dare fucking talk about her," Belle growled. "You don't know anything about her."
"B-But…I do. Don't I?" Ruby said weakly. "I mean…you told me, right? You told me everything?"
"Don't lecture me, Ruby."
"You remember how it felt when you hurt her. You've never been able to live that down. You still regret it even now. Do you really want to go through that again?"
"You don't know me."
"Of course, I know you, Blake!" Ruby said passionately. "You told me everything. You think I don't know what it feels like to watch Atlas take my parent away from me? You think I don't know what it feels like to be different and hated and—"
"No, no!" Belle screamed. She had been keeping all of her emotions buried to keep herself sane, but she was weak. Fragile. Still was all this time later. All it took was one little crack for the steam to pour out of her. "You are not playing this fucking game with me, Ruby! You do not get to pretend to empathize with me! You have no idea what it's like being a Faunus. You're fucking rich. You can go anywhere you want, do anything you want, while we have to live in the fucking gutter!"
"You're right! I don't know," Ruby admitted, tears streaming down her face. "I've spent my whole life not knowing anything, and you know what? That's my fault. I never learned about your history, or…or your struggles, or anything. And…and part of that was that no one taught me, but also because I never cared enough to know. So, help me know. I want to help you. I don't want your people to suffer anymore."
"And you really think you can help me?" Belle asked mockingly. "What? You and your fucking Huntsmen friends?"
"There are Huntsmen who care about the Faunus, too. There's Velvet and Coco and—"
"Velvet? Fucking Velvet?" Belle said with disgust. "Velvet, who thinks that charity will make up for family fucking owning slaves? Velvet, who wears a pair of goddamn rabbit ears on her head like it's fucking cosplay? How do you think I feel about Velvet, Ruby? How do you think any Faunus feels about someone like her using us for a fucking ego boost?"
Ruby shook her head breathlessly. God knew she had no response to that. Every little mistake that she had ever made was coming back to bite her. She felt exhausted, like she would pass out at any moment. She tried to refocus. Stay focused. Just for one minute.
"Look. Look, I'm sorry," Ruby said earnestly. "Let's just…let's just put the s-sword down, okay? Let's go back to my house, and we can sit down and…and we can just talk about this, all right?"
Belle sneered, gritting her teeth and snarling through her anger. "That's always the fucking problem with you Humans. You always try to talk your way out of everything. No action. No justice. Just wasting time sitting around talking about your feelings like it'll fucking solve anything. And then when we try to fight back, you just betray us all over again."
"I'm not going to betray you, Blake. I promise."
"You fucking liar…"
"No, I s-swear. Please, God, I swear," Ruby begged. "S-See? I don't even have m-my weapon on me. I didn't turn you in to the cops when I could have. I'm on your side. I just don't want anyone else to get harmed."
"And yet you stand there and do nothing!" Belle said forcefully. "No one ever does anything to help us. I don't want to use the Grimm, but this? This is all we have left! We will never be able to do anything if we wait for peace. We have to take action before anyone else gets hurt. The Faunus need their retribution now. The Grimm are the only way of doing this. It has to be done, no matter what the cost!"
Ruby tried to calm her breathing. She raised her hands peacefully in the air, trying to ease the tension. She noticed that Belle had taken a step back toward the center of the clearing in her anger. Despite her rage, she was actually falling back. With a touch more clarity, she could see that Belle was shaking just as bad as she was. That confidence was gone. A weakness. She always had one. She just needed a way how to exploit it. Think, Ruby. Think back on everything Belle had ever done, all of their conversations together, all of their memories. What upset her more than anything?
Somehow, despite the tension, Ruby managed to figure it out. The one thing that got under her skin more than anything else: therapy.
"What's the real reason you're doing this, Blake?"
Belle's eyes went wide, and her lips twitched as she stared Ruby down. "What…what are you talking about?"
"You say you're doing this for the Faunus, but we both know that's a l-lie," Ruby said clearly, making sure Belle knew she was being picked apart. "If the Grimm gets loose and a war breaks out amongst Humans and Faunus, no one will come out on top. It'll be a genocide. You know this. You've known this all along."
Belle shut her eyes tight, trying to block her out. "Stop this."
"You know the consequences, so why bother fighting like this if it's just going to get people killed?"
"We're just trying to save people…"
"Is that what you believe, or what Adam believes?"
"Shut the fuck up…"
Belle clutched her head, slamming her foot down hard into the snow. Everything was so messy. Why did it have to get so goddamn messy? It was just supposed to be one simple mission. One week at a school, and then it would be done. It'd all be over. Why was she still fighting this stupid goddamn battle? Why wouldn't they just let her go back to how everything used to be before it all got screwed up?
Ruby leaned forward, finding more strength in her words. "You're not doing this for other Faunus. You never have been. You know that. You told me so. Stop pretending. Please, we can fix this, but I need to know why you're doing this."
Belle screamed, stamping her foot down and gripping her sword so tightly that her knuckles turned white. She gave up.
"Because I fucking have to!"
Ruby was stunned into silence as Belle emptied everything she had into the snow, screaming and cursing like mad.
"Don't you think I know what's going to happen? Let it happen. Let everyone fucking die! That's what I want. It's what I've always wanted. Everything I've ever done has been leading me to this. Joining Glass, using the Grimm…this is what everything in my life has led me toward. This is who I am. I'm the person that hurts everyone else and gets away with it. I've been trying to ignore that part of me for so long and deny what I really am, but I can't. Every time I try to do better, every time I try to fight, everything just gets worse and worse and worse. I'm…I'm fucking tired of fighting it. I can't fight it. I've made too many mistakes now. Too many bad decisions. I have no one else to be anymore except for this. Being this—being me—is the only thing that makes sense to me anymore."
Ruby couldn't tell if Belle was fighting back tears as well, but her voice was strained and full of malice directed toward everyone but her. She lowered her guard even further, trying to sound as kind as she possibly could.
"Of course, there's someone else you can be," Ruby stated. "You can be my teammate."
"No. You're wrong," Belle stated harshly. "I don't care about you. Don't you get that? I've been using you from the start. I'm here to kill you, Ruby. Your life? Your dreams? I don't care about any of that. None of it at all."
Ruby narrowed her eyes. "Then why did you wait for us to leave Beacon?"
Belle stammered, brushing off the question. "It was more convenient."
"That's not true," Ruby said, true as daylight. "You could have killed us. I…I saw it. I know. You could have attacked, but you didn't. You wanted to make sure that Weiss and I weren't harmed. You wanted to keep all of the students safe."
"I don't care about Weiss, either."
"You checked on her during the God's Arm," Ruby claimed. "You violated the rules and her own wishes to check on her. You comforted Zelina Zaripova when her house was destroyed. You took care of my sister and tried to get her treatment. You keep saying you don't care, but I've seen your compassion toward others. I know you hated how you treated Ilia."
"Don't say her name. She has nothing to do with this."
"Look, I…I get it, Blake. I get it so much," Ruby said, forcing herself to smile. "You said it to me over the phone, and I didn't get it then, but I do now. You were trying to justify it to yourself. You've been trying to justify killing me because it's easier to pretend that you're a monster than live with the guilt. But you can change. I've seen the good in you. I know that you can be better."
Belle somberly shook her head. "No…no, I can't. I've made too many bad choices. Too many mistakes. There's nothing left for me."
"Blake, you're seventeen!" Ruby said with a breathless laugh. "O-Of course, there's something left for you. You have your whole life left ahead of you. Please, just…just drop the sword and come back to the house with me. We can sit and talk about everything. We can work out how to stop the Grimm, and Adam, and Glass, and we can save so many people together. We can go back to the way things used to be between us. We could be friends. Please, Blake, trust me."
Belle chuckled to herself. "Holy shit, you are naïve."
"Yeah! I am!" Ruby laughed, wiping away her tears. "I'm so stupid! Come on, let's go and laugh about that together inside! We can forget all of this ever happened. Please, Blake. Please."
Belle seemed to contemplate the offer for a long time. Ruby gave it everything she had. She poured her Soul into her words, and dammit did she mean every one of them. The honest truth was that even now, after everything Belle had done, she couldn't help but forgive her. That same woman who constantly insulted her and her friends, berated her, betrayed her, disobeyed her, and caused her more headaches than she ever dared to dream, the same woman who had come to her home with a sword and an intent to kill, she was now willing to bet her life on. What would Weiss think if she could see how pathetic she was now?
Belle took a few minutes to process her response, standing like a statue amidst the snowy field. When she responded, it was with a smile—one laced with the same bitterness and muted disappointment that she had worn like a badge ever since she arrived in Patch.
She clicked a button on the side of her weapon, transforming it into a gun. "Sorry, Ruby. The part you're trying to reach just doesn't exist anymore."
Ruby's heart finished snapping in two.
That was that.
She was completely out of options.
Or was she?
Because as Belle took a deep breath and looked up to the sky, searching for some final guidance from the god she didn't believe in, Ruby realized that she had one last trick up her sleeve. A really stupid, dangerous trick that barely worked the first time she had done it four months earlier. Ruby tightened her jaw, stood up as straight and bold as she could, and looked Belle dead in the eye.
"Then shoot me."
Belle felt her confidence waver ever so slightly.
"What did you say?"
"I said: shoot me," Ruby said. She took a step forward, and suddenly, it was Belle's turn to panic. "You're saying there's really no hope for you? Then let's not waste any more time."
She took another step forward.
"I'm going to count to three, and then here's what's going to happen."
Another step.
"You are going to shoot me in the head."
Another step.
"And at the count of three, if you don't shoot me…"
Another step.
"You are going to hand me the gun, and we are going to go back inside the house as teammates."
It was her final strategy. A true test of courage in the face of adversity. She knew Belle. She knew she was a good person deep inside. She just had to prove it. Belle wouldn't admit it out loud. That was perfectly fine. Ruby could see the terror slowly dawn on Belle's face. She wasn't going to shoot her.
"One."
Another step. She wasn't going to shoot. She wouldn't. Not in a million years. This would prove it.
"Two."
Belle staggered back momentarily, stunned, unsure of herself. The pressure was turned up so high that even the crunching of the snow beneath her feet was drowned out by her heartbeat in her ears. Another step.
Another.
Another.
Less than two yards apart. So close.
Ruby clenched her fist, ready to reach out for the weapon.
"Three."
Ruby reached out to Belle's hand—and Belle's face instantly turned cold as she raised her gun to Ruby's face.
Time froze. Ruby stopped in her tracks. Belle shut her eyes. Her finger hesitated, refusing to slide over the trigger.
And then, before anything else could happen, Belle's ear twitched, and her eyes shot open in fear—and at the last possible second, she jumped backward out of the way as Weiss lunged through the spot where she was stood from out of nowhere, the tip of Myrtenaster barely missing her skull.
Belle landed in the snow, but Weiss recovered first. Before the assassin could react, a vector glyph appeared beneath her, and she suddenly found herself blasted far away across the clearing. She landed and tumbled against the snow, rolling and collecting patches of white as she came to a stop on the other side of the open space. Ruby gasped, shocked by the new figure's sudden appearance, and she jumped back to get a good look at her. Weiss…where had she come from? That noise earlier. She had followed them. How long had she even been standing there, listening, waiting? She wasn't even dressed in a winter jacket. Her left arm was still in its sling, leaving her to hold her sword in her non-dominant hand. Yet, despite the cold and her handicaps, she showed no weakness at all—just a firm, icy glare that matched the deadly shade of blue in her eyes.
Wait a second…
"Get away from her," Weiss said firmly. Belle sighed, picking herself off the floor and cracking her neck.
"You're not supposed to be here, Weiss," she called out across the clearing.
"Just when I thought you couldn't get any worse," Weiss shot back. "Terrorism. Anarchy. And now this. You always try to ruin everything, don't you?"
Belle brushed her hair out of her face. "So, did you know about this, Ruby?"
"W-What? I…no," Ruby stammered. Her eyes bounced back and forth between her two teammates, standing across from each other, carefully eyeing the other's movements. "Weiss, what are you doing here? I almost had her. I—"
"You can't trust her anymore, Ruby," Weiss stated. "I'm ending this. Now."
Ending this?
No…
No, God, please, no.
"Weiss. Wait, Weiss," said Ruby. She had no weapon. No way of fighting. No way of stopping the inevitable. "Weiss, don't do this."
"Don't worry. I can handle her," Weiss said with a sneer. "She's not going to be able to hurt anyone ever again."
Ruby opened her mouth to speak, but nothing came out. It was like the words had been stripped from her throat. She fell to her knees, feeling almost powerless to fight back. Weiss pulled back her sword and squared her feet, ready for a fight. There was no safety mechanism on her blade. No officials to call off the battle. Nothing to stop her except a mercy that she decided was no longer required.
Belle sighed and pulled the sheath off her back, flicking it down and equipping both of her weapons as she normally would when she began her matches. "You really don't want to do this, Weiss. I taught you everything you know. I trained you for months."
"The only thing you taught me is how to fight against you," Weiss noted, "and I am far stronger now than I ever was back then."
Belle couldn't help but snicker. Banter. Even now, she had to come up with some clever fucking quip. Weiss Schnee, huh?
Belle readied her swords to attack. "Okay, then. I guess it's time we finally settle our debate then…"
The clouds opened up, and a thin trace of snowfall poured down on their heads. The sky was a melancholy shade of grey as they took up their arms against each other, feet planted firmly in the snow as they waited for the other one to break. Ruby could only sit back and watch as everything around her collapsed in the way it only ever could amongst her team: with violence and chaos.
Weiss and Belle had their differences. They differed in politics, religion, and philosophy. They came from different Kingdoms, were raised with different levels of wealth and different hardships. They had chosen their paths: one to walk the road of the Huntresses, and the other to destroy them. And yet, despite all of their differences, there was one fact that was perfectly clear to both of them.
They always knew that it would come to this.
