A VERY LONG AUTHOR'S NOTE: 3 years. 500,000 words. 100 chapters.
We don't know if we've ever shared this before, but we wrote this story on a whim. We were actually just about to quit fanfiction about a week before we started writing this. We had just finished writing this long Overwatch fanfic we didn't really have the motivation for, and we kind of wanted to stop screwing around on fanfic that not a lot of people were reading. Like, what was the point? Around the same time, we were also pretty waning fans of RWBY as well. After Volume 4 didn't really satisfy us as much as Volume 3, we were very much in a RWBY slump. Those problems became exacerbated by Volume 5, which is probably most people's least favorite Volume for pretty good reasons. We were actually going to quit that show as well when an idea for a RWBY retelling crossed our minds. We had come up with some ideas for "darker" RWBY because we were (and still are) dumb edgelords, but it was around December 2017 that we started taking any of them seriously. We mapped out a few short story arcs, had a little fun within our own head, and then decided that none of it would ever see the light of day. But then, we believe on Christmas Eve, we had a thought: why not write one chapter, upload it to and see if anyone would be interested in reading it.
And oh boy were people interested in reading it.
Which brings us here, all these years later, at a very different point in our lives, still writing this story that has been viewed by, well, a lot of people. It's actually hard to calculate the number of real viewers this has because AO3 and fanfic each have different awful metrics to keep track of this stuff. But enough people have been reading it to justify its continuation. We had a lot of ideas back then that have obviously grown and evolved as the story has been fleshed out. Believe it or not, this was originally going to be 16 chapters. We know, right? How the hell would that work? Well, at the time, we had ideas for how we would break down each little chapter into its own story arc with different plots and conflicts. One of the first we created was Weiss and her religion. We believe the second we came up with involved Ruby and her mom. The third...that one involved a conflict between Weiss and Blake.
Writing all of the drama between Weiss and Blake has been a lot of fun, just because we get to flesh out arguments with ourselves. To say that this chapter has been a long time coming would be an understatement. We have been building to this for literally years, from their practice duels back in Chapter 22, to Weiss berating Blake in Chapter 63, and even their therapy sessions in Chapter 72. And more. So, so much more. That is to say that we've had a lot of pressure riding on us for this chapter, because if it doesn't satisfy anyone, then that's really fucking disappointing. It also, well, has to end somehow. A lot of people in the comments have been guessing how this is going to end between Weiss and Belle. However, we've always known the answer. Even years ago, we knew how the conflict between Weiss and Belle was going to end, and we hope that when you see our conclusion, and you go back and read everything we've written building up to this, hopefully, you will see that this is the only way it could have ended as well. Hopefully. After all, the story was originally going to end with this exact fight.
Obviously, it should be noted that this is NOT the last chapter of LUBYP. How many more chapters will there be after this? We don't want to say. We will say that there are things that need to be tied up, and we will try to do that the best we can. After this chapter, it may or may not become clear what needs to be done to wrap up this story properly. We still think it's important to celebrate 100 Chapters of a story that has received reviews ranging from "best RWBY fanfiction" to "literal garbage", designations that are both 100% accurate.
So, uh, thanks for reading 100 chapters of this story. We really appreciate it. Enjoy.
A forward charge…Weiss always began their fights with a forward charge.
This bout was no different. She bent her knees, leaned forward, and launched herself across the clearing, tearing up snow in her wake. Belle rose her weapons to defend herself.
Weiss held the sword in her right hand. She'd attack on that side. Belle leaned in to her left, bracing herself for impact.
Weiss drew closer, pulling back her sword to strike—and then suddenly, a glyph appeared beneath her, and she pushed herself off at a sharp diagonal angle to Belle's right. Belle pivoted fast on her feet but noticed another glyph appear directly beside her out of the corner of her eye. A sudden, forceful blast pushed her off her feet in Weiss's direction, and Weiss once again redirected herself, pivoting on her foot, launching forward as hard as she could, intercepting her target, gritting her teeth, screaming, angling her sword back, and at the exact moment of contact: sliced her clean in two, straight down her middle.
The body flew behind her, and Weiss slid to a stop and glanced back—just in time to watch it turn to smoke and vanish. The real Belle rolled to safety several yards away, scrambling to get back to her feet.
"There you are!"
Weiss jumped on her back foot, keeping up her momentum. She flicked her wrist, and another glyph appeared, blue and spiraling. It charged in the air in front of her, and within moments, four arrows of light shot out from its center, traveling chaotically through the air. Belle only just got up to her feet as they approached her in rapid succession. She was forced to dodge them. Dive past the first. Roll under the second. Sidestep the third—
The arrow caught her in the forearm, and she gasped in pain, reaching for the slit that had opened on her arm. She hesitated on her final step and became distracted momentarily, enough for the last arrow to snake its way out of her field of view. It launched at her from behind, and Belle was only barely able to find the wherewithal to sense its location and deflect it with her sheath. She smacked it away as hard as she could, but it didn't matter. The moment she pushed it away, Weiss had launched herself back across the clearing and was back in her face. Belle hazardously parried the first blow, but Weiss retaliated with more, a blistering flurry of strikes that kept Belle on the backfoot. She tried to recover. Think. Weiss had one arm. Her bad arm. Attack from the right. Yet, the second Belle found a pause in her offense, Weiss immediately blasted herself away from her, gaining as much distance as possible. In her stead, she launched a wave of ice crystals which tore through the battered snow like paper. Belle lunged out of the way of the crystals, managing to dodge their razor-thin tips.
She landed back in the snow with jilted grace. Weiss was far across the other end of the clearing, coming to a stop. The battlefield was steady. And, for the first time, Belle was finally able to catch her breath.
What the hell was going on? Belle needed to slow down and think. Weiss's fury was relentless. Unstable. She was running off pure instinct in trying to dodge everything. Weiss…Weiss was powered by her rage. All of her attacks were killshots. She wasn't strategizing in the slightest. Belle could use that but she had to be careful. She needed to be smart. Outthink her. Outplay her. Just like in training.
But she was fighting at a huge disadvantage. She needed to tip the scales in her favor.
Ruby…Ruby was off by the trees, fallen to her knees in shock. She was vulnerable. Maybe…no…
Weiss took a second to get her breathing under control, but only a second. She couldn't concentrate on anything for any longer.
She tried to kill Ruby.
Weiss's hand trembled. She tightened her grip. She felt her knees shaking beneath her.
She destroyed Beacon.
Weiss extended her sword by her side, and three glyphs appeared around her. Balls of flame emerged out of them, and the glyphs began to circle around her. They spun faster and faster, until a solid ring of fire surrounded her. She gritted her teeth.
She killed dozens. She wants to kill millions.
"Stay still, dammit!"
Weiss thrust her sword forward, launching a foray of fireballs across the clearing. Belle jumped off her feet and broke out into a sprint. She pushed herself as fast as she could through the snow, stepping high to avoid getting stuck. She moved unpredictably, sprinting off at different angles as the fireballs whizzed past her head. She managed to dodge them with her afterimages, glancing behind her as they burst through the shadows and exploded into steam upon contact with the snow.
Ruby just watched. That was all she could do. No matter how hard she tried, her body just wouldn't move. So, she watched.
She watched as Belle quickly closed the distance between them. Weiss increased the fire, but they were aimed hectically. Too wild. Unfocused. She would never hit Belle no matter how hard she tried. Ruby felt like she was going to throw up. She prayed that she was just sleeping. She would wake up soon, she told herself. She would open her eyes and it would be over. She would be back in Beacon, and they would stop hating each other; or maybe she would wake up and she would still be a child in her mother's arms, and this whole goddamn nightmare of a life would turn out to be a lie. But she knew that was just a stupid fantasy, an act of denial to keep herself from processing that she would likely have to bury one of her friends. It still seemed so unreal that she couldn't even comprehend it.
Maybe that was why, in a certain way, she could follow the action so easily. Her mind was eternally logical, strategically driven. She could already see the outcome of the fight when it had barely started. Belle must have recognized the same things she did. Weiss was fighting one-handed, and Belle had always exceeded her at hand-to-hand combat. Weiss was smart to keep her distance and use projectiles. She had to if she was going to survive. She was also smart to keep herself in the clearing where Belle couldn't use cover. It would only be a matter of time before Belle realized that she could use the trees to slip back into the shadows, and if she could lure Weiss there, or hell if she could just disarm her and take away her glyphs…
Belle…what the hell did she do? She trusted her. She trusted her with her life, and…it didn't make any sense. She was so certain she could have saved her. She bet everything on her like some kind of idiot. Belle came there to kill her. She was ready to end her life at a moment's notice and forsake all of them to Glass and her violent ambitions. She even gave her a chance for redemption. Despite everything, she gave her a chance to turn back and…
Wait. Did she?
Belle…she didn't shoot her. Maybe Ruby's mind was playing tricks on her, but she could have sworn that for a second—just a fraction of a moment—Belle hesitated on pulling the trigger. She was reconsidering it. She was going to hold back. But was she? Was Ruby just being hopeful? She would never know. The instant Weiss crashed through them was the instant any chance for reconciliation was permanently ruined.
Belle found a brief opening amidst the fire and charged straight forward. She covered her movements with a quick release of shots from her weapons, forcing Weiss to stop her attack and raise her glyphs to block them. In the brief moment between shots, Belle separated out her grappling hook and threw it as hard as she could toward her target. The cord wrapped tightly around Weiss's arm, and with a grunt, Belle pulled downward and forced it down, leaving the ex-heiress defenseless. Belle lunged forward past the glyphs, pulling back her sheath to strike the side of Weiss's head.
"Stop fighting—ack!" Belle's onslaught was immediately cut off. With a precise movement of her thumb, Weiss summoned an ice wall beneath Belle's feet, knocking her up and away. The cord around Weiss's arm whipped itself off, detaching and flying freely along with its master, and free once more, Weiss kept up the attack. Weiss screamed and forced the wall forward, slamming into Belle hard and sending her cannonballing back into the snow. It barely cushioned her fall, and she felt her shoulder cram up into her ribs upon impact. Still, she rolled back to her feet. The adrenaline did its work to block out the pain. Staggering back, Belle snapped her arm, summoning her weapon back into a single piece. She shook the remnants of the snow away, discarding its frigid bite, but she felt something surprisingly warm on her face. Belle wiped it away and looked at the tips of her fingers.
They were dyed red with blood.
Belle's brow furrowed. She growled.
That bitch…
The ice wall crumbled into a frozen heap, leaving the path to Weiss clear. She was standing in the dead center of the clearing, exposed on all angles yet impossible to reach from her current position. Belle realized she could probably charge at her a hundred times and never get close. Part of her just wanted to keep Weiss on the defensive just to force her to calm down, but she couldn't risk something like that. Her best option was still to strip Weiss of her weapon before, well…the inevitable.
And to do that, she'd have to find a way to get closer without being seen.
"Just go back to the house, Weiss!" Belle said, feigning frustration. She wiped clean the thin trickle of blood running down her temple. "You don't want any part of this!"
Weiss sneered, raising Myrtenaster out in front of her, running her fingers along its blade. The chambers of the sword rotated in synchronization. "Shut up…"
She drove her sword firmly into the ground, and a thin wave of ice shot out across the field, coating the thin layer of snow. Belle quickly reloaded the chamber of her weapon and fired a round of Dust-laced shots into the impeding ice floor. The last thing she needed was reduced mobility now. The ice proceeded past her in a wave, but the path directly in front of her exploded into a wall of steam, ripping through the battlefield like scar tissue. Belle kept light on her feet, bracing for an incoming attack. If Weiss was thinking rationally, she would have fired a string of light arrows through the steam. Those would have been significantly harder to dodge. But she was emotional, and vulnerable, which meant that instead of keeping her distance, at the first indication that Belle couldn't see her, she would inevitably—
"Shut up!"
Weiss charged straight through the steam, shooting forward like a missile, and Belle found her opening. Weiss charged straight through Belle, sword out in front of her, and Belle blinked through it in a puff of smoke. She reappeared behind Weiss, and before Weiss could turn around, she struck. She threw out her grappling hook around Weiss's leg and pulled hard, tripping the ex-heiress to her knees. Weiss immediately tried to counterattack with a shockwave of ice behind her, but it was all too easy for Belle to avoid. With Weiss being one-handed, the crystals of ice traveled exclusively past her right flank, leaving Belle an easy opening on her left to run up and get in close. Before Weiss could get to her feet, Belle was on top of her, kicking her in the back of the leg, collapsing her weapon into itself, pushing aside Weiss's head, and finally scoring the first real blow of the entire fight—by jamming her sword directly through Weiss's shoulder.
Weiss's eyes went wide, and the air was driven sharply out of her lungs as her mouth opened into a silent scream. Her hand unwillingly opened, and she dropped Myrtenaster by her side. Her body trembled as Belle wrapped her free arm around Weiss's throat and pulled her in tightly, growling in her ear.
"Stop fighting," Belle told her, almost pained.
Weiss's adrenaline was running on overtime. She could see the sword sticking out of her shoulder, soaked in red, but she didn't even feel it. All she could feel was hatred toward the woman doing this to her. The woman who tried to kill her friend. The woman who was about to kill her—take away everything she had ever worked towards, erase her existence like snuffing out a flame—if she didn't do something right now.
Within its sling, Weiss's left hand clenched into a fist.
"You can't win this," Belle told her, squeezing her arm around Weiss's neck. "I don't want to hurt you."
"That's a first!" Weiss screamed back. She suddenly snapped her head back, driving it into Belle's nose. The Faunus stumbled backward, dazed, pulling her blade out of Weiss's flesh, releasing her and causing her to briefly fall forward before catching herself. With Belle briefly stunned, Weiss turned and pushed herself back to her feet—and with all of her strength, she ripped her left arm out of its cast, and hit an uppercut as hard as she could straight to Belle's jaw, feeling it buckle and crack under her knuckles. Belle tumbled to her feet, but Weiss did not immediately follow up. Instead, she grabbed Myrtenaster in her new hand, and gripped it tight, making sure to never let it go again.
It didn't matter that both her shoulders were damaged. It didn't matter that her right arm was no dangling by her side, or that her left was on fire inside her muscles. She would keep fighting even if she had no arms, no legs, if she was missing half her skull or cut in half. She was not losing to Belle.
Never. Fucking. Again.
She drove her sword toward Belle, and the Faunus was only narrowly able to dodge. Weiss wasn't discouraged, swinging her weapon even faster, one slice after another that Belle could only barely deflect. Belle could instantly tell something was different about her opponent. Whether it was the shock of seeing her own blood, or her anger boiling over, she was moving even faster, hitting even harder. The furious clanging of metal from their sword connecting echoed in the otherwise empty silence of the clearing, and the only other sounds were their grunts and cries of panic and rage.
Belle managed to disappear through one of Weiss's swings, but the ex-heiress predicted her movement and managed to counter with a firm punch to the chest, undoubtedly fracturing one of her ribs. Each blow from her fist hit harder than a sledgehammer, and Belle was brutally reminded of the girl's cybernetic enhancements. She was fighting with her entire body now, using her fists, attacking from behind with the grace of a savage. Belle poured Aura into her wounds to numb the pain, and though it kept her upright and agile, she felt herself growing weaker. Still, even recoiling in pain, Belle almost felt a sick sense of pride in Weiss's technique. She had taught her well.
Belle staggered back as Weiss pushed forward, striking so relentlessly that Belle barely had time to breathe. Their strategies had flipped. All Weiss could think about was plunging her sword deep inside Belle's heart. All of those people whose lives she ruined, children she left without parents, families without friends. She had made herself judge, jury, and executioner. Those families couldn't retaliate, but she could. Faceless, nameless, she could be their avenger. She would make Belle pay for every insult she ever put upon them.
"B-Both of you! Stop this!"
That cry: Ruby. She hadn't moved from her spot on the floor, but she found the strength to speak once again. Stop? Weiss couldn't understand. Why would she ever want them to stop after everything Belle had done to them…
Weiss hadn't realized it, but Ruby's voice caused her to hesitate, and in that one moment of reprieve, Belle found her opening. She vanished in an afterimage, and when Weiss realized she was gone, she scoured the environment looking for her. Eventually, she found Belle several yards away, across from Ruby, dashing into the trees and kicking up snow as she went.
"Weiss, please! Please, stop!"
The cry sounded so desperate. So afraid. Weiss closed her eyes and shook it off. She was doing everything for Ruby. What didn't that idiot understand? Why couldn't Ruby see how much she was willing to sacrifice for her and…and why?
Weiss hissed and summoned a vector glyph beneath her feet. She launched herself across the clearing as fast as she could, wind whipping all around her as she closed in on her target, and she took another swing at Belle's head as she passed. Belle felt her coming with no time to spare and rolled into the snow, leaving Weiss's sword to scrape the nearby tree as she sailed overhead, sending bark flying in every direction. Belle, on all fours, thought quickly and scooped up a handful of snow. When Weiss touched down and spun to face her, Belle threw the snow in her face, blinding her just long enough to slip behind the tree.
"Ugh! Get back here!" Weiss screamed, brushing the snow out of her face and lunging after Belle. Yet, when she turned the corner, Belle had vanished.
A gunshot rang out, and a bullet struck the tree. Weiss raised a glyph to shield herself as more bullets came from deeper into the forest. She scanned for Belle amongst the dead wood, finding her further within the forest than she thought possible. She heard Ruby again call out to her, but she ignored it before her words could even register. More determined than ever, Weiss transformed the glyph with a pull of her trigger, and with new power, she launched a fireball into Belle's direction. Belle ducked behind the tree cover, and the flame ignited the dead wood all at once, leaving a burning, orange pyre behind, alone in the snow. Weiss charged forward again, sailing through the lightly dense trees, but once again, when it came time to attack, Belle was nowhere to be found.
In the glow of the fire, Weiss turned around, frantically searching for her target.
But she saw no one.
Heard nothing but the crackle of the flame and her own heavy breathing.
Felt nothing but the blood pouring out of her new wound.
She was alone amongst the trees.
"Where the hell are you?" Weiss shouted, keeping up her guard as she checked her surroundings. "You're still running, you fucking coward?"
There was no sign of Belle anywhere.
"I know this technique," Weiss said spitefully. "You're going to strike me when I least expect it, right? Attack from the shadows because you know I can beat you head-on."
Weiss didn't need a response. It had been Belle's game from the start. Stick to cover. Attack when the other's guard is down. Ruby used a similar attack to disarm Yang when they had their duel, and Belle was the one who inspired her then. It only suited her that even now, when everything was on the line, she would resort to such a cheap tactic.
Weiss stayed calm and tried to hone her senses. They were on snow. Loud, crunch snow. If anyone moved, she would be able to hear it. She just had to lure Belle out into the open.
"I saw your secrets, Blake," Weiss said firmly. "The Reveler showed them to me. That was the Trial he gave me. Do you remember? He told me what was inside your head. The one thing you were most afraid of anyone finding out. I haven't been able to stop thinking about it all this week. It wasn't that you were a Faunus, or a killer, or a bitch. No, your secret—the thing you would never even admit to yourself—is that you knew I was better than you."
Another gunshot rang out through the air, and Weiss suddenly felt a shooting pain in her thigh. The bullet barely grazed her leg, but the wound still stung like all hell. She gasped and collapsed to the ground, seething in pain yet still full of righteous fury.
"You know I would win this fight! Just like you knew we would stop you if we were there when you attacked Beacon!" Weiss shouted into the emptiness.
"Shut up!"
Weiss tried to stand, but Belle rushed behind her and slashed across her back before vanishing once again behind the trees. Another shallow cut. Belle was hesitating. Still a damn coward.
"Ruby trusted you! I trusted you! And you betrayed us again!" Weiss cried. "If you're going to kill me, kill me with some fucking honor!"
Weiss suddenly swiped at the air, but she misjudged the attack. In the opening, Belle was able to strike again, cutting at Weiss's arm where the wound in her shoulder was already deep. Weiss tried to defend herself, but the bitch wouldn't stay still. She vanished yet again, ducking behind trees, hiding amongst their forms. Even with so much open space, so much white to contrast with her darkness, Weiss still couldn't get a lock on her position.
Gods, her arm…her leg…she was starting to feel woozy. The blood loss wasn't severe, but the adrenaline was flowing so much she could hardly control herself. She could sense Belle's unease. Whatever hesitation she had, it was fading. She was striking harder now that she was in her element. Weiss needed to finish it. She needed to predict her next attack perfectly. Think. Think like Belle. If she were the Faunus, and she was hiding in the shadows, where would she think to attack herself?
The answer came to her so quickly it was almost embarrassing she hadn't realized it earlier. She would attack where Weiss was most defenseless. If Weiss could just cover her blind spots…
Without questioning it further, she plunged Myrtenaster into the snow, and summoned a thin wall of ice around her legs, trapping herself in place. With the ice protecting her lower half, Belle would have no choice but to aim for her torso. And if Belle was going to attack her, where else would she try to stab her but in the back? Weiss just had to stay and wait. Keep still. Keep facing one direction until…
Now.
Weiss snapped around as fast as she could, catching Belle in mid-air. She blocked Gambol Shroud with the hilt of her weapon and forced Belle away from her. Belle remained upright, skidding through the snow, and in an act of fiery desperation, she threw her grappling hook directly toward Weiss's head.
A poor decision in hindsight.
Seeing the hook coming her way, Weiss flicked her wrist, and the ice guard around her feet rose high and caught the hook in midair, trapping it in place. Belle tried to pull it out, but it was wedged so deeply in the ice that it wouldn't budge no matter how hard she tried. With her main weapon trapped, she found herself momentarily defenseless, and that was when Weiss found her opening. She freed herself from her icy shield and glided around to the other side of the ice wall where Gambol Shroud was embedded. Belle, realizing she was trapped, raised her sheath to defend herself, only to realize far too late that Weiss had a different strategy in mind. All it took was a point—a simple, indiscriminate point—to create a vector glyph beneath Belle's feet and send her flying away against a distant tree. For a brief moment, the cord of her weapon remained taught and held in the air before it descended into the snow, only for Weiss to snatch it firmly and hold it in her palm. Her gaze lingered on it, the same weapon that had been used to take too many lives.
With no remorse in her heart, Weiss raised her sword to the band, and sliced it clean in two, rendering it useless.
As Belle staggered to her feet, she realized she was disarmed, and she raced to think of any options for a counterattack. Weiss didn't give her a chance; once Gambol Shroud was discarded, bound in ice and useless, Weiss charged one final time through the snow, confident that her attack would finally land. Belle rolled to her feet armed with only her sheath, and though she tried to defend herself the best she could, it was only a matter of time. Weiss's first strike was a diving lunge that knocked Belle off-balance. The second was a forearm that knocked the sheath away from her torso.
The third was a slash that cut straight across her belly.
Belle had tried to dodge back, and thus, the wound was narrow and unclean. But it did what it had to do. Belle dropped her sheath instantly, reach for her stomach, and crying out in pain. With her guard down, Weiss attacked again, slashing her thigh to stop her from running ever again. Belle was close to her physical limit. It would only take one more hit, and Weiss thought only for a moment of where to aim it. For some reason, her mind once again traveled back to her encounter with the Reveler and the pain it had inflicted on her—pain that was Belle's fault for inflicting on her. If this was the end of their relationship, she would make it a fitting one. With one final act of defiance, Weiss slashed her sword high and landed her strike: cutting a violent, red mark down Belle's right cheek.
The impact knocked Belle to the ground, and she spun out and collapsed face-first into the snow. Her ears were ringing. Everywhere…everywhere hurt. Holy fuck, it hurt. She was bleeding from seemingly every part of her body. Her vision started to blur. And, in the fleeting moments of her mind, every doubt and indignity that she had ever encountered came back to haunt her.
Why the hell did she even come here?
She was alone. Dying. Afraid? No, she didn't think so. She had never been afraid to die…just embarrassed. She wanted to fix things. She was supposed to make things better. She could practically hear Adam's voice in her head, mocking her, berating her.
"Really? You're going to let an Atlasian beat you?"
Weiss wasn't supposed to be that good. She didn't even have an Aura. Belle was seriously going to lose to her? How fucking pathetic. She heard Weiss's footsteps in the snow. Somehow, even they sounded pretentious.
"Not only that, but a Schnee. You're getting your ass beat by a Schnee. Give me a break."
Belle tried crawling away, but she knew she wouldn't get very far. Weiss was faster than her. She had no weapon. There was no more running. The snow was freezing against her bloody cheek. She wanted to go back inside…
"Get your ass up. Are you really quitting now?"
Weiss was finished catching her breath. She brushed her hair out of her face. Belle stopped crawling and just lay down amongst the cold, the light snowfall pooling on her back.
"Stop being so fucking pathetic and kill that bitch already."
Belle dug her fingers into the snow. She had to fight. She had to find some goddamned strength left. She was Belle Kataliana. She wasn't meant to die here.
Her fading breaths froze in front of her face. God, she was so fucking tired.
Then, she swore she heard another voice calling out from some dark part of herself. The voice sounded just like a girl she used to know when she was young.
"You've already sacrificed me for this."
Belle's eyes shot open.
"It's too late to stop it now."
Her claws shot out of her fingers.
"So, what do you have left to lose?"
Weiss raised her sword for a final strike, bracing herself for what she would have to do—and Belle screamed and jumped to her feet unexpectedly, turning around without warning and jamming her claws hard into Weiss's side. The ex-heiress screamed in horror as Belle's fingers dug into her abdomen, and she tried to batter Belle with her sword only for Belle to bat her arm away with a vicious scratch.
"Fucking die already!" Belle screamed. With one hand buried into Weiss's side, she swatted at her with her claws, scratching her chest and toppling Weiss over. "Die, die, die, fucking die!"
Weiss, panicked, summoned a glyph beneath them, and with Belle on top of her, she rocketed them outward, sailing past the trees and returning again to the wide-open clearing, where the snow had begun to accumulate over the remnants of their battle. They tumbled together and rolled as they tore their way across the field, breaking through the thin ice that Weiss had previously created, bashing along the hardened snow until they came to a stop. Belle rolled to her feet, clawing at the ground before bursting forward in a mad, low sprint. Weiss recovered slower, grasping at her side, helpless to deflect Belle away from her. It was like all of the pain from seconds earlier had been blocked out of her psyche, replaced by a sheer, animalistic drive. For just an instant, Weiss made eye contact with Ruby, still kneeling in the snow, still too stunned and hopeless to will herself to do anything but scream at them to stop.
Belle lunged at Weiss, and though Weiss swatted at her, Belle was able to duck beneath the attack and slide around behind Weiss's back. She jumped onto her shoulders, clinging to her from behind, and on pure instinct, Belle bit into Weiss's collarbone as hard as she could. Weiss cried out, desperately trying to swat Belle off of her, staggering and dancing in the snow as the Faunus bit and clawed at her with all of her power.
Weiss panicked. She was…she was losing.
She couldn't be losing.
Her legs buckled from underneath her, causing her to fall to her knees. She reached Myrtenaster upward, but Belle just clawed at it, tearing at Weiss's fingers with her claws to try and pry the sword loose. Weiss screamed under the pressure. Belle was no longer thinking of any strategy. She clawed and pried and pounded away with vicious, uncontrolled fists and forearms at the back of Weiss's neck, clobbering her in a mad scramble for power. It was all she had left. All she could fight with. Weiss was on the defensive. She tried to crawl, but Belle stayed on top of her. She wouldn't let her crawl. She wouldn't let her go anywhere. She was finishing this. Here. Now. Permanently.
With a final act of cruelty, Belle clamored over Weiss's shoulders, straddling her back like one would ride a wild bull, and furiously, she grabbed Weiss's wrist and bit down on it as hard as she possibly could. She felt Weiss's blood pool past her teeth, and the ex-heiress was forced to drop her weapon into the snow once more. Belle refused to make the same mistake again. She grabbed Myrtenaster immediately and chucked it off somewhere else into the clearing. She was done bragging. Done talking. Done trying to be kind. She was done with all of it. Weiss cowered beneath her, covering the back of her head with her hands in a pathetic guard, and Belle looked at her with pure disdain.
"Blake! Weiss! Why won't you please stop?"
Was that Ruby? Who gave a shit anymore?
"Die, already!" Belle shouted. She slammed down her fists into Weiss's back, one after the other. "Just die! Just shut up and fucking die, you motherfucker!"
She rained down her fists, striking Weiss's head wherever she could. The ex-heiress's curled up beneath her in pain. Belle couldn't even tell how many of her hits were truly landing. The blood was streaming down her face like tears. She couldn't stop even if she wanted to. She was so mad. Mad at everything. She couldn't think anymore. Couldn't feel. She just had to keep hitting. It was the only thing that made sense.
Hit her.
Hit Weiss.
Hit.
Hit.
Hit.
Hit.
Attack.
Don't stop.
Don't ever stop.
Ruby was bawling. She didn't care. She didn't fucking care anymore. She couldn't. She couldn't let herself anymore. She just had to end it and go back to Adam and let everything make sense again.
She had to.
She had to.
Hit.
Hit.
Hit.
Then…there was a boom, like a crack of thunder. The air shifted and settled. The storm seemed to stop. Belle's fist paused in mid-air, and slowly, hesitantly, she realized that something was there next to them. She cautiously turned her head to the left—and came face to face with a giant toad, standing dead-eyed in the middle of the clearing.
Weiss shifted underneath her, and Belle was just able to catch her gaze as she looked up and scowled at her attacker, her eyes glowing a deadly shade of blue.
"Enough."
The ground rumbled, and suddenly from beneath the snow, a cluster of a dozen golden chains burst forth, wrapping themselves around Belle like constrictors and carrying her up, up, up into the sky like a great tower. Belle shouted in panic as she was hoisted high in the air, unable to control her ascent. They carried her twenty feet before suddenly retracting, leaving her to float for a moment of antigravity before she began to fall back to the earth. Her freefall didn't last long—the royal toad, obeying its master's orders, launched out its powerful tongue at her, sticking to her in midair. It dragged its tongue down, and like a hammer, it swung Belle hard toward the snowy ground. Belle braced for impact, directing the last of her Aura toward her back to cushion her fall. Yet, even that wasn't enough. With a horrible, ugly crash, Belle was driven into the floor, blasting up the snow in her wake. Immediately, the chains and the toad flickered and vanished, their power unable to sustain itself.
They didn't need to.
Belle groaned, weakened, wounded, unable to stand—but Weiss wasn't done with her. Not even close. The ex-heiress pushed herself off the ground staggered over to Belle's resting place only a few feet away from her. She fell to her knees and crawled the rest of the way, panting as she stumbled over Belle's exhausted form. Weiss climbed over her, looking down on the bloody Faunus with enough hatred to burn down civilizations.
And Weiss, with an expressionless face, wrapped her hands around Belle's neck.
And she started to squeeze.
Belle gasped. She grabbed at Weiss's hands, but they wouldn't budge. They were too strong, or she was too weak. The difference didn't matter.
"Weiss!"
There was that call again. They both heard it this time.
"Weiss, I'm begging you! Stop it! You're killing her!"
Belle gasped again for air. She thrashed about beneath Weiss's body but could not free herself. Weiss just stared at her, her gaze cold.
"Weiss! Weiss!"
Ruby's tears were apparent in her screams. Weiss just ignored them. She had to ignore them.
Belle couldn't pry Weiss's fingers loose. She pushed up at Weiss's face, trying to force her off. Air. She needed…she needed air…
Weiss's muscles tensed. She could feel it.
The life slipping from the woman beneath her.
Ruby's voice faded out. Belle could only hear her own heartbeat. She pushed and prodded Weiss's face, but she didn't budge. She felt herself growing weaker by the second. Her face turned bright red.
Someone…someone would help her. Anyone…
Ruby: she wasn't moving. She knew she had to stop it and yet, she wasn't. She was doing nothing. She was just watching one friend kill another, like some vengeful spectator. She felt so worthless, more worthless than she had ever felt before.
She couldn't stop Weiss. Her body wouldn't let her. Maybe, perhaps, some part of her mind didn't want to.
Belle's eyes flickered, roaming desperately around her as the world started to get hazy. Her heartbeat grew faster. Her throat felt like it was collapse. Her arms fell limp by her sides, outstretched and…
And…
There was something touching her fingers.
Weiss was staring directly at her face, and she only noticed what was happening when Belle's eyes drifted from hers for longer than a moment. She was so lost in her actions that she could barely process it. When she finally did, she didn't even move. It just seemed unreal.
Myrtenaster—Belle had thrown it away not a minute earlier, discarding it like some worthless toy. Yet, by pure happenstance, it had landed right next to her, only a foot or two away. Belle's fingers wrapped around the hilt of the sword, and Belle and Weiss, and even Ruby, so far away and emotionally broken down, all realized what was happening at once. It seemed to almost happen in slow motion. Belle's eyes traced from the hilt to the sword up to Weiss's head, hovering above her. Her stupid, obnoxious, defenseless head.
And all it would take was one simple swing to cut right through it.
Belle studied Weiss's eyes knowing that it would be the last time she ever saw them. She couldn't help but think of a lot of things. All of their stupid arguments about religion and politics. The little barbs they would trade with each other over lunch. Weiss screaming at her from within the Reveler's world. Their therapy sessions where Belle poured out the fears that even she could no longer parse from her falsehoods anymore. She even thought of the stupid things, like her dumb laugh and the weird way she walked, the way she would clamor for Ruby's attention from an unrequited crush. Her pompous demeanor and the pretty good desserts she knew how to bake. All of those weird quirks and behaviors, memories and distractions, fears and interests and regrets of that one girl from Atlas with white hair who she never wanted to know and tried to get rid of at every interval, only to end up here, now, in this clearing, with that same girl's hands deservedly around her throat, that girl she repeatedly told off for being stupid, that girl she wanted to strangle herself more times than she could count, that girl who, every time she thought of her, she could only think about how much she hated her.
And she thought about how she was about to end that life with one simple swing of a sword.
And then…
Well…
She didn't.
She didn't swing at all.
Not because she couldn't. Weiss was staring straight into her eyes the entire time, unblinking and focused. Weiss could see that she still had some fight within her. Belle had the energy to lift Myrtenaster, at least enough to plunge it into her neck and save her life.
But…but she didn't.
Belle just kind of…stared at her.
Her fingers gradually uncurled from around the grip of the weapon, and her arm relaxed, and she stopped struggling beneath her. Belle just looked up at Weiss with this expression that Weiss couldn't really figure out. It was sad and pathetic, but there was none of her anger there, none of the savageries that she displayed before. She was just kind of there. Hopeless. Tired. Her remaining fingers reached toward Weiss's hands around her throat, but she didn't try to remove them. She simply let her fingers rest on top of Weiss's, accepting the last living touch she would ever receive. Even when filled with such hatred, it stood out to Belle just how warm those fingers were as they imprinted around her throat. Belle let herself relax into the snow, and it wasn't a smile that washed over her face, but Weiss swore that she saw something within her change. Something that satisfied her. Something that she could finally accept.
Weiss stared into those golden eyes, unable to do anything else. They seemed so…calm.
Her hands remained tight around Belle's neck.
Belle's heartbeat slowed.
Her eyes fluttered.
And it all made sense.
Then, Weiss released her grasp on Belle's throat and collapsed to the side, and the two of them collectively gasped for breath. Weiss fell onto her hands, kneeling down in the snow, unable to control her shaking. Belle coughed violently, rolling onto her side, gasping and begging for air. She sputtered and shook in the freezing snow, alternating between gasping and wheezing and coughing as her body forced her to come back to life. Weiss was unable to look at her, instead watching her own blood drip into small piles in the snow beneath her.
Belle rolled onto her belly, her eyes bloodshot, looking at Weiss in desperation.
"Why…"
Her voice was hoarse and weak, and she could barely hold together a sentence.
"Why did you stop?"
Belle tried to rise to her feet but just fell back into the snow. She crawled on her belly over to Weiss as the ex-heiress rose to her knees, sitting in the snow and staring blankly out in front of her. Belle gasped, desperately falling onto Weiss's thigh.
"What the hell is wrong with you?" Belle cried. Weiss's lips trembled, and slowly, sorrowfully, she shook her head.
"I…" she stuttered, teary-eyed. "I can't do it."
Belle gasped, incensed, clawing at Weiss's dress.
"Yes, you can. Yes, you can!" she wailed furiously, trying to climb to Weiss's level but failing and falling back into the snow. "You know I deserve it, right? So…so what the fuck…why can't you…why not…"
Belle clutched her throat, desperate for air as she lay in a heap by Weiss's side. Weiss couldn't even bear to look at her, bloody and battered all because of her. She clenched her fists, trying to find any part of herself to explain it. In the end, the most she could come up with was:
"Because…because I think I finally get it."
"Get what?" Belle asked pathetically from the snow.
Weiss bowed her head, speaking barely louder than a whisper. "For every day of my life, for as long as I can remember…my father told me how worthless I was. He would sit on his chair, or his bed, or at the table, and he would tell me how I was born wrong. I was born weak. Timid. Powerless. And every day, everyone around me would repeat that. 'You don't have a Semblance, Weiss. You don't deserve anything you've been given. We hate you.' And you know, when someone tells you something for so long, you eventually start to believe it, right? I spent so much of my life thinking that I was just…broken. That there was just some innate part of me that was damaged beyond repair. And the truth is: I always liked that. That idea of myself they forced upon me. That worthlessness. And I've been trying to shrug it off, I've…I've been trying to get rid of that part of me ever since the God's Arm, but I couldn't. I didn't understand why I couldn't move past it. But listening to you, hearing about your past? I think I finally understand it."
Belle grimaced. "What the hell are…you talking about?"
Weiss smiled sadly. "They…they took everything from you, didn't they? Atlas. My people. They broke you down. They hurt you. This whole world hurt you. My whole life, I heard stories about people like you. I thought so little of you. I thought, 'What would ever make a person do something like that?' I thought you were just this evil, wicked thing. But when I was listening to you, I had this realization. It hit me so hard that I tried to ignore it, but I can't anymore. I was an awful person before I came to Beacon. I was vicious and so mean—Ruby probably knows better than anyone."
Weiss glanced at Ruby, a passing understanding crossing between them. She continued on, trying to hold herself together.
"It took me a long time to realize why I was like that, too. I thought being a bad person was forever a part of me. But it wasn't. I became hateful because I was surrounded by hatred. Raised in it. My family, my religion, my Kingdom—they forced me into becoming that. That doesn't make me blameless. That doesn't mean I didn't accept it. But it was all I knew. I became their pawn because I knew no other way out. And when I listened to your story—to everything that happened to you, and your father and your friends—I had this revelation: that if I was in your shoes? If had experienced everything you did? To tell the truth…I think I would have done the same. You had your own version of that misery. You've suffered so much because of them, and I…I am so sorry, Blake. I'm sorry for everything that happened to you."
Belle was taken aback, rocked with disbelief. Weiss quietly reached into the jacket by her neck, her fingers tenderly grazing her scratched flesh, and she pulled out the two pendants that she had worn for as long as she could remember. The book and the sword. The Banker and The Knight. Her Gods and her burden. She looked down at those pendants in her freezing, shaking fingers, trying to focus on them.
"I gave my life for them," Weiss stated. "And worse: I wanted to give my life to them. I thought I would have no purpose if I didn't. I would stay awake all night and pray and ask what the point of still living was. And it wasn't until I came here and I met Ruby—and I met you—that I finally realized how foolish I was for thinking that. I was willing to sell my Soul to the people who turned me into something I hated. But…"
She gripped the pendants tightly, and with a sharp tug, she ripped the necklaces straight off.
"I refuse to be the thing that they made me into any longer. I refuse to keep that I have to fight you instead of the monsters who made me into this. I refuse to believe that things have to be this way any longer... and I refuse to let you believe that, too."
She discarded the pendants into the snow, casting them away as Ruby looked on from afar in shock. Weiss took Belle's hands into hers, and carefully picked her up, supporting her weight. Belle just kept staring at her, confused, shaking, not able to understand anything.
"I…I don't forgive you for what you've done," Weiss admitted. "I don't know if you ever deserve forgiveness. But you can still fix this. It's not too late to undo the harm you've caused. You can still change. I'm done with us hurting each other anymore. We can be so much more than their victims. Because I know you, Blake. I know you better than anyone. I know you can do this. I…I hate you so much sometimes. I think you're an asshole. You're abusive. Cruel, and pathetic, and you've made so, so, so many bad decisions. But deep down? You're not a bad person. You don't deserve to die. You're not my enemy."
Belle was left startled and speechless as Weiss, against all logic and reason and everything else, pulled her in for a warm, tender hug.
"And you're not a monster."
Weiss hugged Belle as close as she could, tucking her head into the crook of her neck. Belle didn't fight, or react, or say anything—she just kneeled there, arms by her sides, unable to comprehend anything that was happening to her. Weiss was holding her. Why was she…
What was she even saying?
Not a…
She couldn't understand. Why her? Why Weiss of all people? She could understand it from Ruby and Yang, or even Ilia. She could live with that. But after everything—they just tried to kill each other. Their wounds were still fresh. After all that, she couldn't But if Weiss was saying those things…
No…wait…
She looked up at the sky. The snow had stopped. She hadn't even noticed.
Weiss kept holding Belle close for a long while, knowing that was all she could do. Part of her expected Belle to fight her off. She still had claws, after all. It wouldn't be above her to stab her in the back one last time. But if that was how things were going to go, then all she could do was accept it. She meant every single word she said, even if it was the death of her. Belle didn't move in her arms, though. She was so stiff she didn't even seem to be alive. The only reason Weiss knew she was still with her was Belle's steady breathing in her arms.
But soon, that breathing grew more hectic.
And Belle's entire body began to shake horribly.
And eventually, Belle Kataliana started to cry.
She had maybe cried once during the time that Weiss had known her, but if she had, it was nothing like this. Belle's entire body became racked with sobs, and she could barely control herself, and long, heavy tears began to come out of her as she wailed horribly in Weiss's arms. All of the years of buried pain and guilt and trauma, the violence she inflicted on others, every single awful thing she had ever done—it hit her all at once, and she had no choice but to let them all out in a desperate, anguished cry. Belle leaned forward, collapsing into Weiss's embrace, and she screamed pitifully into the crook of Weiss's neck, stained wet from her blood and tears. Her arms were shaking violently as they wrapped around Weiss's thin shoulders, and she tried her best to hold onto her teammate, grasping at her coat like a baby trying to cling to its mother. She was breaking down completely in Weiss's arms, and though she tried to talk, all that was able to come through her sobs was a weak, broken murmur.
"I'm…I'm sorry. Oh, God, I'm so sorry."
Weiss nodded, stroking Belle's back understandingly. "I know," she whispered. "It's okay. It's going to be okay now."
The snowfall truly was over, and the battlefield returned to silence. Ruby, stuck afar, finally found the energy to move once again, but she remained exactly where she was, unwilling to spoil the moment. It was, quite frankly, something she never thought she would see in her entire life: the ex-heiress to the Schnee Dust Company and the deadly assassin of the White Fang holding and supporting one another. She was at a total loss for words. She never understood people all that well. She believed she understood them even less after this. But as she was watching Belle sob tearfully into Weiss's arms after everything they had put each other through, she realized that she had misjudged the situation. She was wrong.
Weiss, through all her faults, had done the impossible.
She had brought Blake Belladonna back home.