A/N: This story will contain spoilers from the volume 8 finale, and I can't really claim that it's canon divergent because at this time, we don't know what's going to happen. Each chapter will be a character's recollection of events.
Please enjoy, and constructive criticism and opinions are appreciated.
Green, glowing brighter, so close she doesn't have time to think. She jumps out of the way and soon, the green glow is in her eyes, bright and so full of death. She shoves it away, receiving blow after blow, her head hurting as she tries to compose herself. She's thrown backwards as her aura breaks. She knows she's losing this battle. Before she can calculate some attempt at fighting back, she's engulfed in white. She looks around, but the white void around her overwhelms everything. Suddenly, she's hanging over the edge of a golden bridge, reaching out to a falling Weiss, tears on her cheeks. "No!" she screams in horror.
She sits up suddenly, gasping for air, and looks around the moonlit room. Her hands hold her head, tresses of white hair around her fingers, as she takes deep breaths to calm her racing heart. It's over, it's over, you're awake, she tells herself, but she chokes on a sob, unable to hold back the tears that overflow. Her sobs are full of anguish, and she doesn't care that she's getting louder as she screams and thrashes in her bed. The door opens, and suddenly arms are around her, her face buried in a shoulder. A hand gently holds her head, an arm around her waist, and she cries. She cries for Weiss, for her sister's teammates, for not realizing sooner that she was on the wrong side of this fight.
What feels like an eternity passes, and she's so tired. Her body is heavy, all energy drained from crying and screaming, and she quiets with a sniffle. The hand holding her head had begun stroking her back, and she takes a deep breath before pulling back slightly. The stroking stops, and she finds herself face-to-face with Qrow. His eyes are empty as he stares back at her, and she reaches up to wipe her face, closing her eyes. After a moment, she opens them and meets his again. "Thank you," she murmurs, and it's so quiet that she doesn't think Qrow hears her. When he leaves, sleep never comes.
The next morning, she doesn't leave the bed. The door is open, and she can feel different eyes on her throughout the morning, but she lies motionless, staring at the wall. As the sun begins setting, someone enters the room and sits on the edge of the bed behind her. "You don't have to get out of bed or talk or anything, but please, eat." And her heart breaks further at the plea in her brother's voice, the tears threatening to spill once again. His hand is light on her shoulder, and he sighs. "She came back for me. You came back. Please—don't let me lose you too."
With that, he leaves the room, and she lies there, her eyes closed as she wills herself not to cry. Her stomach growls at the smell of whatever food he left for her, and she groans as she sits up, her body stiff. The food is tasteless, likely due to the overwhelming grief, but she eats because he's right; he can't lose her too.
She tries not to pay attention to the curious glances of the others in the house as they pass by the room, but when Whitley stops outside the door for a brief moment, she sees his sad smile before he steps out of view. She wonders when he had changed, remembering his disdain and blame toward Weiss and herself, and she supposes something had happened when Weiss had gone home just a few days ago.
She freezes midchew, nausea washing over her, and she swallows, taking deep breaths to avoid vomiting as the tears form in her eyes. Fortunately, she stops them before they fall, and she closes her eyes.
"Where—Where's Weiss?" he asks, and she avoids meeting his eyes. "She's not—She can't be," he says. Her eyes betray her and lock with his, and she tries not to fall apart as realization slams into him. "She said she wouldn't leave me again! She promised!" His hands ball into fists and he pushes them against his eyes, as though that would stop him from crying. Their mother stands nearby, unmoving as she absorbs what happened.
"Whitley, she fell. There's—" He growls angrily and stomps away from her, and she can't blame him because she knows how he feels. He'd been so angry at them for so long that this blow was too much. She looks at her mother, who returns her stare with fear and sadness.
Some days are better than others. Nora and Ren talk to her sometimes, often about anything other than Jaune and team RWBY. She knows they've been mourning as well, their false smiles transparent. Sometimes the duo will go out into the streets of Vacuo to search for information or just to get out of the house and inform her of whatever they learn. Most days, though, they don't know anything.
After the fall of Atlas and learning that it was now flooded, she hopes that Ironwood didn't survive. She doesn't know if she could handle his tyranny yet again, but she knows that the odds that Salem would come back are well-stacked against them.
Weeks pass, each night bringing the same nightmare, and she wakes up after each one, bringing Qrow to hold her until her sobbing subsides. He only stays until she stops crying and doesn't speak to her, and she knows that he's not only lost one person.
He lost all of them.
They had all been in his care, and they were gone. She knows they need to talk about it. After another night of crying in Qrow's arms, he stands to leave, and she grabs his hand. "Please stay and talk with me for a while," she pleads. She knows she can't go back to sleep, to the nightmares. "I know you're hurting too."
He stares at her and sighs before sitting on the edge of the bed. "Too many people are gone too soon," he says quietly. "We didn't do enough. I didn't do enough." His eyes drop to his hands. "If I had just done something, they would all—"
"There was nothing we could do. Ironwood was on a path, and he couldn't be stopped."
His eyes meet hers, and he shakes his head. "Clover." He reaches in his pocket and removes the bloodstained metal clover, smiling sadly. "If he had just listened to me, if I had made him listen to me, he might still be alive. But Tyrion, that bastard, he—He made sure I would be blamed. As if I didn't already hate myself for not doing enough." He closes his eyes. "And then when you told me that Yang and Ruby, even Blake and Weiss, that they had all—They were my responsibility. I made them my responsibility, and I told myself that I would keep them safe. I stopped drinking to make sure I could do just that."
"We can't keep blaming ourselves for this, Qrow. Yes, we think we could have done more, but ultimately, this is not our fault. This is Cinder's. All the others that worked with Salem, this is their fault. And we will stop them."
Qrow stares at her for a moment and finally nods. "We will. For ours."
"For ours." He leaves then, and she sighs heavily.
"I won't be gone. I'll be a part of you," Penny promises with a smile. "Whenever you need me or feel like you're alone, you can always come to me."
"They haven't been doing anything," Nora says one day as they sit at the small table in the tiny house they've been inhabiting. "It's been months, and nothing has happened at all."
"That we know of," Ren counters. "They've planned in secret before, waiting for opportunities. This could be the same. But we still need to be ready if they do anything."
She sighs and shakes her head. "Salem can't be dead. If she comes back, then we need to be ready." There's a knock on the door, and they turn their attention to Whitley passing them to open it, hesitating. When he does open it, he stands, unmoving, and Winter frowns. "Whitley? Who is it?"
He slowly turns his head to look at his older sister, his eyes full of…something. His gaze returns to whoever stands on the other side of the door, and he chokes on a sob. "Oh, Whitley," a familiar voice says, tugging him through the open door, and Winter and the duo freeze.
"No," she says. "No, it can't be." Winter stands and moves to the door, her feet heavy as lead, and she doesn't know if she's in shock or if she's cried too much because the tears don't come. "You—no."
Teary blue eyes meet hers over the shoulder of their younger brother, and her eyes sweep over her companions, exhaustion apparent in their eyes and in their stances. Before she can address them, their eyes move toward the door, and Ruby launches herself forward. Qrow's surprised laugh fills her ears, and she smiles. Whitley finally releases Weiss and steps aside for Winter to have a turn, which she takes without hesitation. She takes a shaky breath as she holds her sister tightly, relieved that she hadn't completely failed.
The relief of reunion dims as they gather in the small common room in the house, and she uses the opportunity to observe them while Nora and Ren inform them of everything that transpired after their fall. She notices the closeness in each pair of partners, how Weiss and Ruby's hands barely touch, Yang and Blake's hands linked between them, exchanged glances, genuine smiles, and Weiss's eyes meet hers for a brief moment before she returns her attention to the conversation.
"They think we're dead. We can use that to our advantage," Ruby says, and she can see the way Weiss slightly leans against her partner, their shoulders brushing.
"Speaking of thinking you're dead," Qrow begins. "What in the hell happened?"