Under cover of darkness she moved. A shadow amongst more.
Oblivious, the people walked. Unaware, they talked amongst themselves about the menial events of the day before heading home. Heads and hands shifted from one form of tired to another as those overnight workers poured their first cups of coffee before another long night. For a short time, this handoff turned eyes from the job to relief. A gap in the wall had formed and darkness crept in. All that existed in that gap did not exist at all unless it was seen.
And Blake was not seen.
Offices and controls sat empty in the tower. Security lights shined lazily across gray walls and clean floors. Cameras flashed their red eyes and stared into the dim rooms with a narrow gaze. In darkness and in light, gaps filled the spaces that people left behind.
Blake moved lithe and quiet through the gaps with all the grace of a thief. Years spent on sabotage and stealing guided her along unseen to her goal. Come morning there would be no sign of the woman in black that crept through the workplace of dozens.
Even in the quieted elevator shaft, Blake lifted her aching leg with her silently up past empty floors to her destination. A single locked door was all that stood between her and Cordovan's private office.
Blake shifted her weight onto the ledge below the door. She reached back and pulled the halved blade of Gambol Shroud from its sheath. Prying open elevator doors wasn't the best thing for a weapon as elegant as hers, but then neither was giving its wielder permanent nerve damage. Gambol Shroud lived an inconsistent life and it would continue to do so for at least one more night.
With a shove, the dull blade slid between the doors. Blake put her weight on her good leg and tugged the handle back. The silver doors parted only slightly, but enough for her hand to reach in and pull them open.
She squeezed through the narrow opening and into the dark room. No security lights or cameras waited for her in the office, just a single lamp in the far corner that cast an orange glow through the space.
Cordovan's office was predictably opulent. Gaudy and offensive to her, but likely unremarkable to Weiss. Hideous paisley rugs covered the floor, disguising the rock hard surface below that sent shocks to Blake's knees when she walked. By the lamp in the far corner was a collection of high backed and heavily cushioned chairs with ornate woodwork. Standing before the chairs was a single globe, opened at its equator to reveal the collection of expensive liquors inside.
An enormous wooden desk sat in the center of the room between two walls that were obscured by filing cabinets and huge paintings. Files and maps covered the desk surface, orderly and perfectly arranged. No effort was given to hiding any confidential information contained within, as the office was meant only for the highest of ranks and the most skilled of intruders.
Blake took her rightful place behind the desk. By her logic, the operation meant to rid Argus of her and Ruby was ongoing and therefore that information would be readily accessible. But to her disappointment, the vast collection of papers on the ongoing Atlas defense did well to hide the information she searched for.
She took to filing cabinets and unlocked desk drawers, but was no more informed than when she entered. Her movements were quiet at first, but grew louder with her frustration and her increasingly pained leg. Shutting yet another useless dawer, she punched at the metal surface of the filing cabinet. A pointless display of anger that did nothing but elicit a quiet groan from behind her.
Blake's eyes went wide and her hand shot to Gambol Shroud. She spun on her feet and held her weapon before her, but found herself facing another gun barrel.
"Oh, it's you."
The opposing gun dropped back into the chair of its wielder. A single tuft of thin, white hair extended out from behind the chair back. Only now did Blake realize that the chair facing away from her had a single, tiny occupant.
"Don't worry," Cordovan said with slurred words, "I'm not going to arrest you or anything."
A relief to Blake. Confusing, but a relief still.
"I can only assume you think that it's my doing," the woman went on. "Understandable. I'm sure you trust me about as much as I trust you. Which is to say: not at all."
Blake kept Gambol Shroud at the ready, but kept its barrel lowered. She walked into the light, peering down at the drunken woman in the chair.
Cordovan's hair was disheveled and her eyes half-lidded. She took another drink of a dark liquor, losing half the sip down her chin. Blake didn't need any detective work to determine that Cordovan was completely hammered drunk.
"Sit down, girl," Cordovan barked. "Have a drink. Or don't. I don't care."
Blake went only with the 'don't' option.
"I lie often," Cordovan said. "It's the job, you know? But I've not lied to you yet. I don't respect you enough for it. Or do I respect you too much? I don't recall… I have done nothing to your girl, Belladonna. Everything she's done is her own choice, even if you or I think it's stupid."
Cordovan laughed. With a single swig she downed the rest of her drink and dropped the glass to the floor.
"Do you know how stressful this is? Running a military that's halfway across Remnant? I say shoot and find out a day later if they missed. And this Colony Grimm business? Oh this is just the icing on the cake. Is this what I've become? A blubbering drunk sending a cripple and broken girl to fight a horrible evil…"
Blake frowned at Cordovan's choice of words.
"It is what it is, I suppose. Rest assured, Belladonna. I'm far too busy to bother with sending your favorite Schnee back to Atlas. Besides, last I heard there is no SDC to send her back to anymore."
"What?" Blake said finally.
"Yes, it's true. Jaques Schnee apparently met with a fiery end. Real shame. If it weren't for his killer confirming it, they might not have even been able to tell it was him-"
"I don't care about that," Blake said. "What did you mean about sending Weiss back to Atlas?"
"What do you mean, 'what do I mean'?" Cordovan barked. "Isn't that why you're here? Never mind, don't tell me. I don't care. A single ship and pilot left for Atlas yesterday. Nobody signed off on it. Given that Schnee is still a no show, I can only assume she's decided her talents are more needed in Atlas."
Blake didn't know what felt worse. Was it that Weiss left her and Ruby behind? Or was it that the fact didn't surprise her in the slightest?
It was nearly the earliest hours of morning as Blake made her way back to the motel. The full chill of night had settled in over Argus, creeping through the streets and freezing the humid air to darkened storefronts. The tracks in the streets were still and silent. Cables that powered streetcars during the day now bobbed in the breeze and hummed in the dark.
The more affluent areas of Argus were always like this. Busy through all hours of the day, but ghost towns after dark. Long ago the area had been turned into a sunlit playground for the rich to shop and live in. The night life had been moved into poorer residential areas soon after, lest the wealthy have any trouble getting their beauty sleep.
Blake leaned heavily on her crutch. The day's exhaustion was settling heavy on her shoulders and her leg painfully protested every step she took. On top of the physical toll of the last 24 hours, her mind raced and her head pounded as she tried to comprehend her situation.
It used to be much easier for her to solve a great number of problems by herself. Once upon time her problems involved only herself, but now with Ruby, Weiss, and potentially all of Argus being involved, the effort grew much more trying.
A path to save herself was clear, almost instinctively presenting itself to her. The idea flashed through her mind constantly, screaming at her to take the easy path out. But each time, Ruby would flood her thoughts and push any and all ideas that didn't help her away.
Headache it may have been, but Blake wondered what it said about her. It was so rare for her to be unable to think of herself without another being attached to the thought. For so long she'd forgotten how it felt to consider another a key part of her being, but it hadn't even been that long since she'd last experienced the feeling. No matter how intense the feeling was, it didn't keep Yang around and it wasn't going to keep Ruby safe.
Her teeth chattered as another cold wind washed over her. After seeing the response to her being caught, she started to regret choosing such a light but stealthy outfit.
Overhead, the streetcar wires continued to hum with electricity. It seemed a normal thing to Blake when she noticed them before, but now something felt odd about it.
The cables took a lot of energy to power the cars. Energy was on high demand in Argus, with most being used by the military base. Those annoying brownouts had been growing more and more frequent as the battle in Atlas went on.
And yet the hum that followed Blake along the cables was persistent. Never a fade or a falter was to be heard. Blake recalled a seemingly unimportant tidbit of information she'd overheard.
The cables were meant to be shut off at night to conserve power.
The realization was far too late. A single flash of light and a thunderous crack sent Blake crashing through a restaurant window. Her body shattered the glass, sending shards soaring through the air around her.
Silence had been replaced by ringing in her ears. Darkness replaced by a blindness that faded far too slowly. Her body slammed through chairs and dining tables, crushing glass underneath her. Blood poured from cuts on her face and ran in streams between the landscape of glass and wood below her.
Blake stared at the pooling blood, blinking helplessly as bright spots flashed and burned at her eyes. Even through hindered vision, she could see the unmistakable sludge begin to wash the debris away.
She scrambled to her feet, fumbling as she slipped on splinters and sludge. Cuts stung her palm, soaking the handle of Gambol Shroud blood.
A darkness swarmed before her, swallowing the restaurant as it crawled toward her. Leathers peeled off seats, rotting and disintegrating in seconds. The ceiling sagged and collapsed where the wood within rotted away. Pipes burst and sockets sparked as water and rot flooded the restaurant.
There was no way to fight something like this. Blake was in no condition to fight anything, let alone the shambling ooze that was swallowing the building whole.
She ran. Her feet slipped and she tripped over rotting holes in the floor, but she ran. Through the kitchen and back through storage corridors, Blake ran as fast as her leg allowed her to. The walls and ceilings fell around her as the building began to collapse under the weight of the Shadow.
Black water washed over her feet. Electricity jolted through her body and legs locked up. The shocks came in pulses, lighting the hall with a blue glow as it shot through the liquid.
Blake tried to move during the gaps between shocks, but it was becoming harder and harder for her to stand. Her mind was going blank as the pain in her thigh grew worse. With each shock that rocked her body, she felt for a moment like her leg was being torn clean off.
Clear thoughts were fewer and farther between. Blake collapsed on the floor, unable to stand back up. The rushing liquid pulled and tugged at her body. She sputtered and spit the sludge from her mouth as the level rose all the way to neck with no sign of slowing.
There is a moment, just as someone realizes that there is no denying their approaching end, that their mind loses panic and finds peace in the certainty. For the first and last time in Blake's life, there was no mystery or confusion or anger or sadness. Only an absolute certainty that she had no chance at avoiding. Her black heart let go of its fury for only a moment long enough to find whatever it could that was worth dying for.
Ruby Rose. Weiss Schnee. Yang Xiao Long.
No surprises there. She'd known for a while that they would likely be the last faces she would ever see. But there was a fourth face in that lineup. A new face to her. The face of someone who she thought so rarely about and even more rarely did she see a smile on that face.
It never really occurred to her that that woman could be so happy. A shame she never considered the possibility earlier.
She had no idea how long she'd been out. Or if she had been out at all.
One moment she was certain she was dead, the next she was cold and still. Sludge soaked her clothes and blood still poured from cuts. Her leg burned and head throbbed in pain.
All around her, the building groaned and continued to collapse, but with far less urgency than before. Where organic mass washed through the building before, inorganic clusters weighed down the compromised structure.
The rocks crumbled and dragged walls to the ground. Spears of ragged stone pierced the building through. Pebbles fell from the slowly faded rocks and splashed down into the remaining layer of sludge below.
Were it not for one stone in particular, Blake would have certainly been crushed. She stared up at what appeared to be a series of offices hanging above, tilted sideways sending papers and pens rolling across the uneven floor. Desks shifted and slowly slid toward Blake. She could hear the building groaning, threatening to give way at any moment.
Blake dragged herself out from under the rock. Jolts of searing hot pain shot through her leg when it would catch on bits of rock and metal. The dark liquid that nearly drowned her before slowly leaked out of doorways and holes in the building. It sloshed against walls and rock as Blake crawled through it.
The back door she'd planned to leave through before was on the other side of several pillars of rock and collapsed ceiling. Lucky her, the wall next to her had been ripped open in the destruction.
Outside, she could see more flashes of distant lightning followed shortly by the same thunder that deafened her before. She stilled her progress a moment to count the time between light and sound. Whatever had taken the Shadow's attention from her was thankfully leading it away from her.
Blake didn't want to wait around for when the distraction stopped working. Using Gambol Shroud as support, she slowly climbed to her feet. Her whole body ached and protested the movement. She fought back a wave of nausea as her head spun. Blood continued to trickle from a number of cuts and she was quickly realizing just how much she'd already lost.
Jagged metal and wires ripped at her clothes when she climbed through the hole in the wall. She stumbled and fell from the hole, landing hard on her leg. Dirty water continued to flow over her writhing body, the splashing joining the sound of her pained cries.
Through the pain, she heard a new noise join the chorus of destruction. A siren blared, its long rise and fall crying out alone at first, but soon being joined by more and more. All across the city, alarms were starting to wake the sleeping citizens of Argus. Any hope of Cordovan to keep the Shadow under wraps died and collapsed with each consecutive siren that screamed into the night.
Carefully, she again climbed to her feet, summoning what willpower she had left to ignore the pain that gripped her. Her wet clothes clung to her skin in the cold air. Shivering and aching, she began her slow trek back to the motel.
It is strange, watching in real time the effects of the Shadow. The sirens would start and stop again, ebbing and flowing with the memory of the Shadow's rampage. Each time a new siren would be the first to start the chain of wailing, before all would stop and the pattern would start anew.
By the time Blake finally reached the motel, the sirens had repeated their pattern seven times. From the sound of it, the Shadow was headed in her direction.
A dim orange glow crept up over the city walls, reminding Blake just how long it had taken to limp across the city. Despite her exhaustion and pain, she wasted no more time shoving through the doors of the motel. She needed to get Ruby out and away from the Shadow's path before it could collapse another building on top of her.
There was hope in her mind that Ruby would be well rested and ready to carry her from danger, but a pungent and familiar scent made quick work of any hope she had.
The scene inside the motel was all too recognizable. Rot and wilt coated the walls and the floors of the lobby. It was the same thing she saw in Ruby's room before and to a far greater extent in Wake of the Shadow.
Trails of rotten rose petals snaked about the motel, crawling along floors and up walls. Most every door in the building layed on the floors, their hinges shattered and scattered about.
Blake peeked into each room in the hall as she walked by. Dirt and mud soaked the beds, displacing the scent of a thousand cigarettes instead with the putrid smell of rot.
The few people that had been staying in the motel were nowhere to be seen. With the sirens having started and stopped so many times before, Blake could only hope they evacuated early.
Only the room she shared with Ruby remained. The door was still in one piece and closed. Mud ran along the crooked floorboards, leaking out from under the door.
Blake inched closer to the door, her cat ears at full attention. The sirens winded down again, leaving her with only the sound of creaking floorboards and a settling foundation. Even the distant crashing and thunder claps had stopped. The city waited in silence.
Ripples moved through the puddle under the door. Blake craned her neck closer to the door, but heard nothing moving inside. If anything, there was a total absence of sound inside the room.
Once more the sirens exploded with noise, sending Blake's ears flat against the top of her head. The noise had always been loud, but this time it was close. She had nearly run out of time.
Blake lurched forward and reached for the door handle. Her fingers only just brushed the chilled brass before he rose up and away from her.
Wood cracked and muddy water rushed underneath Blake as she dropped. In an instant the motel floor disintegrated around her.
Her back collided with the hard ground below. The air left her lungs in a single gasp, leaving her breathless as the rushing filth washed over her.
Bitter sludge filled her throat as she gasped for air. Her head would dip in and out of the liquid and her face would sting in the cold air. Pieces of the shattered floor scraped at her skin and tore her shirt. All she could see was black through dark waters and closed eyes. Every time she tried to open her eyes, she would dip below the surface again and the black mud would sting at her eyes.
It felt like she would be washed along further and further, never stopping until she fully succumbed to the muddy waters. Blake couldn't tell how long it was that she tumbled through the rotten tide before she stopped.
She had only barely managed to catch half a breath when the air was once again forced out of her chest. Her body cashed into a hard wall and her head bagned on stone.
A shock ran up her stinging leg. In her kicking and thrashing, she suddenly found a hard surface below her. She leaned against the wall she'd collided with and thrust her head out from under the surface.
The black water came up to her chest, weighing heavy on her ribs as she gasped for air. Waves stilled in the liquid around her. Bits of the remaining motel above occasionally dropped into the dark pool in the cellar, but otherwise the chaos had stopped as quickly as it began.
Blake felt blood join the mud that soaked her hair. She spun around in the muddy water, searching for exit in the rubble. If there were any doorways or stairs before, they had been erased in the destruction. Above her, only the section of the building that held her and Ruby's room still stood. The rest of the motel hung in limbo over the black waters, held up only by weakened supports and a tangle of wiring.
Thinking to just swing out from below, Blake reached behind her for Gambol Shroud. Her hand searched blindly for the weapon, finding only the shattered clasp that held in place.
"Shit."
As the water settled around her, it's inky blackness grew more intense. Soft morning light shone through the wreckage of the motel, but did not reflect back off the liquid. Ripples on the surface disappeared into the black. Only the quiet splashing against walls and debris could tell Blake that the water was still liquid.
Blake took a deep breath in and dove down for her weapon. The moment her head was under water, she was overwhelmed.
It was heavy. It was cold. It squeezed her lungs and crushed her bones. She would kick her leg and wade with her arms, but the water resisted. Her skin tickled and sometimes burned from friction in the liquid.
Run.
The voice spoke to her from everywhere. Vibrations of its speech echoed the liquid, pulling and pushing at Blake's submerged body.
RUN.
Blake's ear rang as it spoke again. It was loud, yet still a whisper. The force of it hit her like a punch in the stomach, forcing her breath out in one painful gasp.
In a single panicked breath, the inky black rushed into Blake's throat. Her chest burned like she'd swallowed fire. She kicked and paddled, but the weight of the black water kept dragging her further and further down. Like the entire body of water was a fist clenched around her, crushing her.
STAY.
All was dark for Blake as she tried to break the surface. Her whole body burned, but she still swam as hard as she could. Distance, position, time. All were meaningless then, but she could still feel herself start to move through the dark. The liquid tugged and scratched at her skin.
Stay?
Her hands finally touched something that wasn't water. Rough rock scraped her fingers. She pressed her palms flat to the surface and pushed. The obstacle was hard, cold, and heavy. Blake shoved it with the last of her strength, but it did not give in the slightest.
Convulsions rocked her body, her burning lungs begging for her to open her mouth and breathe. She fought herself to keep her mouth closed, but the urge was becoming harder to resist.
She felt blindly along the surface above her, searching for an opening. The hard rock went on and on, feeling almost endless to her. Her hand brushed against something soft. It tangled in her fingers like a snake, trailing down from above her. She followed it upwards until she touched cold metal.
Gambol Shroud. Her weapon lay flat against the very surface she was trying to push away.
Stay.
Dread washed over her. All her energy, spent and expended on trying to push through an object that would never move. She'd been swimming straight down the entire time.
It was then that she couldn't fight her lungs any longer. A single gasp for air was all it took to fill her lungs with the black sudge. She felt it run smooth down her throat for only a moment before the pain was too much to focus on anything at all. All was dark and quiet, except for the voice that spoke to her.
Don't go.
The black water was heavy on her back and weighed her down from the inside. Darkness was swallowing her, squeezing her flat to the hard floor as her consciousness left her. Blake gripped as tight to Gambol Shroud as she still could.
NO!
Pain shot through her leg when something grabbed hold of her. The liquid in her lungs was forced into a hasty exit as her body was hurled through the water like it was nothing. Morning light blinded her as soon as she broke the surface. Wood splintered around her when her body crashed into what remained of the basement ceiling.
Everything hurt. Her leg felt seconds away from falling off. She was dizzy from blood loss. Circulation in her arm slowly being cut off by Gambol Shroud's ribbon wound tight around it, the weapon itself hanging below her.
The ceiling groaned, the only warning she got before it broke away and she fell back into the water. She nearly fainted from the pain as her legs crashed against the floor beneath the shallow water.
Her aura was very weak, but not yet shattered. A faint amber glow appeared around her, the light of it being swallowed up by the black water around her. Its effects were small, but enough to keep her from passing out face down in the water. She knew she wouldn't be able to completely heal herself. The glow of her aura started to flicker and dim, threatening to shatter and leave her defenseless.
The water had stilled around her as she healed herself. Gentle ripples radiated out from her body, undisturbed until they reached the far wall. For a time, chaos seemed to give way to calm in the destroyed motel.
Blake felt her body rock gently. Invisible against the black, small waves started to crash against her torn, wet clothes. The waves were inconsistent, sometimes larger and sometimes hardly noticeable at all. She could feel the direction of the movement shift back and forth through the cellar.
She pulled Gambol Shroud out from under the surface, letting the black water fall out of it. It made a soft click as she dropped the clip from the pistol into her hand. After shaking what liquid she could from it, she moved to reload the weapon.
A black mass erupted from below the surface. Mud and water crushed against Blake and knocked back against the wall. She hadn't even fallen to the ground when the black mass grabbed hold of her. Its sludge grip wrapped around her waist, nearly crushing her.
Gambol Shroud's ribbon was still wrapped around her arms, but she'd dropped the clip in the chaos. As the creature flung Blake up and out of the basement, the weapon pulled hard against her arm. The ribbon loosened as Blake soared through the air, coming free just as she started to fall.
The cold air outside the motel stung Blake's soaked body as she flew. Instinct started to take over Blake, urging her muscles to swing and spin her body around in the air. Her waist twisted and her aching legs stretched out to break her fall, but it wasn't enough.
Bone cracked audibly when she crashed hard on the pavement. She couldn't even tell what she'd even broken among the growing collection of pained body parts. It occurred to her briefly that it may be safer to assume everything was broken at that point.
Her body rolled against the ground a few times before she stopped herself. She turned over onto her back and tried to catch her breath again when she saw a black shape rapidly approaching her. A split second later, Gambol Shroud stabbed into the pavement only inches from her head and the slimy ribbon draped over her face.
"Seriously?"
She swatted her ribbon from her face just in time to see yet another black shape rushing toward her. A pulsating mass of black sludge wormed up and out of the motel's wreckage, leaving a muddy trail behind it. It bubbled and split like a pitch black magma as it snaked over pavement toward Blake.
Her broken body protested movement, but still Blake climbed to her feet and pulled Gambol Shroud out of its stuck sheath. She fired the single round that was still chambered, but the mass only separated itself and let the bullet shattered against the pavement.
Blake watched it move, changing direction seemingly at random as it circled her in the street. Its black form never strayed from the long shadows of the buildings. Even with its unintelligible shape, Blake could tell it was sizing her up. Watching her, waiting for the moment to strike. The bubbling and writhing motions became more frantic the longer it waited, like it was growing impatient.
Not for even a second did Blake take her eyes off the thing. Without the adrenaline of being tossed around like a wet rag, pain and exhaustion started to make themselves clear to her again. Her movements became sluggish and the black mass began to outpace her as it circled her.
Her gaze was so focused on the lurking beast, that she forgot about the black sheath still lodged firmly into the ground behind her. At the very instant her leg collided with it and she stumbled, the black mass launched itself toward her.
For a moment as she fell, she lost sight of the pouncing shadow. She flicked her wrist and swung Gambol Shroud by its ribbon. It soared out in front of her in a large arc until it collided with something. The ribbon went taut in Blake's hand and she pulled it toward her.
Just before she hit the ground, Blake used the last of her aura to activate her semblance. A shadow Blake stayed behind as she rolled less gracefully than usual away. Her facsimile was quickly crushed by the falling weight of the beast. Muds and rocks slid under foot when Blake pounced back toward the handle of her weapon.
It all happened so fast. At some point, Blake had let instinct take the wheel and drive her toward her retaliation. Her thoughts were always a step behind her actions, realizing only after she'd done something that she'd done it all. It wasn't until the blade was held in her hands and pointed downwards toward the shape under her that she could see just what she was about to do.
What must she have looked like in that moment, she wondered. Were her teeth bared? Eyes wide open and empty of thought? Ear flat against her head and brow wrinkled in scowl? Did her hands tremble or were they steadfast in their resolve?
What did Ruby think of her then; only a single move away from driving a blade straight through her heart?
Silver eyes blinked once before tears flowed free. Tears turned to mud and Ruby slinked away in a mass of rotten rose petals.
Blake sank into the mud, letting Gambol Shroud clatter against ground next to her. She stared still at the brown petals below, still dumbstruck. Her hands were shaking by her sides as her mind caught up to the events that just happened.
It was all so familiar. Violence and rage. A blade at the hand of a familiar face and drawn upon a loved one. She'd seen the events unfold several times before, but never from behind her own eyes. Never did she think she was capable of becoming that person.
A pained yelp in the distance pulled her from thoughts. She looked up slowly and let her eyes fall on a mud covered and bloodied Ruby Rose crawling through mud of her own making. The girl lifted herself up once, only to slip and fall back to the ground. Her fall was met with scattering of pink light as her aura shattered.
Blake's mind was wild with thoughts, all screaming and pleading and begging and berating her.
She wanted to go to Ruby. But what if she hurt her? She wanted to apologize. But why should she be forgiven?
Confusion muddled resolve. All Blake could do was sit stunned and watch Ruby from afar. Her own thoughts blaring so loud in her head that she didn't hear the sirens blaring around her and thunder cracking ahead.
There was so little of the motel left before, but in seconds it disappeared completely. The ground opened up and fell away, swallowing the motel whole along with one Ruby Rose.
Sensation came back to Blake like a tsunami. The noise. The panic. The Shadow.
"RUBY!"
She leapt to her feet without thinking, sprinting full ahead toward the maelstrom of mud. Blake had no weapon and a dwindling aura. All she had in that moment was one certainty: she'd dipped into the Wake before, she could do it again for Ruby.
All at once the morning light vanished and the darkness swallowed her whole. Tidal forces within the Shadow's Wake tugged and pulled at her body, threatening to tear to shreds. All senses but for pain were gone.
She had felt the Shadow's grasp on her before, but this time was different. She wasn't flailing like caught prey, stuck in its web. She wasn't looking for an exit that would never be there, always moving and evading her.
Blake was swimming straight to the heart of the beast. The tide was shrinking inward and she was moving with it. She could feel its grasp on her weaken and fall away as it tried desperately to stop her. Her forward path to its center clearly panicked it. That panic only made her more certain she was right.
A warmth washed over her in the cold depths. Among the dark and the tides, she could feel Ruby sinking with her. She reached out blindly, hoping that Ruby would be doing the same. Her arms waved useless before her, finding nothing at all. The certainty that fueled her before began to fade along with the warmth she felt.
Without thinking, she opened her mouth to scream. Mud and dirt rushed into her throat again, bringing with it the iron taste of her own blood. She flailed and kicked further down into the depth. A new warmth quickly rushed over her whole body, followed by the electric feeling of her aura finally shattering.
A crushing pressure returned, squeezing her arm crushingly tight. She reached forward in an attempt to brush it off, but her hand was stopped by a second grasp. The grip softened, but didn't let go. The warmth she felt returned, stronger than before. Blake pulled herself towards the warmth and wrapped her arms around it.
The Shadow pulled both of them down into the depths, reunited but doomed.
Blake held her tight in her arms and she felt her hold her back. That small gesture was as close to forgiveness she might ever get.
She awoke coughing blood, dirt, and bile onto the ground. Her body was weak and her eyes burned in the sunlight. It wasn't clear to her what happened, but she was certain she was alive. That fact that everything was in pain made that abundantly obvious.
There were four painful 'pops' as the last of the muddy liquid left her ears. It was only then she heard a second set of coughs next to her. She turned and squinted at the noise, her eyes slowly starting to adjust enough for her to see.
Coughing and shivering in the cold was Ruby Rose, wearing only bruises, cuts, and mud. She was alive. Beaten, dirty, and weak. But alive.
"Ruby-" Blake coughed again when she spoke, but she fought through the burning in her throat. "Ruby, I'm here."
She crawled over to Ruby and reached out to her. The girl jumped when she felt Blake's touch, backing away from her. Ruby's eyes fluttered open, revealing silver circled with red. She stared so long, Blake thought she might turn and run away again.
Then Ruby launched herself forward and wrapped her arms around Blake. She pulled Ruby onto her lap and hugged her tight. Their shared warmth and the rising sun put a slow stop to their shivering. For a while they sat there in each other's arms not daring to say a word.
Finally, Blake broke the silence.
"Don't leave me," she said. "I don't want you to leave me."
"I won't," Ruby said, her voice hoarse. "I won't."
"I don't want to leave you again. Don't ever go away."
"I won't."
Ruby pulled back and stared up at Blake. Tears washed mud from her cheeks, but she was smiling. She reached up to Blake's cheek and wiped away tears she didn't even realize she was crying.
"I'm sorry-"
Blake cut Ruby's words short. Her lips crashed against Ruby's before she could second guess herself. A brief panic arose in her that this was wrong for her to do, but it was quickly abated when she felt Ruby kiss back.
It was muddy and slimy, but neither cared. No matter how much they both tasted like dirt and bile, they kissed each other all the same.
Blake broke the kiss with a cough. Her lungs still burned from all that she'd swallowed in the Wake. Ruby held her convulsing body until the coughing subsided, leaving them both in silence once more.
"Blake," Ruby said. "I think I love you."
She couldn't speak anymore, but Blake hoped the stupid smile on her face enough to tell Ruby what she wanted to so badly.
I love you too.
Blake pressed her forehead to Ruby's. The middle of a destroyed street wasn't the most ideal place for a nap, but Blake was finding it harder and harder to care. She felt herself just starting to drift off when Ruby moved suddenly.
She opened her eyes again to see Ruby staring down the street with her eyes wide. Blake followed her gaze to the subject of her apparent shock. It was then she was convinced she'd fallen asleep and was having a nightmare.
Weiss Schnee stood with Myrtenaster pointed forward and her clothes stained with mud.
"You two have some explaining to do."