New Divide

Death doesn't discriminate

Between the sinners and the saints, it takes and it takes and it takes

History obliterates, in every picture it paints

-'The World was Wide Enough' from Hamilton

Qrow sighed deeply as he exited the fourth house he had been to trying to find the Pine family. He grouchily ran a hand through his hair. While yes apparently the fourth time had been a charm, the woman was Oscar's aunt and she told him that the young man had left a few days previously; claiming that he had gotten an invite to Haven Academy. Qrow had thanked the woman and left before his welcome was overstayed. As he continued down the trail he stopped for a moment debating his next move.

"Damn." He muttered before pulling his flask out and taking a swig of the liquid inside of it. He goes over to a tree and sits underneath it, running a hand through his hair once more, a clear sign of agitation.

Actually 'debating' wasn't really the proper term. It was more or less avoiding the next move. He knew that he needed to head to the City of Mistral- thereby finding Oz. After finding Oz, he then needed to track the kids, and hopefully find Ruby. Unless maybe they somehow already ran into one another. Frustrated, he took another gulp, "What a fucking mess." He said out loud and rested his head against the tree trunk.

He pulled out his scroll and tried to look through his contacts with a frown. Most of them were out of reach thanks to the fall of the CCT. His finger hovered over Tai's name, wishing he could talk to his friend. He knew that somehow he would have to get word to him about Yang's wellbeing and tell him that he hadn't run into Ruby yet. A frown marred his face as he thought of his nieces, a sense of failure hitting him.

Continuing scrolling, he comes across Winter's name, shame-and if he were honest-hurt filling him once more. He knew it was a long shot that the specialist would believe a word he had said. Hell even he would have had a hard time believing himself; but still he didn't think she would outright denounce him. Sighing, he would have to face her sister, the letters in his pocket carrying more weight than he cared to admit. In fact he pulled out his letter from Ironwood and re-read it to himself:

My friend,

Things in Atlas and Mantle have been in turmoil. As you are aware, I have closed our borders due to those that were at fault for the Fall of Beacon and issued an embargo. It is no secret of what the people think of me. A tyrant is what they call me. If only they know the meaning of true tyranny.

I cannot nor will not say much other than I have a plan. One that will surely reunite all of Remnant, and I hope you and yours make it to me as the young maiden of Purity, Unfolding Wisdom, and Balance has the key that I have provided her.

Here is to wishing you well old friend,

Jimmy

Shaking his head, he folds it up and places back into its envelope. Never thought he would miss the 'Tin Man', yet here he was wishing that he had someone else with him so that he did not feel so…empty. Speaking of empty, he scoffs with disgust as he tries to take another sip of his drink just to find the flask empty, "Gods damn it." He mutters seeing as this is a sign that he needs to keep moving. Getting up, he looks towards the sky. If anyone would have come onto the trail Qrow had been on and looked upward, the tree line just off that trail would have a black crow flapping up out of the canopy and towards the direction of Mistral.

-Snoopykid-

There was a brief interlude as a blow by blow of events was explained to JNPR. Weiss's icy gaze never leaving Ruby as the reaper sat stoic while Blake and Yang took charge. No one dared asked any questions, all sensing that Ruby's mood was darkening by the minute, once the bumblebee duo was done, it was Weiss that had cut in with, "What do you mean exactly?"

"Come again?" Ruby asked, her expression unreadable. She had momentarily been lost to her own dark thoughts during the retelling. Each scene depicted in her mind as if she had just witnessed the events. True old wounds had been sliced open, but this was as if pouring mound upon mounds of salt and rubbing the mineral in with sandpaper.

This should have been a sign to back off slightly, allowing the reaper to regain some semblance of control over the now quickly darkening mood. The story though seemed to be reaching its end slightly as the question of how Ruby seemed to run astray and develop her own sense of justice. However Weiss, with her emotional betrayal, failed to read the signs, "Crossing blades with my partner. That is what you had said. What does that mean Ruby?" She knew what Ruby had meant, but denial was strong and she hoped it held a different meaning.

Well you know what they say about hope, "It's just as it sounds Weiss; there is no other meaning." It breeds eternal misery.

"What happened?" Yang asked slowly and voice steady, a contraindication to how she was feeling on the inside.

"Two days after Blake and Qrow left, I was determined to leave the base and find Salem and Cinder. We had gotten into a disagreement. You had wanted to come along." Ruby explained looking at Weiss.

Weiss had not broken eye contact, instead used her gaze to make Ruby continue, "I wasn't having it. I refused to listen. I was ordering you to stay put. You grilled into me. Giving me the same hope speech that you gave me just after I had my nightmare in the woods…remember?"

"Of course. I told you that you were not alone in this. Any of this." Weiss stated her tone harsher than she actually meant it to be.

"I didn't believe you. Rather I didn't want to believe you. Because of me, we lost Oscar and Ozpin." At this she looked to the young man in question. His eyes were wide and she faintly saw a glimmer flash before fading, "I had also lost us the relic of Knowledge. So I figured that I would leave to make sure that Salem wouldn't get her hands on the other two."

Weiss shook her head, and Jaune quietly asked, "How could you have thought this was a good idea to go off on your own…especially since you had said that we," he motioned to Ren, Nora, and himself, "were…MIA?" Briefly glancing at Pyrrha, he saw her wince and yet now an uneasy feeling forms in his gut. She alone had to carry the burden of her own mortality-or actually all their mortality if Ruby really had told her their fates-now he had to come to terms with the same, along with the two other members of his team who also looked like they were also struggling.

"I didn't really care. Or rephrasing," Ruby stated quickly sensing the uproar at that statement, "I didn't have anything planned on happening to me. All I cared in that moment was that Weiss was safe."

"I am your partner!" Weiss yelled, "I am supposed to watch your back! We are supposed to watch each other's back!"

"Well I am your leader first and foremost." Then Ruby chuckled darkly as she shook her head, "This is the same argument that we had gotten into." Sensing another outrage at her careless attitude, she continues, "Anyway we exchanged more words, each having more venom behind them than the last. It came to head when I…" Ruby looked away this time and let out a shaky breath, "When I essentially told you to stop acting like Yang."

Any angry retort that would have spilled from the heiress's lips died and no one moved for a brief moment, "What do you mean that Weiss was acting like Yang?" Pyrrha asked as a shadow seemed to fall across the blonde and the rest of team RWBY.

Ruby did not speak for a moment, trying to gather her thoughts, "Weiss was trying to treat me as the same person I was at Beacon. Young, innocent…happy. I wasn't or rather I am not. I saw it as she was trying to be like Yang, looking out for me. Trying to get me to be the bouncy cookie loving idiot I was. Anyway, long story short, she wasn't about to let me leave willingly. It was either I stay at the compound, or I let her come with me. Those were my two choices."

"You made a third option." Blake commented looking between the red and white pair.

"I didn't want to." Ruby whispered as she looked at their two weapons, leaning against each other side by side, "It was an awkward position. I didn't want to." She repeated desperately, she could still see Weiss's wary gaze in her memory, a total contrast to her present partner's look of betrayal.

"I'm sure it brought me no great pleasure either." Weiss eventually commented as she too looked at their weapons in the corner.

The two teams sat in silence, not knowing what they would have done in Ruby's position. Clearly Ruby was still torn up over this moment, "You were determined on not letting me leave. Even though I knew the answer, I still had to ask you if we really had to do this…"

"It was your choice." Weiss said, knowing that if she had to it was a choice she would have made time and time again to prevent Ruby from going on a suicide mission.

"I knew it was wrong. Leaving was not going to be the answer. But…" Ruby got up from her chair and ran both hands through her hair, "I was tired of seeing the people I loved getting hurt and killed. I felt responsible for everything that had happened to us since Beacon, which to me up until that point was seven fucking years of hell!" She had gotten louder at the end, the pain emitting though the tone. Quietly, she added the last part, "I apologized and asked for your forgiveness. I didn't give you a chance to respond before I lunged as our two weapons that fought side by side as partners…friends…met together as brief enemies."

Weiss had gotten up and turned away from her partner and friend. She heard Nora let out a choked sob and Yang mutter out a swear or three. She could see from the corner of her eye that Blake's ears were folded down tightly, and Jaune had gone over next to Pyrrha, "What happened afterwards?" Weiss dared ask, "What of my fate?"

Ruby went deathly quiet. A heavy suffocating air surrounded them as they saw bright silver eyes darken into molten dark steel and flecks of red in her irises, "You found me like two months later in the outskirts of Mantle. I had tried to track the last known coordinates of Blake and Qrow, along with Jaune's team. You were righteously furious at me; however there was also another reason why you came to find me…the resistance that we had started forming failed. The base was destroyed by elder Grimm. You were the only one to your knowledge that managed to escape…"

Pyrrha went over to Weiss and helped guide the heiress back to her seat, "Winter…you said Winter was involved…"

"She was. She and I had worked together while you all trained the new recruits in the war." Ruby said.

Before she could clarify more, Weiss interrupted again, "What about my…family? What of them?"

At this Ruby closed her eyes and looked away, sighing deeply as she ran a hand through her hair, "We are getting off track Weiss. You asked me about you."

"TELL ME DAMN IT!" Weiss yelled angrily, "You mentioned Winter. What happened to the rest of my family?"

Ruby risked looking at her partner and then glanced to everyone else. Leaning forward she rubbed her face with both hands, "Ms. Rose…Ruby?" She looks to Oscar, "Ozpin says that it is best to answer the question now than later…if that helps." He adds hesitantly.

Ruby nods and leans back now, "Fine. In what I estimate is, four to five months from now, we will be in Atlas. Things there are not good. Right now actually it is a shit show and naturally things as bad as they are, they get worse." Taking a deep breath, Ruby continues, "In my time line, Salem attacks Atlas and Mantle. You father, brother, and mother do not make it out alive. Ironwood sacrifices himself and orders Winter to leave. We barely make it out by the skin of our teeth too."

"So it's another Beacon." Ren says slowly as he watches his teammates faces go sickening pale.

"Yea more or less." Ruby confirms, which based on how expressionless she is, only drives the point to them that she had seen things and done things that has made her almost numb to the realities of what this war had brought. Looking back at Weiss she continues onward, "As I said, so far as you knew of, Winter did not make it. When you found me, you wanted to bring me back to the base, just to see if you were wrong. I…reluctantly agreed…only after we checked out the last lead I had gotten. You agreed. So we had an uncomfortable truce. Just as we were nearing the area, we were ambushed by Hazel and Tyrian."

Yang shakes her head, "I will admit that perhaps I was…wrong…to stop you that night."

Ruby snorted, "Hearing that coming from you…is wrong…but I will accept your apology. Anyway I was facing off with Hazel while Weiss was taking care of Tyrian. Our auras were really low. We had just fought off a horde of Grimm not even four hours prior to their encounter. Hazel had infused himself with dust and had nearly shattered Crescent Rose."

"Hold on. Infused himself with dust?" Ren questioned, repeating Ruby's last statement.

Ruby looks to Oscar and motions to the group. Oscar just stares at her, seeming to be slightly distracted before shaking his head and saying hesitantly, "Ozpin wishes for me to explain that Hazel Rainart and him have a…personal history." Hesitating a bit more, he adds quickly, "His sister, Gretchen Rainart, died during a training mission after she joined Beacon Academy. He places the blame with Ozpin."

"Do you not know how to make friends after all this time?" Nora asks sarcastically.

"His words not mine," Oscar starts with, "when you lived as long as I have, you make more enemies than friends."

"Ok the lessons on how to make friends can wait, what else do you know about this man?" Blake asks slowly looking between Ruby and Oscar.

The two exchange looks and it is Ruby that sighs, taking back control of the conversation, "His semblance is more of a Numbing Agent. He is completely insensitive to pain. It allows him to stab Dust into his body without feeling the negative effects of the Dust or the afflictions themselves."

Oscar interjects seeing the confused looks, "To be specific, he merely does not feel the pain. However just because he cannot feel pain, he is not invulnerable. If enough damage is caused to his body, he will be unable to continue fighting regardless of whether he feels it or not."

"But despite this weakness, he does have abnormally fast rate that his aura is replenished at." Ruby finishes with.

"So he what? Becomes incredibly strong? Powerful?" Yang demands.

"Extremely. Uhm…you know how Nora gets super charged with lightening dust?" Ruby asks.

"Oh yea…" Nora says rubbing her hands together a glint in her eye that no one liked.

"Well you did strike him very well. He was sent flying out of Hazen, but that wasn't enough. He infused himself with more dust and went back to fighting as if nothing had happened." Ruby said.

No one like the sound of that. Ruby gave them a moment to stew over the information before continuing with her story, "He had me pinned down. Weiss saw this, she used what remainder of aura she had and blocked his hit with Arma Gigas." Weiss's eyes widened as Ruby mentioned her opponent that she had face off before being allowed to attend Beacon, "I was relieved at first. It gave me enough time to try and recover my bearings; but I was not quick enough to realize that by summoning your solider to save me, you left yourself weakened and open." Ruby closed her eyes, "The knight shattered in an instant. Even Hazel was surprised to see your mighty summoning shattered without him having to do anything. I turned to see you falling forward, Tyrian's tail retracting back to him from the place where he had stabbed you in the back."

"He was laughing as I ran to your side. You…" Ruby stopped short, her breathing labored, "I held you and he kept laughing. For as bad as Hazel is, he just stood there. Not making a move. I do not know what he was thinking, but he just stood there as I held you. Tyrian…he was mocking me! Mocking you! Insulting you! I looked at him. His laugh, his voice, his mannerisms. I reacted without thought. I still had Crescent Rose at my side. I just…"

"You what?" Weiss whispered softly, not getting the scene out of her head that Ruby just described.

There was a pause, the room had gone cold. Ruby staring into a dark corner almost willing it to show them what she had done rather than tell it out loud. When the corner refused to bend to her will, she said without a hint of remorse, "I cleaved his head from his shoulders." Blake, Nora, Pyrrha, and Weiss covered their mouths. Yang squeezed her hands into fists, trying to fight back the urge to punch something. Jaune was in the same position as Yang. Oscar felt sick, and Ozpin's grief wasn't helping with the nausea. Ren just sat there comforting Nora, but he was also fighting his own torrent of emotions, knowing he had a long night of mediation ahead of him, "His body crumbled to the ground, but his face forever stuck in his own sick mirth. Hazel had not made a move towards me. I did not go towards him. He just looked at me with…sympathy? I do not fucking know. Nor at the time did I care. I merely picked up Tyrian's head and asked him for the sack they were going to use for my head. 'Why?' he had asked me, but he handed it to me. I simply placed his head inside it and threw it back at him saying 'A gift for her majesty' then I added, 'Her head will be next'. He nodded and for whatever reason let me live, only giving me a strange look before he turned and left." Ruby sighed, "Unless he knew that I was sort of already dead."

Weiss didn't know what to say to that. Ruby answered her question, "So Yang, myself, and Weiss…in that order." Blake listed softly as Ruby gave her a look.

"Is there a question?" Ruby asked as the others gave Blake a look wondering the same thing.

"How did you…I mean if you are here then you didn't really…?"

Ruby smiled bitterly, "Oh I did. Both metaphorically and physically." There was a chiming of a clock signaling midnight. Ruby sighed and suggested, "But why don't we get some rest. It has been rather emotional…"

"If we can rest after all this." Jaune said, but it was a tone of resign and strained, "However we do have other things to discuss."

"And it can wait. I promise I am not going anywhere." Ruby said, "And that I will continue this in the morning." She showed team JNPR and Oscar out the door, Pyrrha and Oscar giving her sympathetic looks.

Yang looked like she wanted to say something to her sister, but found that she couldn't. Instead the blonde shook her head and laid down in the bed she would be sharing with Blake. Blake too didn't know what to say and opted for silence as well. Ruby hesitated in say anything to the duo and instead focused on Weiss, "Are you…well I guess I can't really ask if you are alright since I can clearly see you are not."

"No Ruby, and really I don't want to talk to you right now." Weiss said still reeling from the revelation of her own demise as she went to the bathroom to change.

"Fair enough." Ruby said in acknowledgement turning out the main light and flicking on the little lamp.

The rest of the team took turns getting ready for bed, Ruby laid on her side of the bed playing with her scroll. She didn't look over to Weiss as she felt the heiress get in and turned off her light. No one said much of anything more. Just as Ruby was about to put her scroll down, she sees a notification come up: Qrow was within range of contact.