Chapter 9

Draconic Aftermath

A few days after Yang's death, I'd managed to recover enough that I was able to function properly. Blake had recovered the day prior, but she hadn't yet fully gotten over Yang. I hadn't either, but I was taking it better. Which sounds incredibly cold-hearted to say, but hear me out- out of my whole team, she was the one I had the least connection with. I could live with her gone... even if it DID still take a major emotional toll on me.

Ruby was a different story.

"She hasn't moved since Yang died," I explained to the rest of the students at lunch. "Gods, I've seen depressed, but..."

"First Nora leaves, then we lose Sun, now Yang?" Jaune thought aloud. "Man, this thing just hates fun."

Cardin socked him in the shoulder. "Wake up, blondie," he said. "Your first friend's sister just died, and that's how you react?"

There had, obviously, been a few more murders since I had been forced to kill my blonde teammate. However, they were minor in comparison. While most of the deaths up to this point and after it hadn't stood out- with Velvet and Oobleck being the most notable of those- Yang's was one that left a giant void. She had known at least half the student body personally, and was responsible for most class parties we held after a big test.

Things wouldn't be the same without her.

"We can't let anyone else die," Pyrrha said, standing up. "The Nosferatu are a threat we have to stop, even if it costs us our lives."

JNPR's ace spoke in a well-meaning fashion, but even so, I saw Blake wincing. The faunus' life was in just as much danger as the rest of us, even if she was actually undead.

"I second," Emerald added. "So many people dying... It all feels so unnatural."

As the rest of the student body began to agree, I felt a hand grabbing my wrist. I looked up to see Fox glaring at me with pale, blinded eyes.

"Weiss... We need to tak about Blake."

He dragged me into the hallway, a disturbed frown on his face.

"Slow down!" I growled. "Unhand me this instant! What is it about Blake?"

"She's one of them," Fox bluntly said. My face contorted in shock- not to hear the news, I'd known since Nora's break-out, but to hear that someone else knew.

"Excuse me?" I asked.

"You heard me," he said. "It's been over a month, the student body has dwindled, and she's long past turned. Need evidence? Did she ever order her meat rare before?"

"That's a coincidence," I told him.

"Well, okay, but she's cleaned the blood out of various crime scenes- and ONLY the blood. That enough?"

"Suspicious, but not proof."

"And why are you so defensive right now, anyway...?" He paused, and closed his eyes. "You knew, didn't you?"

I crossed my arms. "One. You have no proof. And two. If I were, in fact, in league with a Nosferatu, what reasons would I have for concealing it?"

"A lot, actually," he said. "She's been your friend for what? Four and a half months now? And besides, I heard you were really hesitant to kill Yang-"

"D- Don't talk about that," I quickly stammered.

"You're averted to losing your friends," he realized. "So was I. But all this death, all this trauma? I dunno, I guess I just kinda... got numb to it." He shook his head. "Agh, that's not the point! Look, Weiss, sooner or later you're going to have to take a side. And if you keep standing by Blake... You're not going to like how it ends."

The Faunus stormed off, leaving me to ponder all that he said. I looked back to the cafeteria doors, sighing.

Blake was on a thin line between mystery and discovery. And if I didn't act soon, she'd end up like the rest of them, like Yang.

I had to do something. But what?

That night brought me a terrible nightmare. I wish it weren't so vivid still.

I was in the part of school that had basically turned into a cemetery. I walked past the graves, but instead of various people that already had died, they were the names of people I knew well. Jaune, Pyrrha, Blake... I eventually saw Ruby at the one that I clearly remember was (and, in the real world, still is) Yang's.

She stood up, and raced towards me, her eyes full of tears. She cried out for me, and I reached to embrace her. But what I saw next was horrifying. My hand shot straight towards her chest, turning pale and clawed as it did.

My hand impaled her heart in an instant, leading her to tearfully choke a single response: "You're just like all the others."

As she keeled over, dying, I began to hear voices, the voices of my many friends, asking what they'd done to deserve this. But I distinctly remember one over the rest- Blake, and she was now awash in tears.

I remember clawing a hole in Ruby's chest, with her still hauntingly breathing. I scooped out blood and poured it down my throat. But what haunted me most was my own response.

"Aren't you happy, Blake? I'm just like you now."

I awoke with a start. Looking to my left, I saw Blake, still slumbering on a now half-empty bed. I held my hands in front of my face. Not too pale, not clawed. Completely normal hands.

"Bad dream?" I heard Ruby ask. This was the first time she had spoken since Yang's funeral.

"Like you wouldn't believe," I said. My eyes rose back to Blake. She turned over in bed, and I swear I saw the gleam of a fang in the moonlight. "It's just... The past month or so has given us so much pain and stress. I think it's getting to us."

Ruby had been putting away Yang's belongings, her eyes looking dull and void. But as she was, she pulled out the Ember Celicas for a moment.

"We really should have buried her with these," she said, grimacing. "It would've been right."

She kept putting things away, but held onto the gauntlets. She stared at them for a moment.

"Maybe I don't have to take this," she said. "I could just stop worrying." She raised one of the two towards her head. "It'll only last a second, and then-"

"No!" I screamed, and before I knew it, I was on that side of the room and had slammed the gauntlet out of her hand. It clattered along the floor. My eyes met Ruby's and I knew exactly what she had just tried to do.

"Weiss-" she began, but I cut her off.

"Ruby Rose," I said. "You are one of the best people I have ever known. I miss Yang as much as you, but are you really going to throw your life away because of her?"

Her tear-stained face winced for a moment. "Well-"

"And besides," I continued, "you have so much more to live for. So many people who care about you, like your uncle, or Jaune, or Blake... or me. Think about how we'd feel."

She raised her eyebrow. "Why are you trying to stop me?" she asked.

"Because it's what Yang would have wanted, and what me and Blake still want. I don't want anyone else on this team to die."

Ruby was silent for a solid minute. Then, I heard Blake's voice.

"You're way better at motivational speaking than anyone else I know. And I need you too, Ruby." Turning to face her, I realized she still hadn't reverted to her normal self. I knew Ruby was now seeing Blake as what she had become.

Thankfully, she didn't care.

She pulled the two of us into a giant hug, still crying.

"So," Ruby asked in the halls the next morning, "First of all, what do we do about Blake, and also, who else knows?"

"Just Adam," I replied, "but Fox has his suspicions. I was going to tell Yang, but..."

"I see." She opened the dining hall doors, and I followed. We grabbed our food, and sat down. While we did, she scanned the room.

"Well, Weiss, do you want the good news or bad news?"

I let my head fall into my lap. "Dead day," I groaned. "What else?"

A.N.: Hey, guys. So nobody died today. There are multiple reasons for that. This is more of a character-building chapter for what's left of RWBY. And it got freaking dark. Between Ruby contemplating suicide, Weiss' nightmare, Blake's vampiric dilemma, and Yang's death, this team almost has enough drama in it for there to be a web series.

Wait...

In the meantime, I've formally decided to add Weiss to the death roulette, under one condition: If I do land on her, she can't simply be "killed off," but only converted.

Adam Taurus - Living

Bartholomew Oobleck - Slain (C7)

Blake Belladonna - Converted (C4)

Cardin Winchester - Living

Cinder Fall - Living

Coco Adel - Living

Emerald Sustrai - Living

Emmi Wynn - Expelled (C7)

Fox Alistair - Living

Jaune Arc - Living

Liam Pryce - Converted, Slain (C1)

Lie Ren - Living

Mercury Black - Living

Neo Politan - Living

Neptune Vasalias - Living

Nora Valkyrie - Converted (C3), Escaped (C4)

Ozpin - Living

Penny Polendina - Living

Peter Port - Living

Pyrrha Nikos - Living

Qrow Branwen - Living

Ruby Rose - Living

Sun Wukong - Murdered (C5)

Velvet Scarlatina - Converted (C6), Slain (C7)

Weiss Schnee - Living

Yang Xiao Long - Converted, Slain (C8)

Yatsuhashi Daichi - Murdered (C2)

Side note: Orson and Yin were pulled from the list due to lack of relevance without Emmi around.

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