Another quiet afternoon in WBRN dorm. The more weeks passed without incident, the more it truly seemed that this was to be a peaceful year for the four girls. At the moment, Reaper was studying on the couch while Weiss worked at the desk. Blake was out and Neo was taking a bath after a particularly rough combat class with Goodwitch. Reaper, of course, enjoyed one of her drinks while she worked.
The dark woman leaned back and shook her hand off. It was tough on her injury, writing for long periods of time. She was closer to recovered than not, but she still wasn't quite combat ready. Reaper stood to return her glass to the hidden fridge. When she got close, something happened that she didn't quite expect. Weiss spoke to her.
"Hey, are you feeling alright?" Weiss asked, her voice filled with concern.
"Yeah, why?" Reaper replied coldly.
"You just… Been really quiet and reserved the past few days." Weiss answered. When you're not yelling at us. "And you seem pale."
"Have you ever seen me?" Reaper pointed out.
"I mean paler than usual. You're almost white as paper." Weiss countered.
"So what?" Reaper asked her.
"So, we've really been concerned about you lately. You're acting strange."
"And?"
"And…" Weiss seemed hesitant to broach the next subject. "And I want you to come with me to the med-wing. Just to be sure."
Reaper stared at Weiss, her eyes tinging red. "No."
"Reaper, please!" Weiss pleaded. "Just to put us at ease!"
"You know how much I hate hospitals, Weiss." Reaper told her. "Don't you think if there was something wrong with me I would let you know? Or fix it myself?"
"Please!" Weiss begged. "Everyone's worried. Neo's worried."
Reaper's argument stuck in her throat. "Fine. Lead the way, fearless leader."
It didn't take them long to reach the med-wing. Reaper figured if she just got this over with, everyone would stop bugging her. The girls made it to the door, and Weiss held back, letting Reaper in first. The dark woman noticed something off about the med-wing.
Perhaps it had something to do with the armed men in black suits.
"Weiss, what's going on?" Reaper turned to ask her leader.
"I'm sorry Reaper. But I've had enough." Weiss answered.
"Weiss…" Reaper warned.
"You keep breaking the law. You're still so angry. You're not getting better. Even Neo has made more progress than you have. You're not getting better, so I'm stopping you before you get worse." Weiss declared.
Reaper growled and lunged toward Weiss, but she was quickly held down by the officers sent to arrest her. "Fuck all of you! Especially you, Weiss! I can't believe a trusted yo-" Reaper was struck by one of the guards…
… and shot awake on the couch. She quickly caught her breath and reoriented with reality. Her notes were in front of her, by an empty glass. Weiss still studied at the desk, and the others were still out. The heiress seemed too involved in her own papers to notice Reaper's sleeping troubles.
Reaper rested her face in her hands. It's getting harder to tell nightmare and reality apart. I can still feel that man's gun against my head. Still hear Weiss turn me in…
The dark woman looked over once again to her white-themed team leader. It wasn't the first time in recent history she had these thoughts, and certainly not the first time she had these dreams. Would Weiss really do that to her? It felt so real… but the seemingly real betrayal wasn't what worried Reaper. No, it was her own all-too-real lack of surprise when it happened.
She shook the nightmare off and stood up to get some coffee. She could already tell she didn't want to sleep tonight.
Reaper had lost track of how much caffeine she had consumed by the time the team went to breakfast. If she wasn't careful, she would rival Oobleck for most obsessive coffee drinker on campus. It was a fact her team mates didn't fail to notice, and they were all starting to worry. But there wasn't much they could do. Even when they did corner the ex-criminal, she was extremely defensive and short with all of them.
The only person who could still talk to Reaper and wasn't a subject of her many nightmares was Nora. And Neo was slightly relieved, as it gave her hope of a return to normalcy when she saw Reaper willingly engaging with Nora between classes.
Nora was happily skipping through the halls when Reaper tapped her on the shoulder.
"Oh! Reaper! Hi!" Nora greeted enthusiastically.
"Hey Nora." Reaper nodded, obviously exhausted.
"Are you doing okay?" Nora asked, catching on surprisingly quickly.
"Why does everybody ask that?" Reaper asked.
"Is it whatever was bothering you the other day?" Nora asked, still hopeful to help her friend.
"Nora, I'm fine." Reaper insisted. "But speaking of the other day… I was actually wondering if you had spoken to Ren at all?"
Nora's mood feel faster than a guillotine. "No… I don't want to risk it…"
"Nora…" Reaper tried.
"I know it sounds stupid…" Nora shook her head. "But he already deals with me as things are… I don't want to put any more on him. And…" She hesitated. "I don't want to risk losing him, or even making things awkward, if he doesn't feel the same way."
"You deserve to be happy, Nora." Reaper told her.
"And I am! I'm happy being his bestest friend. And I'm fine with that!" Nora argued.
"Are you?" The dark woman questioned.
Nora nodded as the bell rang for classes. "Oh!" She cried. "We're late!"
"Goodwitch, right?" Reaper asked.
"Yup! Is your hand healed yet?" Nora was excited to finally fight Ember again.
"When it is, you'll be the first to know." Reaper told her. She still hadn't told anyone about Ember's strange silence.
Reaper's insomnia was getting worse. The dark woman hadn't even donned her pajamas, let alone crawled into bed and slept, for nearly three days. She spent all of her night out of the dorm, on walks around campus or deep in thought on the roofs. And those were thoughts she didn't share with anyone. Her lack of sleep only worsened her progressively bad mood, and her eyes were almost perpetually red. It was quickly becoming clear that her anger was becoming a real problem, more so than it had ever been in the past.
On this night, Neo chose to follow Reaper out to the rooftop, intent on finally having a real conversation. She turned the corner to see her dark lover standing by the edge. She shivered, cursing herself for not changing out of her pajamas before leaving the dorm. She walked up quietly, not wanting to scare off Reaper. When she was close, she walked loud enough to announce her presence before tapping Reaper on the shoulder.
The dark woman looked up to the ice cream girl, speaking with a cold edge. "What do you want."
Just to talk. Neo gestured. She had 'spoken' so much with sign language lately, she was worried that Reaper would miss her intent 'speaking' like she used to.
Thankfully, Reaper still had it. "Well? Talk." Reaper continued just as cold as before.
'What is going on with you lately?' Neo asked.
"Why is everybody asking that? I am fine, I keep telling you all I'm fine!" Reaper shouted.
Neo shook her head. 'You're obviously not. I haven't seen you so angry, even before I was causal in keeping you calm, and I know I am.'
"Have you met me? Anger is kind of my thing?" Reaper rounded on her. "You can only keep something in check for so long before it boils over."
'Is that what you think is happening?' Neo signed. 'Because I know you better than that. Will you please, finally, tell me what's going on with you?'
Reaper looked into her small lover's eyes for a long moment before sighing deeply. She sat down, her feet dangling off the building's edge. "I… I'm having doubts." She finally admitted.
Neo sat down next to her and signed, 'Doubts about what?'
"Everything." Reaper answered vaguely, not wanting to get into specifics with the object of one of her many doubts. "I don't know why I'm so angry, but I am. And I can't even ask Ember…"
Neo looked up at her, confusion obvious in her eyes. Reaper cursed herself for the slip of the tongue. 'How long have you been unable to talk to Ember?'
"Before term." Was all Reaper said. Neo frowned. "Look," Reaper continued, "I have a lot going on in my head, and it's not easy… can we just… pretend everything is fine? Just for maybe an hour or two?"
Neo nodded reluctantly. She shimmied close to Reaper so the dark woman could drape her arm over the multi-colored girl's shoulders. For a while they simply sat like that. It wasn't long before Neo felt a change. She looked up at Reaper's sleeping face and smiled.
Then Reaper started to fidget her sleep. Her expression changed, and she started to sweat even in the cold. Neo recognized it immediately. Almost every time she slept since she got out of the hospital, Reaper had been having nightmares. It seemed this time was no different. She didn't know what her lover had nightmares about, but it seems to line up with her sudden mood changes…
In her head, Reaper was being betrayed yet again. This time again by the woman sitting next to her. Leaving her to die on that very rooftop and walking away with Roman. And like with Weiss the other night, it felt far more real than ever before. When the dream finally ended, she shot awake, bumping her small lover off balance…
And Neo felt herself falling. Time seemed to move in slow motion as the girl descended toward the distant ground, and her aura wasn't going to save her from a fall like that. As quickly as it started, the fall suddenly stopped. Neo looked up into the terrified eyes of her lover, holding onto her wrist as if it were her own life on the line.
Reaper pulled Neo back up to the roof, shaking, but alive. "I am so sorry I was having a nightmare and I jolted and you fell and I can't believe I did this and I am so so so so sorry! Neo, wait, I'm sorry!"
Neo all but ran back inside. She was freaking out, and it wasn't just the fall. Yes, Reaper was having a nightmare. Yes, Reaper jolted when she woke up. But Neo was watching her. She saw everything. Reaper jolted awake, and it knocked Neo off balance. The dark woman could have caught her. But whatever Reaper was seeing in her nightmare… Neo saw anger in her eyes. Neo saw hate.
Neo felt the hand that pushed her off the roof.
Reaper downed another cup of coffee in the mess hall before it had a chance to cool. She wasn't going back to sleep. Not after that. She wasn't stupid or blind. As much as she could try to convince the others, she couldn't fool herself. She intentionally shoved Neo and that scared her more than any of her betrayal nightmares. She was already questioning everyone's trust, and now she had done the exact kind of thing that would lose trust. All of her fears seemed just a little more justified.
Speaking of losing trust… Reaper watched the doors to the mess hall as Weiss made her way inside.
"I figured you might be here." Weiss spoke up.
"How?" Reaper answered, too tired to sound angry or cold.
"Because the mess hall has the second most powerful coffee maker in all of Beacon, after my own in our dorm, since CVFY graduated." Weiss answered. "And you weren't coming back to the dorm."
Reaper only answered by drinking deeply from her mug, which she had already refilled.
"Reaper, Neo told us what happened. Exactly what happened." Weiss told her. "You think maybe a lack of sleep is what's causing your recent… outbursts?"
"A lack of sleep would have been incredibly helpful twenty minutes ago." Reaper answered.
"Reaper, when was the last time you got a full night's sleep?" Weiss pointed out. "Maybe all you need is some regular rest."
"Or maybe I'm just a monster…" Reaper counted. "A monster who would throw the most important thing to her off a rooftop."
"Most important…?" Weiss was surprised. She knew Reaper cared for Neo, but their relationship had never been easy for the heiress to define. An open admittance like this caught her off guard.
"Never mind…" Reaper shook the slip up off. "The point is, maybe I'm not cut out for this huntress stuff. Maybe I belong in cell."
"You don't mean that." Weiss shook her head.
"You're right. I wouldn't let myself get locked up so easily." Reaper nodded, drinking more from her mug.
"That's not what I-"
"What exactly are you doing here? What was us talking supposed to accomplish?" Reaper pointedly asked her leader.
"I'm not the one you need to talk to. But Neo is too frightened to come find you." Weiss answered. "You need to come back to the dorm. Back to her. You might lose the most important thing in your life otherwise."
"She doesn't want to see me. Who would?" Reaper lamented. She paced over to the window to stare out it.
Weiss frowned, looking over Reaper. "Are you sick?"
"What?" Reaper flinched.
"I mean, it might just explain your behavior. Maybe your insomnia is a side effect? Which then affects your mood?"
"I'm not sick." Reaper resisted.
"What about your being pale?" Weiss argued.
"I'm always pale." Reaper retorted bitterly, this conversation all too familiar.
"Not this pale. You're almost white as snow." Weiss pointed out. "Just… let's take a trip to med-wing?"
So you can arrest me for real? Reaper's eyes narrowed. "No."
"Just to put us at ease, at least?" Weiss insisted.
"I said no!" Reaper shouted, her gaze never breaking form the window. "Just go away. Last thing I need is your condescendence."
"Excuse me?" Weiss was shocked.
"Shouldn't be hard to feel superior to a monster." Reaper continued. "Especially for you."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Weiss accused.
"It means go." Reaper deadpanned.
Weiss turned on her heel and walked quickly out of the mess hall. Beyond the doors, she found Neo eavesdropping. "I don't know what's going on with your partner, but if this keeps up, she'll lose her place here." Weiss spate out before storming away. Neo looked forlornly at the door before walking off.