Hey, I'm baaaack. This one was a real pain to write, I barely touched it for a whole week because I was struggling so hard.
In fact, I wrote some parts under such sleep deprivation that when I was proof-reading I found a line that said "[Blake] then transformed into a pirate".
6. Second Chance
The house was simple but robust, a step up from the shack they had been previously holed up on. It had plenty of utility furniture, almost making it look like a home were it not for the cobwebs and dust. Considering the company they'd last had, Ruby assumed they were just squatting, which only served to further her mistrust of the hosts. Or she would come to assume all of that, but only after the hangover eased, releasing her from the headache.
Emerald seemed the friendly sort, but memory of Roman's betrayal was still too fresh. Her partner on the other hand... not so much. He had the wicked smile of someone who kicked puppies for fun.
When they reached the hut, the archer had been reunited with Blake, who, much like herself, wasn't looking particularly healthy, and met the man named Mercury. He had grey hair, despite being far too young for it to be natural, and an outfit to match. She sure seemed to keep finding individuals with peculiar hair colors, probably dyed. In comparison, her red tips looked absolutely normal.
The first impression caused by Mercury was of an athletic man, with a lean body and well-defined muscles. If her suspicions were correct, he would be well-versed in combat, otherwise maybe a lumberjack could explain the ripped arms and torso. Unlike Emerald, he hadn't even made an attempt to be pleasant, sitting somewhere between annoyed by their presence and pretending they weren't there at all. At least Ruby was sure it wasn't an act, unlike his sweet-tongued partner.
She tried to keep an eye on the hosts while she rested, but the drain on her strength was urging her to drop it. The comfortable bed she had been laid on was also not helping, and she eventually fell asleep.
The house was dead-quiet when the short-haired girl woke up. It was still sunny outside, but the hours spent in the land of dreams had driven off the booming headache and restored most of her strength. The most immediate urges she felt now were hunger and the need to alleviate her bladder.
Exiting the room, she crossed the hall to the outside door, stopping along the way at the sound of Blake's soft snoring. It was comforting to hear that her companion was okay. She slipped out of the hut and made her way to the outhouse that sat apart from the rest of the building. Inside, she took care of the necessary business, and then left with intent to head back.
Before she did, a sound caught her attention. Two people were talking outside, the two hosts, giving her the perfect opportunity to assert if they were truly trustworthy. Sneaking over the corner, she eavesdropped on the conversation while remaining out of sight.
"I know, but couldn't you pick someone less annoying?" That was the man, Mercury.
"We just have to keep them around for a day or two until Cinder arrives. Don't get any ideas."
Cinder? Keep them around?
"Huh, you're always such a suck-up, Em. Cinder this, Cinder that, when will you understand you don't have a chance with her?" That elicited a violent response from the dark-skinned girl.
"You don't know tha- Ahem I mean, shut up Mercury. And no, for the last time you can't kill one of the hostages. Our orders are to keep them alive unless strictly necessary."
Ruby had heard all she needed, and her suspicions had been confirmed: they were hostages, held prisoner until the arrival of that Cinder-person, probably the same one responsible for the incident with Torchwick. She ran back inside and hurried to the room where her lycan friend was.
Waking her up, the huntress explained the situation and urged them to leave as soon as possible. Together they grabbed their things, which because of the friendly facade included her weapons, and trailed off silently to the escape point. Yet when they reached it, it was already too late.
"Where do you think you're going?" Mercury was just out the door, staring with a menacing grimace. Emerald wasn't too far behind, and didn't look much more satisfied.
"We hmm... felt better and didn't want to intrude any further?"
"Nice try. Get back inside now." His voice was dripping with animosity, but that was to be expected.
"We want to leave. Are you going to stop us?" Blake raised her tone, trying to get across that she wasn't one to be trifled with, but the captors didn't seem to care. Mercury raised both fists in the air, widening his feet into a combat stance and Emerald retrieved two knives from the back of her belt, before mirroring her partner's pose. "I guess that's a yes."
The lycan took off her shirt and threw it to Ruby, who in her surprise almost didn't catch it.
"Can you hold that for me? I'll need it after beating these guys." It was a remark so cocky it would've made Yang proud.
She then transformed into a panther, and she wasted no time to attack the captors. When she went for Mercury, he backstepped out of her grasp, and delivered a kick to her head.
Ruby and Emerald stayed behind, observing the mesmerizing fight before them. For every strike there was a counter, interrupted by expert and consecutive dodges to the many feinted blows. It was an intricate dance of equivalent exchange, no flair in their struggle but a certain elegance to the fact that they both stood on equal footing, which was undoubtedly an impressive feat considering one of them was twice as large as the other. The scale of the lycan's panther form didn't reduce her heightened agility, yet the silver-haired man was able to match her prowess. A well-placed kick followed by a pirouette back and he was impenetrable again, truly a brilliant adept of martial arts.
After the initial daze was dispelled over time, both girls figured out there was a conflict between them still. Facing one another, they circled at a distance, wondering who would make the first play. The standstill didn't last, as Ruby grew weary of waiting and knocked an arrow against the bowstring, before releasing it at high velocity. The red-eyed woman dodged to the side, and used the opening to close in further, since her weapons weren't meant for long range. The huntress responded by pointing the next shots ahead of her feet, disrupting the advance of the enemy. She managed to take one single step back, trying to regain ground, but her back hit the house they had come out of. Emerald, realizing she was going to have a hard time getting in range, lifted her arm behind her back and threw one of her daggers at the brunette.
The knife flew in between them, and Ruby just narrowly dodged it, feeling the air whistle right past her side. Now that the female foe was targeting her directly, staying still in one place was no longer sustainable, so she dashed to the left, trying to become a scarcer target. Yet when she did, something strained her throat, forbidding movement. The blade that missed had pinned her cloak to the wall. She was going to yank it out, but something caught her attention, a faint glimmer on the iron edge.
Poison. And a fast acting one, considering how it was beginning to corrode the cloth around. It was probably meant to bite into flesh, festering through the blood stream to spread and burn through the whole body, a nasty and painful way to die. Emerald really did have no remorse after all. Luckily, the fact that it was burning the cape made it easier for the girl to free herself from the binds.
The time she took to do so did not, however, go unnoticed by the rest of the fighters, who all noticed she was wide open for an attack. The green-haired trickster smiled twistedly and threw the other knife at the vulnerable back. Blake leapt to tackle her partner to safety, but she was too late. The blade spun through the air, almost slowing down time itself, on the way to the archer.
Ruby heard a blood-chilling scream, and turned to see the large panther on the ground in front of her, a dagger carved into her abdomen.
NO!
Mercury closed in on the fallen enemy, wanting to finish the job, and his over-confidence nearly cost him his life. Blake was hurt, but a hurt and cornered animal fights with tenfold strength, the will to survive overcoming all else. She swiped her claws at his leg, drawing blood from the scratched skin. He tried to back away as the lycan kept up the pressure, attacking at every opening with desperate wails. It was noticeable that he was panicking, the calm and cocky demeanor thrown off by the unexpected assault.
The archer stood frozen, incapable of processing the insidious turn of events, or to fire at the enemy in between her companion's erratic pattern of movement.
Emerald unsheathed yet another blade from behind her back, the third and final one, and tossed it to her partner who promptly snapped it out of the air without more than a glance. Brandishing the dagger to his front, he succeeded in making the animal recoil, recognizing the venomous substance already taking roots in her system. The next time she dared to claw at him, he sidestepped the strike and stuck the edge on her forearm. And again she filled everyone's ears with the piercing sound of her agonized howls.
When the lycan recovered and prepared to counter attack, Mercury had already started running away. As he went sprinting out, he shouted back.
"Em, let's go!" Ruby tried her best to block out what he shouted next, but the words seared into her mind regardless.
"She's already dead."
Blake chased them as they fled, growling at their fading silhouettes, but was unable to catch up. Her open wounds were pouring out, leaving a red trail behind her. Her condition was getting clearly becoming critical.
The huntress watched helplessly as her friend limped back, and painfully turned back into human, only to fall on her open arms. The lycan coughed and blood came out, revealing deep internal injuries. The poison was destroying her with haste.
"She's already dead."
Together, they made it to the inside of the house, where the raven-haired girl put her shirt on again and was placed on top of the bed. The white linen was starting to become crimson, but neither of them cared.
Ruby tried her best to remember any first aid knowledge she had learned through the years. Running outside, she gathered as much water as she could to clean the girl. With a piece of clean cloth she found, she proceeded to wet it and press against the maimed body, despite the cries of pain the action warranted. Blake's satchel had a soothing ointment that she applied to the infected areas, hoping it still was as effective as she recalled. Then she covered them with bandages made from ripped fabric of the bedding, in an attempt to stop any further bleeding.
The immediate care done, she put all her efforts on calming the burning fever ravaging the panther-woman. She was pushing her endurance to the edge, running to and fro trying to take care of her friend's worrying state, but she didn't even notice the tiredness creeping in. All that mattered was Blake, who wasn't looking at all better, her face pale and her body shivering.
"She's already dead."
There was nobody they could call for help, no one that would arrive in time to make a difference. Isolated for countless acres, fate rested solely on their weary hands.
Changing bandages and providing further aid, it would be a long night. As hour went by, the huntress found herself praying, something she had never done before. Praying that her companion would recover.
"Ruby?"
The silver-eyed girl was torn from her slumber by the frail voice calling her name. As she regained awareness, she scolded herself for falling asleep when she was supposed to be taking care of Blake.
"How are you feeling?"
She somehow looked even worse than before, skin pale as milk, veins visible underneath, and bags under her blood-shot eyes. She glimmered with sweat, and spoke very feebly, like every word was another needle in her haystack of pain.
"Like my insides are furiously stabbing me." That was not a good sign, the poison had to still be flowing through her body.
"You need to rest. You'll be better in the morning, you just need to pull through for a little longer!"
"Ruby, don't lie to me. I'm..." A coughing fit shook her on the bed, and the archer offered some water to calm it down. "I'm not going to make it."
"Don't say that! You'll be fine, you have to believe it!"
"We've seen some pretty unbelievable things, I'll give you that. I mean, witches and statues that come to life, even for my kind it was incredible. But this time there's no magic to save me."
"Blake..." Tears had begun streaming down the huntress' face.
"No, let me finish. I've seen many things, but I've also learned that there are no third chances. I spent my whole life running..." Pain coursed through her body, and she took a few seconds before continuing. "...and you were my second chance. You, Penny and Yang. I'm glad I didn't run this time. At least I managed to keep my promise."
The archer couldn't bear to answer. Saying goodbye to her friend was too difficult. She thought the agony would shatter her, but she stayed strong.
"Tell Yang I'm sorry... I wish it had gone differently, but I forgive her."
"I will."
The dark-haired lycan moved a hand from under the blanket, and sought Ruby's. With regretful understanding, she grabbed her fingers and held on to them as hard as she could. She would stay firm and give sanctuary if that was what the fading girl needed, regardless of how difficult it undoubtedly was going to be.
She held her hand when Blake screamed with excruciating pain, offering words of comfort since she could offer little else.
She held her hand when the girl begged for it to be over, for the venom to finally end the suffering.
She held her hand when the agony subsided, and nothing could be heard but frantic gasping for air.
She held her hand when her friend expired one last time, and left the land of the living.
Only then, alone and in shambles, did Ruby allow herself to grieve. And the emptiness she let in swallowed her whole.
...
Everything was silent.
Everything was dark.
And it hurt.
It hurt so much.
There was nothing left to do but cry...
...
Ruby was alone. More alone than she'd ever felt.
She screamed until her throat burned and refused to work. She didn't want to go on.
Why bother?
Why try, if the world refused to play fair?
No matter how hard she demanded, the stillness of the night offered no answer to her questions.
She cried until sleep came for her.
She woke up on the cold hard ground outside. Dirt was scratched and torn beside her, in what distinctly looked like a fresh grave. She had no recollection of digging it, but no one else could have. Looking down, she also saw there was a black piece of cloth in her hand, the ribbon that Blake had once used atop her head as a bow.
Despite her feeble muscles aching and trembling, she got up on one knee and faced her friend's final resting place.
I'm so sorry. It's all my fault.
Her eyes had dried by then, yet they burned like she was still in tears.
I don't know if I can keep going without you here. It's not like before. This time I know you won't be back.
Her throat was clenched in an intricate knot, threatening to keep her from breathing ever again.
But I have to. I have to keep moving forward. For Penny. For you.
She got up on her feet, and tied the ribbon around her wrist. That way Blake would always be with her. Swallowing hard the bile in her mouth, Ruby walked away with stride. It's what the lycan would've wanted, for life to continue.
Forgive me.