So I apologize for the delay, but I was writing for my other new story which is out now. Check it out, it's called Secrets? What Secrets?, a Jaune centered short story perhaps full length story depending on if enough people like it. Go check it out, leave a review if you want me to keep writing.
On to the story...
"Sooo... Remind me again: this woman - your boss - is, like, dangerous?" Yang fidgeted as she walked towards what could very well be her own execution. Or at least disfigurement.
"...Extremely." Well that was reassuring.
"More than you?" Yang questioned as she jogged ahead to walk next to Cinder, only to fall behind again at the slightest glare in the corner of her amber eyes. They felt like they could stop her heart if she stared into them for more than a split second, and Yang found herself shuddering at the thought that this woman - that she was to be face to face with in less than five minutes - was even deadlier than her master.
"On a scale from 1 to 10, how dangerous is this woman?" Yang found herself inquiring after a small nod, biting her lip in a prayer for an eight or something. Because she was pretty sure anything higher would mean certain death if she messed up. "1 being she's totally harmless and 10 being she's evil incarnate and will turn me into a pile of ash if I so much as breathe."
"Evil incarnate is not to far off..."
"I thought that was you." Yang joked with a laugh, though it came out weak and was soon regretted as Cinder did not seem to find it humorous, and, to be honest, neither did Yang.
"But she won't kill you if you just breathe. You'd have to screw up royally for her to kill you on the spot like that. Not even she is that cruel." Cinder continued, ignoring Yang's not so funny jape and stroking her ashen hair. "Unless she's in a bad mood; then it's fifty-fifty."
Yang choked on air as it wrapped around her throat, the anxiousness enveloping her esophagus in a fierce determination - one that wanted to kill her - and Yang wasn't sure that she shouldn't just let it.
"And how often is that?" Yang ground out, "Her being in a pissy mood that is."
"All the time..." Cinder answered in a sigh. "The only time I've seen her not is the day I first met her... and when Mannie finally rolled over." Yang let out an "eep", because one of those seemed extremely monumental and the other just plain stupid. What did she have to do? Play dead?
That was very possible, though she probably wouldn't be playing.
"You didn't answer my question, though." Cinder shot her a look over her shoulder, one eyebrow corrugated in a curious mien. "1 to 10..."
Cinder's eyes rolled at that, but she answered anyway, "I'd say... zero." A hopeful smile grew on Yang's face before- "As in you'll be no more if you mess up." Before dying an ugly death upon the sharp rocks of reality...
"I'm so not prepared for this..." Yang whispered - secretly hoping Cinder would decide that this was a bad idea and reschedule a few years from now - though it came out more like a squeak than anything.
"Unfortunately you don't have a choice. I had originally planned for this-this - whatever this is - to happen once you were more mature, but she wants to meet you now. And what Salem wants Salem gets." Yang listened with one ear, at the same time coming up with a good - accurate - replacement for the word this, which she ended up settling for "your funeral". That led her mind to wander to what she would want her will to read and what flowers she would want at her grave. Nothing and roses, she decided, but then worked to dispel such morbid thoughts.
"You'll have to suck it up though. Take solace in the fact that it will be quick and painless. I'm sure she'll grant you that much at least." Way to make me feel better. If Cinder had sought to boost her confidence than she was doing a dandy fine job of it.
"Aren't you supposed to tell me that it will all be okay, and that you have faith in me?" Yang asked, though the answer was clear in her mind and had been for the last week leading up to this point.
"I don't believe in spreading false truths." Of course you don't...
"Can you? Just this once?" she begged, because her confidence in seeing Emerald again was dangerously close to the probability of Cinder's favorite color being pink.
"Just once what?" Cinder followed while continuing walking purposefully.
"I dunno... do something to motivate me." Maybe some words of inspiration would cloud the trepidation and fear that struck her feet as she walked. One could always hope.
Cinder stopped in her tracks, subsequently drawing in a lengthy breath and sighing. "She's going to test you, most likely against a Grimm. It'll be hard, and you'll feel like giving into the pressure, but don't. If you do that, you'll most assuredly die."
A long stretch of silence - a good ten to fifteen seconds - passed by,
"Wow..." Yang shook her head to clear her mind, "That was literally the worst motivational speech I've ever heard in my entire life. And that's saying something. You're supposed to make me feel all pumped up and ready to go. I thought I was walking to my own execution before, but now... you might as well drop the axe and get it over with. In fact, I'll do it myself. Where are those dual swords you're always carrying around?"
Yang made a show of looking for it on Cinder's person, but that just made her sigh. "Yang." Said girl immediately froze. She never calls me that... "Look, you'll do fine. I won't let her hurt you."
Okay... Now I'm worried. "I-I don't-"
"Forget about it," she interupted, "I'm just trying to motivate you is all. Get you pumped up and ready to go, just like you said."
"Oh..." Wishful thinking... "Haha... You know I don't think it works if you tell me that."
"My mistake, then."
There was a lengthy silence as the two of them began to walk again, a rhythmic tapping from Cinder's heels that Yang focused on, which was surprisingly more effective at getting her mind off other things than she would have expected.
Until they finally reached the highly anticipated and dreaded door, at which point Yang tried once again to escape or at least postpone her doom,
"Okay, all kidding aside, I really don't think I can do this m'lady. I have no idea what to expect, or what to do."
Cinder looked to her right down towards Yang with a reassuring smile. "Of course you can, and you will." Whoa. I just had some intense deja vu... "Because you don't have a choice."
"I still-" she protested, but was cut off before she could complete herself.
"We're here."
Yang chuckled nervously as she stealthily turned around, before being dragged by her collar to the large pitch black door. Cinder knocked on it. It was a new scene; never before had Yang seen her perform such an act. Usually she would just barge in - or blow through, as would cases of Schnee offices go - which led to more than a few awkward situations behind Yang's own door.
Ornately decorated doors groaned open shortly after. Yang savored the sight before letting out the sigh of the damned and walking purposefully through the double doors - one step behind Cinder.
It was a dark hall - large - but small enough to make her feel claustrophobic the second she set foot in it. That might have been the fear of death though, and sweat only seemed to drip across her face in sticky waves as Cinder pulled her hand away from Yang's own, which must have been clinging to her subconsciously.
She scrunched her eyes closed, envisioning the best picture of Salem as she could. It was a tall lady; she had blonde hair wrapped up in a ponytail, blue scarf, a tan shirt with white pants and boots. She looked kind and motherly, but the second she sensed the smallest smidgen of fear or weakness she pounced, transforming into this demon of a woman: deathly pallor, crimson irises, white hair that offshoots in, like, six different directions. Oh, and don't forget those freaky ass veins.
Don't show fear. Don't show fear. Don't show fear. she replayed the mantra in her mind, though she knew confidence wouldn't be enough to save her.
One eye peeked open, and then shut at the sight, and then reopened.
It wasn't a tall blonde woman with normal clothing, in fact, it wasn't even a woman. A muscular, well-toned man stood before them, arms crossed over his chest, a stern look adorning his face.
Yang's mouth opened as if to say something, but the man strode towards Cinder and her, walking between them and out the door. Her eyes followed him as he walked down the corridor that she had spent dozens of minutes worrying on, but no one said anything. And as she looked back, another presence stood in his place.
Oh shit...
Her nightmare came true... It was exactly how she pictured her, except there was no first stage. There was no kind and motherly lady phase; she skipped right to the scary as hell phase.
Yang's hand came up beside her face, pulling back to the right, and then back in a sharp impact. Apparently, anyway, her right arm had yet to understand that the humanoid figure that stood barely a few yards away was not just a figment of her imagination - as much as she wished it was - but a real live person demon.
Her face instantly turned red, then blue, which she realized was because of the lack of oxygen, but she also realized that if she were to exhale now, she might be dead. Though a pile of ash didn't seem quite so inconvenient right now...
"Cinder." The words sliced through her own thoughts like a hot knife through butter, and thankfully Salem seemed to pardon the slapping of her own face, and the humiliating scene of white to red to blue to green, as Yang felt sick at her own embarrassment and surprise and the thought of what Cinder would do to her once - if - she got back home.
"M'lady." Cinder addressed. "How was your conference?"
"It was fine, I assure you, but please, I'd like to meet your apprentice." Salem's gaze averted to Yang, making her bite her tongue even harder.
"This is-" Cinder tried to say, but was easily cut off by her master, which was another surprise for Yang.
It was not exactly a pleasant surprise though, because instead of Cinder introducing the young girl for her, Salem seemed to want for her to handle it herself, "I'd prefer if the young lady would introduce herself." A palm laid out towards Yang, alabaster colored skin and long slender fingers curling outwards elegantly.
"Of course, m'lady." Yang received a slight nudge to her shoulder, gentle but urging and forceful at the same time. "Go on, sweetheart." Cinder told her sweetly.
"My name is Yang Xiao Long, m'lady." she greeted respectfully, genuflecting to only add to that, but remained concise and short to disguise her underlying anxiety.
"You may rise, darling; I am Salem, I've heard promising things about you." The blonde did as she was told, reverting out of her kneeling position as gracefully as she knew how. She was glad to see that the one known as Salem was at least quite nice - so far; the praise was appreciated, and it was indeed endearing to hear that Cinder had talked well about her.
The woman in front of her directed her piercing, blood red sclera's towards Cinder, without saying a word, but Cinder seemed to know what she was doing and took over the talking, "As you know this is Yang. I have been training with her for five years now. She is supremely talented with a strong aura, and remarkably intelligent for her age; she's already gone on dozens of mission with me, and has always done magnificently."
"This is the girl that you took when you failed to capture the silver-eyed one?" Ruby, it was clear they were talking about, though it was strange to hear someone describe another person simply by their eye color. It didn't seem to really matter, though Yang's heart clenched to think about Ruby if she was in this situation.
"...She is." Cinder responded after a pause, admitting it with a penitent expression. "But you'll be pleased to know that she has out-performed all of my expectations. I believe she was well worth it."
"Was she now? She must be quite the talent, then. I'm looking forward to seeing her in action." At least one of us is...
"Of course, m'lady."
Salem guided Yang to stand over at one side of a circle, engraved in the flooring, and the only way you knew it was there was the purple glow, faint and ominous against the pitch blackness. She glanced to her right, where Cinder and Salem stood a far distance off, safely away from whatever battle was going to take place. Perhaps she was mistaken, but Yang could have sworn that was a face of worry on Cinder.
"Are you ready, Yang?" Salem called, and the echo of such a voice only instilled fear ten-fold.
At her warning, Yang adopted a battle stance, with fist raised and body held low to the ground. She could feel the knife's cool metal rubbing against her right ankle, and she patted the one over her left breast; a familiar one, and in a way it made her feel safer, because it saved her life more than once.
As ready as she would ever be, she nodded towards the opaque wall, but expected Salem to see her.
A snap of fingers later, and Yang's eye twitched at the ickyness of gunk forming near the middle of the arena. She can create Grimm!? Cinder had warned her, subtly indeed. When Cinder said that Yang was to fight a Grimm she expected same cage to be brought before her and released, not for Salem to snap her fingers and then "poof!" there's a Grimm.
She supposed it didn't change anything in terms of the fighting, but she sent Cinder a dirty look regardless, to which she responded with a shrug. An apparition covered in muck emerged from the mire, gradually and groaning with a diluted version of the substance lathered over its body. Yang's eyes fell towards the pool of black to find it dissipating, and then the thick ooze coating the materialized creature dripped on the floor, and with each globule of sludge was a steaming mist around it like boiling water, and evaporate it did, shrinking until it was nothing but murk.
It was an Ursa, large and dominating, a minor as well, at least. Yang had fought them before; they were strong, and even one landed blow could seriously injure her, but their speed left a lot to be desired. So after sizing up her enemy, Yang decided on a hit and run tactic, which she luckily was quite adjusted to using on a regular basis.
But for some reason it was not moving. In the corner of Yang's eyes she espied more pools being created, and the bloodcurdling sound each accompanied only served as more evidence to there vileness. A serious problem for sure. The blonde glanced around for as long as she dared; one, two, three. At least, she figured, and this was not going to be easy. She never expected it to be, but now she was going to have to reach into her bag of tricks to pull this off. Damn, she left that at home.
She stayed put. Suddenly silent as beetle, two Ursai scuttled towards her. It dumbfounded her, because Grimm were supposed to be mindless. They weren't supposed to be able to work together, or plan, or observe, or sneak up on people. This was obviously the work of Salem. Just how powerful is this woman!?
More followed, slipping through magical portals of yuck. Under the cover of darkness, the pack had stalked closer, impossible to track all of their movements, converging from three directions. They were all Ursai. They had no weapons but the claws they were made with, deadly and cold as ice.
She tried to back up, but backing up from one Grimm was only moving forward to another. She turned in a circle, squinting to see the darkness that shrouded creatures of evil, yet no area proved a worthwhile place to run to. It appeared that her hit and run tactics were not going to work here, at least not as easily.
Thoughts swirled faster than she could decipher, but in a moment she saw the woman who had cared for her for really as long as she could remember. A nod.
That was what got Yang's head back in the game, her body turning to her left. It was her against that many. Long odds.
The girl picked a target - the one in front, where she could reach the fastest and attempt to create space to dance around - and dove in.
It reacted instantly, massive claws swinging in a horizontal arc. Yang ducked purely out of instinct, delivering a decisive uppercut to the beasts exposed jaw. The monster collapsed with a ugly, mangled wound, internal but visible by its head wrenched halfway off its shoulders. The familiar scent of death rose greater in the hall. She pulled her first knife.
Proving that these Grimm had intelligence once more, the others still "alive" hesitated, rather than blindly rushing at her like she predicted. She froze like a statue for longer than she should have, allowing for one Ursai to break the ranks and lunge for her.
Yang was as fast as a cat though, Cinder often praised. With reflexes often associated with the animal, she flipped around and threw.
On point, as always. It sliced through flesh as it protruded from one eye, and yet as she had experienced before, the beast kept its pursuit. She met it head on and maneuvered to inflict a strong blow to its abdominal area. The impact flew it to the side, a dark miasma surrounding the limp body.
It was only as she skipped back, that she clutched the long shallow cut on her forearm. It was bleeding, but it was manageable. Not hurt. "I'm not hurt." she whispered to herself.
There was no time. No time to think, only act...
Ursai charged at her from multiple angles, growing smarter and trying to catch her from more directions than she could handle. Unfortunately, they were doing a good job of it.
On the right. The first thing that came to her. She launched another blade, this one missed badly, bouncing off the damnable armor protecting the creature's head. Two down. Five to go, she counted. That would have been three dead if she didn't still have her hand soaked with blood. "Damn." A waste of a knife.
There was one last in her boot. Not for throwing. That one was for up close.
Yang forced her mind to come up with a strategy. I can pick them off one by one, using speed... But she didn't have anything left to throw, which meant that she would have to kill each one from in close proximity. That was where her strengths lied, but with so many enemies and no way to slow them down from a far, it would be a difficult task no doubt.
With a plan in mind, as faulty as it may have been, the girl drew her last weapon. She killed three with the same tactics: weaving through her opponents and whittling them down and finishing them off when an opening presented itself.
Two more. Claws whistled past. She dodged them and bashed the Ursa with her shoulder jerking it off balance, and then drove her knife through its lower back, jagged to its tailbone, and then diagonal, cleanly severing a back leg.
For an instant she saw the body fall, incapacitated but not dead. It had vicious, gleeful, mad red eyes; outrage pulsed throughout the creature, thrashing wildly before draining away and lying there still.
Yang regretted looking for too long, suffering a violent headbutt to the back. The knife flew teetering off. She fell with a sharp and stinging pain, evading a stomp and rolling away. Up. She had to get up. She staggered to her feet, shaking her head to dispel the ringing in her ears and the black haze clouding her vision.
By the time she was up it was already charging at her again. Feeling the air against her cheeks she skillfully stepped to the side and threw a blow to its side, and when that wasn't enough she punched it with power backed by anger.
It fell to the floor, and after a few seconds it started to disintegrate into dark and shrouding mist. It's over...
Yang's eyes circled around desperately looking for Cinder. Once she found her, she expected Cinder to be smiling, or congratulating her, but she did neither.
"Yang, behind you!" she called.
A gurgling sound bubbled behind her. Yang had begun to realize what was happening, but by then it was too late. Her body flipped around one-hundred eighty degrees to see an Ursa Major immediately before her, only to be sent flying with rent gashes across her chest and stomach.
She screamed out at the pain, but like she was used to it was abrupt and numbing; she was conscious but she didn't have the strength to move as her head fell to the side.
Cinder. As Yang yelled at herself to get out of the way, because an Ursa was coming to kill her, to tear her limb from limb and then eat up her remains, the only thing that she could seem to think of was the woman she thought of like a mother staring at her with wide eyes.
Heavy footsteps resumed, drawing near. It would be anytime now, when she would struggle to fight back but fail with her tired muscles and mortal injuries. Yang was too weak to save herself.
And that was when Cinder came to her rescue. Flames appeared before the girl's crimson orbs. They grew larger with the seconds, which she realized was because they were coming closer, just like the Ursai. But she also realized that the inferno wasn't aimed at her, it was trained on the Grimm. Cinder's is saving me. Again...
But in that moment when Yang saw Cinder protecting her, knowing that everything would be all right even though she would regret failing- Yang would grow stronger, and impress Salem with another chance, Cinder would make sure of that - something like doom happened.
It was over to the left of Cinder, another person, or demon was more fitting. Salem, it was, if Yang remembered correctly. She snapped her damned fingers once again, and the fire dissipated.
It was unexplainable what happened next. Yang had thought herself down for the count, with no energy to do much of anything. She had thought that her lifeline was Cinder, who would protect her like she always did. And she had thought all of that down to the last moment, until what Yang had thought impossible happened - Cinder was stopped.
She couldn't accept that. Not because she didn't want to die, though she didn't, but she didn't have the power to save herself. The reason she had rolled to her side and gripped the fallen knife in both hands, stabbing it into that monster until it died ten times over; it was because of Cinder. That face she made... when Salem destroyed her fire. A mixture of disbelief and pain and anger. That was what spurred Yang on. What lit her fire.
And it was never going out.
Ruby was ninety percent sure that she was going to puke. No, make that ninety-five percent. Her knees felt like they'd turned into jelly and every muscle in her body trembled. Not to mention her forehead was sweating profusely, and her feet seemed remarkably a lot like lead weights right now. Though maybe that was just the extreme exhaustion and the hundred degree weather pickling her brain - delusions weren't all that uncommon.
Or perhaps, her feet really had turned into bricks, and she was just hallucinating that she was delusional? Ah, that made more sense.
Adding to that list of glorious symptoms, her lungs were also dripping with some sort of corrosive acid. The liquid probably oozed onto her other vital internal organs as well, which would explain why her chest retched and heaved with each movement.
Oh, and she was dizzy. But... other than that, Ruby was in fine form.
"Faster. Faster!" a voice called - familiar and akin to the devil's - urging her to perform the impossible. "Take slower, deeper breaths. You're going to hyperventilate."
Wasn't it funny, the way he gave you helpful advice, at the same time craftily yelling at you go harder?
I can't win, can I?
Ruby woefully obeyed, her mind too jumbled to do anything but. She drew in one deep, steady breath and held it for a second before letting it out slowly. The burning in her chest didn't smother, but the action did seem to alleviate the severity of her migraine (oh, yeah, she also had a migraine) if only by a sliver.
Her semblance flared as she edged herself further on, an acute ring resounding in her ears and blocking all other noise. Except Uncle Qrow's voice. A bullhead could be flying next to her head and not even that would prevent him from getting on her ass.
Ruby was running on fumes by now, barely scraping by, and the only reason she didn't pass out was because the finish line was in sight. There was a trick though; she'd go around the track too many times to count, so she was never sure which time was the last one. She prayed this was final lap, but it was impossible to tell at this point.
"Stop!"
Thanks the heavens!
Ruby did so immediately - both - freezing at the arbitrary finish line in an abrupt halt. She didn't collapse, though - like she so desperately wanted to - instead adopting a stance so stiff that she could have been mistaken as an Atlas military soldier. That's just what one had to do in the presence of a demon like Uncle Qrow. She managed to keep her legs solid, which was probably only because her knees were too gushy to even buckle under her weight.
"That's enough of that for today."
Her knees liquefied as she fell to the ground in an blanket of rose petals - courtesy of her semblance. She would have sighed, but instead panted in relieved bliss; hands on thighs to support her upper body, blurred vision and short and heavy breaths that wanted nothing more than to replenish her deprived lungs, but just couldn't muster up enough oxygen to fully sooth the ragged sensation.
"You really are improving Ruby, you kept your semblance up for a full five seconds longer than usual today. That's a new record." Uncle Qrow complimented.
His words were mildly encouraging at least, in this long and grueling regime that he so thoughtfully compiled. Sometimes Ruby wondered if she should just fuck it and settle for seventy percent effort, because ninety percent effort was literally killing her right now. Unfortunately, that would lead to the demon forcing her to function at seventy percent effort... for ten times as long.
Neither of their livers could take that right now.
"Thanks to you and your... tough love." she returned between a cough and what was something of a hack. And it was true. Loathe as she was to admit it, his training had been effective, if a little insane.
"I disagree, I believe you have natural talent. In twenty years you'll even surpass me."
Ruby scoffed at his comment loudly, staggering to her feet slowly, swaying a bit as she struggled to regain her balance.
"We'll practice scythe techniques later. For now, get some rest, you've earned it." Silver eyes widened. He was... but he'd never- "Okay, times up."
And suddenly we're back in the real world...
Ruby shook her head, forcing the dizziness to recede through willpower and determination alone. Mostly because the extra few seconds she could savor weren't worth the pain of an extra ten laps - really her only motivation to even try in any of this at all.
No, that wasn't it.
As much as she wished she didn't - didn't care about anything the dusty old man did or said, she did. She wouldn't have usually cared so much - she never did - not with her father or mother. There were times when all she wanted was for them to notice her, sure, and she did wild things just to get their attention, but it never felt as important to her as it did with Uncle Qrow.
Maybe because he wasn't so willing to give love and attention, and, in a way, that made her feel lonely. Unloved. The hour from five to six each day never felt more valuable than it did now, and in a weird way she was somehow content to just put up with the tired muscles and bruised limbs.
Ruby sighed, shaking her head once again, though more at the thought that all she wanted was Uncle Qrow's approval than anything else. She would never admit that to him.
He's still an asshole, though.
"I'd like to do something different today, if that's all right with you." her uncle started, but avoided locking eyes with her as he always did. Like he was ashamed at her very existence.
"It's fine." she quickly responded. It was unorthodox for them; their training sessions usually were pretty routine, but it didn't really matter to Ruby.
"I'd like to talk - about that girl, Priscilla I think her name was."
"Ah, seriously?" Ruby drawled with a disbelieving expression. This is what he wanted to waste their training session on? "She's just some girl from school."
"She's a third year, Ruby. The teacher's told me what happened."
"Then why are you talking to me about it?" the girl said plainly, but that only earned a quirked eyebrow from Uncle Qrow.
"Because you can't go around picking fights with upper classman, or anyone actually!" While that normally would have been true, Ruby was not at fault here. It was only a fitting reprisal what she did.
"She started it." she summed it up.
"Really?" Qrow asked, clearly not buying it. "That's not what everyone else is saying."
"Well, everyone else is wrong." Perhaps it was beating around the bush, but Ruby did not really care to have a conversation about this right now. It was over and done, and she received detention for it anyway so she couldn't see why he would need to interrogate her any more.
"How?" he questioned.
"Because they don't know anything."
"Ruby." Uncle Qrow drew in a breath and let it out slowly, and it did not take a hard guess to see that he was growing impatient. "I- I can't know what you mean unless you talk to me."
"She insulted Yang." Ruby admitted, and to the only person who would be able to understand. She didn't even bother with the teachers at Signal, because they would have just brushed it off. They didn't know what Ruby had been through, yet they still had the nerve to snoop around her life, the idiots.
"That's all?" he had the audacity to say.
"What do you mean, 'That's all'?" Ruby made wild gesticulations to emphasize her point, and she took back what she originally thought about Uncle Qrow being the only one who could truly understand. No one understood her. "If I didn't know better I would have sworn I was speaking to a stranger."
"Hmm, I stand by what I said. You can't go beating up people just because they threw some insult at your sister." Yes, you can! Heartless snobs like Priscilla deserve to be taught a lesson either way. And what a lesson it was! Getting schooled by someone with two years less of experience must have been so demoralizing. She could only imagine.
But of course Ruby wasn't stupid enough to just assault a "innocent" schoolgirl, so she merely challenged her to a less than friendly practice match. There wasn't anything there to break the rules, was there? "I didn't beat her up. I just challenged her to a spar and won."
"Brutally, I heard. I also heard that the staff had to drag you off her." Ruby winced briefly, but shoved it to the side before Uncle Qrow could notice.
"Was it that bad? I can't remember." She did know it was that bad, but she did not feel remorse for "accidentally" shooting Prissy even after the match was already over, nor for the follow up black eye.
"Ruby..." Uncle Qrow sighed. "Look, you can't keep doing this. You need to move on."
"I'm afraid I don't know what you mean." Ruby did though. She most certainly did, and yet she claimed she didn't, because this wasn't a topic she was comfortable broaching at this time.
Another sigh from Uncle Qrow, this one full of concern but fatigue. "I talking about your family."
"My family?" Ruby said exaggeratedly, one hand placed over her chest, to emphasize her point. "They're your family too. Even if they're not all blood."
"But I've let go," he whispered in his raspy voice, one hand rubbing his mouth, "you haven't."
"But I have, Uncle Qrow." Ruby argued.
"Have you, though? Don't you remember at first? How you used to lock yourself in your room for days on end; you didn't eat, you didn't drink. You just laid on her bed, staring up at the ceiling all day. You- you ended up in a hospital, don't you remember?" His voiced crackled at the end, like he was remorseful for what happened, like he felt bad for talking about it.
"That's my point, though. Look at me now." Ruby said and then pointed to herself. "I'm in combat prep school, I've got the highest grade of my class, and here I am training with you. I'm great."
"There's no difference between now and then. You say you've moved on, but you haven't." Uncle Qrow insisted adamantly, "You have no friends, you're obsessed with training and weapons, you have no social life. I see you visit their graves every month."
Wait, what!? What what kind of reason was that? What he said was not a lie, and even sometimes Ruby visited their tombstones more often than that, if she had something she wanted to talk about.
"Of course I do! They're my family! My parents! My sister. And what about you? I haven't seen you visit their graves ever, like ever!" It wasn't something she never really even realized until right this moment, but when she thought back she couldn't remember a time when he sneaked off by himself to anywhere but the local taverns, and he most certainly never went with Ruby.
"No, I never have." he admitted.
Ruby rapidly found herself growing cross with her uncle, as well as slightly perplexed. Why had he never gone to lay flowers at the mountaintop? Never had he even seen the epitaph strewn across his best friends grave, or his niece's. "I don't know where you get off telling me about moving on, because I think you've moved on too quickly! You were best friends; what about your niece! They were like family to you, how could you just move on like that!?" Ruby found it logical to snap her fingers towards the end, just to make it extremely clear.
"Because that's what they would have wanted. Do you think they would have you spend the rest of your life closed off from the rest of the world?" her uncle accused.
"I- I'm not-" Ruby tried to defend, to deny, but as much as she believed Uncle Qrow was quite wrong in what he said, she couldn't fool herself into thinking she was the most cheerful person to be around. But she was okay with that. She enjoyed herself at times, and it didn't seem like anyone else really cared to be her friend either way, so...
Uncle Qrow cut her off though, "Yes, you are. It's been seven years, Ruby. Maybe you've gotten better since, but I've seen you there. You spend hours crying over their graves. You haven't let go."
"Well, maybe I just don't want to move on." Ruby paused for a second. "Actually, I know I don't. I never want to forget about them. My best memories are with them."
"But they don't have to be." he continued to fight back. "You're still alive, Ruby. You have the chance to make more."
"But I-" she stuttered.
"I know that's what Yang would have wanted." Anger resurfaced in Ruby, bubbling on the brim of her lid. That was highly inappropriate at that time. It had always been a sensitive topic for her, but to use her as- as some sort of guilt trip reason to inspire Ruby into opening up? That was a low blow.
"Don't speak her name." she growled, silver eyes narrowing into slits and lips curling defiantly.
"Why? She's dead Ruby." It was kind of him to remind her at least, that her big sis was dead and had been for seven years. That- that cut deep.
"I know that! You think I don't!? She was my sister. She was the one who cared for me, when you and Father were no where to be found, too busy drinking your lives away." she averted her gaze as she finished accusingly, though she wasn't really averting anything, because Uncle Qrow never really looked her in the eyes as it was, even though her looked at her.
"That she did. She deserved better than this." Her ire perhaps mellowed a level, if only to make room for confusion.
"Then why did you let her die!?" The thirteen year old yelled, and her uncle's eyes widened ever so slightly, like he was surprised, but something else told Ruby that he sort of expected it. "Oh, don't think I didn't know. I know you were with her in the forest when you left."
"I left to protect you! Would you rather I had let you be the one to die?" That was hurtful, but it calmed Ruby down, but it wasn't a valid point. Ruby knew the story, what had really transpired. But why would Uncle Qrow run to save her? What would have came over him to choose Ruby over Yang!?
"I- I'm not saying that. It's just- it's unfair to her, you know? Why would you leave her, even to protect me!? She's your own blood!"
"I did what I had to do."
"That doesn't even make sense..." she whispered.
"It doesn't have to." Uncle Qrow added; if she wasn't already confused then she was for sure now. "I know you'll never truly let go, just- just try and live a little, okay? Yang made the ultimate sacrifice so you could live. Don't waste that."
Uncle Qrow flipped around, and walked away, back into the building.
"It's not like she had a choice, did she!? You chose for her! She didn't want to die!" Ruby yelled to nothing but a departing back, and it was obvious that he had no intention of responding or returning, yet she did so anyway.
Ruby had always thought that Uncle Qrow understood what she was living with, even if he didn't fully experience the same, but she now knew that even that was wrong.
There was no one - nor would there ever be - that could know what she was going through.
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