A/N: Title comes from Barbed Wire Body by Movements
The sky is choked by fire and smoke. Wails of the dying and the screams of those left behind echo all around. Remnant is being reduced to hell. A black cloak fluttered in the wind that fueled the flames.
"Are you satisfied yet?" a brown-haired boy asked, a cane clutched in his hands like a lifeline. There's a fearsome glare in his eyes as he takes in his opponent. "All of this suffering. All of this death! Just so you can find a way to kill Ozma and the gods!"
A girl with black veins surrounding her face stood opposite him wielding a scythe. It, like the girl's hair, had red in it once. But now they were both just black and grey. "I wouldn't expect you to understand, boy," the girl said, sounding far too old and weary for her seemingly young frame. "We've fought through so many eras. So many of my lives. I'll be free once it's finally over."
"Ruby wasn't 'one of your lives', she was her own person! She wouldn't have wanted this!" he spat, shifting into a more aggressive stance. "She was... She was everything to me!" His hazel eyes gleamed gold, a reminder of the magic he'd been born with in this world of Semblances.
"She was," the thing that wore Ruby's skin acknowledged, because Salem wasn't a human anymore, not really. "But she's not anymore. Just another victim to my curse... Poor girl. Don't you get it, boy? I'm not responsible for the loss of your beloved. Direct your rage at the gods."
There was an expression of rage on the normally calm young man's face. "You could have submitted to her," Oscar said. "Ozma told me about how your curse works, when I was desperately trying to find a way to save Ruby. You could have given up to Ruby, to any of the young women you were reborn within. The gods may have cursed you, but you chose to keep coming back."
Magic crackled in the air between them. The magic of a witch who is eternally reborn and the magic of a boy born to a war he's never understood. But as he stares at the corrupted face of the girl he'd loved, the girl he will always love, Oscar finally understands what he's fighting against: A curse that will steal away innocent people. The gods may have created the curse, but it is perpetuated by this... undying witch. This witch who stole away the girl he loved.
