V3E9: Point of No Return
The otherwordly seer naming himself Anon Hope was a man with few weaknesses.
No, not physical weaknesses, he had plenty of those. Especially now.
Hope had always prided himself on having a vigorous, enduring body. The tapestry of scars that slowly healed was a testament to his resilience. One thing he also had was stamina, as he had spent his youth doing urban traversal and had his fair share of street fights. Quite a few of them ending in draws and defeats, though victories weren't uncommon either.
He also got around a lot, which brings us to today.
After having spent time with Velvet as promised, Hope was not in the best of physical condition. Luckily, Velvet kept her own promise and was gentle with him. However, this was still Velvet, so Hope had quite a marathon to run, so to speak.
The seer rolled around the fair but unlike previous endeavours to stave off boredom, Hope was looking around wearily for one of his dear friends. Ruby had been completely avoiding him and something began gnawing at his insides. An awful, awful sensation that something was wrong with his friend's mental state. She's been too reclusive, too downbeat if Yang's to be believed. He just wanted to see her, to see if she was ok.
His search took pause as he accidentally rolled into someone, knocking them over. The man in question rolled on the floor, wailing in pained anguish as his shins were hit with the power of a wheelchair going at a moderate pace.
"OW!" exclaimed the downed man with burgundy hair. "OH MY LIGHT, MY SHINS!"
Hope sucked air through his teeth, seeing as he did the same thing he had done to Jaune a day previous. Although this time, his unwitting victim fell away from him instead of towards him.
"Oh, 'scuse me, mate. You alright?"
Upon closer inspection, it came as an odd surprise that his unwitting victim was Nolan Porfirio.
"MY SHINS ARE BROKEN!" Nolan whined dramatically.
Hope rolled his eyes along another's feminine sigh.
"Quit being a baby, Nolan."
Next to the downed huntsman-in-training was his only female teammate May Zedong, who clearly had no patience for his hysterics.
"Baby?" Nolan questioned indignantly. "I'M being a baby?! Have you ever been hit in the shins?!"
"Yes, plenty," she stated in annoyance. "I've also been hit in the ovaries and passed kidney stones, so I know you're overreacting."
Nolan whined some more before two more familiar figures came by. One was a lean but muscular young man with gray gradient air and a permanent benevolent smirk on his lips and the other was a serious but jovial-looking athletic man with brown dreadlocks. Brawnz Ni and Roy Stallion looked over the commotion and came to the same conclusion that May had.
"Come now babe," Brawnz chuckled amicably before holding out his hand to his lover. "You're a big boy, the pain'll pass."
Nolan pouted as his boyfriend helped him up to his feet. He still rubbed his shins with teary eyes like a kid worrying about a scrapped knee. Hope rolled his eyes at how overly melodramatic.
"Is he always like this?" He asked BRNZ's sniper.
"Yeah." She admitted tiredly. "He's always been a drama queen."
"Geez, that sounds tiring."
"You have no idea."
Brawnz strutted over confidently, playfully knocking on her shoulder.
"Oh, come now! It's part of his charm. Besides, you're always so serious."
He leaned over, getting in her personal space.
"It's good to live a little you know!"
She groaned as she pushed his face away.
"Boss, personal space. Remember?"
"Sorry, sorry!"
Roy smiled awkwardly at the exchange, knowing well how dysfunctional the team looked.
Hope oversaw the whole ordeal and just knew that somehow, he would get involved, despite really not wanting to. Nolan glared childishly at the seer. Roy caught this and knew immediately what his teammate had in mind.
"Nolan..." Roy warned. "Don't."
"Why not?! He hurt me!"
"He didn't do it on purpose, you child!"
Hope stared blankly at his previous victim.
"With how he's acting, I think I would have done it on purpose."
"Don't encourage him!" Roy decried.
Nolan humphed.
"That settles it then!"
Nolan sped behind Hope and took hold of his wheelchair's handles.
"You're going to hang out with us for a while!"
Roy's face scrunched in appalment while Brawnz just smiled apologetically. May facepalmed, looking like she was about to beat some sense into her boss's lover.
"Nolan!" May scolded.
Hope blinked.
"Is this fuckwit all there in the head?"
"I have only ever had minor blunt force trauma-related head injuries during my tender youth!"
"Yeah, I can tell." Hope insulted.
Despite the obvious slight, Nolan seemed to have taken it as praise. He rubbed his nose conceitedly.
"I'm glad you noticed! Just for that, I'll have you pay only half the tab!"
Before May could pounce on him, Roy held her back.
"YOU DAMNED MORON!" She yelled, a large tick mark appearing on her forehead. "DON'T JUST ROPE PEOPLE IN AND THEN MAKE THEM PAY FOR YOUR WHIMS!"
"I did it with you and Roy and we turned out fine."
Roy thinned his lips, not looking too keen on his teammate's insinuations. May stopped struggling long enough to make her contemptuous expression visible.
"I dream of the day when my arms are big enough to properly wrap around your neck and throttle you into the next world!"
Hope sighed in exasperation.
"If I go, will it shut him up?"
Brawnz smiled nervously.
"... Usually."
Hope groaned at the uncertainty.
"Fuck it, I've got better things to do but something's telling me you won't give in." He leaned into his mobile throne. "Lead the way."
Nolan shined like a star. A really annoying and conceited star.
"I'm glad you're seeing it my way!"
"I really don't."
Nolan ignored Hope and ran off with him in front, leaving a dust cloud in his wake.
"Free bubble tea here I come~"
"You said half the tab, asshat."
"Did I?"
The rest BR*Z looked at the cloud and couldn't help but sigh. This was Nolan alright...
BRW* was surprised to see Nolan, face in the dirt and ass in the air with swollen bruises covering his eyes and mouth. Hope was nearby at the bubble tea bar, sipping on some very sweet vanilla chai boba. Hope looked over at the new arrivals ambivalently.
"Came to collect your trash?"
Brawnz looked at his love then back at Hope.
"Did you do this?"
"Yeah?"
"How?!" He exclaimed. "What happened?!"
Hope stared blankly at the team's leader as he slurped his dessert drink.
EARLIER
"I'll have a deluxe extra-large chocolate chai with toppings, please!" Nolan demanded.
The tired barista looked at Nolan with the same kind of dead fish look that comes with working as a cashier for too long.
"What kind of toppings, sir?" he asked monotonously.
"All of them!"
Hope glared at the man who dragged him here.
"You know it's gonna be expensive right?"
"Who cares?" Nolan answered carelessly.
Hope eyed the barista, who gave him the receipt in advance before making the concoction. Hope's eyes bulged out of his skull once he received a scrolling piece of paper that reached to his feet.
"DA FUCK?!" he exclaimed. "I'm not paying for that!"
"Too bad~" Nolan taunted.
"This isn't up for debate, I refuse to fucking play along."
"Suck it up, it's the price to pay for hurting me."
"It was an accident, you vindictive muppet!"
"Keep barking, doggy. You have no choice!"
Hope's eyelid twitched.
"I'm going to introduce you to the ground." He promised. "And believe me, your relationship is going to be very intimate."
Nolan waved down the threat.
"You're in a wheelchair, you couldn't hurt an ant!"
Nolan turned back to the barista, who was smiling for some reason.
"I'd like to go forward with my order, plea-"
A bandaged hand grabbed the back of Nolan's head as Hope stood behind him, his face veiled in shadows and his eyes glowing a violent blue. Nolan squeaked pathetically before crying to the heavens as Hope beat him to a pulp.
PRESENT
"And that's how it happened." Hope explained.
The remainder of Nolan's team collectively hid their faces behind their hands as they sat next to Hope.
"I am so sorry about his behaviour." Brawnz apologized, bowing his head down.
Hope sipped on his drink through his straw.
"Don't apologize for him. If he keeps acting like this, just kick his ass."
May made an order to the barista, looking exhausted and miserable.
"We try to, but the bastard is more slippery than a greased eel."
"If this keeps happening, the dumbass is gonna get stabbed."
"We know..." Roy admitted dejectedly.
Brawnz made his own order, still looking sorry.
"Could you let him off the hook this time?" he begged. "I know he's kind of slimy-"
"Don't you mean scumbag?" May and Hope corrected in unison.
May snapped her fingers while clicking her tongue.
"Jinxed, damn it!"
"VERY, slimy..." Brawnz continued. "But deep down, he's a caring guy."
Hope spat a mouthful of boba in incredulity. He coughed hard, aided by May tapping on his back.
"I mean I get you but don't choke!" She said.
Hope whipped his head up, staring at Brawnz with bug-eyed shock.
"Nolan?! Caring?!" he questioned. "The same guy who cheated on his ex and dumped him in front of a crowd?!"
Brawnz felt a nervous cold sweat drip down his back.
"Y-You know about that?"
"Yeah, Scarlet told me about how Nolan dumped him in front of an entire assembly during a regional tournament."
"You know Scarlet?"
"I'm friends with his team's leader and spoke to him a few times."
Roy had a whole body shiver at the mention of SSSN's monkey-in-charge. Hope, of course, noticed.
"Bad blood?"
Roy looked away, clearly having relived a bad memory.
"I don't want to talk about it..."
Hope nodded, not pursuing the topic.
"In any case, this..."
He pointed at the heap still on the floor known as Nolan Porfirio.
"Fuckhead... is hardly a good person."
Brawnz, wisely, didn't go to bat for his boo's past transgression.
"He has his charm..."
May scoffed, spitting out her straw.
"Only you like this cheating bag of crap. Scarlet's all the better for being rid of this douche."
Hope noted the venom with which she spoke. A very familiar venom that he had in him, once upon a time.
"Sounds like you know a thing or two."
BRNZ's sniper groaned apathetically.
"I know all too well what Scar went through... Not as flashy or dramatic, but all the crappier."
Hope nodded, a non-dissimilar sneer of contempt on his face.
"Yup..."
May looked at Hope's sourness and felt like she found someone like her.
"Mine was with my boyfriend of three years screwing my best friend behind my back for months. You?"
"First was my childhood sweetheart who screwed around with a bunch of playboys during high school. the second one dumped me after cheating on me for two weeks with some fashion design student during college. the third one was on my second and last year of college and I caught her kissing someone else on our anniversary."
May turned away to spit, mirrored by Hope.
"Fuck 'em." They declared in unison.
The two clinked cups, their shared trauma and bitterness bringing kinship to the pair. Roy and Brawnz felt sweat drip down the side of their heads at how quickly their ire brought them together.
Hope left BRNZ soon after, as they needed to tend to the ass-kicking he gave Nolan. To his surprise, he seemed to have learned a valuable lesson regarding trying to strongarm or underestimate Hope and ended up apologizing.
Now he could finally return to what he was doing, looking for his rosy friend.
Beacon was as empty as ever, what with everyone being down at the fair. At least, it should be but Hope's perceptive senses sensed a group of people coming his way. A group that, once in view, left him with a sour frown on his face.
"Cinder."
CME* approached him, their leader looking strangely happy.
"Ah! Just the person I wanted to see!" Cinder elated, catching Hope off guard. "How are you today, dearheart?"
Hope blinked multiple times before looking over to Cinder's lackeys, who looked just as weirded out as he was.
"Fine... Why are you asking?"
Her smile remained, though the way her eyes stared at him changed. There was something sinister about it, more than usual. It was devoid of the faux femme fatal seductive glance that she usually wore, in its stead was the defiant twinkle of a challenger.
"Just checking. Your condition is, after all, not what it used to be."
Hope rolled his eyes.
"Right, you're just checking up on me."
"Indeed, dear."
Cinder walked around him, circling him like a predatory animal gaging up its prey. Hope was no mere prey, however, as he didn't budge save his eyes following his adversary. Mercury and Emerald remained in place, looking over the silent exchange with nervous anticipation. If it were anyone else, they might think that a beautiful woman was teasing, maybe even bullying, some poor crippled man. But to them, it was as if a predator was circling her would-be hunter. The hunter, in this instance, wasn't about to lose his cool even as she bore her fangs.
"You have been quiet up until now." He sneered. "Probably up to some A-grade skullduggery."
Despite his nerves, mercury chuckled.
"What does that mean? It sounds funny though."
"It means 'goon shit', you halfwit."
"Oh."
Hope sighed.
"Fuck do you want?" he asked the woman circling him like a vulture.
Cinder stopped behind him, smiling eerily.
"Nothing." She revealed. "I just wanted to see your face again."
"What, so you can imagine it twisting in despair like some cartoon villain?"
"Oh, Hope." She called out endearingly. "No, no, no..."
She moved next to him and wrapped her arms around his neck seductively, her soft lips almost against his ear.
"But I do wonder how it will twist and change when faced against the odds always so stacked against you." She muttered huskily.
Hope's eyes grew cold and lidded. Despite not facing her, his contempt was as obvious as the sun being up during the day. A small racking noise startled the three and Cinder felt something cold, hard and metallic pressing itself against her lower abdomen. She looked down and saw Hope holding the same pistol that shot her out of the CCT tower's window. At the sight of it, her blood ran cold and her chest began to ache. Emerald and Mercury were just about to intercept Hope and stop him but Cinder threw a wave of scorching heat their way, glaring at them madly. They stared in shock and dumbfounded confusion, wondering what the heck was wrong with her.
"You have no idea how easy it would be." he spat chillingly. "I could just pull the trigger and send you to the floor, then shoot over and over again until your Aura breaks before putting the world out of its misery by splattering your mind all over the ground."
Cinder's heart began pounding frantically, but not out of fear. Her eyes twinkled with excitement for his next move.
"What's stopping you then?" She asked, almost panting.
Hope ground the tip of the barrel into her flesh and although the discomfort bothered her, she didn't show it. Hope growled lowly, sounding more like a beast than a man before jamming the gun forward and away from her.
"I've been on Ozpin's case too hard and I doubt he'll pull me out of this mess if I start now. I'm not immune from the law."
Cinder let out a shaky breath of exhilaration, much to Hope's disgust.
"As much as it annoys me, you've been diligent in keeping yourself away from his attention."
Cinder grinned proudly at the praise, masking Hope's skin crawl.
"Thank you! I do pride myself on keeping my work as top-notch as I can." she boasted. "Still, you say you've been critical of him."
"To put it politely." Hope admitted.
"Does that mean the king deserted his most powerful adviser?"
"No clue, but when you tell the king he's naked, it either ends with him covering up or throwing you in the dungeon. Seems he's just decided to keep pretending he's fucking clothed."
Her smile disappeared.
"And here I thought he was your ally."
"Ostensively, we are. We just can't stand each other."
Cinder frowned sourly, much to Hope's confusion.
"I thought you'd be happier knowing I was on thin ice." Hope admitted.
"It is undeniably good for me. It's just..." she paused. "Disappointing."
Hope thinned his lips before staring at the other two in the room (courtyard), who looked back just as lost for words as he was. Hope had already begun to piece together Cinder's personality from the interactions he has had with her and as much as he hated to admit it, he was impressed.
Too bad she was set against him, having someone like Cinder around might have been useful once the arrogance and impatience were ironed out.
Hope put his gun away and glared sideways at the half-maiden.
"Then disappointed you shall be, Cinderella." He announced. "Ozpin is as impotent as a eunuch and I've lost patience with the fuckwit."
Cinder hummed boredly.
"Ozpin this, Ozpin that... I already know about his inadequacies."
She traced her finger on his chest, looking into his eye with her own orbs filled with burning ambition.
"He's a peace-drunk idiot so stuck in the status quo that he believes the world has ceased to change."
Hope smirked emptily, his eyes similarly devoid of mirth.
Not quite, but close enough I guess.
She brought herself closer, pressing their bodies together. She even softly caressed the side of his head as she brought her lips to his ears, threatening to kiss it.
"You, however, know what's really happening. The grim winds that fly over Vale, threatening it with every passing moment."
Hope blinked impassively.
"It boils your blood to see the writing on the walls being ignored by that old immortal fool." She tempted. "You want to put him in his place and do what he's too dim and shortsighted to see."
Her velvety lips hid pearly white teeth, but to Hope, they seemed more like disgusting fangs dripping vile venom.
"Why not take charge yourself? You are already far more aware of the threat levelled at this beloved 'Peace' of yours. Why not take the incompetent king down and become the monarch this world needs?"
Hope smiled mysteriously.
"Who told you I wanted to be a king?"
Cinder recoiled, looking at him as if he was an alien or as if he had grown a second head.
"I only seek to live a good life with my beloved ones, free of the burdens levelled at me by the powers that be."
Hope brushed Cinder off of him slowly, closing his eyes.
"Fate is a cruel cunt whom I want nothing to do with. All I've ever wished for was to live life as I dictate."
Hope opened his eyes, looking at Cinder.
"So I ask again, Why would I bother myself with a pain in the ass destiny as grand as that of a king?"
Cinder blinked multiple times before laughing rancorously.
"You wish to live free of fate?" she asked, baffled.
"I spit on the very concept, as a matter of fact." his mysterious grin widened.
"Truly?" Her tone was full of curiosity.
"Fate is an excuse miserable people use to justify their lot in life. The chosen people are chosen because god and fate are on their side, not because their ancestors built the foundations upon which they stand. Heroes, Emperors, Hierophants, all blessed by cosmic providence whilst you were destined for mediocrity or worse..."
Hope groaned.
"It's all bullshit. Your life sucks because you suck, not because it was preordained so. Their life is great because either they were born with talent and cultivated it or their forebears did it for them, not because they were chosen. That's just insulting them and their hard work, or the work of those that came before."
Cinder hummed satisfactorily.
"I see, I see."
Meanwhile, Emerald and Mercury remained confused. Why are they seemingly getting along? Why is this happening? Cinder walked past the seer and returned to her companion's sides.
"Thank you, dearheart. This talk was quite enlightening."
"How so?"
Cinder, surprisingly enough, seemed disappointed but resigned. Almost sad, even.
"That it would be pointless to try and convince you to join us."
Hope snorted at the absurdity of her statement.
"Pointless indeed! Your boss wants to end the world while I want to see it flourish!"
Cinder smirked deviously.
"If she even could..." she muttered. "Still, I could've use someone as talented as you."
"Not a chance." Hope declared definitively. "I've too much integrity to throw away my beliefs, even if it would bring Ozpin to his knees and beg for his existence."
"Too bad."
Cinder walked away, waving Hope goodbye.
"See you soon, Anon Hope."
Hope waited until they disappeared from sight to sigh.
"What the fuck was that?" he questioned to no one. "Was she gauging me or something? Or does she just want to take me off kilter by acting that way?"
An errand thought gave him a frosty shiver.
Messiah PLEASE, don't let it be that she fancies me... I already have enough of one crazy bitch, I really don't need an evil one too...
Hope pulled out a cigar and chewed on it. Muscle memory made him pull out his lighter but he caught himself before he could light it. Still, a feeling churned in his stomach. One of ominous trepidation mixed with dark satisfaction.
"No matter. Soon enough she'll come face to face with what coming to her."
And the best part is: she won't see it fucking coming...
Anguish was not an emotion that Ruby Rose was very familiar with. She only ever felt it the day her mother passed and the day her remains were buried. Other than those two occasions, she only ever occasionally felt sadness or anxiety. The last few days have been a painful reminder of what that dreadful feeling was. She was chosen by both her team and Ozpin, one to represent Team RWBY and Beacon at the finals of the Amity Tournament and the other to become the bearer of the powers from legends. To become his chosen warrior, his Autumn Maiden.
Ruby held herself as she sat against the dorm building's wall, hugging her legs as the same painful, pitiful feeling burdening her heart kept prodding at her. She groaned at the uncomfortable tightening in her chest.
"Why is all this happening..." she lamented for what felt like the thousandth time.
Her silver eyes, usually so bright and beautiful were tainted by disheartened fatigue, as demonstrated by the nascent dark circles under her orbs. She sighed once more as she attempted to get up. A pair of bandaged arms wrapped themselves around her in a warming embrace. Ruby's heart skipped a beat, the previous heart pains disappearing as if they were never there. Her breathing quickened as she laid her hands on the arms that embraced her, recognizing them. Her heart rate skyrocketed as a warm fuzzy feeling swirled in her guts, like fireflies buzzing around in a glass jar. A heavy head rested on her own and a familiar sigh escaped the embracer's lips.
"You're a hard girl to find, boss. You know how many hours I've spent looking for you?"
Ruby's face began heating up as Hope squeezed her. That is, until he began squeezing the air out of her lungs.
"A whole FUCKING AFTERNOON!"
Ruby tapped on his arms frantically.
"Uncle! UNCLE!"
The scorning seer let go of the wheezing girl, crossing his arms.
"Seriously, I've been looking all over for you."
Ruby rubbed her head guiltily, looking away.
"Sorry, I just... wanted to be alone for a while."
Hope scorn turned to concern. He reached out, pulling a lock of hair out of her face.
"What's wrong, Ruby?" he asked. "You look awful."
Ruby's face heated up as her cleared vision gave her a better look at Hope's face. She tried to look away but Hope gently held her face in place to face him.
"I'm worried about you. As is the rest of your team."
Ruby completely blanked the last part, focusing solely on the former. Her face became a deep red as she wrenched herself free from his grasp. She tried to wave his worry away while hiding her crimson tint.
"I'm perfectly okay!" She finally said, her voice cracking mid-sentence. "Y-you don't have to worry because I'm A-1 certified fine!"
Hope blinked slowly as Ruby tried her best to cover her reddening face. He palmed his own, sighing dejectedly.
"Ruby..."
"Y-YES, I'm Ruby!?"
Goodness fucking gracious-
"L-like I said, I'm fine!" She failed to reassure while turning tail. "I have to go now! my team needs me!"
She went to run but a sad nasal sigh made her flinch.
"Why are you avoiding me?" He asked, already knowing the answer. "Did I do something wrong?"
Ruby whipped around and stepped forward, grabbing Hope's hands with a desperate look on her face.
"YOU DIDN'T DO ANYTHING WRONG!" she decried. "IT'S NOT..."
She quieted down, thinking back to the scene that first manifested her heartache.
"It's not..." she mumbled. "It's not your fault... either of you."
Hope crooked a brow at the revelation.
Either of you?
Hope put that thought on the back burner, he can think about who that other person could be later... which is helpful, because if his assumption is correct, the other person could be literally any other girl he has interacted with more than twice.
"I just..." Ruby mumbled, her heart squeezing again. "I don't know what's happening... I've never felt like this before."
Hope brought her close, hugging his pained and confused friend tightly.
"You won't make the pain go away by avoiding or raging at it. Believe me, I know."
Ruby trembled slightly, hesitantly holding her arms out before slowly bringing them around her best friend's waist. She thought back at when he was just skin and bones and how much Hope had changed from then. From the uncomfortable feeling of holding bones through clammy skin and an old shirt, to toned but soft flesh and muscular arms that wrapped her like a warm blanket. Back then, she could hug him and think nothing of it. Now, her face felt warm and the fireflies in her stomach went haywire. The embarrassment screamed at her to let go and hide in her room but she didn't want to let go, not after feeling so down for so long.
Ruby was so entranced by the soothing warmth of Hope that only now did she realize that he wasn't in his wheelchair. She slowly lowered herself and her friend to the ground to avoid putting any strain on him. She cuddled close to him, burying her face in his chest and holding him tightly. Hope's eyelid twitched in pain at how hard she was squeezing him but didn't make a sound. The poor girl looked like she got rolled over by a bad week. Hope rubbed her scalp, calming her down further enough that she was finally smiling a little.
"What ails you, chief?" Hope asked again. "You look like you've been having a week-long bender."
Ruby groaned as she shifted her seating to sit between his legs. She leaned her head against his chest, looking lost and unsure.
"I don't know what to do." She breathed out. "I feel like... like I'm going to have the whole world on my shoulder."
Hope cringed at her inadvertently prophetic quandary. Ruby gripped his shirt, clinging closely.
"Anon... What's... What's your goal? What do you really want to do?"
The seer stopped patting his diminutive friend's head, thinking carefully as to what to say as a dreadful deja-vu gave him the creeps. His eyes stared at the empty void in front of him as the answer materialized in his mind. His blue eyes looked back into his friend's metallic silver eyes.
"I want the world to be safe from those who would see it burn and die." He admitted. "I want to stop the monsters that want to end this beautiful world of yours."
Ruby flinched, the ominous answer filling her with a mix of fear and awe.
"What do you mean?" she asked cautiously.
The seer looked to the skies, as magnificent and blue as sapphires.
"Ever since I came to this world, I thought that it was beautiful. The people, the architecture, the nature... All of them gave me a sense of beauty that my home lacked."
Ruby sat at attention, her mind wholly focused on him.
"My home was not a good place, Eden even less. It was a mess that couldn't be fixed, not by me, nor anyone else for that matter."
Hope sighed melancholically.
"Too big, too divided, too hostile. Too dark." He scoffed to himself. "Not that I helped."
Ruby frowned sadly at Hope's self-deprecation. Somehow, those words felt as if they hurt her more than they hurt him.
"Every mistake I made narrowed my vision." He continued. "Again and again, until I could only see what was right in front of me. Everything else was just static noise and shadows at the edge of my vision."
Hope frowned guiltily, his face twisting with regret.
"Everyone else around me, the ones who stuck by me... I took them for fools. I never really thought of them as my friends, just some people who interacted with me out of boredom."
Ruby knelt in front of his sitting frame, reluctantly freeing herself from his tender grasp. She looked into his remorseful expression and her heart lurched painfully. Unlike last time, she wasn't lost or confused as to what happened. She knew what was happening. Her friend was still in pain, still deeply regretting the past. Even through his cocksure and fearless mask, Hope still held the same pains he had since before they met.
Hope took her hands, gently stroking the back of them with his thumbs.
"Sin City... Eden as a whole, was too much for me. I don't know what would have happened if I stayed there. But here?"
He smiled, his melancholy melting away into hope.
"Not so much. There's so much to do too, but it's so much brighter."
He fiddled with her smooth and soft hands absentmindedly.
"The people at the top aren't so self-centred as the ones I know. Glynda and the Beacon staff, Ironwood and his men, all of them want what's good for the world and its people, instead of what's good for their power base and their bank accounts."
He squeezed her hands delicately.
"Saving my world would require a godly endeavour, one my people aren't ready to go through. But this world, it has all it needs to become more than just the remnants of an age long gone."
He lifted his head, looking eye to eye with an awed silver-eyed warrior.
"This world gave me so much, and I want to give back. Something I never did before, something that if I could, I would rectify."
Hope held Ruby's hands against his cheeks, cupping his face and reddening Ruby's. He smiled lovingly, which made Ruby's heart pump harder than before.
"You gave me hope again when my life was nothing but a dark grey slog. I want to give this world that gave me this beautiful soul in front of me the same hope she gave me. I want to give you a bright future and this world, a golden age of heroes and light."
Ruby's eyes twinkled like gems in the sunlight, seeing Hope's answer as nothing short of amazing. Hope scratched his face, an unusual tint of red colouring his cheeks.
"I mean saying it out loud is really embarrassing but... you know..."
"Are you kidding?! That's AWESOME!"
Hope let out a flustered chuckle.
"Y-yeah."
"It's really cool!" she smiled excitedly. "A golden age of heroes and light... That sounds like an oath a knight would make in an epic fantasy story!"
Hope spluttered.
"Nah, I ain't no knight. I'm not the kind to listen to some bum-ass king's demands."
Frankly, I'd probably behead the autocratic fuck...
"So like a knight errant?" Ruby proposed.
"Eh, that's already more like it."
Ruby smiled as she let her imagination run rampant, imagining her and her friends as errant knights for hire going on quests and saving the day. In a way, this was exactly what she wanted in this life. Being in the wild and in the cities, helping people and killing monsters, saving the day.
Being heroes, like her mother before her.
Compared to Hope, her dream was incredibly childish. He didn't dream of grandiose legends that children will be told to about him, even if, realistically, it would result in that. Ruby felt her more self-centred ambitions palling when put against her dear friend's purpose. She actually felt a bit envious of the purity of ideal Hope held.
"That's an incredible goal... How did you realize you wanted to do that?"
"Because of you."
Ruby blinked several times, not computing what he just told her. She pointed to herself.
"Me?"
"Yeah, you did."
Ruby blinked again in complete confusion.
"How?" She asked, genuinely caught off guard by Hope's declaration. "Not to put myself down but I really can't see how you made that connection."
Her friend chuckled.
"Ruby, you dream of being a badass huntswoman, yeah?"
"Y-yeah?" she confirmed.
"That's an awesome dream, Ruby. Be a crying shame if that dream died because the world's on fire," he said simply.
Ruby glanced at her friend, dumbstruck. Hope continued, explaining himself.
"Ruby, I fight because you gave me a reason to. If it weren't for you, for Weiss, Blake, Yang, JNPR, CFVY, Glynda and the Beacon staff, I wouldn't have taken back my life and I would have let myself wallow in my misery till Judgement Day."
Hope gingerly took Ruby's head and placed it against his heart, hugging it softly and resulting in her silently squealing in embarrassment and surprise.
"I fight for this world because those I love are in it, I fight because this world is beautiful and deserves to be even better. I fight because I want you to achieve your dream. I fight because it's the right thing to do." Hope concluded. "Simple as."
"I-I..." Ruby stuttered. "I-I l-lo..."
I love you too.
She wanted to say that to her friend but for a reason she couldn't fathom, the words were stuck in her mouth. Strange, considering that she had said those exact words to him in the past and had no issues uttering the simple admission of affection. Ruby let out a drawn-out groan as steam shot out of her ears. She clenched her eyes shut.
"I-I... I THINK YOU'RE PWETTY COOL TOO!" She blurted out embarrassedly, already kicking herself for flubbing her line.
Ruby was utterly beside herself at her behaviour. What was happening? Why was her heart racing so much? Why does being touched by Anon made her feel all fuzzy and giddy inside? She did not know and that fact really annoyed her.
Hope ran his hand across the top of her head, enjoying the moment while Ruby agonized over her confused feelings. Hope spluttered.
"Fuck, that was a big tangent." He complained. "Why'd you want to know, anyways?"
Ruby thanked the light for this opportunity to change the subject and she pushed herself off of Hope and backed away. Despite already missing the sensation of being close to Hope, maybe then she'll be able to think clearly.
"Uuuuhm, well, Y-you know I uh..." Ruby muttered. "I just wonder what I should do. What my own goal should be."
"Don't you want to follow your dream?" Hope asked, consed about his red friend's indecision.
"Of course I do! It's just... It's a long-term thing, you know? I'm just not sure what to do in the meantime."
Hope hummed pensively.
"Anything you want to do?" He ended up asking.
Ruby hesitated.
"I don't know, really. I think there's something I might... Have, to do. But..."
Hope shrugged.
"Do what you have to do. But if you really don't want to, find someone else, or tell the insisting jackass to go fuck his mother."
Ruby stared at the ground, still troubled. Hope frowned, a tingling in the back of his brain warning him that there was possible nonsense. The previous sense of deja-vu turned into a vivid recollection of something that should have happened but didn't. Then he remembered that Ruby was called to Ozpin's office the day after Penny's semi-final victory.
A chill wind blew, and a grave-cold shiver froze the blood in his very vein.
"Ruby." His tone was shaken and grave. "What did Ozpin tell you?"
Once Ruby saw her friend's expression, she understood that he Knew. A part of her wanted to lie, to tell him that she was just stressed and reassure him that there was nothing wrong. But her gut told her that she couldn't lie to him even if she wanted to. Not to him.
"He gave me a choice and... I don't know if I should take it."
Hope's eyes slowly widened as the wires crossed, their sparks causing the scene in his mind changes. Models were switched and the prodigal gladiatrix was replaced by the red-clad reaper.
And the paladin was replaced by him.
"No..." Hope muttered angrily, startling Ruby. "No, no, no!"
Ozpin, you fucking CUNT!
"Whatever you do, do not accept Ozpin's proposal!" Hope demanded.
Ruby took a step back, Hope furious expression scaring her.
"A-Anon? What's wrong?"
"Do not accept Ozpin's proposal!"
A lump formed in her throat as a question burned her lips.
"What's going to happen?"
Hope exhaled furiously, his blood boiling with unrestrained rage. He knew what would happen if Ruby takes Pyrrha's canonical place. He just knew that it would end the exact same.
He won't lose a friend when he should have helped. Never again, even if it costs him everything.
Hope tried to calm himself down but that hill was steep.
"Do you know what would happen to you if you do?" Hope quizzed.
Ruby stuttered, unsure and scared of the possible implications.
"W-wait, so you know about-"
"Yes, I know about Amber!" He cut off. " I know about the maidens, I know about the relics, I know about Ozpin and his stupid fucking ex-wife! I knew about all of this since the fucking start. Now please, answer my question!"
"I... I would get the powers of the Autumn Maiden."
"Incorrect! You would get what's left of Amber's soul transferred into your body!"
Ruby flinched.
"Wait, what?!"
"Ozpin's method is flawed and transfers the soul in its entirety into the new vessel, maiden powers and all. This would cause the two souls to merge, destroying the individuality of the person or worse if the two souls aren't compatible. you could end up as the secondary personality on your own body."
His gaze darkened as another possibility came to mind. Hope began trembling.
"You could even just cease to exist, your personality completely erased and replaced by Amber's..."
Just like Oz...
Ruby began trembling as well, her knees failing her as she collapsed to the floor. She sobbed quietly as she held herself, her nerves having finally won out. Ruby fell into Hope's lap, curling into the fetal position. Hope's hands balled into tight fists, his nails digging into his palms. The only thing that prevented him from bleeding was the bandages that still wrapped his body.
"Don't do it." he exhaled, pleading.
"I don't know what to do..." Ruby sobbed pathetically. "I don't know what the right thing to do is anymore..."
"Whatever it is, this isn't it. Sacrificing yourself isn't always the right answer, especially when you're not at fault for the problem at hand."
Ruby sniffled.
"Would it stop the bad guys?"
"Stall them, maybe." Hope admitted pragmatically. "But no, it wouldn't stop them. Even in the best-case scenario, I think you'd just paint a target on your back. And then..."
Hope snarled, the image of Ruby being shot through the heart followed by her incineration enraging him further.
"All you are, reduced to ashes."
This did not reassure the demoralized reaper, as she kept sobbing. Hope had never been sure what the right thing to do was in many situations.
But right now, Hope knew what the right thing was in his mind was: Not let Ruby go.
...
It took some time until Ruby calmed down but by that point, she was so emotionally drained that she passed out in her friend's lap. Hope stared somberly at his tuckered friend, who clung to his shirt with desperate strength. He wiped away yet another tear that fell from her eyes. Fate had always been cruel to him, but to see it fall upon his friends was a most demoralizing sight. Seeing Ruby this miserable made him want to give up everything and just lay in bed with her, comforting her and taking care of her through the dark moments.
But you can't make the world a better place by coddling others.
In a cruel twist, maybe this was what Ruby needed to wake her out of her bright delusions that the world was full of nothing but hope, that everything will be fine and that nothing will ever change. Kill the child, so to speak. It could have been a gentler awakening to the horrors of the world, but such was life.
That is to say, a mean bitch to be conquered.
The familiar sound of heels reached his ears, its cadence quickening the closer it got.
"Anon!" He heard from a slight distance away.
A Goodwitch ran to the downed pair, her worried emerald eyes set upon the stress-stricken reaper. She knelt down, moving errant bangs off of Ruby's face.
"Did something happen?" She asked in concern.
"Your boss happened." Hope blithered venomously.
Glynda groaned, all too used to her ally's enmity. Surprisingly, she seemed to agree with him.
"What did he do this time?" she asked in aggravation.
"He chose her to replace Amber. and I explained to her the process and possible consequences."
Glynda winced, aware of the soul transfer process and the brutalist apparatus that enables it.
"Poor girl couldn't handle it..." Glynda said sympathetically.
"Stress from the tournament, stress from relationships, stress from Ozpin's expectations, stress from her soul being at risk if she accepts." Hope enumerated. "I'd want to give up too if I wasn't so spitefully stubborn."
Glynda frowned remorsefully.
"I'm so sorry you have to go through this..." She muttered to Ruby's unconscious body.
Hope flicked one of her ears, startling the teacher. She looked at him as she held her stinging ear, confused as to why he would do that.
"Don't apologize for what isn't your fault." Hope scolded. "This is no one's fault but his."
The blonde teacher sighed, resigned.
"Right."
Glynda flinched as she witnessed Hope stand up. She looked around frantically for his wheelchair but saw that it was nowhere to be seen. Hope groaned as he took hold of Ruby in a princess carry. She was light, but not worryingly so. Sometimes, Hope had to remind himself that she was still a sixteen-year-old girl, not just a Huntswoman-in-Training.
"Don't be reckless!" Glynda worried. "Where's your-"
"I'll be fine." Hope sighed. "I'm not about to collapse, not now. Not when she needs me."
Never again...
Hope walked off slowly, still heading his friend's worry and taking it easy.
"Anon," Glynda called out.
He stopped in his track, an otherwordly and eery glow in his eyes.
"Belial as my witness," Hope swore ominously. "Ozpin will pay. Dearly."
Glynda stared as Hope carried Ruby away, his back turned to her. The combat teacher rubbed her arm, looking at the floor guiltily. The sight of a tear-stained, miserable young girl was etched into her mind and created a pit in her stomach.
"Are we really in the right?" She asked herself. "Should we really do this?"
Unbeknownst to any save maybe Hope, a dark presence laid his scornful gaze on him.
"You think we should pull Ruby out?!"
Yang was bewildered by Weiss's sudden proposition. After waiting for two hours for Ruby to come back to their dorm room, they had begun talking about Ruby's unusual behaviour. It had come to a point that they began to worry about her degrading mental state. So much so that the idea of forfeiting came up.
"Honestly? I don't like it myself." Weiss admitted. "We have worked our butts off to get to this point. I mean, We are literally at the finish line! But you have to admit that something's wrong with her."
Despite her genuine dislike for the idea, her sister's mental health had been steadily degrading for a few days. Yang actually pinpointed it to the day she, Hope and their friend Penny went out to celebrate her qualification for the finals.
She had a pretty good idea of what might have happened for Ruby to be so down in the dumps, even if she would deny it or tried to act innocent.
She had expected Ruby's crushed crush to fade out after a day or two but for her to be depressed to this extent was worrying. No, something else needs to have happened for Ruby to have been so messed up by it. The older sister in the room sighed.
"No, you have a point. Something's not right."
"No kidding," Blake added. "She looked really tired the last time I saw her. I'd almost go as far as to say she looked sick."
A knock came at the door. Yang held up a finger as she went to open the door.
"We'll talk about it when Ruby comes back."
Upon swinging the door open, Yang's lilac orbs were met with a pair of frustrated blue eyes. her eyes widened once she saw her little sister clinging to him in a princess carry, sleeping with an uneasy snore. Normally, Yang might grin with the intention of teasing her later for it but upon seeing her tear-ravaged visage, she swallowed that notion back.
That and also because Hope looked like he was about to commit first-degree murder.
"Sweet mother of mercy!" Yang muttered as she stepped aside to let him in.
Hope strode in with Ruby in hand, walking straight towards the team leader's bed. The girls crowded behind him, watching over their leader with a mix of concern and curiosity.
"What happened?" Yang asked as she rushed behind him.
Hope ignored them as he lay the girl down on her bed. Her hands gripped his collar, refusing to let go. Her expression worsened as her friend tried to pull away, whimpering as if she was having a nightmare. Anon gently took her hands into his before kissing her forehead.
"I'll be right here, boss," he whispered into her ear.
Her expression lightened, one last tear falling from her eyes.
"A...non..." she mumbled before resuming snoring.
"Sleep easy, Ruby."
She finally let go, freeing him at last. Hope began quaking before collapsing on top of Weiss's bed. The owner of the bed in question immediately rushed to help him sit up, paling at the sight of blood on the side of his shirt.
"Shit!" She swore. "Get the first aid bag and my sewing kit!"
The other duo of team RWBY rushed about the room collecting the desired tool collections as Weiss tore off Anon's shirt and ruined bandages to use as a makeshift compress.
"Goddamnit!" Weiss cursed. "Your stitches snapped."
She picked the ruined stitched out of the two-thirds healed wound. Yang and Blake came back with two wildly different bags, a white one with a big green cross and a leather one with fancy embroidery on the front flap.
"Open the leather bag and get me a number ten (#10) sharps with robust string!" She ordered. "Get me a shot of medical alcohol too."
Yang pulled out a needle and the strongest-looking tread in the bag. Weiss snatched it out of her hand, swearing out a complaint but going along anyways. Blake prepared a small cloth damp with disinfectant while Weiss threaded the needle. Blake sponged the wound off with Hope's ruined shirt before thoroughly disinfecting it. Once clean, Weiss put herself to work to reunite the seem in Hope's flesh.
"There!" Weiss breathed out. "All done."
The stitches were surprisingly sturdy, sturdier than the medical fibre used previously at least. Yang applied a large band-aid on the wound before re-wrapping his side. Hope, who had been completely silent while they did their emergency work, patted his side gently.
"Good work." he praised neutrally.
"You complete dolt!" Weiss hissed. "What were you thinking!?"
Hope pointed up with his thumb.
"Guess."
Weiss groaned as she rubbed her temples. Blake sat opposite of Weiss while Yang fetched a chair.
"What happened?" RWBY's black cat asked, knowing already that something bad was afoot.
Hope took in a deep breath, his mood still dire, as he went to explain everything that happened between him and Ruby.
Outside the dorm room, a familiar form leaned next to the door with a fiendish grin. Cinder lent an ear to the door, her smile widening as she heard the outrage of those inside the room.
"And now, to let the discord tear their alliance apart..." She taunted. "You should have kept yourself in his good grace, Ozma. Because now..."
Her eyes glowed a fervent autumn orange.
"Allegiances die."
V3E9: END!
NEXT ON PLAYLIST: V3E10 - PLAY?
