Summer faded into the wind, leaving Ruby to stare up blankly at Pyrrha.

The Knight Captain, who had taken to casually levitating a foot off the ground, leaned back with relief. "Well, the good news is that Jacques makes terrible contracts."

Ruby stared, her silver eye now washed a dun grey.

"Oh, the bad news, you ask?"

Ruby stared.

"There isn't any," her scroll rolled up in a snap, disappearing the moment it impacted Pyrrha's palm. "Well, I suppose there could be some bad news, but it depends on your perspective."

Ruby stared.

"Your perspective, specifically— as someone I'm about to murder. In that case, the news could be bad."

Ruby stared. She made a thin, strained noise.

"What?" Pyrrha looked around. "Oh, where'd that soul go?"

Ruby made another noise, one that sounded vaguely like a sob.

"You knew it?"

A tear slipped past Ruby's eye.

"I'll take that as a yes," Pyrrha shrugged. "Your mother, right?"

Ruby stared for a long time, then blinked. Another tear fled her lens.

"Educated guess," she lied, though Ruby was too shattered to notice. "Did she say anything?"

Ruby could only blink and stare. Tears flowed freely from both eyes, half of them squeezed past the bruised lump of her shattered orbital before tracking down her face, finally pooling against a branch speared through her cheek.

Pyrrha hummed. "I didn't know they could do that. Then again, this is all very new to me."

Ruby stared, watching Pyrrha's wings float like gossamer in the breeze. The eyes among the membranes stared back. Her working eye burned, forced to hold itself open for Pyrrha's resplendence, while the other begged to behold the Knight Captain.

Pyrrha floated closer, her words coming before her mouth moved. "Are you ready yet?"

Silver watched from the wings, calling Ruby's soul into their embrace. She was in so much pain. She could be free of it all. Open arms waited at the end of the tunnel. A gurgling sound, the closest her mangled jaw could get to 'mama', squeaked past her throat.

Pyrrha smiled wide and dropped back down to the ground, hands extending to wrap around the girl's neck. Broken, alone, hopeless, Ruby plummeted into her fate. At the very least, she could look forward to Summer's embrace. Ruby closed her eyes, and let go.

No more pain. Mother awaits.

Pain. More pain. So much more pain, enough to make her eye rip back open and force a wet cry out of her throat. Her world was dark, she saw nothing.

Something pulled her face out of the dirt, then righted her body against itself. She saw Pyrrha. Distant. Frozen in shock. Hands still extended. Emerald eyes slowly turning.

Things were wrapped around her waist. Clinking metal. Cold links. Warm arms. Pressing tight. Rips in her clothes.

Words reached her ears.

"Crook and cane, Ruby!"

Her angel— it was nice to hear her again.

"Y-you're going to be okay! I've got you."

Warm.

"Stay with me."

Demanding. Pleading. Pulling her close. Ignoring her screams. White hot pain.

"Don't ever do that again!"

Desperation, a man who can't bury any more of his family.

"Why the fuck did you do that!"

The rage of a woman who wasn't strong enough to protect her little sister.

"Shit, uh… shit."

Cursing was all she could do— even her smugness failed her.

Pyrrha turned fully towards them, her form momentarily flickering between the vaguely-human Knight and the envoy of the Chasm. The disbelief hadn't yet faded from her face, even as she drew a spear from her palm. Her voice was hushed, but it sliced into their ears with ease. "What do you think you're doing?"

The chains at Ruby's waist wrapped tight against her broken body. She cried out. The arms pulled her closer. It didn't ease the pain.

Pyrrha stared at their huddled group, a voracious grin splitting her face. The words rolled across Ruby, too much for her brain to properly sequence.

"Oh? What's this? Are you trying to make it easier for me?"

"Don't listen to her."

"I fucking know."

"She's just trying to—"

"Shut up and let me fucking focus!"

Pyrrha took slow steps in their direction, her body twitching with bloodlust.

"Hurry!"

"She's getting closer!"

"Shut up, shut up!"

"Blake, open the fucking—"

"You can't escape me."

"Fuck you!"

"Fucking quiet!"

"Weiss, do something!"

"I can't, it's too dry!"

"Who fucking cares! Just do something! Anything!"

"I'll hurt—"

"Fucking look at Ruby! Who cares if you'll hurt yourself!"

Ruby barely heard her name. The battle of words was a distant din. Her head swam. One arm left its embrace at her waist and stretched past Ruby, fingers splayed wide as frost crept over the hand.

The pale white skin shriveled and greyed as the ice coating grew pink, absorbing whatever liquid Weiss' blood could spare. A single shard of frozen crimson formed in her palm, then launched at Pyrrha.

The Knight Captain let it shatter against her. Her lips parted in a smirk. "Seriously? That's it?"

"More, Weiss, for fucks sake!"

"It's too fucking dry! I can only lose so much!"

"Use Ruby's!"

Her name again. Why wasn't she dead yet? She'd already let go— she wanted to see her mother.

"Are you insane?"

"Look at how much she's lost! Use that, it's not like you can put it back!"

"Fine!"

The blood pouring from Ruby's wounds floated up in spiraling tendrils, forming a plume of needle-thin spikes. Oddly, of all things, that didn't hurt. Whether that was good, or a sign of Ruby's encroachment upon death, she couldn't tell.

She was suddenly shuffled, forcefully pressing her battered abdomen against her chains— oh. There's a branch in her stomach. That's… she really should feel that.

"Move over!"

"What? Why!"

"Contract!"

Heat flashed from behind. Hands fumbled around Ruby's waist.

"What the fuck are you doing?"

"Helping!"

"Now!"

Orbs of shimmering golden fire flew at Pyrrha in winding paths. The Knight Captain raised a hand to intercept the first.

The flames slapped against her palm, but didn't dissipate, instead burning even brighter as they devoured Pyrrha's Aura. Her emerald eyes widened, her smirk faded. "Is this—"

Another golden orb smashed against her chest, the fire wrapping around her bare waist like it was liquid. The Knight Captain, surprisingly, flailed to throw them off. More orbs enveloped her legs, making her dance with fury and burning pain. Her spear became a thin circle of metal, which she used to bat the rest of the orbs away.

She pulled the shield aside, giving them a good look at her furious visage. "This can't kill—"

Hundreds of bloody shards swarmed over her face, the tiny frozen needles piercing every inch of exposed flesh. Pyrrha grit her teeth and growled.

"I will not be insul—"

Ruby's iron dagger sunk deep into her forehead, thrown by someone the smith couldn't turn to see. Pyrrha's eyes crossed to glower up at the handle. Her being alive surprised nobody, at this point.

"Which one of you—"

The last arm holding Ruby snaked down to her waist, drew her hammer from its loop, then cast it at blistering speed. The tool flew perfectly straight, a telltale sign of Weiss' telekinesis, before the head smashed against the dagger's butt. Pyrrha's head rocked back from the blow, her face still covered in melting crimson needles.

Something warm and wet dripped over the crown of Ruby's head. Somebody screamed through their teeth. The chain wrapped even tighter around her waist, its metal vibrating with a low hum.

"It's unstable, I need more time!"

Pyrrha's head fell again. Her eyes were overflowing with rage, and the melting blood-ice covered her face with creeks of red. She reached up and ripped the dagger from her skull, its handle snapping in her grip.

The Knight Captain reformed her spear.

"We don't have more time, open it!"

"We could—"

Pyrrha's storming footsteps shook the ground. Her encroaching presence distorted the air. Six membranous wings flexed furiously behind her.

"Open it, now!"

"Just let me—"

Pyrrha sprinted towards them, her face twisted in a snarl and her spear raised. Hands furiously yanked at Ruby's belt. Two flying swords, a falchion, and a knife were easily batted out of the air by the Knight Captain.

"Blake!"

"Open the damn gate!"

"I need more fucking time!"

The Knight Captain was upon them. Its smile was a thousand knives. Its voice was murder. "Hello again."

"Go fuck your—"

"Watcher's fucking—"

"Shepherd preserve—"

The world swallowed her.

Ruby sank into infinite, streaking darkness, anchored only by the stretch of iron links at her waist. She tumbled through the swirling depths, limp and broken. Spinning through empty eternity, she caught the occasional glimpse of the chain's form. Its links were unending, plunging beyond the abyss' impenetrable gloom. New colors ebbed and flowed around her, alighting just long enough to sear her mind before they completely retreated from her thinning consciousness.

She was alone, her only company being the chain and the blinding anguish that permeated every cell of her body. When her working eye finally fell shut, she wasn't sure it would ever open again. For all she knew, this would be her final resting place. She was too close to the edge to process that.

Her consciousness slipped into the Chasm. Ruby floated limp in the dark.