'You're doing the wrong thing, Weiss.'

Another tangle, cut to ribbons.

'You need to go back.'

More vines, all this useless forest has to offer.

'You didn't kill him, I'm sure they'll forgive you.'

Cut the vines, just like she did to Qrow, only these didn't have Blake to save them.

'Weiss, please! Even I know this isn't right!'

More bloody vines. Stupid forest.

'For fuck's sake, stop!'

"No."

'Whyare you even doing this?'

"You know why." Blade met vine— a perfect match.

'No, actually I don't!'

"Shut up."

She cut another tangle, the shorn ends bled drops of pinkish fluid. Weiss considered imbibing from them, but she wasn't that thirsty yet. It had only been…

'Please, Weiss, you've spent all day cutting, take a rest and reconsider!'

That's right, a day. She'd made good ground for a day. Perhaps she should rest.

"No, they'll catch up with me."

'Wounded as they are? I highly doubt it.'

"Wounded as I made them."

'Shepherd's fucking gaze, Weiss, it's not your fault! You were seeing things!'

"Watcher's gaze, Aulus," she mumbled, parting another of the endless gauntlet of feeble red vines. "Shepherd's embrace, Shepherd's crook, Shepherd's flock," another tangle fell victim to her blade. "Shepherd's tits."

She could feel the sword recoil, somehow. 'Never say 'tits' again.'

"Tits, tits, tits," she childishly retorted, each word punctuated by a slash of her sword, "cunt, shit, balls. Cock."

'What's gotten into you?'

Sap. The truth. A harrowing realization of the duty to which she's shackled herself. "I curse. It's nothing new."

'Did you think if you said one thing out loud, I wouldn't hear the other things?'

Yes. "No."

'Please go back.'

"There is no going back, Aulus."

She felt its unease. His unease. Its. 'Please don't call me that.'

Weiss freed her path of another tangle. "Why not? It's your name."

'You call me an 'it' and think you can use my name?'

Fine. His unease— it was still there. "Would you prefer Casta? Or just 'sword'?"

'...'

She wasn't sure how she could hear a pregnant pause in her head, but evidently she could.

'Aulus is… fine.'

Weiss hummed. She didn't have anything else to say.

'Perfect time for me to fill your head with convincing arguments for returning to your friends.'

Weiss snorted. Friends don't cut each other.

'Some do.'

Not good ones.

She heard its— his long, exasperated sigh. 'You're a good person, Weiss.'

Weiss barked one harsh, rueful laugh. "I'm a murderer."

'You didn't kill the Huntsman! He's a human, I'msure he's already regenerated the worst of it. You people have freakishly fast Auras.'

"That's not who I'm talking about."

'You're not a killer.'

He stared into her eyes, she watched him vomit his guts out. "I am."

This time, Aulus jerked back so hard even the sworditselfrecoiled. 'The hell was that?'

So he couldn't see her memories unless she pushed them? That's… interesting. Not a relief, per se, but interesting. "I'm a murderer."

'That's… contextual.'

What's an acceptable context for making a man hemorrhage to death?

'I imagine he was going to kill you.'

Weiss snorted. "I doubt my father's men would so quickly jump to killing me, they probably just wanted to capture me. They're not killers like I am. "

'Well, it didn't seem like you killed him, was it more of an accident?'

"A corpse can't take excuses."

'It's not an excuse! It was an accident, wasn't it!'

Tell that to his grieving family. "It doesn't matter."

'It does!'

"I'll get used to it."

Silence. Another pregnant pause, only this one died in labor. 'Please don't.'

She will. "I will."

'Why?'

For Ruby. "For Ruby."

'She's just a girl, Weiss! You don't have to do this, the world will forget her in time!'

"Sure, after they've hanged her."

The image of Ruby swinging from a noose was enough to shut both of them up. At least for a while.

'You're not a bad person.'

So they're skipping the 'good person' talk now? How wonderful. "I don't care."

'You will care. When you sit atop your throne of corpses, you'll care.'

"Speaking from experience?"

Of course he was. 'Of course I am.'

Ah, so she could hear his thoughts, too. Great.

'My being a sword isn't what aligns your strokes,' Aulus muttered after a while, 'my memory of wieldingit does.'

Weiss watched the edge part another tangle. A perfect cut, as usual. "So you were… what, a soldier?"

Something like that. 'Yes.'

"Care to elaborate?"

Desperately. 'No.'

"Did you think if you said one thing—"

'Not now, Weiss. Just… keep cutting.'

She didn't need his permission. "I'm not the one doing it."

'Eh, you're doing most of the work. At least half.'

Weiss quirked one brow at the sword. "No, it's… you, isn't it?"

How could she describe the feeling of seeing someone shrug in her mind? 'Edge alignment, mostly, but I've been gradually letting off. You're starting to get a feel for it on your own.'

Weiss swung it again, and noticed that she could actually feel a difference. Before, he was basically swinging her whole arm for her, but now the external control was limited to her wrist and grip. "Huh. It's like you've been teaching me."

'You could say that.'

She could also think it.

'You're not clever. Turn around and go take some lessons from that fay.'

And just like that, all the rapport she'd been building with the sword was once again sucked away. "I'd rather not."

'I could make you.'

Weiss laughed. "You already wasted your ploy for control, Aulus. Good luck trying that again."

He grumbled, then held a long moment of blissful silence in her head. 'I am… sorry, for that.'

Weiss rolled her eyes. "I'm sure you are."

'I don't expect you to forgive me.'

"Good."

'Please go back.'

Why was he even so adamant about that?

'Because you have people that care about you. I got left in a Grimm for fuck-knows how long.'

"Blake doesn't care about—"

'Shut up, we both know that's not true.'

"You don't know her."

'I know enough.'

Ooooh, vague. How convincing.

'Fuck you.'

Weiss snorted. "Wouldn't you love to."

Now it was the sword's time to laugh. 'You don't even know what that entails.'

Weiss reddened. "I—"

'You literally cannot lie to me, so don't try.'

She buttoned her lips. Weiss hated how right he was.

'Besides, you've got that girl. I'm not one to ruin a happy couple.'

"So says the one who—"

'You would be the one to do that,' Aulus continued, interrupting her, 'what with this… asinine fuckery you've committed yourself to.'

Asinine fuckery? Weiss' teeth ground together. "Don't remind me, I have todo this. For her."

'Why shouldn't I? Are you afraid you'll crumble and run back to them?'

Yes. "Not at all."

Aulus cackled, but his laughter died too quickly to be real. 'Weiss, you cant just—'

Her next hack was rough, slamming straight through a tangle and burying her blade into a protruding root. "Shut up, will you! You don't know what you're saying!"

'I know that—'

She shouted over his voice, "I'm notgood, but she is! She's beautiful and talented and much too good to be ruined at my side! I won't let that happen to her, she deserves a normal life!" Weiss yanked the sword out of the root, drawing a bead of sap that drew her eye for far too long. Some part of her begged her to kneel and lap at the tree's wound. She managed to rip her gaze aside and focus on the next tangle in her path, but only after a long, agonizing moment.

Her fingers clenched the hilt, knuckles going white. "There's only one way she can have that, and if I have to sacrifice myself to give that to her, I will."

'You deserve a normal life too, Weiss.'

"All that killers deserve is the gallows."

Aulus scoffed. 'You're an idiot. If you're going to take lives, the least you could do is appreciate your own.'

A poignant statement, unfortunately wasted on her. "There's nothing to appreciate."

'Kiss the girl and tell me that again.'

She could feel Ruby's warm lips on hers, how their bodies slotted together like they'd been made for it. Absolute bliss.

'See?'

Weiss threw her gaze aside, her tongue bitter as she spoke. "It's a dream, Aulus, one that the Knight Captain would awaken me from eventually."

'You could find a way.'

"What a useless platitude. You don't even believe that."

Fuck, why couldn't he have been paired with someone less socially apt? 'Please, Weiss. Turn back, you could… you could figure something out.'

Weiss sneered at the sword. "Not with your contract, I couldn't."

She could feel how deeply that cut him. Ironic, considering.

Finally, they sank into true silence. No words, no shared thoughts, just the sound of a sword hacking through the Forever Fall.

It didn't last long. She had been cutting for a while, after all.

She couldn't have known which swipe would be the last, but the sight of a stone-paved road made her gasp. Even at the forest's very edge, there was no way to see the road through the foliage— it was as if the dense flora was a solid wall, and the cut between forest and road had no taper, no gradient.

Weiss stumbled onto the road. One side was the Forever Fall's arbor barricade, the other was a field of man-high, reddish grass. She took a deep breath. The air was different here, no longer a thick, humid miasma— this was crisp, clear, and the lack of an oppressive canopy finally let her see the sky. No clouds, no stars, just a firmament that shimmered like the scales of a fish. Some nagging figment told her she could smell roses.

Weiss fell to her knees and panted, her hand exploding with soreness as she let the handle tumble from her grip. She stayed there for a while. It took every ounce of her will just to keep her from lying on the stones.

'Weiss.'

"It's too late, Aulus," she mumbled, barely awake. "No way am I turning back now."

'Weiss, get. Up.'

She looked at the sword. She didn't like the panic in his voice. "I don't think I can stand—"

'Someone is coming.'

Weiss blinked. "W-what? Who?"

'Get up, Weiss. You need to run.'

The smirk she gave Aulus was shaky, hoping that this was just a strange joke. "Pyrrha couldn't have found me yet."

'Not Pyrrha. Grab me and run.'

Not a joke, then. With her non-dominant, non-aching hand, she grabbed the sword and started pushing herself up.

'Faster, faster! Get us out of here!'

"Shut up, I'm exhausted! Give me a—"

'Oh, fuck.'

Stumbling on her feet, she tightened her grip. That didn't sound good. "What?"

'It's too late.'

Weiss glared, frustrated at the sword's vagueness. "Too late for—"

A velvety voice called from behind. "Ah, just who I was looking for."