"It's not that difficult, see?" Weiss circled a small section of her notes, hushing Ruby closer. "Notice how I've laid out my examples and mixed them in with what I'm trying to request?"
"It... seems a little..." Ruby hummed, attempting to find the right word. What was it her Uncle Qrow called these types of things, where you essentially trick someone into thinking they're coming out on top, while you end up being the only person to walk away with anything; a technique she'd used more often than not to insert herself into Yang's little outings with her friends, even if everyone else didn't really look all that happy.
"Complex and professional?"
"Scummy." That was it. Quite proud of herself, she turned towards Weiss, only to catch the tail end of a sigh, and a somewhat fatigued look. Furrowing her brow, Ruby focused on the expression of her teammate; was that the 'I can't handle this' face, or the 'why do I even bother' one?
"Alright." Weiss straightened her posture, although Ruby wasn't sure why - the chairs of the library were never really all that comfortable, sure, but they weren't that bad. "It appears I need to be a bit more direct."
"Wait." Ruby tilted her head. "You weren't before?"
"I'd assumed you might be quick enough to catch on, but it looks like you're just as slow as to be expected." That was a low blow, and Ruby was sure Weiss knew it, but darn if it didn't serve its purpose to get her a tiny bit pumped with rebellious attitude.
"Okay okay." Ruby grumbled, rolling her eyes as she flipped to a fresh sheet of paper in her notebook. "I'll work on my lying."
"It's not lying Ruby." Weiss paused for a second, seemingly shifting through her vast reserves of knowledge in an attempt to find a more apt way of putting what she'd hoped to convey. Ruby really wasn't sure what other way there was to present it though; tricks were just that, tricks. That didn't stop the heiress, and her eyes - after darkening a substantial amount for no discernible reason, soon lit up again. "Think of it like bargaining."
"Bargaining?" At the very least, she was familiar with that. Her Uncle Qrow and Yang liked to bargain all the time, especially when it came to how late they stayed out - at least on her sister's end, her uncle was usually trying to beg her dad not to tell the many, many women who came knocking that he'd taken to hiding out in the shed. Most of the time for her uncle, her dad never really felt like obliging.
"Yes, bargaining." Weiss linked her fingers, swinging over and crossing one leg over the other. "Listen Ruby, I know it might seem a bit deceitful, but being able to trade effectively is one of the cornerstones of being a huntress."
As well as many other careers in life, but this chat wasn't about those, it was about Ruby and how she needed to up her writing skills.
Still, even with a fundamental misunderstanding of the techniques they needed to pass many tests here in the academy, Weiss found her team leader's simple and optimistic innocence refreshing. Usually, the types of company she'd hung around with as a child had been more than adequately versed in the vast lexicon of swindling; everyone and everything had an ulterior motive, even the young boys and girls who'd been forced to develop relationships with one another, all for the potential connections such unions would bear amongst the higher class families of Atlas.
Truthfully, Ruby didn't really need all this extra negotiation-based ammunition, but Weiss felt it prudent that her leader be ready for anything. And besides, she'd be covering the exact writing structure her leader lacked so much as to obtain her low test scores later anyways, so what harm was there in broadening the lesson a little?
The library, thankfully, was rather empty today, save a few stragglers, meaning they had a good chunk of it to themselves. While the absence of others may seem off putting to most, for Weiss, it played a nostalgic tune. Much like her earlier days, Weiss sat alone with only one other individual, staring at books and preparing herself for the future. The few who did pass them by paid little mind to their presence, far too caught up in their own business to be bothered with them.
Unlike before, however, Weiss was not the one being lectured.
She couldn't say it felt all that much better to be on the other side of the mirror, but there was this sublime taste of sweetness in knowing she was helping her partner improve. Maybe she wasn't the leader, but following in and of itself didn't necessarily need to be a bad thing. Her father always said that they were leaders, and did not bow to anyone. And yet, ironically enough, everyone in their household bowed to someone, and that someone was him.
Her father, Jacques Schnee, was the only one who apparently took counsel from none.
Shutting the cover of bygone memories, Weiss noted a distinct lack of pencil scribbling, and a quick glance at Ruby said more than enough. The girl stared off into the distance again, for what must have been the third time since their arrival. She'd been mid word before whatever constricting her mind latched on once more. At first, Weiss had assumed it was just her partner being in a bad mood, but the consistency of these apparent daydreams whispered otherwise.
Deciding enough was enough, Weiss tore away the veil, and got straight to the point with a suddenness that shook Ruby herself.
"Ruby." The call rang through with the same volume as ever, but the tone itself stood steady. Ruby stumbled a bit, hopping up in her seat, and shot her face over.
"Bwa?! What's happened?!"
Weiss was sure her crossed arms and general expression was enough to get her point across, and Ruby, having at least enough sense to recognise it, sheepishly mumbled out an apology. "I'm sorry."
Rather than chastise her, Weiss opted to try questioning the young woman's mood.
"You're not usually like this." She stated, letting some of the edge dull from her voice. "Normally you goof off with your pencil or draw, so I know you're not bored; certainly not enough to leave you staring off into space... Is something the matter?"
The silence following sat so uneasy, blatant in its displacement; uncharacteristic for the usually playful and fittingly quite childish leader of team RWBY. So much like her little brother, Whitley, and a reminder that he now remained as the last of her siblings back at home. Alone, unprotected, and now the only target for degenerate terrorists who think their examples mean anything.
Weiss only caught herself when she noticed Velvet give her an odd look from off in the distance.
Oh, great, it's rubbing off on me now. Weiss gave a short, albeit respectful wave, and Velvet returned it with a touch more confusion. She hadn't been able to recall exactly when, but the often favored target of team CRDL's bullying had wandered in during their study session. Did this matter to either Ruby or her? No, not directly, but it did nothing to help quell the tiny bit of her paranoid brain. If anything, the faunus woman's presence only set her on edge.
She knew it wasn't Velvet's fault for this illogical concern, but Weiss just couldn't get comfortable with their kind around.
"Hey." Ruby's voice fell significantly, and Weiss, letting go of her pointless worries, returned her view to the younger girl. "Can I ask you something?"
"Of course." A near emotional tone; again, this was so unlike the Ruby she'd just started her true partnership with.
Ruby fiddled with her fingers, before hunching over, appearing to shrink a little as she spoke. "Have you ever gotten this... I don't know... "weird feeling" around certain people?"
"I..." That was an odd thing to ask, and uncomfortably vague. "Can you specify this "weird feeling" a bit more?"
"It's..." Ruby grumbled, scratching at her head with both hands and ruffling up her own hair, leaving a few tangles as she looked more than a little fed up. "Augh! It's... it's like..." Ruby paused at this point, breathing in and out, before finally finding the words. "Have you ever felt a little... not safe, around anyone before? And I don't mean like 'they hurt me and now I know to be careful' or anything like that. I mean, has anyone ever made you feel like you were in danger for no reason, even though they haven't technically done anything to you, and you know they probably wouldn't, or couldn't?"
Ironically, Weiss's eyes flicked back to Velvet as she stood from her table, closing her book and making to leave.
"More than you might believe." This wasn't so much meant for Ruby, but rather a reminder to herself that her own emotions were not based in anything other than caution for her own life. Her lifelong ally, guilt, wedged itself in her heart as Weiss returned her eyes to her partner. "I know what you're getting at: you know they have no ill intentions towards you, and yet you can't help but feel a little cautious."
Velvet was nothing more than another young woman looking to be a huntress, and even though Weiss felt the obvious pity towards the bullying she faced on a daily basis simply for her race, the Schnee couldn't exactly look at the girl with true... she supposed the word would be 'trust.' Of course, she'd never say that out loud, but hopefully Ruby would believe her when she claimed to know a thing or two about seemingly senseless fear.
"And..." Ruby froze again, for just an instant, before looking away almost shamefully. "How do you deal with it? It's not fair to feel like that, is it?"
"It both is, and isn't, fair." Ruby returned a look to her, face hand-painted hesitantly with little flickers of both hope and concern. From her perspective, it sounded as though it weren't as simple as she might have been expecting, but despite this, Ruby silently pleaded to sit at least partially wrong.
"How?"
Weiss folded her arms on the table who previously carried nothing more than the study materials she'd brought along to teach her leader. Don't get her wrong, Weiss had a fairly effective strategy for dealing with those particular emotions, but she wasn't sure Ruby would adopt them so willingly. Her prime method for all these years had been one of shrouds.
Passing out smiles, shaking hands, and keeping her sword-arm ready.
"Because your feelings are valid." Best to start simple then, and lean into the topic more completely over time, easing it in as opposed to taking the charge - ironically, the opposite of how most of her team appeared to act during any given situation. "But at the same time, you feel the way you do for a reason. Maybe these individuals you feel strange about haven't hurt you themselves, but a part of you recognises something in their presence, and it reminds you of unpleasant elements in your life."
"But he doesn't." Ruby whispered, only to clam up a moment later. He... so that was it. Weiss had a pretty good feeling she knew what this was about now, especially when Ruby looked her way with wary eyes.
"This is about that guy, isn't it?"
Ruby never said anything... at least, not until Weiss herself lifted a brow, throwing up an expression which practically did the asking for her. Her leader groaned, falling face first on her partially written essay.
"Yeah." It came muffled from beneath her arms, which had wrapped themselves over and around the head laying on its scribbled bedding. "He hasn't done anything all that bad, but I feel weird around him."
"His is rather... uncomfortable." Or, in Yang's presumable opinion, creepy, but that was neither here nor there. Weiss settled into a more relaxed posture; now that she knew who this was about, things could flow much smoother. "Ordinarily, I'd guess that you might be feeling a little strange since he grabbed you at first, but you've made it abundantly clear you don't care about that."
"It was an accident." Ruby said without hesitation, and Weiss sighed.
"I know, and I believe you." Partially, but this was about the feeling Ruby had around Jay, and not their own personal thoughts on the man who'd suspiciously looked so similar to their leader. It was time to root out the issue. "Instead, why don't you tell me what exactly you're feeling?"
"Jumpy." She spat, lifting her head and settling her chin atop her arms, who crossed into and filled the vacant space where her mug previously sat. She seemed almost annoyed as she spoke, which mirrored her expression. "And a little gross. I just don't get it. He's never tried to do anything, or suggest anything weird. Even today, he seemed... normal."
"Today?" Ruby clammed up again, and Weiss sighed, which in and of itself seemed to become a trend. "Okay, I see this is a topic for a later time. Just tell me what happened."
Taking a second, Ruby eventually opened up.
"I went to check up on him, you know, to see if he was doing okay, and he was." Ruby continued to struggle, less with her words and more so with her own emotions in regards to what she told. "Everything was fine, if a little awkward. I took him to see Coco, because she asked me to grab him when I went out, and we spent some time getting measured."
"Measured?" Weiss got her answer, albeit half-heartedly.
"Yeah, you know, for clothes and stuff." Ruby never even looked at her, but Weiss once again pushed that fact aside, making a mental note to spend time with Coco some more, even if it meant being close to Velvet.
She's not one of them. Weiss told herself briefly, reassuring her of the girl's innocence, and attempting to quell the subtle flames peaking through the ashes of suspicion. Not every faunus was one of them, and not every faunus would jump her around every corner. But even with this knowledge, it never hurts to be prepared.
"Right, clothes; carry on." Forcing her negative thoughts away, Weiss probed Ruby to continue, and she obliged.
"We got outside and... Bah!" Ripping herself up and swinging her arms, this startled Weiss. "I'm so stupid!"
"Ruby!" Weiss spoke a touch louder before attempting to shush the girl. "We're in a library."
But Ruby couldn't hear, seeming so absorbed in her own little world.
"I should have said something, anything. And what did I do? I dashed off like a weirdo." Thankfully, the shouting had been a one-time thing, with Ruby falling back into her seat with a lifeless thump. "He probably thinks I hate him or something."
"Ruby." Weiss sighed, again, and leaned on her elbow. "I don't think something like that is enough to upset him. He..." And Weiss again shuddered a little on the inside just thinking about it, and the implications; even if he hadn't done anything, it was still a bad look to mirror an underage girl. "Someone who dresses like you couldn't possibly be so quick to assume such a thing."
"And how would you know?" Ruby bit her lip, appearing to catch how hard that came out. "Sorry, that sounded a little mean."
"It's fine." At best, the words stung a bit, but nothing more than a pinprick. Weiss knew Ruby didn't hate her; dislike, perhaps a smear, but not full blown hate. "I've had worse." Getting herself back on track, Weiss provided her own answer to Ruby's apparent dilemma. "And if you want to know how I know, just look at Jaune."
The way Ruby's face flattened amused her in ways the girl would never know, and so she added fuel to the fire.
"I've told him off more times than I could count, but does he listen? No, he just keeps on trying. And, to add onto that, he doesn't even dress like me." Putting on a calm smile, Weiss did her best to speak in what she hoped was a comforting voice. "Your apparent copy has probably forgotten about it by now."
"If you say so." Ruby's eyes dropped to the paper again, before suddenly, her voice shook up Weiss once more. "I know it's none of my business, but... why do you keep saying no?"
To Jaune, Weiss presumed, knowing full well what Ruby meant. But the girl apparently didn't stop there, and kept on with, "he's nice, and sometimes funny. But you always act so... so cruel when it comes to him. What did he do to make you mad?"
The way her fingers twitched told Weiss that this question wasn't so much one of pure curiosity, but rather a bit of defense. In a way, she had no one else to blame but herself for this; Jaune was Ruby's friend, and from Ruby's perspective, she was always... rough when it came to the boy.
Apparently, Ruby was getting more than one thing off her chest today.
Realistically, Ruby had a point; and to tell the truth, Jaune had actually only asked her out three times total, but even that was too far, because she knew it wouldn't stop there. But Ruby wouldn't understand how she felt, not when it came to Jaune, because even Weiss herself knew the reason was unfair, and rather bigoted in a way.
Jaune Arc, despite being a student of Beacon, and thus one of the skilled elite, gave off the air of a peasant; more than even Cardin and his crew.
Dust, that sounded so bad, even in her head, but it was the truth.
Her father had always spoken of the common folk, of the ways they went about their lives so miserably, and it always greatly disturbed her with how casually he could dismiss them, as if they weren't even people. He spoke of them as dirty, stupid, and lazy, claiming their poverty was a consequence of their own doing, and that they had neither the effort nor wit to search for and take up a better stake in life.
Weiss hated it, and wanted so badly to prove him wrong. But unfortunately, Jaune Arc came along, and appeared to be all of those things.
Realistically, he couldn't be the absolute worst type of person if he was in Beacon, but his performances in class and even his test scores were some of the lowest in their year - even compared to Ruby for Brothers' sake. Along with that, his behavior and words came off entirely as fiction; everything he boasted about in his boyish attempts to sound appealing were the same sorts of lies her father preached to her about, and the rest of it was just mindless dribble to try and sound charming. It was all just so damn fake. And, as if that weren't enough, he couldn't take a hint. All he had to do was accept her decision in the matter: that she didn't particularly fancy him.
That was the worst part of all.
Had Jaune just moved on after the first time, or heck, even the second, then she wouldn't be so damning in her ridicule of his advances. Deep down, she wanted to say this was all speculation and quick assumption on her part, but every few moons Jaune would only try again, and he would do something equally stupid and manipulative - even though she knew that second part was mostly unintentional. He perfectly mimicked the peasant her father believed everyone, aside from the top percentage of the wealthy, to be.
She didn't want to dislike him, really, but every time she laid eyes on Jaune, all she could see was the filthy country-bumpkin her father described, along with the old snake's blasted, taunting smirk, looking so satisfied and smug with his apparently accurate deduction of the lesser off. Weiss would never ever subscribe to that belief, but Jaune made the idea of completely crushing her fathers assumptions more and more difficult every time he addressed her.
Weiss could only hope it was all a phase, and that the boy was just having a hard time adjusting to their lives here in Beacon. He couldn't be as incompetent as he seemed, he just couldn't.
"It would take me days to list off all the little things that annoy me." Weiss said, sending Ruby a plain look of her own. "If he'd just listen to me, I wouldn't have to be so mean." Slanting a sneer, Weiss added a little kick to the punch, and tapped out a tiny grin to go alongside it. "Although somehow, and just between you and me: I think he likes it."
Ruby locked up, exactly as Weiss expected her too. The implications were clear, and Weiss wanted to move away from the topic of Arc as quickly as possible; they really needed to get back to work.
"By the way." Weiss reached over, past Ruby's still slightly stunned face, and pointed to a spot on the paper. "You're supposed to indent here."
.
.
Jay blinked, twisting and turning again.
This wasn't the bar, and for some blasted reason, his head felt fine. Taking a look around, he could see that he was inside Beacon. Or, to be more specific, he was within the CCT...
The busted CCT.
He'd half expected to see Cinder somewhere around the premises, but no, nothing more than the shattered broken remnants of split wires and ripped walls remained. The attack on Beacon had done a good number on the central hub of Remnant's communication network, which left the world's powers and people scattered and opposed. All of the peace so desperately won after countless lifetimes of war had been erased in a single move, leaving naught but the reminder of how easy it was to truly shatter the tides of mankind.
This could only mean one thing: he was dreaming again.
Jay tried to recall what happened, and shockingly, it came back immediately. He remembered Melanie buying them drinks, celebrating the fact they had an easy day - supposedly something not all that common. Rex did his usual thing, as in, he tried to get a laugh or more out of Melanie, only to get her bickering with him again. Miltia shared her drinks with him, and so he'd indulged in his own.
Activity in the club picked up a bit, and soon enough the air of play grew familiar.
Jay didn't hate it, but it left him - as it so often tended to do - uncomfortable. Rex, having caught on and knowing where it would lead, offered him more liquor to wet his whiskers. He never really understood why, but despite his friend's constant warnings about drinking too much, whenever he got so far along, Rex would offer him a great deal more; usually enough to make him sick.
Seems it happened again, and if Jay were to hazard a guess, he'd say he passed out at the bar.
Nothing all that new there; if anything, Rex would pick him up and hobble him off to bed before returning to the fun. Although there was one oddity he couldn't overlook, and that was the fact he couldn't exactly recall when it was he passed out. Either way, knowing his body was most likely safe under some covers, Jay threw away that one nick in the steel and awaited the inevitable. He was aware in this dream, as he had been the previous few, meaning this would probably end up another Ruby nightmare.
As if to answer his indirect call, two familiar figures formed before him.
Jay watched, not really all that interested, as Ruby knelt down. The other Jay walked up, staring down at her, before plunging the sword in his hand deep into the young girl's chest, pulling it down, and ripping it out. He could hear, even from this distance, the muffled cracking of ribs; it seemed the apparition had more strength than himself, because Jay knew for a fact he didn't have the strength to cut someone open as easily as the specter had.
Lifting a brow, he watched as the other him faded, and Ruby simply remained, bleeding out. On the bright side, there was full color this time, so he got a good glimpse at the scene in detail.
"Is that all?" He said while performing a mock yawn. It wasn't even stylized this time. The last several nightmares at least had some meat to them, and although he couldn't tell what they meant to show, they'd been somewhat unique in that aspect. But just killing Ruby in a canon location that ended up destroyed seemed lazy by comparison.
"Ruby rOSe..."
"Here we go." Rolling his eyes, Jay approached, looking down and into the lifeless eyes of the deceased young hero, speaking as if it were the source of these now fairly regular dreams. "You're going to have to do better than that."
"APParently I must."
Jay fell back on his ass, having tripped upon the startling discovery of the voice, who's words now matched the flapping lips of the corpse. Ruby faced him, being lifted to her feet by invisible strings, and staring down at him.
"Not as perceptive as I may have hoped, but it'll do."
Okay, now that was new. Backing away a little, Jay wasn't sure what to make of it. On the one hand, the dream had picked up drastically, but on the other, it appeared to be speaking directly to him. While it might have uttered off a word or two before, mainly just 'Ruby Rose' in some distorted fashion or another, this time it was clear cut speech.
"O-okay." Jay stammered, backing up and bumping against one of the many shards of caved-in debris as he took in the morbid new development. "This is new."
"New?" The dead Ruby tilted her head, and the blood dribbling down and soaking her dress began to stain a new section due to the sudden full-bodied shift in stature. "No. We've met many times, but I've never needed to sully my standing and present myself." Her body straightened. "Until now."
Jay wanted to say something, but he quickly found himself petrified. Unlike before, this wasn't the simple visual fear he'd seen; this terror was far more visceral - almost primal in a sense. The dead girl walking... no, no this was... something else. The thing walking towards him did so with watery motions, like bits and pieces of itself would tear away and evaporate should it go any faster.
Now standing above him, it bent down, speaking through lips so clearly not meant for it, as while they themselves moved, the tongue remained deathly still.
"Preferably, I would rather not risk my presence here, but you are especially dense." It leaned in, observing Jay's stale mask of fear, before somewhat shifting, as if on command, into a more... palpable manner of speech. "And look at that. I show up, and you're scared shitless." More animated than ever, it stood again, shrugging its shoulders and spitting out a breath as its skin, muscle, and bone swung and stretched like gel via the quick actions. "But I suppose everything comes with its downsides."
Fighting the lump in his throat, Jay managed to croak out a response.
"W-what do you want?"
"What do I want?" It placed its slender hand over its chest, completely ignoring the bleeding wound slathering its fingers with imaginary blood. "The salvation of my world, this... Remnant you know of." Placing its hands on its hips, it began mocking Jay. "But I can't exactly do that when its only hope has the attentiveness of a walnut."
"What... are you talking about?" The cocky, mocking attitude it randomly took on partially dissolved some of the fear he felt, but just enough for Jay to get up on his feet again. He still felt nothing but dread around... whatever it was that inhabited the corpse, but at least the voice no longer made him nearly piss himself. This nightmare had taken a turn, and a part of him knew this wouldn't be so simple to wake from.
"Hmm?" It eyed him again with her eyes, pulling a smile over her lips, and its arms reached out towards his face. But unlike any normal person, or even the woman whose skin it wore for that matter, the motions of the hands lacked any true weight. Plopping on his cheeks because that's where they were ordered to settle, almost every motion played out a little off-key: a soothing song performed too deep and sluggish to be anything but depressing.
Jay saw the way its eyes focused into his, and it left him speechless again in all the wrong ways.
"You're not getting it; you don't understand. You're perfect in every other way, but you need a direct order. Fine then, hear me clearly, and take comfort in your purpose." Bit by bit, it left the casual aura at the door, embracing its darker origins completely with its final decree. "I need you to tend to the final hero, the last of Remnant's light."
It leaned in, until its face sat no more than an inch away, and its hollow, gray eyes burrowed into his.
"Kill Ruby Rose."
Author's note
…
A part of me wanted to wait another chapter for this last portion, but I feel it fits well enough here.
We've got Weiss having a little moment with Ruby, trying to prepare her for more than what was initially promised, only to have a chat about a few points of bother they've both been dealing with. All the while, Jay is once more in the dream world, but now with more than a vivid nightmare to guide him.
And now, we may finally begin picking things up.
Until next time.