Day 8: Morning

Weiss had been awake for several hours now, since before the sun was up. She couldn't sleep, she didn't want to sleep, because her dreams were plagued by endless nightmares. She was dimly aware of the various nurses and doctors that came to her room to check her vitals every once in a while, and she had a vague recollection of eating something or other that they had put in front of her.

But for the most part, she had just been wallowing in her own thoughts, completely ignoring the world around her. Endlessly watching Tyrian sink his tail into Ruby's stomach. Endlessly watching her partner get weaker and weaker until she could barely move as the poison coursed through her veins. Endlessly watching herself slide Myrtenaster into Ruby's heart with a sob, unable to change any of it, but so desperately wanting to. She poured over every little detail, reliving all the mistakes she had carelessly made that led to Ruby's death and hating herself more for every single one.

As if to break up the monotony of her self-loathing, Yang's blood-red eyes flashed through her mind, hatred burning in them as lashed out with her metal fist, closely followed by the fear in Blake's eyes as Weiss had reached towards her. Weirdly, it brought her comfort, knowing that they saw her the same way she saw herself.

A murderer.

Someone to be feared and loathed.

It was what she deserved.

A noise from the door pulled her from her musings. Looking over, she saw a nurse poke her head in. "Miss Schnee?" the woman asked, "You have a visitor."

Weiss looked over and saw Winter's face in the window of the door. Weiss' heart immediately dropped into her stomach. She had been wondering if anyone knew what she'd done to Ruby out on the tundra and one look at her sister's face told her all she needed to know.

There was no anger or accusation in her sister's gaze, just pity and sadness. But there was also a knowing. Winter knew what had happened. Winter knew what she was. What she had done. She'd seen the glyph, she'd seen the bastardized version of Ruby's light that she'd somehow managed to conjure. She knew exactly how their shared semblance worked. Winter knew better than anyone what Weiss had done.

The nurse cleared her throat, snapping her out of her thoughts, "Uh, it's your-"

"Please," Weiss interrupted softly, swallowing thickly, "Please let my sister know that while I appreciate her dropping by, I do not want any visitors at this moment." she wasn't sure why she defaulted to such a formal speech pattern, no doubt some kind of childhood defense mechanism.

The nurse nodded and softly closed the door. She saw her sister's face fall as the nurse relayed her message. Winter looked at her sadly then turned away and took her leave. It was for the best. Winter didn't need to see her, not as she was now. Winter should remember her sister the way she was before. Before she killed. Before she was crippled.

Weiss snorted, they had amputated her mangled leg just above her left knee; she felt a sick sense of amusement at the fact that her bad knee would never bother her again. It was just as well, that leg was the reason she was stuck in this personal hell anyway. If her knee hadn't given out, if she hadn't fallen, Ruby wouldn't have had to come to her rescue, she never would have been stabbed by Tyrian. Ruby would still be alive.

She rolled over on her side and lapsed back into her thoughts, torturing herself with yet another reliving of Ruby's death.

Sometime later, the door to her room opened again and a chilly breeze wafted over her. The door clicked closed again, but not before Weiss heard the frustrated voice of the nurse yell "Miss!"

Frowning at the disturbance, Weiss turned over and was startled to find Penny standing right next to her bed. She was instantly filled with dread, Penny was one of the people she least wanted to see right now. The girl had just as much of a reason to hate her as Yang and Blake did; and as much as she thought she deserved the hatred, there was only so much of it she could take.

"I…I told them no visitors…" Weiss said resignedly, her shoulders drooping weakly.

Penny gave her a soft smile, "They mentioned that," she said quietly, "But they let you do a lot of things normal people aren't allowed to do when you're the Winter Maiden."

Weiss' eyes widened in shock, not sure where to even begin processing that sentence. What the hell had happened while she had been on the tundra? She looked at the girl, trying to read her face, trying to figure out how much she knew about what happened. But she couldn't tell. She'd never been any good at reading Penny's more subtle expressions. She supposed she should just ask her and get it over with.

"P-Penny…do you….?" she stammered out, "Did they tell you?" She finished quietly.

Penny's face fell, poorly suppressed misery taking over her features, "Winter…Winter told me…" Penny looked down at her hands, "She told me what happened to the two of you…what happened to her…" the girl's lip began to tremble.

Weiss glanced away from her, she couldn't stand to see the look of anguish on Penny's face. It was yet another life she'd ruined. Another person she'd stolen the light from. "You must hate me." she whispered.

"I don't." Penny said firmly, "I really don't." Looking up, Weiss could see that she meant it. Penny held Weiss' gaze, there was no malice or hatred in her eyes, just a deep deep anguish that Weiss was sure went right to her very soul. Penny inhaled shakily, "I have all of Tyrian's files…I know what the venom does to the human body…what it was doing to her."

Tears began to drip down Penny's cheeks, yet another oddity that she filed away for later.

"I know how much pain she must have been in." Penny continued, her voice trembling, "There was no rescue in sight and there were no more options…I think she made the right call. And you made the right call for doing…what you had to…It wasn't your fault, I hope you know that."

Forgiveness and acceptance was not what Weiss had expected out of this conversation. She hated it. She didn't deserve it. She killed Penny's best friend in the whole world and she just…forgave her. It was wrong.

"Why are you here Penny?" she asked with a sigh.

"I-I…I guess I just wanted to hear it from you…because I so desperately didn't want to believe that she's…" Penny trailed off for a moment, staring at nothing. "Well…just one look at your face was the only answer I needed…I-I'm so sorry. She was…amazing…"

Weiss nodded in agreement.

"Oh!" Penny said suddenly, "My father expresses his condolences, and wanted you to know that he would be more than happy to make you a prosthetic limb." she gave a subdued smile and raised one of her legs, "I can speak from experience that his are the very best you can get."

Weiss felt her mouth turn up slightly at the corners. "I'll take it under consideration, thank you Penny."

"I um…" she paused for a long time, looking as if she was considering something, "I also come here to give you this."

Suddenly there was a red bundle in Penny's shaking hands. Weiss gasped and her breath hitched in her throat as she realized what her friend was holding. Penny was tenderly holding Ruby's cloak.

"Winter made sure that they saved it and it was cleaned…" Penny paused for an even longer moment, her eyes never leaving the red garment, "I've been holding onto it because…well, I'm not really sure why, but I've come to the conclusion that…she would have wanted you to have it." she gently placed the bundle in Weiss' lap.

Slowly, Weiss reached a trembling hand out to touch the cloak, not entirely certain if it was real or not. She caressed the familiar texture under her thumb; and…yes, she wasn't mistaken the faint scent of roses still lingered on the cloak, despite all that it had been through. Oh yes, it was real, a fact that both comforted and horrified Weiss.

She was so enraptured by the cloak that she didn't even realize that she was crying until dark spots began to appear on the red fabric. She started at it for a long time. "She…Ruby wanted you to know how sorry she was that couldn't make it back, and how much she cared about you…she wanted to finish this fight so badly but…well…" she trailed off.

Penny nodded, a small smile ghosting over her lips, perhaps recalling a fond memory of Ruby. "I-I appreciate you telling me…" she said softly, "I'll leave…I'll leave you alone now…can-can I come back and visit sometime soon?"

"Whenever you want to." Weiss said.

Penny nodded, "I'll let you be alone with her…" she turned to leave.

"Thank you." Weiss said softly, her eyes never leaving the cloak.

"Of course." Penny replied and exited quietly, leaving Weiss alone.

She had said said 'thank you' but she'd only half meant it, having this…it was torture. She spread the cloak in her lap and ran her hands across it, feeling the familiar texture under her fingers. A flood of memories filled her head.

The cloak flapping behind Ruby as a pack of Beowolves fell to her scythe.

Ruby wrapping it around the two of them for warmth during their trek to Argus.

Even the one time she'd tried the cloak on while Ruby was in the shower at Beacon and had been caught red-handed by her partner.

The corners of her mouth turned up as she remembered Ruby's laugh and giant grin as she'd yelped and thrown the cloak onto Ruby's bed in embarrassment. Gods, she loved that smile. She would give anything to see that smile again. There were a lot of good memories attached to this cloak, now it hurt just to think of them, knowing that they would never be able to make any more.

Then, as she ran her hand across the cloak again, her finger went right through the cloak, right through the hole that had been pierced right through the fabric. The tiny amount of levity the memories had given her evaporated instantly as she was violently reminded that she was the one who had removed that smile from the world, then roughly created some kind of facsimile of her partner with her semblance. She refused to believe that was Ruby, because if it was, then her partner's soul-

She shook her head, refusing to even finish the thought, it was too horrible to contemplate. She had created the light in her desperation and whatever else, whatever trick of the eye, whatever red aura she convinced herself that she'd seen was just a product of her addled brain.

Ruby was gone. Dead. It was an undeniable fact, no matter what her brain tried to tell her otherwise.

Once, what seemed like a lifetime ago now, she'd had everything. Friends, a family, someone that she loved more deeply than she ever thought possible.

Now, she had nothing.

Yang hated her, Blake was afraid of her. The only people who wanted to talk to her were her sister, who she was sure was only there purely out of familial obligation, and an artificial girl whose feelings were little more than a set of programs.

"You were wrong…" she whispered, clutching the cloak to her chest, tears cascading down her cheeks, "I'm alone…"

Just as alone as she was when she first arrived at Beacon, every meaningful connection she'd ever made was shattered and broken.

She couldn't even fight, even if she wanted to, she couldn't even stand on her own…she wasn't even a huntress anymore.

What was the point?

Her life just wasn't worth living.

Not without Ruby in it.

Not a whole lot to say about this chapter, just Weiss (understandably) spiraling and (not-so-understandably) blaming herself for Ruby's death. Sorry for the short chapter, the next one will be a bit longer. If you liked the chapter, comments and kudos are always appreciated! As always, thanks to my wonderful wife, V, for being my beta reader, and thanks to YOU for reading!