With Weiss in her arms, with her legs pumping so fast beneath her, with the world whizzing by so fast, with a single goal in mind— Follow Weiss' directions— it was easy to forget some things.

Some things that, if Ruby Rose were to be quizzed on at this exact moment, she would not be able to answer:

1. The archive entries for Wulpertingers, Creeps, Ogumo, Spriggans, Grootslang, Apathy, and Ursae.

2. The name of an eleven-sided polygon.

3. The current Prime Minister of the Greater Kingdom of Vale.

4. How the moon exploded.

5. What size her cassock was.

6. Why exactly she was starting to pass out.

Ruby blinked, and discovered she was tumbling— she was rolling, unable to catch herself, her body not listening as she tried to focus. She couldn't focus. The world was a tunnel.

Hollow bones. No blood. Shit.

"Florabel! Florabel, up! Up, Florabel!"

She might've groaned. In the next blink, she was being dragged, arms hooked under her own, pulling her back with strains of effort. The hall in their wake was empty, but Ruby could hear faint commotion in the distance.

"Where is it… where… god, strike my name from thy pages if I have forgotten… where—"

Another blink— another span of consciousness missed— eyes opening again as she was heaved up into something… soft. A bed.

"We shan't be found here— not with him dead, and sister a v… vegetable…"

A bed. It was a bed, her back sinking into it, back talons hooking through the fabric of the comforter beneath her. She blinked again.

"Florabel? Art thou yet awakened?"

Ruby didn't answer. She didn't know what the answer would be. There was a sigh, then the bed depressed, and Ruby was hauled back to sit up in a warm lap that she remembered. Legs wrapped around her waist. Arms fell over her shoulders, hands clasping at her chest, drawing her closer to that warmth. Weiss' warmth.

"Florabel… Florabel… Flora—" her voice cracked— "bel…"

Ruby felt the tic rise, felt her throat rising to try at the scratch, her lips forming the soft shape of the 'F', but the sound never came.

"I… killed my… papa… and… they… my mama's body, they… I killed her, too… again…"

Ruby felt her voice, her warm breath, ghosting over her crown— not crying, not sad, but… well, maybe both those things, but diluted with so many other things that Ruby couldn't pick a solid emotive attribution. On the wrist at her sternum, Ruby could see the shitty cyan watch, the face of it blocked with a brown splotch of dry blood.

"Thou— you— should not have… come for me… or… no, I… I don't know, Florabel… I am… sorry."

When Ruby breathed, she breathed in iron. And juniper. The piss was gone, thankfully.

"I don't want you to become a… Huntress. I don't want you to… I had no choice, Florabel, until… I made one, I carved mine own…"

What had she told her bed frame?

"And… I know I do not… understand you— not as a Faunus. I cannot. But… even if thou wert deprived of comfort and security… I think… it's better to live free… by thine own making."

Ruby stirred. Weiss jumped, yanking her hands off. Ruby turned before her partner could try to get away. Moving so quickly made her head spin, but Ruby grounded herself by twisting her hands in Weiss' shirt. She stared into Weiss' one good eye.

The room they were in wasn't the bedroom Ruby expected— not anyone's personal room, but a room with utilitarian furnishings— and their bed was small, clearly not fit for two. This was… a butler's quarters?

"Weiss."

The girl in question gulped. "Florabel."

Ruby didn't even consider letting it drop— she wanted to talk— so she did, "I think I might be insane. And I killed my mum, too, and I ate her soul, but she's not… digested? Yet?"

Weiss' eyes widened, her mouth opening, but Ruby shoved the back of her wire-gauntleted hand over the animaphage's mouth to shut her up. There were so many things to say— they all wanted to leap out at once, jumbled, so Ruby had to talk slowly to keep herself in line.

"But that's— I just had to get that out there, in case, like, I forget to talk about it later, cuz now…"

Weiss' stellar eye was a bright, pleading blue. She could've moved her head away from Ruby's hand herself, but she didn't. She just met the Faunus' eyes and listened.

"O-okay, Weiss, look: I'm insane because— among other things, I guess— fuck, how do I… n-no, just— gottaripitoff, the whole bandage, the whole thing, just… fuckfuck."

Weiss looked confused now. Ruby shook her head and started over.

"I don't think my mum loved me. And I don't think she loved my mom. There are all these times, I know my mom loved her— and we talked, and my mom loves me too, but— my mum… just wanted to use me? Live… vicariously through me? After death?"

Weiss blinked. Ruby motioned vaguely with her free hand, as if she were shuffling her words around in invisible cups.

"But, like… what did she ever do for me? She never… tried to understand… not like mom does— not like you do— because she didn't… love me."

Ruby pressed her hand harder against Weiss' mouth, feeling her about to burst out, needing her to shut the fuck up.

"Shut up! Okay? Shut up!" she seethed, calming herself with a long, much-needed breath. "Just… I'm crazy, and like, I'm… stupid, and… like, I don't— I haven't… listened to you, not like you do to me. And I'm sorry. Weiss, I'm sorry. I still don't know what you want from me, and I don't know what to do for you, but I want to— I want you. Like… want you, like… I wanna fix us? Not you? Because I like you, even though you're, like, an asshole and I hate you, but, like— I wanna be with you. I want to hate you— or fight you, cuz, like… it's a special way to know you? I dunno. I don't wanna leave you. I don't want to see you hurt by… anyone else. Just… let me figure things out with you? Please, Weiss, cuz I'm going fucking crazy— crazier— and the sooner we get this started the sooner we can put it all to rest, prove it's stupid and bad and insane— because I'm insane for— for—"

Eh. She'd eaten a thumb. She could say it.

"Being kinda super deathly in love with you?"

Weiss stiffened. Ruby continued, her mouth 'working' (stuttering, floundering, throwing things out) before her mind did.

"Because… I should hate you— I— or— or I do, but, like… Iloveyou. Is that, like, the same thing? You know what I mean?"

Weiss pushed away the hand over her mouth. "I…" her eye sparkled, the corner of her lip tugging up just the tiniest bit. "Florabel, I haven't the faintest fucking clue what you just said."

Ruby closed her eyes and sank down to her partner's chest, feathered arms now flopping down to flank the girl beneath, Ruby's cloak covering them both. "Then… how about this," she craned up just enough to meet Weiss' eyes. "I'm making you my nemesis, whether you like it or not." She jammed a finger up to Weiss' face, nearly poking her in her bad eye. "And I'm gonna make your life a living hell once I get outta Beacon."

Weiss reeled, blinking. "Thou'rt… escaping?"

Ruby nodded. "Mom'n I are gonna sue Ozpin's pants off for coercing me into signing onto the school, all I've gotta do is collect more evidence for harassment. I've got, like, one good recording right now— plus plenty more time to gather info while mom does the funeral and… gets over mum, I guess."

"Then…"

"I'll use the suit money to get into college," Ruby proposed. "And you can come with me—"

"I do want to be a Huntress."

"Or I can visit you at least once a week, just to kick your ass." She gave the parricidal Fourth a cheeky smirk. "Make sure you know your place. As my nemesis."

Weiss hummed. "Oh, thinkest 'twill go so smoothly? Pray tell, what if I find a rival who proves thy superior?"

Ruby scowled at her, silver eyes boiling. "They'll have to get through me, first— which they won't. Because I'm the only one who's gonna treat you right."

"Treat me right?" Weiss laughed. "You mean, when you try to kill me? Or when you ate my thumb?"

"You can't say I'm not dedicated."

Weiss stared at her, mouth still crooked with the threat of a smile. "Dedicated, aye, but loyal? Claimest yon Valkyrie hath no taint on ye?"

Ruby snorted. "One, you literally made me do it the first time. Two, I kinda didn't have a better choice the second time and it was… blech. I think she picked up on the 'man I want this to be someone else' vibes from me. Also!" She pushed herself up at arm's length, glaring down at her newly-declared nemesis. "You and Jaune! You slopped him up just to get at me— we're even!"

Weiss narrowed her eyes, her smile twisting. "That… mh. Fair. Whatever."

They were silent for a long moment, Ruby staring down at her— the Faunus silent with expectation, the Fourth with unsurety.

"Fine." Weiss relented eventually, squirming under her now-nemesis' huge silver gaze. "I… planned to reunite with thee after the duel, anyways."

"And what if I hadn't made it that far?" Ruby asked, quieter than she'd meant to— huskier.

Weiss snorted. "Oh, please, Florabel. I know thee better than that."

"Oh, do you?" Ruby asked, smirking hard to cover up the very real smile that wanted to smash her face apart, inspired by the fresh warmth blooming between her ribs.

"Thou wouldst perish before passing the chance to fight me."

"I didn't know you would be in the Finals."

"Even if I weren't…"

'You wouldn't see yourself as good enough to fight me if you lost,' Ruby mentally extrapolated, making Weiss smile… because she could read her thoughts. Ruby had forgotten about that. With a huff, Ruby pushed herself to sit up straight, looking down at her now-reclined partner. For someone who'd only been candid with a Ruby she thought asleep, Weiss was awfully smug.

"Oh, be silent," Weiss chided, looking away.

From this position, Ruby couldn't keep her eyes from sweeping over Weiss. "You know, you look weirdly hot in a shirt and trousers." She snorted. "Even if you pissed in the latter."

Weiss glared death at her partner. "I changed."

"Yeah, but I was holding you up by your pissy pants."

"I was being tortured. God forbid I cannot hold my bladder for hours."

Ruby's blood went cold, her fingers tightening on the sheets. "You… what? By who?"

"My father, who I already killed." Weiss pushed at Ruby's face with her fingertips. "Belay thy bloodlust, animal."

"Oh, speaking of racism… the slaves?"

Weiss sighed. "Our pursuers passed us while thou wert asleep… or, while I thought thou wert asleep. We've probably quite a while before they think to look here— if they ever do."

"Do they think you're gonna free the Faunus?"

Weiss shook her head. "I have no reason to believe so."

"So, what you're saying is… we've got time."

Their eyes met. Weiss blinked. "Time for what?"

"You wanna fuck?"

The Fourth's eyes went wide— so wide that Ruby grew a beaming, smug grin of amusement to match. "N-no," Weiss said eventually. "No, I… I need to shower."

Ruby's lips pulled further away from her canines. "I don't mind."

"W-what?"

"Dude, I am weird as shit about you. Like… actual freak shit. I will literally do strange things to and/or for you."

Weiss fidgeted. "Um… maybe later? Not here."

"So that's not an 'I don't want you to do weird shit to my body,'" Ruby supposed, rolling her wrist. "More of a… raincheck?"

"A what?"

"I'll suck the snot out of your sinuses at a later date?"

To her credit— or perhaps telling how much she'd been desensitized— Weiss didn't blink, flinch, or even emote in the slightest. "Thou fuckest with me."

"Maybe." Ruby winked. "Or maybe I'm not at all."

Another pause, longer. Weiss stared her down as if to call a bluff.

Ruby pushed herself away and coughed into her hand, unsure of exactly how to respond to that. "A-alright, we gotta go do that slave thing right now, dude— shit's gonna get weird in here if we don't leave."

Weiss nodded. "Agreed."

Their pursuers seemed to have lost them. Ruby kept her head on a swivel regardless, her mother's huge, ugly scythe flipped all the way out. '

"What is that?" Weiss asked, walking beside her with her own sword unsheathed. Ruby raised an eyebrow, to which Weiss nodded at her scythe.

"Oh, it's my mum's scythe," Ruby answered. "She, uh… gave it to me. Before I killed her." The words bounced out of Ruby's mouth, making her chest feel odd. "Oh god, I killed my mum— I mean, the Ur-Dragon did 99% of it, but I… fuck me."

She wasn't even sad about it. It was just… a big thing, her eating her mum's soul, having it in her, not fully processing it until Weiss was in front of her rather than taking up all the space in her brain. The Fourth reached over to put a hand on her, a sappy, comforting thing that Ruby shrugged off before it could touch her. Doing that didn't feel good, but she didn't want the comfort. Eating your mom is probably something that shouldn't be cushioned.

"She, like, told me to," Ruby said, the words defensive even though her tone wasn't. "I, uh… probably shouldn't have done it via siphoning though, huh."

Weiss shook her head, taking a quick moment to decide which hallway to lead them down. "No. I… very much would not have recommended that."

"Did you—"

"Yes," Weiss interrupted, voice like a concrete wall. "I did."

"And your mom just… went away?"

Weiss puzzled briefly, brows knitting tight. "Yes. She did."

"Maybe… it's cuz she wasn't a Huntress?" Ruby proposed, taking a quick look behind them— just in case. "Less, like, consolidation of her soul? So it just kinda broke apart in you?"

Weiss tipped her head in Ruby's favor, humming pensively. "'Tis a good hypothesis, actually. A gilded star for thee."

"'Gilded' implies it's not gold."

"I work in a maid cafe," Weiss countered, grinning slightly. "Thinkest my pockets so deep? And for thee? Get real, Frubelaby."

"Now you're doing it on purpose."

"Obviously." Weiss nodded to another door. "Through here."

Ruby waited. Weiss didn't open it.

"Oh, you just expect me to go first?" Ruby challenged, folding her weapon up to sling it back over her shoulders. She crossed her arms and looked away, huffing. "Maybe I don't wanna."

Weiss slumped, grimacing. "And what of chivalry? Wilt thou not clear the way for thy lady?"

"Maybe I wanna be the lady for once," the Faunus retorted, haughty, staring down her big nose at the (literal) girl of her dreams.

Weiss raised a bright, blood-crusted eyebrow high, giving Ruby a long look that, surprisingly, gave way to a shrug. She opened the door, then bowed before it with one arm extended towards the threshold. "If thou wouldst follow, my lady."

Ruby coughed— she hacked— she honked out a laugh to cover up the fact that she was instantly afflicted. "Psh, sure, whatever," she said, trying to sound nonplussed despite being very plussed— multiplicated, even, exponented. She fell in behind her nemesis/partner/pleasegirlfriendpleasepleasegodpleasegirlfriend, unable to help the embarrassingly affected noises that she kept squawking out on every other step. "Aha. Yeah. Psh. Gah. I was, like, aha, ha, joking. But— haha— whatever. Ha. My knight. Hahaha. That's so stupid. Like, dumb as hell, honestly, haha."

The door lead to a short, narrow landing for a row of steep descending stars. Ruby kept being an idiot, feeling more embarrassed every time she made an 'I'm totally not fawning right now' noise— glad, for once, that these steps were so shitty that their creaking made her tic, squeaking out 'errk's and 'eeek's that were ten times less cringe than the foolish shit she'd been doing. When they finally reached the bottom, Ruby sighed from her soul.

"So, what, where now?"

With the stairway being so tight, Ruby hadn't been able to get around and see Weiss' face before. The Fourth's expression was grimmer than Grimm as she motioned around with her sword, pointing to big empty spaces that looked like they should have something. "This is the pens. This is where the cages should preside— dozens, if my memory speaketh true." Weiss' head swept around. Her expression did not ease.

"So… they're gone. Which means we can leave."

Weiss scowled at her. Ruby slumped.

"Y-yeah, I didn't think so."

"What… Florabel, dost thou not kill Fourths for thy people?"

Ruby slowly shook her head. "I mean… not really. I just like killing racists? Or, not like-like, but… I dunno, it feels right. World's better off without 'em, y'know?"

"And yet, here I am," Weiss said under her breath, looking further into the room. It was long and dingy, stone floors and walls, a grimy wood-slat ceiling. "Has anyone ever told you thou'rt a hypocrite?"

It hit Ruby like a punch to the sternum, robbing her of any good response that wasn't a reactionary, "I'm not a hypocrite," which earned exactly the kind of stare Ruby threw at Weiss when she said some hypocrite shit. Fuck. "Oh, god, I am a hypocrite."

Weiss hummed, continuing her search deeper in the big, empty cellar room. There were more big, empty spots, more nothing. More branching rooms with more nothing. More silence for Ruby to contemplate her own character. Or lack thereof.

Ruby tried to steer her mind away, to focus on following Weiss, but her mind kept steering itself back. She kept looking at the ugly thing inside. She didn't want to look at it. If she looked, she'd have to confront it. But, since Weiss threw Winterfaire lights up around it and lit it up like a highway billboard, Ruby couldn't not look at it.

Was there anything she could concretely say she believed?

Ruby picked herself apart, trying to find something that wouldn't turn to dust like festive string-in-a-can. Her relationship with religion was basically 'I'm gonna do whatever I want either way, god can or can't suck my ass about it.' She wanted everyone to respect and be respected— very Second of her— but what even was that besides a big 'golden rule' nothingburger? She thought Faunus deserved rights and protections to equal the standings of humans and rise over systemic racism, but did she only believe that from things she'd seen and read online? Had she ever been to a rally, or a protest, or anything? For fuck's sake, she was on the verge of abandoning a bunch of slaves before Weiss Fucking Schnee convinced her, 'hey, maybe let's not abandon all these slaves— literally your people, literally could be you if you'd been born in Atlas or, I dunno, straight up kidnapped like you are every other week.'

She didn't want to be a Huntsman— uh, Huntress, whatever— but was that really because she didn't like fighting? Cuz honestly, fighting's pretty sick, at least sometimes. Weiss definitely made her appreciate it more.

Did she really want to be an engineer? Or did she just have a knack for numbers, mechanics, and Dust stuff, which she'd rather use to get a life that would just subsist of conforming to her surroundings until she withered away and died— comforted by the idea of day-in, day-out, having a job that she could sleepwalk her way through and have enough money to live in… not luxury, but not squalor. A middle life.

And the more she thought about it, the more… raw she felt. Raw with guilt, a spiky sandpaper ball of guilt that bounced between her gut and her sternum. Guilt for not knowing. Guilt for being somewhere that someone else could be— yeah, that was back, woo— when she didn't know if she wanted it or not, which was way worse than outright not wanting it at all. And if she did want it, that was guilt, too, because she shouldn't want it because she'd been coerced under the influence to get in— how many more people would Ozpin go on to manipulate if she just changed her mind and decided to stick around?

Or… or was this mum? Was this mum screaming up from the brackish, churning lake of her body and soul? She could still feel the crack, Summer's silver sliver of soul, but only barely. Was this why mum did it? Because she felt nothing for anything? Because she felt nothing for anything, but she was good at something, and her daddy issues pointed her in the direction of the thing she was good at? Was she born a weapon, just like mum? Was mum right?

She looked at Weiss.

Weiss, who searched these rooms with intent drawn across her face like etchings on stone. Weiss, who could crow about beasts and animals as much as she wanted, could put her foot down and call herself a Fourth despite literally fucking a Faunus. Weiss, who was totally a hypocrite, but Weiss, who at least did things! Like fighting Ruby, trying to kill her— racist, yeah, and she (seems to have) changed her mind for why she does that— but she definitely did it out of belief! And killing that Wendigo— that was Huntress shit! Sure, Weiss could be a hypocrite, too, but she was at least doing hypocritical shit that was objectively super good!

Ruby was just a hypocrite because she was. A tall, gangly, hollow shell. Killing people because they're Fourths does not positive change make. Going to college wouldn't fill her life up any more than being a Huntress will. Being Weiss' girlfriend or nemesis isn't a personality trait, and Weiss is gonna realize that she's dating an empty person as soon as Ruby's out of Beacon and no longer directly blinding her to however many hundreds of people are just better.

"Florabel, this way— a commotion over yon."

Ruby inhaled.

She tried to exhale.