And we're back.

REAPER IN RED

Interlude 10: Blake ch.5

"I.. I can see." Marigold stuttered.

"What can you see?" The crone smiled wistfully, a gentle hand caressing his brow.

Yet no words could break through his lips. No air could reach his lungs. His eyes were wide with the untold amazement of what was around him. The vast everythingness that he saw. It was impossible to explain; impossible to describe. The many words of his own language could not even fathom to recount what was going on. It was everything as well as nothing. It was the pre-times and the after-times. When words failed, tears descended, the only sign that Marigold had not turned into a statue.

"Describe it for me," the crone's friendly words felt like a piercing order.

"I-I can't. It's too much."

"Of course it's too much," the crone admonished. "You're only human. What do you feel?"

"Happy. A-and sad. So sad. Why is there so much sadness?" Marigold could feel his deep voice transcending time, now sounding like a mere infant. "It's awe-inspiring as much as it is awful."

Marigold could feel the crone nod from behind him.

"Face me."

He did as commanded.

He saw the crone. The aged lines across her forehead, the smiling lines at her eyes, the sunken in cheekbones and thinning flesh.

He saw the young woman. Beautiful lips, full eyebrows and the dark, length of hair.

He saw the young girl. Piercing red eyes filled with glee and wonder, a half-smirk on her lips.

The cloaked Being in front of him confused him so.

Nothing was making sense. A cross between a squeal and gasp burst from his mouth, but Marigold could not form the words to describe what he was seeing, much less what he was experiencing.

She was the girl, the woman and the crone. She was more than them, yet apart from them. And somehow all of them at once.

The Being smiled a sad little smile. "You have reached the end of the river, my dear Marigold. This is the end of Mot."

She held up a pomegranate. "You may now eat."

His stomach's rumbling felt so far away. "B-but the young girl -you, told me to not eat any of the food of the land. Less I'm between Eretz and Mot."

"Only one such as us can eat and return. But you, Marigold the Riverwanderer, have been granted the privilege to explore what comes next."

"Next?"

"The land after Mot."

"Can I return?" Marigold did not need to wait for the Being to respond. Alas, the Being did not so much as quirk. "Ah, I see."

Marigold turned back towards the river which he had been following all his travels. To the great swells that his new sight was showing him. To the very formation of the river itself, to the final droplets of water at its demise.

"You were my guide?"

The cloaked Being nodded. "And your friend."

It was done.

Blake's senses returned to her surroundings. The sounds of the bullhead echoed through the cabin. The light jolts as the airship hit patches of turbulence. Blake felt a tear on her eyelashes yet wasn't quite sure why she was crying. The book's ending was good. Great even.

But felt like it was missing something. Something important maybe? It opened up a lot of huge questions at the end. Like, who was Marigold travelling with that entire time? Where were they even travelling? Blake knew that the land was called Mot, and that the Being, whatever it was, was from somewhere between Mot and Eretz. But those places weren't real. Not in any language she'd ever heard of anyways. It was all fantasy-speak, yet the ending seemed to think that these places were common knowledge enough that the story could… well, end.

Blake grumbled, pulling out her scroll, searching the book online. Just as she expected, there was no sequel to the book. It was pretty clear that the author's name was a penname. 'The Chief Educator'? What sort of hogwash a name was that? Blake assumed, -like many, she discovered while reading through fan pages- that T.C.E were the author's initials, but there were no other writers with those initials from around the time the book was published.

It was another little mystery to solve.

The bullhead reached Patch with little fanfare and the Yang introduced them to Taiyang. The man was exactly what Blake would have expected had she heard the phrase 'gender swapped Yang Xiao Long'. It was uncanny how similar the two were. Same upbeat attitude and nonchalance. The same confident smirk that hid their underlying honesty. And the same raw power in their grips when Blake shook his hand.

He smiled as he hugged his daughters, Yang nestling into his arms easily, while Ruby seemed a little reluctant.

The Xiao Long home was quite small compared to the home her parents had back in Menagerie, making up maybe a third of the size. Still much larger than the dorms at Beacon, or the tents and small abodes she had grown accustomed to in the White Fang. Either way, it felt both awkwardly small, yet comfortingly large. Almost like it was housing more people than it really should. Which was a strange read on the home, in Blake's opinion. A house for three people being designed for only two?

She was probably just unused to residential homes of that size. Blake bet Weiss was feeling the same thing, coming from the type of wealth and lifestyle she did.

"Hey Tai, I'm going to unpack my things."

"Sure thing, hon." Tai kissed Ruby on the head, mussing up her hair.

Blake watched as Ruby ran upstairs with her duffel bag.

"Yang, can you get some plates out and put them on the counter? I'm thinking buffet style for dinner."

"Sounds good Dad. –'ll get right on it."

Eyes darted between Yang and the stairwell. "Why does Ruby call you Tai?"

"Hmm?" Tai frowned. "What're you talking about."

Blake pointed a thumb behind her. "Just a moment ago. Yang said 'dad', Ruby said 'Tai'. Just wondering…"

"Blake's wondering if Ruby was adopted." Weiss much too bluntly said.

Tai snorted. "Nope, she's mine. She's got a hell of a lot of her mother in her more than me, but she's mine. You should hear about the trouble that girl has gotten herself into. If that's not me right there, then I don't know what is."

He chuckled to himself as he wandered into the kitchen. Blake and Weiss followed him in, while Yang was finishing up with the cutlery and placemats.

"Dad, we just got here. Are you really already starting up on the childhood stories?"

"Of course!" Tai laughed. "What else is a proud father going to do but embarrass his children in front of their friends?" His eyes twinkled in a very Yang-like way. "Do you remember your first haircut?"

Yang blanched. "Oh, come on, seriously?! The haircut story again?"

Weiss laughed. "Well, now we must hear it."

"You know all about Yang's hair, right?"

Blake rolled her eyes with a smile. "It gets everywhere and the only person who can touch it is her?"

"Exactly," Tai exclaimed while checking the temperature of the roast in the oven. "Now, imagine her at four, still with that same disposition, but with a tendency to bite when angry."

"No."

"Oh yes! We went through about three different hair-dressers at the kiddie barber before we were banned for life. Apparently, it was so bad, that they called around to all the hairdressers in the area to warn them about 'the adorable blonde girl who'll act like a charmer until you come near her with some scissors'. Had to take her to my own personal barber to get her hair cut."

Tai burst out into laughter, wiping away tears from his eyes. "Oh right. So, my barber? He's a retired huntsman. Only person who dared clip a toddler's hair was a guy who fought Grimm. Still tells me to this day that he'd take a Beowolf any day over Yang when she's in her moods."

That brought laughter out of all of them. Ruby arrived downstairs a little while later, joining in on the laughter as Tai recounted a story about the girl wanting to ride a chimera and instead ending up taking home a dog named Zwei.

"Tai, where's Zwei now?" Blake asked once the story concluded.

"Oh, he's out in the backyard. He likes sleeping out there when the girls are home. Give them more space and all that. His doghouse is around back, and he is extremely friendly. So say hello to him whenever you'd like to."

With that, Weiss ran off with Ruby to meet the dog.

Blake was laying in bed when she heard the sounds of footsteps from the hallway and the opening and shutting of the front door. Stealthily peering out the window, she saw Ruby walking alone outside towards the forest. The window creaked as she opened it, sneaking outside to follow Ruby.

She was only a couple dozen feet behind but kept to the shadows and out of view. Then it was like Ruby was gone. A blip as she rocketed forward with unmatched speed. There was no way that Blake could keep up with her. Not when she was using her semblance.

With a sigh, Blake returned to her room, shutting the window behind her. She noticed Tai's nightlight was on in his room. Thinking of no better time than the present to talk to him, she returned to her room to wake up her roommate.

"Hey," she whispered, shaking Weiss gently. "Wake up."

Weiss rolled onto her back. "Hrml-r," she eloquently mumbled.

Blake snorted. "Weiss,"

"I'm up. I'm up. What do you want?"

"Want to ask Tai some questions?"

Weiss rubbed her eyes, sighing and grabbing her notebook. "Well, I'm awake now. May as well."

The two of them went upstairs and knocked on his door.

"Hey, Mr. Xiao Long?" Weiss began nervously.

Tai motioned for them to come inside and he leaned back against his bed. "How many times do I have to say 'call me Tai?' What's up girls? Missing anything with the rooms?"

"Well, we, Blake and I, have some questions we'd like to ask you. Nothing too invasive, mind you. Just…"

"Just that we want to make sure we're both being the best partners we can to your daughters," Blake finished.

"Hmm, I'd always prefer you talk to them first. I don't want to be the overbearing parent and start revealing their pasts that they'd rather not share. I'm all for revealing to you girls some of their funnier moments." Tai chuckled. "Remind me to tell you about Yang and the ice cream cart tomorrow morning. That or Yang and the beehive. But some of the darker things? The more… sad stuff? I trust you girls, but there are some stories you need to hear directly from them."

Weiss glanced over at Blake. Blake shared the same thought. Only Yang stories? That was odd. "See," Weiss said, "we don't want to go digging into their worst moments. More so… get a better understanding of who they are, through their father."

Tai shrugged. "I can't say I see what you mean, but I'll answer questions and stop you if I think they're inappropriate. Fire away."

"Have you ever been to Atlas?" Weiss asked.

"Me? Loads of times. I was a huntsman too, you know. I've been just about everywhere, save Menagerie. Though, my p-pa…" Tai froze, blinking wide eyed. "P…" He frowned.

"Partner?" Blake suggested.

Shaking his head with a frown, Tai continued. "No… that doesn't sound right. Eh, my good friend took a few missions out that way. But you wished to know about Atlas?"

Blake shared another look with her friend. "Erm, yes. Do you know about the Wretched Witch of Atlas?"

Tai nodded. "Of course! My team and I tried looking for that witch dozens of times. Imagine being the huntsman team to take out, let alone re-discover it? That would… That-t. T-t… Oh, one second, just feeling a lit-lit… little lightheaded."

He keeled over, like someone had punched him in the gut. "M-mind passing me the water over on that dresser?"

"Of course," Weiss said, rushing over to grab the glass.

With a small sip, Tai was looking better. A moment after, he continued on. "We had gone looking for the Wretched Witch maybe a few times before. There was one time I went with my par… p-p… Summer. Jst the two of us. Sum and I went on this amazing adventure. We left our two teammates behind. They had gone on their own adventure and we wanted to try and take down the mythical creature. She had been wearing such a beautiful bl… bla… white cl-cape. White was her though, though she didn't seem to-"

He coughed. "she wore that thing all the time. I think that's where Ruby gets her love for her own red hood from. We had climbed the mountain the Witch was supposed to be on, but no matter how much we looked, it was never there. Didn't see one peep."

"Mr. Xiao Long, are you alright?" Weiss asked softly.

Tai's eyes darted up. He looked exhausted. Like he was weathering a horrible migraine. "Yes, perfectly fine. Any other questions?"

"Has Ruby or Yang ever been to Atlas?"

"N-no, I d-do… don't believe they have. I hadn't been back there since R… Ra… my e- wi-? Not since Yang was born. My daughter Ruby had gone there a few times with her mother. But not Yang. Yang has stayed in Vale her entire life."

"But what about the story of Zwei? Finding him in Vacuo?" Blake nudged.

"Yes, Vacu- oh?" Tai stuttered. "Vac-c… Summer and Ruby were very close. They were pretty much attached at the hip. Ruby was so very much like her. When she died… it tore all of us. Might have hit her the hardest."

Blake was completely confused by Taiyang's train of thought. Between being a stuttering mess, he looked like he was in physical pain, all while acting like nothing was wrong. She looked around, trying to spot anything out of the ordinary. That was unlike the Tai she knew from just hours ago.

There was a shadow overhanging the top of the window, near the roof. Blake darted towards the window, barely catching the sight of a black cloak slipping out of sight. Something had been out there. Something had been watching them.

"-Thanks for answering our questions, we'll let you get some sleep." Blake interrupted whatever question Weiss had been asking, ushering her from the room.

"Hey!" She cried out.

Blake shut the door, not even bothering to wait for Taiyang to let out a "goodnight."

Weiss huffed. "Well, that was rude."

"I saw something Weiss."

That shut up Weiss's attitude rather quickly. "What?"

"On the roof. There was something there. I don't know what exactly, but there was something outside listening into our conversation." Blake held Weiss's shoulders. "Weiss… I think it was a cloak."

Weiss's eyes grew wide. "L-like Ruby's cloak?"

"Maybe, I don't know." Blake shrugged. "But I really don't think so. It could be…" Blake didn't continue the thought. She knew that Weiss understood her line of thought.

"And anyways, Ruby's not here. I saw her running into the forest before our conversation."

"What was Ruby doing in the forest?"

"No clue, I saw her speed off. You know nobody can keep up with her."

There was a pause, as Blake lost herself in thought.

"Was Mr. Xiao L-Tai's room darker than you expected with all those lights on?"

"Yes!" Blake's feline ears flinched. "Yes," she repeated in a near whisper. "I thought might have just been me."

"Strange…"

Blake nodded. "I'm not sure if I'm enjoying this vacation as much as I should be…"

The next morning began fairly normally. A large breakfast was served, and they all dug in with gusto. Ruby had a headache, while Yang made some inappropriate jokes. While Weiss and Yang went to grab some headache medication, Blake and Ruby were left alone.

"So," Blake tried to begin nonchalantly. "Get up to anything last night?"

Ruby nearly choked on her water.

"No, nope? Nothing weird last night. Just sleeping."

Blake rolled her eyes. The obvious lie would have been glaringly obvious, even if Blake hadn't caught Ruby wandering into the forest. "Your weirdness aside -and we'll get back to that- did you notice anything weird with the lights last night? Maybe at around two, maybe three?"

"Don't think so. Maybe a light turned off?" Ruby replied shaking her head.

"Hmm, Weiss thought a light might have burnt out, but it all looked fine this morning." Blake pressed, moving the conversation towards Higher Order creatures in the area.

Blake frowned when Ruby brought up Reapers. To her knowledge, Reapers had no mind controlling capabilities. She asked Ruby as much.

"Well, it would make sense, right? How else would they be able to go everywhere and Reap humans without everyone screaming?"

"I don't think I read anything about that in Beacon's library. It does make sense though. A fringe theory perhaps? They do sort of darken… a place-"

Before the thought could continue, Ruby interrupted in a high pitched squeal. "-you think that there was a Reaper around Tai, er, dad's house?" There was her calling Taiyang 'Tai' again instead of dad. "Cuz that's just silly. It's silly. What would a Reaper want with this place anyways?"

Blake was still trying to connect the Reaper darkening fact with the cloak she thought she spotted. "Right. It's not logical."

"Any nobody died right?"

"Right," Blake said, mindlessly nodding along.

Ruby's strange ramblings continued until Blake changed the topic, towards Ruby's semblance. She wasn't quite sure why, but it was the first thing that popped into her head and it seemed to get Ruby to calm down.

What was Ruby so nervous about? What was she lying about? What was she hiding? Ruby was weird, but in an awkwardly dorky sort of way back at Beacon, but seeing her in her own home, with her own family, she seemed to be getting weirder. Or maybe it was just multiple strange instances with the girl and everything happening to Tai and Yang coming together.

Had Ruby had any memory related problems? Not that Blake could remember.

Training took up most of the late morning and afternoon. Starting with cardio and sparring, before leading into fine tuned semblance training. Ruby asked her a few questions about her semblance, which Blake was all too pleased to answer. It wasn't often that she got to explain to others how her semblance worked, or how she was trying to perfect it.

And even with whatever strangeness was going on, Blake knew for a fact that Ruby was a close friend.

Then something strange happened. Not in a Xiao Long family strange sort of way, but as a team-building, bonding way. The four of them sat in a circle and began talking about their semblances, trying to help Ruby with the issues she was having mastering hers.

It was amazing. Letting out her deeper thoughts about the feelings behind her semblance, rather than the physical actions of it.

They talked amongst themselves. Learning more about one another by learning more about each other's semblances. Then it was quiet. Yang plucked out pieces of grass, twirling them in her fingers, while Weiss cleaned off the dirt from her blade. Blake watched Ruby.

The girl was deep in thought, frowning slightly as her brain puzzled through some missing piece of information that the rest of them weren't privy to.

Ruby shot up to her feet.

"Hmm?" Weiss asked at the sudden movement.

"I think I got it. StayrighthereIgottatestsomethingberightbackIloveyouguysbye!" She sped off, leaving a trail of rose petals in her wake.

Yang turned to them. "Anybody catch what she just said?"

Blake looked on. "No, nothing."

Blake was hiding in the trees that night, waiting for Ruby to approach as she had the night before. Exactly as she hoped, there she was, skipping into the forest, with a happy little grin plastered on her face. She was humming some strange, otherworldly tune. When Ruby darted off, Blake did her best to follow along.

She ran, panting with exhaustion, hoping Ruby hadn't changed direction.

A cry of terror almost left her lips, but she muffled it with both her hands.

Blake could only watch as Ruby stood there, surrounded by chimera. Not a care in the world.

"Hello Mrs. Duck-cat. I was hoping I'd see you again."

Blake activated her semblance, landing silently back in the trees, away from her sight and farther away than any human could hear. It was honestly one of the few things she absolutely loved about having her faunus trait.

"Please stop nibbling on my fingers when I'm trying to pet you. But guess what? I got my magic to work in human form!"

Human form?

Ruby giggled. "Yes, Mrs. Duck-cat. I'm going to be able to stay like this even more now. But I do feel a little tired after using so much magic like this."

The chimera breathed out a light wisping of fire. The baby chimera around the mother copied its action, breathing out smoky fire of their own.

"I can't go back to Tai's smelling like fire." Her voice was much too friendly for being surrounded by chimera. It was like she was behaving as if those creatures were nothing more than harmless little puppies and kittens.

Blake could only watch as Ruby transformed.

Transformed into that thing.

She semblance away at the first sign of that telltale black cloak starting to grow out of her red cape.

Blake ran as fast and as far as she could. The Xiao Long home wasn't safe. She had to go back for Weiss. For Yang. Even for Tai. "What's happening. It's a dream, it's just a dream. You are freaking out and having a nightmare all at once." A terrified giggled emerged from her lips unwarranted.

She pinched herself, tears streaming down her face. She was hyperventilating.

She could feel herself hyperventilating. Why was she alive? How was she alive? How were any of them alive?

Nothing was making sense.

Then for some reason her mind drifted to that all too peculiar ending of Marigold the Riverwanderer.

She thought of the young girl, the young woman and the crone. The Being they had become. Their piercing red eyes and cloaked body.

As tears descended from her wild eyes and her heart beat faster than it had in weeks, she let out a slow, shaky breath.

"Reaper."

And this here be the end to the Blake interlude. I know it must have felt pretty long to a lot of you guys, but I wanted a change of pace before... well, the change of pace that is this next section of the story. No, there will not be a Yang interlude nor Weiss interlude this long (nor any other character for that matter). Will there still be interludes? Yes, but more like how they were before, just a single chapter here or there.

C3l3st14 - To answer your questions: she looks like she does in the show, sorta, but only in Reaper form, no. Well, maybe. That's up for debate. Like, I guess it would be possible, but why would Ruby want to try and scare people like that?

Dragonqueen1993 - Thank you for spotting the mistake! No joke, I love it when readers let me know when I messed up something, because it lets me go back and fix it! I have the corrected doc saved in my drafts and I'll probably repost the chapter in a few days.

TM Calypso - Thank you so much! As much fun as it was with Blake, I'm super excited to get back to Ruby.

Cun - Oh yes. So much fun will be coming up. Cuz a few days have passed since the big reveal, so you gotta know that Blake has puled a Blake and is going to try and angstify my fic.

firewyrm2 - Well it's a good thing that this is the end of the interlude! And I think a big thing is, when you look at it from their perspective, you don't really expect certain things to be possible. Like, why would an immortal being of pure evil (according to basic human knowledge) spend their time in school? It's like Clark Kent as Superman. You don't expect your friend/colleague to be a superhero.

JackTheSpades - So, Blake's reaction will be explained in upcoming chapters. As for your side question... Spoilers. ;)

Dragon Lord Draco - Well, your comment made me want to start the chapter with the book's end, rather than end the chapter that way, so there you go!

Shadow Walker - Thank you! (if you're reading this when it's uploaded, I will be in the process of writing my last one XD)

jaclea - That would have been a really really cool way for it to go. I kinda wish I thought of that while writing the outline for these interlude chapters...

No-Run - *shrugs* I dunno.

Jok - While I don't like much when people ask about updates to separate fics, I'll say here that no, GoodRose was not abandoned. I'll probably write a bunch of chapters for it over the summer. Or maybe not.