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REAPER IN RED

Chapter 19

No real change today with my team. It was only a day since my talk with Ozpin, but that night wasn't any better than the previous ones. Weiss had woken up in tears, screaming about me. Well, about the Reaper. But, it was me. She had cried out for help. Help to move, to escape. Weiss was scared of me. She was probably doing the worst of the three of them. Yang was pretty shaken up too, but it seemed to be more over my safety than her own. She had thought I had been killed by the Reaper. Even though it was only for a short time, she still thought I was dead. I understood that pain well. I still missed mom.

Yang usually calmed down if I cuddled with her, or held her hand. She thanked me in the morning and told me how glad she was that I wasn't actively fighting in that fight. She had thanked Blake and Weiss for requesting I stay on look-out that night. Ya, looking out for anything that could make our jobs harder. Maybe like a skin-crawler I had brought along with me and was acting as my look-out partner? The guilt was terrible.

Blake was... Blake. She refused any help I could give. While awake at least. At night, she would toss and turn in her sleep. Her fear was the quiet kind. I still tried to do what I could for her. She had only really faced off against the skin-crawler. I was grateful she hadn't faced off against me.

They did all join me in class though. The first day of real school in a week since the 'Disaster at the Docks', as the media was calling it. Aside from the quietness, even around Team JNPR, not much had changed from the old day-to-day. Well, there were the Crawler Checks going on around campus. Professor Goodwitch had said they were standard-operating procedure after a skin-crawler was discovered in the kingdom. Everyone seemed to be getting pinged on their scrolls throughout the day, going over to the medical wing to get a look over.

Apparently there was a test to determine if someone was a skin-crawler based on their eyes? Humans were just so smart. I wished I could do that. I wished I could have discovered that Penny was a skin-crawler. But no. In her body, the skin-crawler could appear as a regular old human. The skin-crawler had tricked me into thinking it was human, because she had... she had worn Penny. And I was too stupid to realize it. I had spent more time around humans, living among them, than most others of my kind. And yet I still didn't realize what was going on. Knowing that I was the cause of everything my friends were going through made everything so much worse. Why did I want to be more human again?

It was during the lecture after lunch that they had found someone. A fourth year boy I didn't know the name of. Apparently the headmaster had burned him alive himself. It was gruesome and brutal to be sure, but that boy had died the night Penny had found him on campus. It was just a body at that point. A body with a skin-crawler inside. A baby skin-crawler, eating its way through organs to better fit within its host. It was... disturbing to think about, even for me.

The searches would still continue. Everyone would be pinged just in case there were more. Even my team was pinged during the last class of the day. I took notes for them while they were gone.

Instead, I chose to focus on tonight. I was going to sneak into the restricted section of the library tonight.

"You are not going to sneak into the restricted section tonight," Weiss said firmly, her princess-y confidence returning for a moment after so long. She stood over me as I sat on her bed.

"But why Weiss?" I whined, pushing against the soft mattress to look at her square in the eye. "I need to go. And it's Blake's decision. Not yours."

"Not mine?" Weiss's eye twitched, "look at us! We are all walking disasters right now. Do you think any of us are in our right mind to do something as stupid and dangerous as sneaking into the library at night? It should be a team decision when our leader is thinking of doing something absolutely... shortsighted and foolish."

"It's not foolish!" I shouted back, clenching my fists. "It's important. More important than someone like you would ever understand."

This was not going how I had planned it to go. I looked across the room to Yang and then Blake. Blake was on Yang's bed, while Yang sat on the floor next to her, leaning on her bedframe. Why were they siding with Weiss in this? I knew they were having a hard time with everything, but this was just the library!

"Then explain it to us, Rubes." Yang's voice was soft, her eyes shining with sympathy.

"The crawler-sweeps are still going on. And a curfew is in effect. Why is it so important we go now?" Weiss almost shouted. Blake's ears flattened against her head and she pulled her knees together. Yang patted her knee, laying her temple on it in silent support.

There was no way I could tell her what I was looking for. I couldn't tell any of them. Or could I?

"Do you want to know what I wanted to look for?" My voice was hard. It was me against the world. Or at least Team RWBY. My world. "I wanted to read up on Grim Reapers. I wanted to know more about them. Everything I could. There's nothing useful in the regular library. I checked. Everything is just the basics, stuff everyone knows. But the real important stuff? That's in the restricted section. I should have gone and got those books weeks ago. Maybe if I had... maybe if I had, I would have been more useful during that fight."

Tears were starting to fall before I realized what was going on. It was all true. I was strong. So very, very strong. But I couldn't do anything. I was too weak to realize what Penny was. I was too weak to keep my friends safe from that skin-crawler. I was too weak to help them this entire week. I ran forward and collapsed into my sister's arms.

"I wasn't strong enough. I couldn't help you. I couldn't do anything to help. It's my fault Penny was there and it was my fault I-the Reaper was there. This... it's all my fault. If only I had known more. If only I was stronger."

Yang's grip on me tightened as I sobbed into her shoulder.

"It's alright Ruby," Yang cooed. "It's not your fault."

"It's mine." Weiss stated, everyone turning to her. She was sitting on the floor leaning against her bed, hugging her pillow tightly to her chest. Her eyes sparkled with unshed tears. "I had run away and brought everyone there. It was me. But there's more to it than that. Yang, at least you attacked the Reaper. It was foolhardy, yet, you still were so brave, going in and fighting that monster."

"I thought Ruby was dead. I couldn't think straight."

"No, but you still fought. What did I do? The moment it arrived, I was frozen. Frozen in fear, I was so scared. And then I tripped, and-and... and it touched me." I flinched at the way Weiss said those words. Terrified seemed too simple a word to describe it. "I fell and it forced me to my feet and even smiled at me. I had never been so scared in my entire life. But.. but I couldn't do anything. It was forcing me to be calm. Do you know how terrifying that is? I was literally in the hands of death and my mind was forcing me to accept it. I... I was staring at it and I was ready to die. If it had asked me to kill myself, I would have done it without hesitation."

Tears fell.

"Do you know what it is like to accept death? No, be forced to accept death?" Her shudder mirrored my own, "I never want to experience that again. I don't think I can. Ruby, no book you find, if you find any, will be able to beat that thing."

"I have to try. I need to be stronger. I need to be this team's leader and I need to defend you all," I said. Weiss threw a textbook onto the ground and we all flinched at the noise.

"Are you too stupid to understand? We are first year Beacon students. We couldn't even handle a skin-crawler. What hope do we have, what hope does anyone have to defeat a Grim Reaper?" She looked so scared and so angry.

"It doesn't mean we shouldn't try." Blake said in a whisper. It had been days since she said anything. She stood up and paced the room, clearly trying to get her thoughts in order. She placed a hand on Weiss's shoulder. Her gaze settled on me. "We should still try. To know everything we can. We may not be close to strong enough to fight a skin-crawler, let alone a Grim Reaper, but we can still be better prepared. Knowledge is power. And I think I'm done feeling this powerless. Ruby, I'll take you into the restricted section. And then we are all going to pick ourselves up and stop blaming ourselves for what happened at the docks. We're a team. And we are going to be stronger together."

"Blake," Yang said, holding out a hand to her. Almost immediately, Blake walked across the room, joining us in a firm hug.

Weiss was hesitant, still clutching her pillow, but she did join us. I felt her arms wrap around me and forehead on my back. She was still crying. I felt the wet spots on my shirt. But so too were Blake and Yang. Even I was crying. For different reasons than them, but it was still... good. As crying turned to quiet sobs and then to sniffles, I felt better. It was slow and it was shaky. But it was better.

We stayed like that for a long time. All of us with our arms wrapped around each other and heads together in fond embrace. Blake stopped crying first, but maintained her hold on us. Then I felt myself run dry. Yang was next. Weiss continued to sniffle and dab her eyes with the sleeve of her shirt as we let go of each other.

"Thank you," Weiss was the first to speak. "I truly needed that."

"I think we all did Weiss," Yang rubbed her back reassuringly. "We should make a promise to each other, here and now while we are all still... emotional. No secrets. Whether they're emotions we are trying to force down to keep each other happy, or something more physical than that. We're all friends here. No, we're more like family after all we've been through. All we want is to help each other and build each other up. The best way... the only way to do that is if we are honest with each other and honest with ourselves. Who's with me?"

Weiss nodded.

Blake gave a single nod.

I held my breath, looking straight at Yang's pleading expression. I breathed out. "I guess we are all in this together at last."

I had to turn away from them and shut my eyes tightly. I couldn't let them see me. I'm sorry Yang, Blake, Weiss. As close as we are after everything that happened to us, I couldn't share my secrets. Not now, not ever.

This was a very interesting chapter to write as it was the first time that I drew the scene out before writing it. I like to think that it's a very emotional scene and one in which movement and where the characters are standing/sitting in relation to one another has significant importance to how they are feeling even when not speaking. I'm enjoying writing emotional Weiss.

I'm hoping to keep the changes to their characters, especially the PTSD-like aspects that came from their fight at the docks. If you think I'm forgetting about it or you think that they aren't acting right based on what happened, please CALL ME OUT ON IT! Thanks!

FireIce90 - Yes, Penny's father was a skin crawler in disguise.

FN75 - More information about Salemites is always afoot! And I'm so glad you liked chapter 18. Your review was part of the inspiration for the latest interlude as well.

Sm0keyPanda - 1. Glad you enjoyed the arc. 2. Great pun

snoopykid - Thanks!

JackTheSpades - So happy you liked chapter 18. Writing the RWBY angst has been a blast and I don't plan on stopping the angst train anytime soon. Though, as we gear up for the next arc, things will always get better/worse for everyone.

CaptainTacoBell and dragonqueen1993 - Thank you for the inspiration for the latest interlude!

Alucard45 - Hopefully this chapter cleared up your question a little bit. If not, then the answer is a little bit of both. Ruby's magic does effect people around her, but the psychological affect of Reapers is just as powerful a weapon. As for your question regarding skin-crawler offspring, I'm going to just say that there wasn't another skin-crawler born in the school.

lasereye27 - Glad you enjoyed.

Guest - Sometimes you just need to be grateful for what you get.