Minor Disagreements
The nightmare watched in amusement as Blake used Gambol Shroud to throw Yang her way.
Dropping to the floor let Yang sail by harmlessly overhead as she giggled when she heard Yang swear as she hit a wall.
Still, her sister was rather determined which meant she’d be rebounding any moment now.
She pretended to be unaware and winked at Weiss before she burst to the side in a swarm of petals and reformed, letting Yang crash into one of the clones of Weiss.
She narrowed her eyes. What a mockery. None of them had the same spark of life her partner had. The hint of playfulness waiting to be unleashed, the stress lurking in the back, always waiting to come forward and overtake her.
The same tiredness she’d made it her job to ensure was always pushed back, out of her partner’s eyes.
She clenched her fist. Those had to go first. She refused to allow them to mock Weiss, mock them, any longer.
Weiss blinked as she watched the nightmare effortlessly avoid Yang’s opening and follow up attack.
Weiss hated to say it but if the Grimm had been along with Ruby the entire time then trying to use the same tactics she helped them come up with wasn’t going to cut it.
Especially if its words about holding back were true, and they seemed to be.
Of course she couldn’t account for why she seemed so upset instead of playful all of a sudden before the Grimm used her semblance to blur around the room faster than she could track.
She finally drew her sword in what was apparently needless defense as the winds settled down and showed that they all appeared to be fine.
No, that wasn't right. The clones were a bloody mess on the floor. Ruby clearly hadn’t been joking about being upset about them.
Nothing about this made sense. Why did the Grimm care so much for Ruby? It seemed upset on her behalf, or was it something else?
Could it be…?
Blake silently descended, apologizing to her friend in her mind as she aimed her sword at her right side only for Ruby to sidestep at the last moment and knock her to the side with the flat of her blade which sent her rolling like she’d been hit with a fully charged punch from Yang.
She struggled to stop the momentum only to be forced even farther back as Ruby’s gun fired and a high caliber round slammed into her shoulder.
Blake felt her aura flicker as Yang ran over to check on her, ignoring the nightmare’s disgusted look as she did so.
“Come on Blake. I helped you fix that. I know you weighted it and you rely on it for a bit more speed. Makes you a bit too predictable,” Nightmare Ruby taunted her before turning away and toward Weiss who’d mustered up the aura to summon her Nevermore properly for the first time.
Despite that however it didn’t make any move to attack as Ruby looked at it with wonder, and awe.
“You did it! You summoned Larry!”
“It has a name?” Weiss asked with a smirk as Ruby actually flushed and rubbed the back of her head looking like her old self for a moment regardless of the slowly spreading veins.
“Well we don’t really have names, but we…Ruby and I always thought he looked like a Larry,” Nightmare admitted, reaching a hand to pet it.
Strangely to Weiss, her summon made no effort to stop her as she gently put her hand on the summons head looking at peace as her eyes settled down to mostly silver with faint swirls of red.
“Larry it is then,” Weiss said with a faint grin as Nightmare Ruby grinned back.
Of course the moment was ruined as a small blade erupted from Ruby's neck as Neo growled from behind her and Ruby crumpled to the floor as Neo twisted letting the parasol go with her.
Weiss felt her eyes widen and even her summon let out a wailing cry as she turned to Neo before Neo’s smug look was replaced by one of terror as Ruby stood back up and pulled the parasol from her neck before snapping it in half and throwing it over her shoulder.
Before she turned away from Weiss, she saw her eyes were now back to being the same red and silver mix.
"Next time hook and twist. You do more damage that way," Nightmare Ruby lazily advised her.
Neo attempted to spring away but was thwarted as Ruby was behind her faster than she could blink, her scythe already in motion, finding purchase in soft flesh as Neo’s aura flickered and failed as a bright arc of blood sprayed into the air and coated the ground underneath.
Neo was sent tumbling on her side towards the edge of the room where she curled in on herself as she came to a stop with the blood slowly pooling beneath her.
The nightmare slowly walked towards her, eyes cold as she raised her scythe to finish the small mute off until a gunshot impacted her blade and knocked it off course.
“Ah Jaune. I knew I’d forgotten something,” Nightmare said looking at Jaune who was kneeling by Blake and Yang hands green as he began boosting their auras.
“Then again maybe that’s your semblance? Being so unremarkable that no one remembers you. Not me, not Cinder, not the paper pleasers. Do you think Pyrrha regrets dying for you?”
“Jaune no,” Yang said but she was too late as Jaune gave a great yell and sprinted past them sword and shield at the ready as he leapt at the monster wearing his friends face.
Nightmare Ruby smirked and dodged his strikes by the faintest of margins using her semblance to move mere inches and make it look like he was swinging through her.
After a few moments the nightmare grabbed him by his neck and held him aloft as she examined him making sure to keep his body between Yang and herself and ignored his flailing strikes with his shield.
“You know one thing I do have to admit is commendable is your aura. It’s always been rather robust,” the nightmare complimented him before she struck fast and hard hitting the small area between plates on his armor causing him to wretch even as his aura flickered but didn’t break although he did drop his weapons, his fingers going slack.
“Very commendable,” Ruby said before she let him go and kicked him in the center of his armor, denting it and sending him skidding across the room.
“Ruby was never this talented at hand to hand combat,” Weiss said from behind her as the Nightmare turned and acknowledged her with a nod.
“She’s not. We’re not, not really, but I’ve watched and practiced in her mind. Sending her the memories of how Yang and dad fight when she sleeps, well sometimes,” Nightmare Ruby said, her face gaining a small red tint. “Some nights not so much.”
“You called Mister Xiao-Long dad. Her...your father,” Weiss pointed out as the nightmare nodded.
“I did tell you that after so long we’d grown fond of her. It’s sometimes difficult to distinguish between us,” the nightmare admitted freely.
“So you’re…”
“Very possibly.”
“What will happen to her, to you both?” Weiss asked.
“Truthfully? No idea,” Nightmare Ruby said with a grin that looked so very much like her partner.
“Would you leave her?” Weiss asked, walking up and gently putting a hand on her cheek.
“Not even for you,” Nightmare Ruby said, shaking its head. “Maybe had you asked back at the farm, or before all of Atlas. Before we grew apart I might have been willing, but now?” Nightmare Ruby shook her head.
“I’m sorry. Someone needs to protect her. To be there for her always. I thought it might have been you, but…”
“We never grew apart,” Weiss insisted, begging the nightmare to see her side of things.
“Weiss, you ditched her constantly, ditched us. We needed you. We lost our friend and you weren’t there for us. What happened? I thought you were the best partner ever!”
“I was scared,” Weiss said softly.
“Of what? We would have protected you, helped you, shielded you, gladly laid down our lives for you if you’d only asked!”
“Ruby, my father is, was, not a nice man. He always seemed like he had a hand in everything, an eye or ear everywhere. If I showed any inkling that I valued you as much as I do I have no doubt he’d have found a way to try and kill you. I couldn’t let that happen.”
“Why didn’t you say anything to us? Why leave us to suffer? Why continue it here?” Nightmare Ruby asked before she frowned over her shoulder at seeing Yang marching her way and withdrew from Weiss to both of their irritations.
“Surprised you could tear yourself away from Blake’s side to come over here,” Nightmare Ruby said snidely as Yang slammed her fist together, her hair seeming to catch fire as her eyes grew red.
“I’m going to start beating you, and I’m not stopping until you’re out of my sister,” Yang said solemnly. “I already promised her I wasn’t going to let her turn into a hound, and I’m sure not gonna let her turn into some other monster.”
Nightmare Ruby’s face flickered then, but only slightly. “You did say that. If only you’d meant it.”
Yang screamed and threw a haymaker at Ruby who sidestepped the blow and tried to kick at Yang’s leg only for her to grab onto it and pull, sending the nightmare toppling to the floor.
“When it comes to hand to hand, nightmare or not, you aren’t beating me!” Yang boasted, raised her own leg, and tried to stomp on its chest.
The nightmare quickly petal burst both of them a few feet to the side and used the disorientation everyone seemed to feel to pull her foot from Yang and unfold her weapon before firing a trio of shots at her sister as she rolled away.
Yang dodged the first two before she willingly took the third in her arm, her aura not even flickering as amplified as it had been.
“Don’t tell me you forgot about my semblance now!” Yang taunted the Grimm as she sprinted back faster than before.
“Of course not. You do know the actual weakness of it don’t you?” Ruby taunted her with a smirk. “It only works until your body gives out.”
“Nope. I aint’ stopping til I beat you out of my sister,” Yang promised.
“Yes, so we can go back to being the one you dump all your expectations onto so you can go spend time with Blake. What a healthy relationship,” the nightmare mocked as Yang sprang forward and tackled her into the wall of the room, cracks forming like a spiderweb as Nightmare Ruby observed her.
Yang didn’t stop there as she separated her hands and clapped each over Ruby’s ears simultaneously causing the nightmare to actually whine at the pain of having its eardrums ruptured.
Ruby’s eyes went red as it gave Yang a hard palm heel strike to the chest, sending her back a dozen feet as she took a knee.
“So you do feel pain,” Yang taunted the thing as Blake came up to stand next to her.
“So you do want to actually piss me off?” Ruby asked rhetorically as she pulled herself to her feet, her scythe appearing in her hand once more as she leapt at them, her arms a near blur as she swung Crescent Rose in various complicated patterns she’d never shown before.
In fact, the more Yang blocked or even tried to strike back the more complicated the attack patterns became.
Where at first Yang was able to block or deflect most of the blows, within the first thirty seconds she was scarcely able to avoid one in a dozen as the cuts littering her body attested.
The only thing keeping her in the fight was Blake constantly distracting Ruby with clones or ranged potshots and Yang’s semblance powering her up to such a degree that even the nightmare was forced to avoid her counter attacks.
And through it all, Weiss watched. Unable to look away and scarcely noticing Jaune drag himself over to Neo to try and save her life from the rather wicked looking cut that ran through her side.
Weiss…couldn’t bring herself to care. She should. She knew she should, but she’d been so close to breaking through to Ruby, or rather to both of them in there. Or was it just the one now?
It was clear to her now that even if the nightmare was removed it had left an indelible mark on her soul.
Had a nightmare, a Grimm somehow been a better partner to Ruby than her team? Than Weiss herself? It had spent nights teaching her or trying, learning from her, and even now wanting to protect her.
It had even named her summon with her. No other Grimm acted this way. This intelligently, or looked at Weiss with such care.
Not even the Hound came close to this. Had being within Ruby changed it so drastically? Would it happen to all huntsmen if such a Grimm were in them long enough, or was it because Ruby was uniquely herself?
Had she known that’s what it was, or had she merely thought she was talking to herself and more importantly was that herself now?
So many questions, but so few answers.
She looked at the Nevermore, Larry, who was watching the nightmare unblinking. Could she? Should she? Did she even have the right to offer anymore?
The nightmare had been right. She’s taken Ruby for granted, used her to bolster herself, and protect the castle in her heart, but in return she’d done less than nothing for Ruby.
Perhaps her actions could be justified in Atlas, but she could have let Ruby know, and then why? Why had she said nothing? Told her there was no time? Rushed to help Jaune? Because he was suffering outwardly more? When had she stopped caring about her partner? Never, but when had she stopped showing it?
The others could ignore or fight against it, deny it all they wanted but the nightmare wouldn’t have taken root, and voiced those thoughts if Ruby didn’t have them, and as much as it was painful it was right.
Blake didn’t talk to Ruby outside of training or a group setting. They both loved to read so why didn’t they talk about books or read together?
Why didn’t Blake actually stick around to talk with Ruby about her weapon design instead of just handing it over to be fixed and leaving to spend more time with Yang?
Yang had drifted away from spending time with her to focus more on Blake even before Ever After. Even Jaune had noticed. She’d gone from a protective older sister content to let Ruby make her choices but be by her side to a family member about as present in her life as their uncle outside of team functions preferring to spend time with Blake, and at least Qrow had a damn good reason to act like he did, and still tried.
Jaune had blamed Ruby when at least she was trying to do something and when everyone expected her to come up with a plan, and Weiss herself? She knew her own sins and she didn’t care for them. At all.
Had some part of her taken some vindictive pleasure in watching a person who was slowly worming their way into Ruby’s heart be taken from her?
No, she might have been annoyed but she also realized she’d stepped back from supporting her partner as she should have, and Penny and Ruby had always had a special bond.
Penny was the first friend Ruby sought outside the team that wasn’t forced by being on a team or being forced to spend time with them like JNPR.
Was she trying to protect Ruby, or herself? Was she afraid that she might find out she’d been replaced?
Weiss watched the fight as the Nightmare steadily pushed them back and slowly put away her sword.
This wasn’t a fight that would be won through strength. As Ruby had attested with the power of a dream the nightmare would outlast them, and…they deserved this.
To have Ruby air her grievances with them and honestly listen. It had already shown to have remarkable restraint. The only one it had actually tried to harm seriously was Neo and Neo had been trying to kill her.
Praying she wasn’t making a mistake Weiss took a seat on a slightly raised bit of the floor with Larry sitting down next to her.
Actually where was Little?
“And then there were two,” Nightmare Ruby said looking amused as Yang heaved great lungfuls of air and took advantage of the brief respite glaring at the Grimm which was barely breathing harder than normal.
“One good hit,” Yang promised.
“It wouldn’t do anything,” the nightmare promised with a wink.
“Damn it, what's Weiss doing?” Yang asked in a hiss seeing Weiss merely sitting down.
“She always did understand us better than the rest of you.”
“Stop talking like you’re my sister!” Yang ordered the Grimm.
“You don’t even know your sister. We’ve been changing this last year and you’ve not paid attention. Who are you to say this isn’t us?”
“Cut the shit!” Yang roared as her semblance blazed all the brighter.
“Someone wants coal from Uncle Qrow this solstice,” The Grimm taunted as Yang used her gauntlets to launch her toward the imposter in her sister’s body.
Nightmare Ruby raised a hand to counter before she found it restricted and frowned seeing Blake holding her in place and smirked. She used her free hand to throw a crystal of fire dust at her feet and cause a small explosion as she yanked on the restrained arm.
Yang ignored the explosion and struck forward feeling great satisfaction at the meaty sound her punch produced until the smoke cleared and her eyes widened in horror at seeing Blake’s broken body lying on the ground until it thankfully vanished as the real Blake came from the side to stand next to her.
“Temper, temper,” Nightmare Ruby mocked Yang who swallowed loudly at the realization of how close she’d come to hurting Blake.
“You…gave me just enough time to swap out with a clone,” Blake said softly.
Her response was a wink. “I told you, didn't I? Ever After is one big dream, and in here? I make the rules!”
“You almost made me hurt Blake!” Yang accused her, sliding down to her knees her eyes fading to lilac once more.
“No, I’m pretty sure that was mostly you,” Ruby taunted Yang who blinked at how clear her sister’s voice sounded. Her eyes were even mostly silver with a small amount of red in them once again.
“I refuse to stop. Ruby I know you’re in there…fighting. Come on you can do this,” Yang begged the unimpressed looking nightmare.
“Really? That’s your big play? Who do you think is letting me fight you, or asked me not to kill you, or said all that stuff out loud?
Do you really think all the shit you heaped on her and saddled us with is gonna get fixed just cause you said some words of encouragement once?” Nightmare Ruby asked as she crouched down to Yang’s level although out of arm's reach.
“Too little. Too late. You don’t just tell a depressed person to believe in themselves and it magically makes it better like they hadn’t thought of that and the problems all go away,” Nightmare Ruby said, standing back up and stretching her back before slinging her weapon onto her back.
“We’re done here. Go comfort her like you always do,” Ruby dismissed them.
“I…we’re sorry,” Blake said softly, her ears flat against her head as the nightmare looked back at them and gave a soft hum.
“So you do know you can apologize to people that aren’t Yang,” the nightmare teased before it walked towards the sitting Weiss.
“Been waiting long?”
“I’d wait forever for you, both of you,” Weiss admitted sincerely as Ruby scratched Larry under his chin.
“Can we…talk?” Weiss asked as Ruby practically beamed at the question.
“I…we wouldn’t like anything more.”
“Before we do. Where’s Little?” Weiss asked as Ruby’s face contorted into a pained expression.
“They tried to save me…us from Neo. She…crushed them,” Ruby said as she carefully brought out a small pouch.
“I left it open so they could breathe, but Weiss they won’t wake up. Why won’t they wake up?”
“Ruby…you know why,” Weiss said gently as she took the bag from the nightmare’s unresisting hands.
“I tried so hard. I wanted so badly for them to be alright. What good is all this power if I can’t protect what’s precious to me?” Ruby asked as Weiss pulled her into a hug.
“You remember what they said? That things don’t really die in Ever After?” Weiss asked after a moment.
“Yeah, but it still hurts. I miss them.”
“I know, and they were there for you both like I should have been. Like we all should have been,” Weiss admitted as she opened the bag and frowned.
“Ruby the bag is empty,” Weiss pointed out the empty bag to the girl who blinked and snatched it back.
“I didn’t drop them! I know I didn’t!” Ruby begged Weiss who hugged her.
“It’s ok, Ruby. They’re gonna be fine.”
"And what to do with you?" The blacksmith said tilting their head as they examined the one before them.
"Sometimes things are perfect just how they are. They need only be set right once again."