Waking a Nightmare

As Ruby let Weiss hug her she felt something… shift and heard Weiss gasp beside her. 

“The blacksmith,” Ruby said in understanding as the fog cleared away to reveal the helpful smith.

“Weiss Schnee, and Ruby Rose. I am pleased you are not alone this time,” The blacksmith said. 

“We weren’t alone last time either,” Ruby protested with narrowed eyes. 

The blacksmith tilted its head in thought as it absorbed and pondered her words before they nodded. “I suppose you were not, my apologies.”

“Why did you bring us here?” Ruby asked as she stood up although she retained her grasp on Weiss’s hand. 

“You are aware of what is happening to you. I merely wished you to have all the information available before you made your choice.”

“What do you mean? What is happening to Ruby, to them?” Weiss asked, her tone dripping with concern. 

“It is a rare thing, when one can overcome its nature as a destroyer, a devourer of life, and instead become its protector. A champion,” the smith said as they opened her hand to display an image of a rose.

A hand reached forward to pluck the rose only for thorns to sprout and drive the hand away. 

“You mean Nightmare Ruby?” Weiss asked and the smith nodded. 

“They are nearly one and the same at the moment, but Grimm are almost universally destroyers of life. For this one to divert from that, to instead come to care for not only its host but others? It is truly remarkable,” the smith praised. 

“I’m sensing a but coming,” Ruby said warily. 

“Very astute. As you can see when you were more dormant it wasn’t an issue but now that you’ve awakened and the power you’ve expended has thrown you out of balance…”

The image of a rose with thorns changed as more and more thorns covered the rose and eventually suffocated it. 

“Oh,” Nightmare Ruby said and her face twitched as she stared into the distance. 

Weiss was struck by the fact that she was likely talking to Ruby or herself rather. 

“What about…Salem?” Weiss asked the smith, who nodded at her and drew Ruby back to the present. 

“The one you know as Salem, if you were to confront her as you are now, would be able to control you, and use you against your friends. 

While you would no doubt be able to easily overpower even her most powerful minions, against the Grimm queen herself? You would provide some challenge to her perhaps, but you would fail in the end and in doing so provide her a servant more powerful than any before.”

“Damn it,” Ruby said, rubbing her eyes, “so it was all for nothing. I still ruined her, our life.” 

“That is not what I said,” the smith interrupted calmly as they laid a hand on Ruby’s shoulder. 

Ruby looked up with hope in her eyes. 

“If you continue as you are now, so out of balance then you will be defeated, but what do you recall of what the lamp told you about Salem?” 

“About how the gods cursed her with immortality, you mean?” Weiss asked. 

“It required both gods, the light and darkness working together in harmony to do so. Ruby and her silver eyes represent the light, and the Grimm, or Nightmare Ruby as you call her represents the darkness,” the smith explained as they held out both of their hands as a makeshift scale. 

“Too much of one or the other unbalances the other, but what if one were to work together in harmony?” the smith asked as they stopped moving their hands. 

Weiss gasped as she came to her own conclusion. “You’re saying?”

The smith nodded. “The choice is yours of course, but only by achieving balance between you, the two halves, will you be able to find peace, and perhaps use the joint powers to undo the curse on Salem, and end her suffering.”

“Can I…talk with Weiss about it for a minute?” Ruby asked and the smith nodded before they held up a single hand. 

“It is not in my usual nature to rebuild something the exact same way, but sometimes a purpose is unfulfilled. I will not do so a third time, but in this instance a second chance was warranted,” the smith explained as she gently took a hand from her pocket and offered it toward the other two. 

“Ruby!” Little cried as they lunged at her and Weiss who caught them mid air. 

“Little! You’re alright, and you remember me, us?” 

“You bet! How could I forget? You owe me a hug!” Little proclaimed as they looked at the smith who looked on fondly. 

“As I said, I’m not often in the habit of merely rebuilding with no alterations, but exceptions can sometimes be made. Please take the time you need to speak about things,” the smith said gesturing to a bench on the other side of her workshop while they went back to the table and began working once more. 

“What do you think?” Ruby asked, her voice now sounded almost like it had an echo, and Weiss realized both Ruby and the Grimm were speaking to her at that moment. Or perhaps, Weiss mused they were both always the same since that day in the forest and she was only now aware of it. 

Weiss resolved to treat them as one in the same regardless.  

She put a hand on Ruby’s cheek gently and watched them lean into her hand, seeming completely at peace. 

“It’s the both of your lives, not mine,” Weiss said as she rubbed the top of Little’s head. 

Ruby shook her head and looked at Weiss with such affection that she felt her heart nearly stop as Ruby took Weiss’s hand and placed it on her chest. 

“Our life, it’s always been yours. At least it has been for a while now,” Ruby explained. 

Weiss took a moment to choke down the tears that sprang to her eyes and took Ruby’s hand to put on her own chest. 

“And mine for you.”

Little not knowing how to explain themselves merely ran between both and hugged them equally to their amusement. 

“I suppose there’s not really much to talk about then,” Ruby said, kicking her feet back and forth, and Weiss took note that her veins began receding. 

“I…before we’d come in here I had thought about offering you to become one of my summons,” Weiss admitted as Ruby hummed. 

“So that way I could look after you both forever then?” Nightmare Ruby teased with a smirk coming to the forefront for a moment. 

“I would have trained day and night to ensure you’d be no drain on my reserves, that you would be out at all times no matter what anyone else said or thought.”

“It’s alright, I believe you.  We might be a bit nicer than the usual Grimm, but I don’t know if I could give up staying here,” Ruby admitted patting herself.

“You should know you’re precious to me. When I look at you I don’t see just Ruby, or the Nightmare I see my partner, Ruby Rose, and she is precious to me. I’m sorry it took all of this ,” Weiss gestured around them, “for me to finally admit it to you.”

“It’s ok. Despite everything this is probably better than Ascension or whatever it is for us. Not really any way of telling what that would end up with,” Ruby said and Weiss noticed her veins stop receding around the back of her hands.

“You have made your choice then,” the blacksmith said from behind them. 

“Not much of one to make really,” Ruby admitted as she turned around, Little on her shoulder. 

“But it was a choice you made on your own,” the blacksmith reminded her and Ruby nodded. 

“How do I go about…doing this whole thing?” Ruby asked the red in her eyes, dimming until it was barely present, a faint swirl in pools of silver. 

“It has already started. When you go back to your world the process will finish without you having to do anything else now that you’ve made the choice. True balance requires you work in harmony and become one and once you step back into Remnant you will be,”

“Will there be any side effects for her to worry about?” Weiss asked. 

“No. You might find some changes, but I imagine them to be mostly positives but I will let you find out for yourself. Will you be joining them on their journey?” the smith asked Little who thought it over for a moment before nodding. 

“She owes me lots of hugs! I have to collect!”

The blacksmith chuckled and straightened up. “So you do. There are a few more you need to speak with, and one I need to speak with before you are finished.”

In the next moment Blake, Yang, and Jaune appeared nearby and Neo appeared next to the blacksmith who frowned at her. 

“Ruby!” Yang yelled as she tackled her sister off the bench and into the ground. 

“I miss the instant regeneration already,” Ruby whined. After a few more moments she got tired of being on the ground and pushed Yang off her. 

“Come on Yang let me up,” Ruby demanded. 

To her credit Yang did get up and offer her a hand up which she took. 

“We have a lot to talk about I guess,” Jaune said in a humorless chuckle as the others nodded and sat down on the ground. If anybody noticed Weiss refused to leave her partner's side, or stop holding her hand no one brought it up. 

“I…we did some thinking and talking, and…you were right. About almost everything. I’m so sorry,” Blake said sincerely, hugging herself as her ears flattened to the top of her head. 

“Well we have time to talk about it now right?” Ruby asked and they nodded. 

“Some of us don’t have as much time as you all do though so don’t take too long,” Jaune joked and Ruby actually snorted at that. 

“You’re not that close to the grave old timer. I did see a sale on cemetery plots though,” Ruby joked as she shoved his shoulder. 

“Yeah, yeah abuse the old person,” Jaune groused as he retook his seat. 

“Before that can I…what’s gonna happen to Ruby now?” Yang asked as the others perked up, interested in what would happen as well. 

“A sort of merger. The nightmare will mostly go back to being dormant but still aware and Ruby will apparently gain some of its abilities as they reach a sort of balanced state,” Weiss said to summarize the entire conversation. 

“Damn,” Yang said looking at her sister’s mostly silver eyes although the occasional swirl of red was present as were the black veins on the back of her hands. 

“The eyes will take some getting used to,” Jaune admitted as Ruby shrugged. 

“Not my problem.”

Jaune flinched and then nodded. “I…you’re right. I guess I should start by apologizing again…”

“We’d also like to hear what you have to say,” Blake said. 

“All of it. I’m sorry. Just tell me what we can do to help fix it. I don’t know when we stopped being sisters, but I need to fix it.”

“We never stopped being sisters, and it wasn’t all you guys. I took a lot of stuff on my own shoulders too I should have spoke about earlier, but let’s talk…”

Ruby gently tugged on Weiss’s hand as they walked toward the portal and back to Remnant. 

Weiss stopped her just short of the portal and Ruby turned to face her, the question written in her eyes as Weiss slowly circled her arms around her neck. 

Ruby flushed and returned the gesture after making sure Little was turned away. 

“Hey,” Weiss said softly as she rested her forehead against Ruby and stared into pools of mostly silver with occasional red wisps. 

“Wanted to get a kiss in before we got back?” Ruby asked, sounding horrifically pleased at the idea. 

“How many couples get to say they kissed in two realities?” Weiss asked as she drew closer. 

“Other than Blake and Yang you mean?” 

“I’d rather think about us for the moment,” Weiss said, leaning closer until their lips were only separated by less than an inch. 

“You read my mind,” Ruby said as she closed the distance and they finally shared their first kiss of a lifetime. 

It wasn’t like Blake and Yang’s almost desperate needy kiss, but was tender, and spoke of a bright future the two would build together from now on. 

Despite the chasteness of the kiss Ruby was still breathing hard from just a few moments. 

Noticing Weiss appeared fine she raised an eyebrow. 

“Trained singer, remember?” 

“Oh, well maybe you can show me and we can practice?” Ruby asked in a way that Weiss found absurdly seductive. 

“If I did it now we’d never make it out of here.”

“Later then?”

“I promise.”

“Thank you again, for everything,” Ruby thanked the Blacksmith, Weiss, still by her side as Little sat in one of her pouches with more of the strange cheese from Ever After the smith had procured from somewhere.

“Good luck on your journey Ruby Rose. Keep your friends and loved ones close, remember who you are, and I foresee you will be triumphant,” the blacksmith said with a chuckle. 

“After all you’re Ruby Rose…”

“And I’m a huntress!” Ruby finished with a toothy grin as she tightened her grip on Weiss’s hand and they both walked into the portal to join their friends and face whatever the future held, together.