Chapter Text
Her heartbeat drums in her ears as she sprints to the edge of the walkway, Gambol Shroud already spinning. With every fiber of her being, she unfurls it down toward the seemingly lifeless body falling further away from her. When the ribbon pulls taut without reaching her, Blake falls to her knees.
“Yang!” Her chest feels hollow as she screams down into the empty space where her partner disappeared. The only thing holding her back from the edge is Weiss’ grounding grip as she feels tears well in her eyes.
Neopolitan. This was her fault. If it weren’t for her, Yang would still be here. Spinning on her heels, Blake moves with a quickness that frees her from Weiss’ grasp. Her faunus ears flatten with rage as she finds the fiend responsible for her, for her teams’ loss. Immediately, she lunges forward into a dead sprint.
This time when she propels Gambol Shroud through the air it finds its target, wrapping around one of Neo’s arms and Blake pulls with all her might, spinning Neo around to face her. She grunts in frustration as Neo shatters her illusion when Gambol’s sheath makes contact.
Once she finds Ruby and Neo again, she takes off in a full out sprint towards them, hell bent on making sure Neopolitan doesn’t take another team member from her.
As she fights along side Ruby, her rage begins to subside. And the fear of not being able to protect her team begins to creep into her mind. But the thought is shaken from her as she feels her sword make contact heavily with Neo’s weapon. Swinging herself back, Blake allows enough time and distraction for Ruby to jet forward below her with her semblance and strike with Crescent Rose. She prepares herself to continue their dual assault, but freezes when she hears the echo of Weiss’ scream throughout the endless hallway. And it shakes her heart within the confines of her chest.
Looking up, she sees Weiss clinging to her glyph as Penny attempts to hold her own against Cinder. Quickly she looks back towards Ruby.
How can she choose? Her teammates needed her. But she wouldn’t be able to help both of them. Weiss makes the decision for her, opting to summon her lancer and further depleting her aura to assist Penny. Ruby would be able to hold her own a little longer. Weiss wouldn’t stand a chance alone against Cinder, even with Penny’s help.
As Blake watches the lancer shatter back into particles of ice dust, Weiss falling to the floor with her aura shattering on impact, she doesn’t even have time to think before her feet have her moving. This wasn’t about revenge, this was about what was right. Flinging herself through the air with as much force as possible, Blake braces for the impact that shakes through her legs as the bottom of her boots make contact with the side of Cinder’s head. It successfully knocks her off balance, and landing Blake beside her fallen teammate. Refusing to lose someone important to her, she hears her own voice before she realizes she’s speaking.
“Get up!” She falls into an offensive stance, Gambol rolling out into sword form. Weiss must’ve been able to sense the desperation in her voice, immediately moving to run behind her with the staff, Penny taking the place beside Blake, ready to fight.
They seemed unevenly matched against Cinder with the maiden’s power. After what felt like hours of fighting, but was surely minutes, a fire blast soars towards her, propelling Blake off of the walkway’s edge. She feels the now human grasp of Penny catching her before she can plummet to the same fate as Yang.
Watching helplessly as Penny flies them as quickly as she can, Ruby’s aura shatters and she clings for her life to Neo as Cinder regains control of the staff of creation and sends the two of them to the depths below.
“Ruby!” Blake screams to get her attention as Penny catapults her through the air towards Ruby at immense speed. The contact is rough, but Ruby is able to grab onto her and with her last bit of energy, Blake swings to attach Gambol Shroud to the walkway.
Internally relieved she was able to successfully save at least one of her teammates today, they begin the rest of their swing back to a platform. And then the tension breaks. Cinder has severed Gambol Shroud’s ribbon, and she feels almost weightless as she begins to drift apart from Ruby, reaching out for her as they plunge into the nothing.
Then, just as quickly as Ruby had appeared, she was gone. Just like everything and everyone else.