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Weiss finds her sitting by the window, staring blankly out at the setting sun, just like she had been the day before. And the day before that. All week, really, if Weiss was being honest with herself. It had been this way for a while now; she’d walk into a room and find Yang alone, not looking at anything in particular and definitely not looking for conversation. It was like someone snuck in and stole a part of Yang right out from under Weiss’ nose, which, to be fair, was mostly true.
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The final battle was hard on all of them. Losing Qrow and Ren in the lead up had taken death and molded it into a spectre that hung over them as they walked back onto the grounds of Beacon for the first time since The Fall. They knew the risks, they all did, and they were all willing to accept them. When you take a group of kids and force them to grow up far too fast, you end up with a bunch of adults with some serious self-sacrificial tendencies.
So, they walked onto those grounds, none of them intending to make it out but all of them expecting their friends would. All of them willing to die to make sure their friends would.
Bring the Relics together, it’s our only hope, Ozpin’s voice had coughed out through Oscar’s dying lips. Weiss was close enough to hear them when he rasped them into Ruby’s ear, and she was close enough to see the look on Ruby’s face the moment she realized what she’d have to do. Auras and ammo were running low and still, Salem showed no signs of slowing. Weiss remembered watching Ruby steel herself, crouching low and getting into position to launch herself past Salem and into the vault Cinder had opened moments before.
They all realized a second too late what her plan was. Everyone but Blake, that is. As Ruby flew past Salem in a flurry of rose petals, Weiss watched Gambol Shroud shoot past her face and wrap around Salem’s wrist. It was a futile attempt, and Blake knew it; Salem dragged her in as Blake fired shot after shot at the woman, monster, demon, in front of her. Yang, being held back by – a now mostly Grimm – Cinder, screamed herself hoarse as she begged Blake to let go. Please Blake, please! She had pleaded through sobs that still visited Weiss’ nightmares every night. You promised! You swore to me you would never leave!
And as Salem wrapped her hands around Blake’s throat and began to squeeze, Blake choked out her final words. I’m not leaving. I’m making sure Ruby stays.
Weiss watched as Salem dropped her now lifeless body to the ground. For a sick moment, Weiss wondered whether it had hurt. She felt tears well up in her eyes, wanting nothing more than to collapse to the ground and scream out her anguish to the heavens. But battles rage on, and evil doesn’t give you a moment to mourn, so fight they did. Yang finally freed herself from Cinder’s grasp once Weiss had sliced through both of her black, smoking arms.
A ranged weapon Ember Celica might have been, but in that moment, that didn’t stop her from pressing her gauntlet up against Cinder’s twisted, mutated skull, and firing two shots deep into her brain. Yang barely registered the Fall Maiden powers entering her body; she was so full of rage in that moment she could have sprouted wings and breathed fire and still wouldn’t have been the wiser.
And then Ruby walked out of the Vault, sword in hand and a wild look in her eyes. Weiss watched her take in Blake’s lifeless form lying under Salem’s feet, Nora’s and Jaune’s not far away. And Weiss watched as Ruby pulled out the other three relics she had been carrying with her the entire time. One last Ozpin mission, Weiss supposed.
Foolish girl, Salem had laughed. You aren’t strong enough to handle the power that will come from uniting those pieces of junk. Don’t you know what happens to the one who unites? Didn’t dear Ozma warn you?
He did, Ruby had replied, Weiss looking at Yang in alarm. And he knew that I wouldn’t let anyone but me make this sacrifice. At the word sacrifice, Yang burst into flame; her semblance, combined with her newly acquired maiden powers, had turned her into an inferno. She blazed white hot as she flung herself across the courtyard, paying no mind to Salem who stood nearby.
But she was too late; and wasn’t that just the theme of the day?
Just.
Ruby dropped the sword.
A little.
Ruby rested the lamp next to it.
Too.
Ruby took the crown off her belt.
Late.
Ruby placed the staff on top of the pile.
A beam of light shot out from in front of Ruby, booming out across the landscape and covering the area with an instant sense of peace. It was never about world peace, the God of Light had told them as the light continued to glow around them. It was about knowing that there was someone on this planet with a heart true enough and good enough to be willing to sacrifice themself to bring back hope for everyone.
And when the light disappeared and Beacon came back into focus, Salem was nothing more than a pile of ashes, and Ruby fell to the ground.
Yang and Weiss held her as she died, Weiss stroking her matted hair back from her face and Yang humming a lullaby in between choked sobs. Mom used to sing that, Ruby had said, before closing her eyes for the final time. Yang let out a cry loud enough to echo through the ruined halls of the school where they had all first met.
Weiss knew she had lost three teammates that day, not just two.
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Shaking herself out of the memory and wiping away a stray tear that had snuck its way past her desensitization, Weiss made her way over to Yang.
“You should probably come eat something,” Weiss said, walking cautiously over and taking a seat at the opposite end of the window bench. “Or at least take a shower. Maybe drink some water or go for a walk or –”
“I’m fine,” Yang barked, turning back towards the window and staring out at the quickly disappearing sun on the horizon. Weiss noticed her hands tremble where they were wrapped around a red bit of cloth; a piece of Ruby’s cloak, she realized.
“Look Yang, I know it’s… hard right now and you know I’d never ask anything of you I didn’t think you were ready for, but you’ve been alone in this room for a week now. You only just got out of bed a few days ago and we – I’m worried about you.”
“What do you want me to do Weiss?” Yang snapped, raising her voice loud enough to make Weiss flinch. “Do you want me to pretend I didn’t just lose all my friends, my sister, and the woman that I loved in one day? Do you want me to pretend we didn’t watch them both sacrifice themselves to make the world a better place? Because right about now, it seems like the world is a better place for everyone but me!”
Weiss felt herself begin to fume. “Is that what you think? You think that I’m somehow happy with the way things turned out? Like I’m saying ‘sure, I lost almost everyone I ever cared for in one fell swoop, but hey, the big bad monsters are gone, so it all worked out in the end!’ Is that really how you think I’ve been dealing with this?”
“Weiss, I –”
“No. You said your piece, now I get to talk. The only reason I’ve been holding it together is because of you. If I let myself feel everything I’m feeling right now, I’d be right next to you in that bed. There are days where I hope the sun never rises because it reminds me too much of that fucking light. But it does, and I do too, because if there’s anything I can do to make their sacrifices worth it, it’s keep you alive.
“I lost everything I loved on that battlefield, everything but you. And I know Ruby was you sister and Blake was your… everything, but I mean something to you too. And you mean something to me. And we both meant everything to them. So I swear to you Yang, I’m not giving up on you. You can snap at me, you can yell at me, you can throw things at me, but I’m not leaving you. And I will nag you every single day if that’s what it takes to help you start to heal.”
There was a beat, and for a moment, Weiss thought she had ruined everything. Then suddenly, Yang let out a heaving sob and fell into her arms. It was like a dam had broken for both of them as they held each other and cried, finally letting themselves feel all the feelings they had been dodging since that terrible, terrible day. Weiss buried her face in Yang’s hair and cried for her friends who would never get a chance to reap the rewards of the world they had fought so hard to create. Yang shook in Weiss’ lap as she mourned the loss of their future; of Blake in a wedding dress, of Ruby as the huntress she always dreamed of being.
But they were gone. And they weren’t coming back. So they cried in the arms of the only person each of them had left.
It took them a while, but eventually the tears began to slow and the sobs turned into muffled sniffles. Yang sat up, wiping at Weiss’ eyes and then her own with the sleeve of the soft black Henley she wore. Blake’s, Weiss noted. She sniffed a few times and then raised her eyes to look into Yang’s.
“You’re right,” Yang started. “I’ve been horrible to you. I’ve been acting like I’m the only one who’s hurting, like I’m the only one who loved them. And worse than that, I’ve been acting like I have no one left. But I do; I have you. And you have me. And that has to be enough for us, because it’s all we’ve got now.”
Weiss smiled sadly at Yang. “Yeah, it is. They’re not coming back, not ever, but that doesn’t mean we can’t do our best every single day to make sure they live on. We’ve been around them for so long that I think in a lot of ways, we’ve all kind of become a strange amalgamation of each other.
“I see Ruby in you when you smile. I see Blake in you when you get nervous and rub your arm. I see Nora in you when you realize you can cause trouble and get away with it. I see Jaune in you when you reach out and help a little kid who’s fallen off their bike. I see Ren in you when you look in my direction and know exactly what I’m feeling the moment I feel it. So yeah, they’re gone, and it’s just us left, but they’re also more alive than they’ve ever been. In you. In me. In the pieces you and I will put together in the aftermath of all this.”
Yang chuckled to herself. “Anyone ever tell you you’ve got a way with words, Schnee?”
“Once or twice. Helped my bone-headed friend out of a jam a few times and I like to think I did a decent job.”
“You did. You definitely did. I think I’ll take that walk now, if you’d like to join me.”
“I think I will.”
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Weeks pass after the conversation and things don’t hurt any less. Yang no longer sits by the window every single day, but Weiss still hears her screaming every night, torn out of sleep by nightmares that refuse to leave.
Weiss fares no better, sleeping a couple hours each night, if that. She closes her eyes, and she sees Blake’s limp body hit the ground. She opens them and Blake isn’t there. She closes her eyes, and she watches Tyrian’s stinger pierce through Nora’s chest. She opens them and Nora isn’t there. She closes her eyes, and she hears Yang humming to Ruby through her wracking sobs. She opens them and she still hears it, because it’s the only song Yang has sung since that day.
One night, the screams come and don’t seem to want to stop. Throwing off her covers with a sigh, Weiss found herself walking the now familiar path over to Yang’s room. She had been staying at Tai’s home with Yang for a while now, mostly for Yang’s sake but also for her own. She couldn’t bear to be far away from the only person in the whole world who knew what she was going through, so the small guest room had become her home.
Opening the door quietly, Weiss stepped into the room and found Yang sitting up and breathing hard, looking over at Weiss frantically and desperately. Weiss hurried her way over to Yang’s bed, reaching out her hand and rubbing softly over Yang’s back. Yang flinched at the touch and then quickly melted into it, desperate for any sort of contact that would ground her, remind her that at least she still had someone.
“It was you tonight,” Yang’s voice broke the silence, barely above a whisper. “Usually I just relive that day, but tonight it was you. I watched her snatch you up right along with Blake, and I watched you both hit the ground in front of me. You melted through my fingers when I reached for you and then, when I woke up, you weren’t here.”
Weiss looked on with concern, hand trembling against Yang’s still heaving back. “I… can be here, if you want. I can stay with you tonight to make sure you don’t wake up alone.”
“I couldn’t ask you to do that. I’d just thrash around and keep you up all night.”
“Yang. I don’t sleep more than a few hours every night so I promise you it’s no trouble. Maybe I’ll actually get some rest if I’m here.”
Yang scratched at the back of her neck and sighed, throwing back the covers and scooting over to make room for Weiss. Climbing into bed, Weiss settled herself in and brought the covers back up to her neck, lying with her back facing Yang before turning over to face her. “I just,” she started. “I kinda want to face you while I sleep. Just to make sure you’re here. Is that weird?”
“It’s… perfect.”
That was the first decent night of sleep either of them had gotten in weeks.
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Months pass, and Weiss and Yang have continued sleeping in the same bed. The nightmares still come, and they’re still terrible, but they seem more manageable with each other around. If Yang wakes up screaming, Weiss is there to curl into her side and calm her down. If Weiss is restless, Yang pulls her in and holds her tight until she finally settles and lets sleep take her.
They start to lean on each other more, being honest and open about how they’re feeling. “No more secrets,” Yang said one day. “Not between us.” And so, they don’t keep secrets. If it’s a bad day, they let the other one know. If it’s a good day, they celebrate it, sharing in the joy and continuing on the long path towards healing.
It’s sad and it hurts and they’ll never be the same, but little by little, they begin to pick up the pieces and start living again. They start a project to restore Beacon; Weiss has taken up architecture and Yang, ever the athlete, has fallen in love with carpentry. They meet with the interim council of Vale and plan out new lecture halls, dorms, and athletic buildings for the students who will one day return to the very place they met all those years ago. Grimm no longer walk the earth, but evil still does, and the world will always have need for hunters.
They plan a statue as well; an amalgamation of all the people lost in that final battle. Nora swings her hammer as Jaune braces his shield in front of them. Gambol Shroud and Stormflower criss cross in behind, launching Blake and Ren through the air. Oscar leans on his cane, watching passersby with a wisdom beyond his years. And above it all, Ruby streaks through the air, half human, half rose petal, a grin on her face as childish as she was that day she blew Weiss up in the courtyard. It’ll sit in the center square and all who walk by it will be reminded of the brave souls who fell just to make sure light returned to the world they all loved so very much.
Weiss and Yang both cry when they see the initial sketches, holding onto each other. They lost their friends, but the world gained heroes. A painful exchange, but one that saved everyone.
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Years pass, and they have their own home. They both teach at Beacon now, so they live in Vale, walking to work each day. The statue is finished and they make sure to pass it on the way to school each morning, saying hello to their friends who stand, proudly overlooking the new students who look to carry on their legacy and protect the world from the darkness that still lurks at its fringes.
They sleep in the same bed still, a silent agreement that has never faded even after all these years. They’re not friends anymore, not exactly, but they don’t feel the need to label it either. They’ve lost so much, but they have each other, and that’s all they can ask for anymore.
“Me and you, kid,” Yang said, throwing an arm over Weiss’ shoulder on the way home from work one day. “It’s just me and you against the world.”
Weiss shook her head and smiled. “If you’d told me, that day, that one day I’d be happy again, I would have never believed you. But I am. And that’s because of you, Yang.”
Grabbing her hand and pulling her in for a hug, Yang dropped a kiss onto the top of Weiss’ head. Somehow, someway, two broken kids with nothing but each other managed to gather up the pieces of their broken lives and rebuild something beautiful.
And it was theirs.
And it was good.