Work Text:
For the first time in three years, Weiss Schnee pushed open the door to her dorm room.
The beds were somehow standing, a true feat of engineering that simple ropes and books had withstood time and the horrors of the world beyond.
Dust covered every surface and the air was so stale it was hard to breathe. The lights didn’t flip on when she acted on old instinct, leaving the only light as the one bleeding through the window.
A great fire burned in the distance - the cumulative wreckage of the Atlesian fleet, cleaved through in one swing from the Sword of Destruction. Somewhere there, Winter’s body lay twisted amongst warped metal.
Weiss’s eye burned a brilliant blue as she used her newfound strength to limp into the room. A shiny trail of blood followed after her, gushing from where her calf had been ripped open by the teeth of a beowolf.
She nearly made it to her bed when she collapsed, her head swimming as her leg crumpled underneath her. The only noise she let out was a whimper when she hit the ground, her body pressed against the old floor like an endless weight.
“C’mon, Weiss, you can do it,” she heard Ruby say, the voice so sweet and innocent. “Just a little more to go!”
Encouraged by her partner’s words, she pushed herself up with shaky arms lined with the bites of blades. They would scar, filling her arms with faded crisscross patterns, if they were given enough time.
“Told ya’ the Ice Queen couldn’t do a pushup,” Yang quipped, failing to read the room. “Why else would she fight with a toothpick?”
“Yang, be nice,” Blake chided without looking up from the book she was reading.
By sheer will to prove Yang wrong, Weiss managed to push herself up. She sat on her knees and leaned against her bed for support as she caught her breath.
“Now is not the time for rest, sister,” Winter reprimanded sternly. “You can rest once it’s over.”
But it was already over. Salem was assembling the relics and all of humanity’s forces had folded like cheap cardstock. Bodies littered the grounds of Beacon Academy, the bodies of people who should have graduated there on the exact same day the world was ending.
Ruby had thought that meant it was all going to work out, a sign from a higher power than even the Brothers that they would all become true huntresses that day.
She died last, Crescent Rose swinging wildly as she tried in vain to cut Salem out of existence.
“I bet I looked really cool, didn’t I?” Ruby asked, always one to look for silver linings.
“You did,” Weiss answered with a raw and scratchy voice. Grief echoed in her words, her tears long since exhausted.
Ruby had been so focused, her eyes shining brilliantly against the dark. She dueled Salem with awesome speed and landed every blow. For a few fleeting moments she was hope, a light against the darkness prepared to swallow the world whole.
But hope was not enough.
Weiss had watched it all, her savaged leg lame and her aura broken. She had crawled to the fight, climbing over Yang’s body in pure determination to help her partner save the world.
She wasn’t even close when it happened. Her vision was so blurred she could only hear Ruby’s cry of pain and Salem’s laughter. Yet she crawled onward, using Myrtenaster’s broken blade to pull herself closer. Then she heard the wet thud of a body falling and she knew it was over.
Salem had looked at Weiss, regarding the last of humanity’s warriors with passive disinterest. Then she turned away, unbothered by the dying Winter Maiden.
Ruby’s body was unrecognizable, little more than glistening meat befitting the name.
And so, with nothing left, Weiss sought out the one place she might find comfort as the world caved in. No longer was she the proud daughter of the Schnee family or a fiancé after an impromptu proposal hours earlier. She was more like a sick cat finding a nice corner to die in.
“I resent that,” Blake remarked flatly.
Weiss barked a short and lifeless bit of laughter, ended prematurely by her wince of pain as she stood up and prepared to settle in for the night.
The world beyond the window lit up as the sky split open. A bright white beam pierced the night and rent the world in half. It was as beautiful as it was terrible.
Weiss threw up at the sight, her stomach emptying itself of the meager meal of bread, cheese, and strawberries she and Ruby had enjoyed as their last picnic.
“Shall I prepare some tea to help you sleep, Miss Schnee?” Klein offered, desperate to do one last thing for his little snowflake.
“No thank you, Klein,” Weiss muttered without the life the man deserved. “Please take the rest of the night off.”
Drawing on the strength of the Winter Maiden once more, Weiss gripped Ruby’s bedframe and slowly pulled herself up, her arms burning as the fresh cuts decorating them screamed.
“You got it,” Ruby cheered her partner on with blinding enthusiasm.
Through the final tears she would ever shed, Weiss pulled herself onto Ruby’s bed then lay there as she shook from overexertion.
“Let’s get you tucked in,” Willow cooed, her words untainted with years of wine and pain.
With sluggish movements as her blood grew thin, Weiss buried herself under Ruby’s sheets and lay her head down on that dusty pillow. She pulled the privacy curtain closed as her eyelids shut.
“Goodnight, Weiss,” Ruby whispered as she lay beside her partner. "I love you."
“I'll see you soon, Ruby.”