The Grimm were getting louder. Roman blinked away a drop of sweat that trickled into his eye, wincing from the sting. He wondered if their voices would become more or less bearable if they would form into words he could understand. The whispers in his head were a constant tide of white noise, washing over his thoughts while pulling his feet inexorably towards the mountain.
"This is why I prefer cities." At least there the noisiness of humanity could cover the scab in his mind. Being alone, away from the raw energy of densely packed humanity, was ripping that wound wide open.
"What'd you say?"
Well, maybe not alone. He stopped when the girl did and leaned against a tree. He'd allowed her to take the lead hours ago, as she'd proven herself to be better at both reading the terrain and reacting to unexpected Grimm attacks. It meant less work for him, but also more time to dwell on the plague invading his thoughts. He wasn't sure, but he suspected Rose was beginning to notice something was wrong.
"Nothing you need to know," he told her brusquely.
She frowned at him; he was getting too familiar with her wordless expressions of disapproval. It was a little like reading Neo's face. This particular frown was saying she didn't believe him and was going to launch a probe. She took a deep breath.
Deflect and distract!
"I wanted to ask you something, Rose." That got her attention; every time he used her name, she'd settle down and stop heckling him - something he had no hesitation to take full advantage of. "Know anything about what Ozpin was planning before Fall blew a hole through his fancy tower?"
Her expression became guarded. "Why're you asking?"
So she still didn't trust him completely.
Good girl. The stray thought caught him by surprise. "Information is power," he told her, recovering smoothly. "Maybe I'll be able to figure out something that will up our chances of staying alive once we get there."
"Why are you so convinced we're going to die? And where's
there? The mountain?"
"Yeah. It's where we need to be, I know it. Whether or not we can get past the Grimm surrounding it is something else though."
"Well this is a first," she replied. "I've never seen a criminal mastermind doubting his grand plan before. Are you admitting that you might not know the answer to everything?"
"I don't need to know the answer to
everything, only the things that concern my personal safety. This happens to count." He grimaced; whenever she annoyed him, the whispers would rise to a deafening crescendo.
"Do you need to rest? You don't look so good." Rose looked almost worried.
"No, what I need to do is reach that mountain before nightfall. And
we need a plan to get in."
Shut up, he snarled at the whispers in his head, willing himself to concentrate. "I'm trying to be realistic here. Even if we can slash our way out of this jungle, did you see what's waiting for us beyond it? Only the biggest, baddest Grimm in existence! Going up against a herd of Goliaths isn't the same as a herd of Boarbatusks. Doesn't matter how good you
think you are, even you can't handle that. And they're not exactly going to welcome us in."
Rose crossed her arms, looking thoughtful. "You may be right, but isn't it weird? So far, we haven't been attacked by anything more dangerous than what you'd find in the forests around Vale." She narrowed her eyes. "I'd actually say we've been attacked less."
"Less? This is less?" His surprise was genuine; their journey had felt grueling to him. They'd been ambushed by various Grimm populating the forest almost every step of the way. On the plus side, at least the sack of spare ammunition was getting easier to carry.
"You don't leave the cities much, do you," Rose said. "Ever since the communication networks collapsed and the Dust shortages started, it's been brutal out there. They're even sending academy students on Huntsman-level missions regularly now. This is pretty normal by comparison."
"Huh." He shrugged. "Can't say I could tell. I do my best to avoid living in the wilderness."
"Why am I not surprised?" Sighing, she started trudging through the forest again, beckoning for him to follow. "I can't blame you. A lot of people have been moving into the cities for protection lately. Almost half of our missions from Haven have been defending farming villages just to get the people to stay there and keep growing food." Her shoulders slumped. "That city life you enjoy so much is being protected by the Huntsmen you hate."
He watched her picking a path between the trees, chewing over her words. "Your family… they're farmers?"
Her footsteps paused. "Everyone in my family has been a Huntsman… or a Huntress. You have to be if you want to live outside of a city." She continued walking, growing silent and withdrawn.
"Touched a nerve, did I?" he muttered, scrambling to catch up to her. "Even if that's the case where you come from, that doesn't change what they're doing in Atlas. Just about everyone enrolls in one military academy or the other. And let me tell you, those schools' goals are not to
support life. They're making a standing army to use against any and everything that opposes their government. You're just lucky that it happens to be Grimm this decade."
"Not everywhere is like
your Atlas," Rose said coolly. "I don't even think your Atlas really exists. I'm not saying it's perfect; I'm just saying you're
wrong." She still wasn't meeting his eye.
It was frustrating; she didn't believe a word even when he was telling her the plain truth. He wanted to throw his hands up in disgust and let her continue living in the fairy-tale she called her life. But he needed her to
talk. That whinging voice of hers was the only thing standing between him and the Grimm's insanity.
"Atlas is a cesspool, and believe me, I'm its best representative."
"You?" She stopped to gape at him. "You're their number one wanted criminal!"
"Best-dressed criminal, you mean," he said with a smirk, tipping his hat for effect. "
I am the product of my times. Underneath that shining image they like to polish up, they're rotten to the core." He bared his teeth at her in the parody of a genuine smile. "They just don't like it when word gets out, which is why they make people like me disappear."
"They make people like you disappear because of your criminal record. Besides, you're a known liar." She scoffed. "I'd rather believe in Weiss, and Weiss believes in Atlas. She wants to change things there. If anyone can do it, it's her."
"You mean the Ice Queen? Hah!" His laughter died under the glare Rose directed towards him. "You mean you're not joking? She really believes she can change anything?" He forced out another laugh. "Okay then! Wish her luck with that."
"What's that supposed to mean?"
On the plus side, he'd successfully scored Rose's full attention. The downside was that she was being unusually observant.
"You know something, don't you?" Her eyes were alight with determination now. "You know something about Atlas that you're not telling me!"
Well, it can't hurt. "I'll do you a favor because you've been helpful so far. Tell your Snow Princess not to push her luck. If she really challenges her daddy, he'll walk over her corpse the same way he does to the people of Atlas, daughter or not. You don't want another dead friend, do you?"
"What are you talking about? Weiss's father wouldn't kill her!"
"Of course not," Roman said confidently. "He'd probably hire someone like me to do it for him." He studied Rose from the corner of his eye; her face had drained of color as she struggled to process his tip. He frowned.
I've never needed to pay back my debts before. Why am I starting now?
"I'm not saying this because I hate Atlas, although, well… I do." He shrugged. "Fall was planning to go after the SDC after Beacon fell. You may have stopped her plan, but she definitely had one. I was a part of it, remember?"
Rose was watching him carefully now.
"Jacques Schnee is hiding something. Something big. Whatever it is, Fall wanted to get her hands on it, and she was willing to do whatever it took. That secret - whatever it is - is more important to him than his family's own blood."
"Why are you telling me this?"
I don't know. "... Maybe I don't want to see you lose any more of your friends."
Fuck, that sounds like I actually care.
He paused, feeling uncomfortable.
Do I?
"Or I'm just messing with you because you're so gullible." He grinned, but she didn't react with anger the way he'd expected.
"I… I think I believe you. Thanks."
What? His head whipped towards her. Then his eyes narrowed.
No. It's not just because of the things I said. "You're the one who knows something, aren't you." His grip on Ruby Tuesday tightened.
Fall never trusted me enough to tell me what it was she was after. Don't tell me this kid-! "Hey, tit for tat. Tell me what you know."
"I'm not sure
what I know. Jaune's the one who spoke with Ozpin. It's just that he said-" She stopped talking.
"Oh no you don't," Roman hissed. "Not when it just started getting interesting."
"What's your goal in all this?" She stopped walking and faced him squarely; he noticed that she hadn't lowered her rifle. "You were working with Cinder before. Up until two days ago, you thought you were
still working with her. As far as I know, you're only here because you want to kick the legs out from under the table of civilization
with Neo instead of without her."
Damn it! "I liked you better when you were dumber, you know." As soon as he masked his growing frustration under his usual relaxed banter, she tensed and raised her weapon.
Maybe she's not a complete idiot after all. Still, considering who it was who was pointing the gun at him, a little de-escalation was in order.
"Listen! I'm not going to destroy the world as we know it! I'm just trying to survive, carve out a little space for me to do what I want, and have access to a few of the
finer things in life." He thought longingly of his cigars; he hadn't seen one since Neo had bribed him with it at that bar in Atlas. "I'll admit, there was a little schadenfreude going on there with Fall's methods, but Neo and I, we didn't share her goals. We were just in it for the money."
"Where were you planning on landing, anyway? Once her big plans were over?"
"Not Atlas," he said confidently.
"Then was it Vacuo, the hardest place to scrape out a living? Or maybe Mistral, to settle down to a life of constant fighting as a crime boss? Because you sure don't want to settle in the Menagerie, and you already destroyed the most important parts of Vale."
He winced. Vale had been a pretty nice city, all things considered. It was clean, it was easy to live in, and it didn't have the half of the fucking problems the other kingdoms did…
before. He wasn't so sure Goodwitch's dictatorship would still qualify it as a kingdom anymore. "If it wasn't for Ozpin, Vale might not have suffered. He's the reason Fall went after them first."
"Ozpin was the linchpin that held Vale together! If taking him down was the first step in her scheme, just what do you think she had in store for the other kingdoms? You're always calling
me stupid, but what about you?"
This wasn't what I planned. He had a splitting headache, and her vocal anger fell against his ears like hammer blows. The whispers grew clearer as his hands twitched around Ruby Tuesday.
It'd be so easy to just shoot her…
"You wanted to run away from everything you did and live like it didn't matter! Good people died because of you!" she yelled, and no, she wasn't any different from the rest of her team - she hated him just as much as they did.
This bitch... just another liar, like everyone else.
"What did you think would happen after that, huh?"
His head throbbed.
"
Answer me!"
Something in him cracked. "I thought Atlas would burn!" he roared. "That's what I wanted! To see those smug bastards rot in the hell they created! And I thought Fall and the White Fang could actually do it, until
you came along and fucked it all up!"
His gun was pointed at her, and she took a step back, looking surprised. "Y-you hate Atlas that much?" she asked, eyes wide.
"You think I'm the thief here? They stole my life!"
Shut up! His mouth wouldn't listen; it was like Rose had chipped a crack into the dam of his emotions, and he couldn't stop the tidal wave of hatred he'd trapped there from pouring out. "You think I was some idiot kid dreaming about becoming the world's most notorious criminal?
Who does that? All I wanted was to get away from that fucking academy! I didn't want to be a fucking
Huntsman, or a fucking
pilot, or a fucking
soldier! Neo and I wanted to escape from that shithole, but our teammates just had to try and stop us. They were idiots just like you. Goody two-shoes blinded by loyalty, willing to do anything for that fucking school!"
His breath came out in harsh pants; sporadic bursts of white light were blinding him, clouding his vision. He tried activating his Semblance, but his head hurt too much.
Kill, the voices said.
Kill her.
Shut up!
"Torchwick?" Her voice was no longer shrill with indignation and fury.
His eyes snapped open; Rose was in front of him, her hand on the barrel of his rifle. She'd pointed it away from her and towards the sky, but hadn't let go.
"What happened to you in Atlas?" she asked carefully.
"Why the hell do you want to know?"
"... because you're crying," she said.
What? He blinked, then jerked away from her, snatching his rifle out of her hands. His head still hurt, but he could see straight again, and the noise of the Grimm had died back down to an unintelligible murmur. And, she was right. "Well, fuck."
"Want to talk?"
He didn't deign to answer her, though he did fold his gun back into its ultra-compact mode.
In response, she flopped to the ground by his feet. "I'm tired," she said loudly. "Let's rest here for a minute."
After a momentary struggle with himself, he slid down next to her. One glance at her face told him more than enough; he settled in for her interrogation.
"What was the name of your team?" she asked.
"REND," he groaned.
"Mine was RWBY," she replied, and he cringed. "Hey, I thought it was awesome! I was only 15 but Ozpin made me the team leader. I could even boss around my older sister!" She smirked at him. "You too, huh,
Roman?"
He grit his teeth. "That's Torchwick to you, kid. Fall called me Roman. Still gives me the heebie jeebies." He shuddered.
"Who were
E and
D?"
Roman twirled his flare gun idly around one finger. "Why should I tell you?"
Rose sniffed. "Maybe it'll help with your headaches."
He twitched, and she laughed.
"What? How could anyone
not notice? It's not like you normally enjoy talking to me."
"I thought I was being subtle."
"I don't think you know what that word means." She grinned. "So… what about your teammates?"
He thumped his head against the tree trunk they were leaning against. "You're a bulldog. Everyone thinks you're a harmless little poodle until you open that mouth of yours and bite."
"Yup!" she agreed cheerfully, then planted her chin in her palm and stared, waiting.
"Ugh, fine. Ecru and Dandelion. Fools," he spat. "We were a good team. Effective. Didn't see eye-to-eye on everything, but we managed to make it work. Until it didn't." He took a deep breath; Rose was still watching him.
He hadn't touched those memories for good reason.
This is why you don't need friends. "Friends" will always stab you in the back as soon as their best interest doesn't match yours.
"They tried to stop us. Neo and I, we stole an airship. And
maybe a little Dust, just to get back on our feet afterwards. Leave, that's all we were trying to do. Atlas doesn't let you if they spent any of their precious resources on your training, though." He took off his hat and ran his fingers through his hair. "Maybe they didn't know. Maybe they did. I'm still not sure. But they were firing these mortar bombs at us, and we just… the Dust..." He clenched his fist reflexively. "Those idiots. I mean, it was a fucking Dust depot! They forced me to choose. If they'd hit us, they'd have blown us right out of the sky."
"... So you hit them first," she finished.
He coughed out a dry laugh. "I guess most Huntsmen don't have murder under their belts for the graduation ceremony." He considered. "Or grand theft and destruction of property."
"You must have felt something, though. They were your teammates…" She trailed off, then looked at him again.
"Felt something?" He growled. "I didn't
feel, I
learned. Those two assholes taught me the value of that magical school friendship you love to tout. I don't regret what I did that day! It was us or them."
"Wait a minute… how old were you then?" Rose peered at him while silently mouthing off numbers.
"What does that have to do with anything?" he asked, irate. "Get your face out of mine!"
She pulled back, eyes wide. "Ironwood was your headmaster, wasn't he? He'd have to have been, right?"
Roman shifted uneasily.
What's she getting at? "Yeah. So what?"
"We learned about it at Beacon. He was the first headmaster to let Faunus join Atlas's Huntsman academy. He got into trouble for it at first too, didn't he? If I read your file right..." She counted down again on her fingers. "You'd have been one of the first non-segregated classes."
Damn it. He looked away from her, scowling.
"They were Faunus, weren't they? Your teammates."
"This kid," he swore under his breath. "Yeah. Is that what you want to hear? They were a pair of mutts who turned on us like our team meant nothing." He stopped, angry at the way Rose made the words spill out of him like hot, bubbling lava. "We made nice with them, and what did we get as thanks? Those fucking
animals tried to kill us."
"Stop it!" She sat back to punch his arm, and not lightly either. "That's for calling me stupid, stupid!" she yelled.
"The hell!" he yelped, grabbing his arm. "What was that for? I thought you wanted to hear this!"
"You're the one who doesn't want to hear it! Can't you even tell why they fought you? They were Faunus! Your team was their chance! You were their
leader, and you betrayed them!"
"Hey now! They shot first!" He tried to get angry, but there was something about the way she was glaring at him that was pouring a bucket of cold water on his temper.
Despite her anger, it looked like
she was the one who wanted to cry, now.
"They had to prove they were just as good as humans to the rest of the world! That they weren't
animals. What if they'd have gone along with you? What would have happened to all the other Faunus at the academy? You were the ones who forced them to choose first. Can't you even see that?"
He blinked and tried to push down his bitterness.
See what?
Rose watched him grappling with her question, and hung her head. "Of course you don't," she said after a moment. "You never learned to treat them as people, or understand what they had on the line. You never understood why Blake fought, either." She looked up at him, still sad, but her mouth had drawn into a firm line. "She's the same as your friends were - fighting against the White Fang for the chance to prove that people like
you are wrong about the Faunus."
Is she lecturing me? Her words were like a thousand needles, pricking painful little stabs at a conscience he didn't realize he still had. "Why do you always do this?" he asked her, scowling.
She met his stare, refusing to back down.
"Talking, you're always running that mouth of yours off and talking, talking,
talking."
Forcing these memories out into the open and examining everything with your lens of moral superiority. "What gives you the right to do that to me?"
It's my pain, he thought, his anger slowly returning.
How dare she. Using that against me? "You don't know anything!"
She still wasn't getting angry enough to fight him… instead, it was that look again. That look that he couldn't stand - hatred, disgust, even mockery, that was fine. But that judging look of pity and disappointment - who'd asked her?
I don't like it.
The buzz in his head returned with a vengeance, deep and commanding.
Kill. Kill her.
"Ugh… no," he said, squeezing his eyes shut and reaching for his head.
"Torchwick!" His looked up, but she wasn't staring at him. He tracked her gaze, and realized he was wrong about at least one thing.
The voices in his head weren't giving commands.
A Goliath loomed above them, its huge tusks shining almost as brightly as its red eyes against the dark of the dense forest.
Shall we kill her? they repeated.
"W-We?" he stuttered, scrambling to his feet.
Rose had also stood up, her face pale. "There's… so many."
He realized that the Goliath standing before them wasn't the only one. Red lights were sprinkled throughout the underbrush around them - the rest of the herd observing the three from a distance. "Why isn't it attacking?" she whispered to him. "Is it testing us?"
The Goliath flicked its ears, staring down Roman. He wondered if he'd summoned it with the anger and despair Rose's words had wrung out of him.
We wait, the voices whispered expectantly.
He forced himself to think of Ecru and Dandelion, drew the faces he'd worked so hard to erase back into his memory.
I was their chance to prove they were human. He looked at Rose, wondering why he'd put up with her up until now. "...Are you my chance?" he wondered, transforming his rifle into its most powerful mode.
"Huh? What are you doing?" she whispered, eyes widening.
You kill? The Goliath waited.
"Yeah, I'm a killer," he said, cocking his rifle and raising it to his shoulder. He took careful aim.
"Hey!" Rose hissed desperately. "I thought you said-"
"But today, I'm killing Grimm," he finished, squeezing the trigger. The shot roared into the forest; the Goliath staggered, took a step back. Then it shook its head from side to side and stepped forward again, one eye dark and bleeding.
"Fuck," he hissed.
"You missed?" Rose squeaked, unfolding her scythe.
"I didn't," he said, feeling his knees go weak.
You fight, the voice whispered again, pulsing darkly with what he was afraid was approval as the Goliath reared up on its hind legs. It slammed into the ground, creating a shockwave that nearly knocked him off his feet.
Rose grabbed his arm, dragging him back. "Don't provoke it anymore! You don't want that thing targeting you!"
"Well what are we supposed to do?" He regained his footing, running away from the angry Goliath. "Stand around and wait for it to kill us?"
"I have a plan," she told him as she kept pace. "Stay mobile and offer some supporting fire if you can."
He nearly dropped his rifle. "Are you insane? That's not a plan-!"
"We're surrounded. We can't run, but… Professor Oobleck once told me the others won't attack if I prove I can defeat one of them." She stopped and turned away from him, hands tightening around her scythe. "So I just need to win."
The Goliath pawed the ground.
Fight now!
"Wait!" he yelled, but Rose had already leapt into action. "Wonderful," he cursed. He heard Rose screaming her battle cry; looking up, he saw her speeding towards it, scythe raised. It twisted around to block her with its massive tusks. There was a loud clang, and she bounced off and flipped onto its back. Her rifle cracked and she was airborne again, but the Goliath merely shook its head as though fending off gnats. Instead of charging after her, though, it spread its legs and reared its head back.
What's it doing? The Goliath's trunk trembled, then plunged into the earth. For a moment nothing happened… and then ground erupted. He barely managed to jump out of the way as sinuous strands of sharp, black Grimm flesh exploded around his feet in jagged spikes.
"Ahh!" He heard Rose scream, knocking away one of the rising spikes with her scythe before it could impale her.
Roman turned tail and ran.
Kill-kill-kill, the voices were chanting in unison. He weaved and dodged through the few spikes that pursued him. The Goliath's range was limited, though, and Rose was keeping it occupied from the sound of things. When it seemed like he'd stop having to worry about gaining new, unwanted holes in his legs, he skidded to a stop, transformed Ruby Tuesday into its flare gun mode and immediately fired a shot. The dust flare was slow, but the Goliath was slower. The flare exploded against its head, temporarily blinding it.
He was already moving, switching back to his sniping rifle as he ran. Rose hadn't wasted the moment either; she'd come up swinging, her scythe spinning straight into less-armored underside of the creature's belly. The weapon sunk in with an audible thud, and the Goliath trumpeted and flailed. But didn't fall.
Shit.
Tracking its movements, Roman activated his Semblance, trying to get a lock on the Goliath's other eye. Rose, however, wasn't moving out of his range this time. Her red cloak flapped distractingly as she was jerked back and forth. The Goliath slammed her against a nearby tree, knocking it over, but she clung to her scythe.
Her weapon's stuck, he realized with a sinking feeling as the bone spikes on the Goliath's back wriggled. Then he swore as the Goliath twisted, sending several of them flying his way. Tossing the rifle up, he spun it rapidly, deflecting what he could with the long barrel. One of the razor-sharp spikes still managed to score him against his thigh; losing his balance, he fell.
Rose had managed to free her weapon by then. She saw it taking aim at him again and whipped the scythe around, breaking several of the bone shards off at their base before the Goliath could fire a second round.
Shaking off the pain, he got back on his feet and set himself in motion, holding his rifle ready and waiting for the shot.
The Goliath dropped to one knee and Rose lost her balance, tumbling over its shoulder. It tried to stomp her but she rolled out its the way. Then it plunged its trunk into the ground, sending its elongated flesh after her in a rapid barrage of spikes that she avoided with several backflips.
"Thanks," Roman sneered as he pulled the trigger, and the Goliath's remaining eye popped, spilling out into a messy red pulp down its bone mask.
Pain! The voices hissed and tangled, pressing against him.
"Strike!" His euphoria died quickly, however. Although blinded, the Goliath remained standing. "You've got to be kidding me," he groaned, picking up speed while searching for another weak point on the Goliath's near-impregnable skin. "Do I have to shoot this thing in the ear?"
"You think it would work?" Rose huffed as she joined him. She grabbed his shoulder and jerked him to a stop, and a spike exploded where he'd been about to step. Before he could recover, she was already booting him in the back, sending him flying forward as two more spikes slammed up where they had stopped.
"Get away from me, you danger magnet!" he yelled as he turned his wheeling stumble into a forward sprint.
"You're welcome!" she answered from above.
When'd she get up there? "We need a new strategy. Get on my scythe!" She sprung towards him, resting the flat of her blade against the ground when she landed.
"Ugh," he groaned, though he didn't hesitate to step on it. As feared, she fired the rifle and spun, sending him into the trees. He managed to catch a branch to stop himself from falling and flipped onto it, regaining his balance. Rose landed next to him, somewhat more gracefully.
They eyed the Grimm, breathing heavily; it seemed content to wait for them to reappear, flapping its ears back and forth.
"This thing just won't die."
"Mmm," she agreed. "You blinded it, but it's still attacking us pretty accurately. I think it's using its feet to find us. That's why I hid us in the trees."
"How'd you figure that out?" he asked, surprised.
"Watch how it moves. It shuffles a little right before it does that nasty spear-thing with its nose."
A tickling feeling of impatience gave Roman the warning to transform his gun to battle mode. The Goliath turned and shook its hide, and more bone arrows came flying towards them. He fired a few short, rapid bursts, knocking away the projectiles before they could be displaced from their leafy perch.
"I think he found us," he told her. He watched the Goliath spread its legs wide and plunge its trunk back into the ground, waiting. "I'm not going to try to dodge that thing's nose just to get inside its ear."
Rose winced. "My rifle does nothing to it either, and my scythe blade can't cut through that skin." Her eyes narrowed, and he could almost smell the smoke rising off of her head as she thought. "But if I move fast enough..."
"What're you doing?" he asked as she rose into a half-crouch.
She smiled with grim determination. "Winning. If our bullets aren't working, then I just need to make a bigger bullet. Wait here, okay?" She folded her scythe into its compact form and put it away. Then she closed her eyes. A gentle puff of flower petals blew against him, followed by another, and another; he twitched in surprise as the scent of roses filled the air.
"Now," she said, and pushed off of the branch. The moment she hit the ground, the deadly black spikes were everywhere; she leapt, cartwheeled, gracelessly kicked off against them, every motion followed by a spray of petals as she used her Semblance to gain speed. The Goliath changed tactics, undulating the extensions of its trunk to create vibrating wave attacks. It followed Rose's movements like a gigantic earthworm, rising out of the ground and crashing into where she should have been.
Instead she kept moving faster and faster, winds beginning to whip around her as she dodged between the attacks with no rhyme or reason, zigzagging across the field. Even with his Semblance activated, Roman was having a hard time tracking her.
That's not just speed, he realized as he watched.
My eyes could see through speed.
She was building up more velocity than should have been humanly possible; her form blurred, merging with the indistinct mass of rose petals trailing after her. The Goliath's attacks were fast, but even it couldn't manage to keep up with her at that point. She didn't even bother pulling out her scythe; he saw her raise her hands above her head and cross them, almost as though she was a diver. And then she changed course, no longer avoiding the Goliath, but racing towards it head-on.
The Goliath's bone mask splintered, then burst apart as she shot straight through it; Roman didn't even have time to blink before its head exploded outwards like a volcano erupting. Even as the huge body swayed and toppled, he saw several trees behind it blow apart. Rose's attack had so much speed that she sheared through a long swath of the forest before coming to a stop; she might've even killed another one of their Goliath spectators in the process.
The whispers in his head fell silent. Like lanterns being blown out, the glowing red eyes surrounding them winked out of existence. It looked like she'd guessed correctly, with the remaining Goliath deciding they were too much trouble to pursue.
She won. The kid actually won. Climbing down from the tree, he let out a whoop. "You did it, Rose!"
Silence met him, and his smile dropped.
"Rose? Hey, kid, c'mon." He started walking towards the fallen trees. "I know we don't get along, but you better not be playing dead just to get away from me." His feet were moving faster now. "Ruby?" He spotted the red of her cloak, flapping gently amidst the wreckage. Nothing else moved. By that point he was running so quickly he almost fell when he slid to her side. "Are you dead?" he yelled, flipping her over.
"Urrg," she groaned. "Not… dead…"
He sagged and let out the breath he hadn't realized he was holding. "What the hell are you doing? What happened to your aura?" He helped her sit up and her face crumpled in pain. From the way her arm was clutching her side, he guessed she'd broken a few ribs - and hopefully nothing more than that.
"I'm working on it," she gasped, then coughed, sending a wad of red blood splattering across his not-so-pristine white jacket.
Maybe more than the ribs, he noted, tamping down his panic. "Activate your aura, kid. I'm no medic, you need to heal yourself."
"I'm… trying!" she wheezed. "Was… too fast. Broke through my own aura defense… when I hit it," she said after a moment, her voice high with pain.
Fuck, he thought, looking overhead. A few Lancers passed above them, high in the sky. They either hadn't noticed or hadn't cared about the disturbance Rose had caused below... yet. The new glade she'd cleared was making him nervous, though.
We're too exposed. "Rose, we need to get out of here. I'm going to move you. Don't scream," he added, scooping her into his arms.
She whimpered.
With a grunt, he stood and hurried towards the cover of the undamaged trees. He kept going even after they passed into the relative safety of the underbrush, trying to put as much distance between them and the battlefield as possible. As he crashed through the forest - either she ate more than she let on, or that monster scythe of hers was worse than he thought - the scent of roses drifted by, alongside the occasional puff of red petals. It was unnerving.
"You know, you're not too bad at this Huntress shtick. You fight pretty well."
She huffed out a soft, pained laugh. "Can't… hold a team… together, though."
"Really," he said, scanning the forest for a place to put her down. "You have what it takes. Trust me, I know quality goods when I see them." Finding a low-hanging branch over a soft carpet of pine needles, he stretched her out on the ground.
"...Nice?
You?" She tried to grin, her eyes still tight with pain. "You get hit in the head?"
He sat back, shaking out his arms. "I'm serious. You didn't get tapped to lead because you're strong, but because you're flexible."
"Weiss… is flexible," she said. "All those ballet lessons. I can't dance."
He relaxed a little; if she was feeling good enough to respond to him, she was probably out of the worst danger. She still looked like a limp rag doll though, occasionally exuding small bursts of rose petals from time to time.
"I hate to tell you, but you've got one up on dancing. You're like me." He savored her brief look of horror. "Quick on your feet in a fight. You learn, adjust your strategy, and most of all..." He tipped his hat at her. "You keep hitting whatever it is you're fighting with new ideas until you manage to bring it down."
"I learned all that from my uncle-" she started, but he cut her off with a snort.
"Oh, please. I don't care how good you think your uncle is, he only taught you how to spar. The real world isn't an arena, and the only way you can learn how to fight is by doing it. No teacher can help you with that."
"Umm… my uncle's name is Qrow."
"Qrow Branwen?
The Qrow Branwen?" He choked at her nod. "No wonder you're a monster," he mumbled under his breath. "That doesn't change what I said, though. Even someone like him can only teach you so much. The rest… that comes from in here." He tapped his forehead. "Some people have it, some people don't. You just took down a Goliath by yourself. Isn't it about time you accept that you're one of the haves?"
She didn't answer him; instead, her eyes had fluttered shut as the rose petals continued to rise and fall around her.
"Rose?" That unwelcome, unfamiliar feeling of
worry returned. "What's going on with your Semblance? Why haven't you dropped it? You need your aura to heal yourself."
"I
am healing myself," she grit out, eyes still closed. "Using aura alone isn't fast enough."
She was right, in a way; darkness was already cloaking the forest all around them. Even if she could get up right then, though, Roman knew they weren't going to make it to the mountainside before nightfall. Still, the constant noise in his head had fallen to a faint buzz. It wasn't enough to push him forward mindlessly anymore. The aftermath of the battle with the Goliath had drained his emotions into a relaxed lassitude that he wasn't in any hurry to dispel.
"Take it easy, we don't need to rush. Besides, what good will it do me if you deplete your aura completely healing yourself?"
She stirred, then sat up, gingerly testing her sides with her fingertips. "I have to be ready," she said. Her voice had changed slightly; it sounded a little clearer and deeper than he remembered. "Just in case more Grimm decide to attack."
His brow creased. "Stop fighting for a minute, will you? It's over for now."
She straightened and looked him in the eye. "It's never over. There'll always be more out there, waiting for that moment when you drop your guard or look away."
Roman blinked, shaken by what he saw.
What? That can't be right. Then activated his Semblance and really
looked at her.
It wasn't just her voice that had changed. Her hair was a little longer, he was sure of it, and her cheekbones had lost the bluntness of youth. There were even the faint beginnings of smile lines around her eyes and mouth.
"What did you do?" he asked slowly.
"Huh?" Her expression of teenaged bafflement didn't mesh well with the face that was now almost as old as his.
"Your Semblance isn't just being fast. Nobody's that fast." He dropped his own Semblance, thankful for the shadows that masked her appearance. "You don't get older from just being
fast, Rose."
He heard her gasp. The rose petals burst again, then scattered for good. A few moments later, that familiar yet different voice trembled in the darkness.
"What do I look like?" She sounded scared.
"An adult," he said. "Older than your sister," he added in the pregnant silence that followed. He grappled with the sudden burst of anger he felt at her altered appearance.
You… you of all people, you weren't supposed to change. You were supposed to be above all the shit in this world dragging the rest of us down! He needed to say something to her, but
what? "You're trying too hard," he finally decided upon.
"I'm doing the best I can," she told him, drawing her feet under her chin and curling up into a self-protective ball. "I knew there'd be consequences, but I can't stop now."
He squeezed his hand into a fist. "Sometimes the price you have to pay is too high." Then he swore. "I don't get you. You had it all, but here you are! Throwing your life away on this useless crap!"
"Fighting for your friends is not
useless crap!" she shot back. "Stop lying to yourself, you wouldn't even be here either if you didn't care. So as long as we're here, I'm going to protect-"
Roman didn't need to hear her finish that sentence. He didn't
want to.
"
Who asked you to?"
Underneath the raw panic, something old and forgotten was unfolding inside of him. Something he'd kept tightly shut after Ecru and Dandelion had destroyed it. The feelings he'd been proven right to ignore after Neo stepped on its remains. Why was this kid, of all people, now twisting that jagged key, trying so hard to open that rusty box?
"You don't get to decide what I choose to do," she said, folding her arms and leaning back against the tree, clearly exhausted. "Sorry if you think my looking out for you is annoying, but we're in this together." She snickered. "How's it feel to have a taste of your own medicine? If you don't want me to help you anymore, then just get better at fighting.
Easy, huh?"
The lid creaked open, and the hum in his head fell into a silence made deafening by its rarity. "It's quiet," he said, surprised.
Ruby cracked an eye open. "Are you sure you didn't hit your head, too?"
He leaned back into the fragrant pine needles and crossed his arms behind his head, gazing into the branches of the tree sheltering them. The darkness seemed comforting now, rather than oppressive, and even without the telltale whispers of their voices, he knew the Grimm wouldn't attack.
"Whoa, you're smiling! And it doesn't look mean for once," he heard her say. "Did something good just happen?"
"You could say that," he mumbled. He felt light, like a warm breeze was blowing through his entire body. "How's your aura doing?"
"Recovering," she said. "Sorry, but I think I'll need an hour or so. I didn't mean to hold us back."
"Good." He stretched. "My feet were getting tired anyway."
"Say, Torchwick…"
"Ehh?" he mumbled, relaxed enough to drift towards sleep.
"I thought you hated my guts. I also thought you of all people would be happy to see me finally
growing up."
"Who'd be happy about that? You're not wearing the right face anymore."
"That's a mean way to put it. But…" She rallied, sounding hopeful. "I guess you don't hate me as much as you let on, huh?"
"Would I have put up with you for this long if I didn't need something from you?" He waited eagerly for her snappy retort.
"Oh… right, I guess," she said, and there was a wealth of disappointment hiding behind her words. "I was just wondering why you seemed so worried for a minute there."
His eyes flew open and the warmth drained out of him. He almost caught himself saying "
Because for some reason I can't fathom, I've started to think of you as a friend!" But he held back as another realization lanced through him like lightning.
It was only me.
He looked at Ruby. She was settling down to rest, her chin bowed towards her chest.
I'm not the special one. She's… like this with everybody. This revelation - it was only mine, alone.
"Ugh, it's really weird when you don't go in for the kill. I left myself wide open there, didn't I?" She shifted uncomfortably, pouting. "Thanks, now I don't think I'll be able to get any sleep while I relive embarrassing myself in front of you over and over again. Maybe that was your plan all along," she grumbled.
"How do you go through your life wearing your heart on your sleeve like that?" He couldn't figure her out. "Why do you do it?"
Ruby seemed surprised, but also pleased by his question. "It's because I don't believe people are inherently bad. We all want the same things: to be cared about, to be loved. You can get distracted by money, or power, but I think even those are just means to an end. What we really want is to
belong, to be a part of something bigger than ourselves."
She touched her heart. "But don't you have to give up something to get that in return? Just because I get hurt every now and then doesn't mean I should shut myself off from other people. Wouldn't it be even sadder to be left alone when you felt that way?"
For once, Roman wished he wasn't so good at reading other people's' expressions.
That look said she was speaking from experience.
Current experience.
Maybe I am an ass sometimes.
He sighed dramatically. "I was right." He threw his hand out and managed to punch her in the boot. "You really are a complete idiot."
"Why do I even bother trying with you?" she groaned.
"Because it's
me," he replied confidently. "Now stop whining like an emotionally constipated teenager, because I'm in your corner now. And when I decide to partner up with someone,
I don't lose."
The look of surprise on her face was worth it.
