Archive of Our Own

Perhaps the deadliest sin of all…

…is one’s own hubris.

Weiss and Blake learn this the hard way.

Never mettle with a God.

… … …

If there is one thing that they have learned, it’s that destiny is inevitable.

As is death.

… … …

The day it all ends, it’s a remarkably normal day.

There are stories that depict the atmosphere of the end and each of them portrays cataclysmic weather or perpetual night or suffocating starlight. But in reality, there is no fanfare to it.

The end comes unexpectedly. Without fanfare, without buildup.

There is no glory in death, such as there is no splendor in war.

The day the mortals strike against the Gods, it’s warm. The sun is shining bright above, the winds are neither too harsh nor too slow. They are jubilant and playful, brought to life by the deity that controls them. There is no storm, no darkness.

At least until the first strike is initiated by men gifted with powers beyond them by the deities that have been shunted from the pantheon for the safety of all.

The first God to fall is a minor one, but it is the chain reaction that sets the others off.

The Deity of Death and Rebirth is the first to raise the alarm (but they would soon learn it’ll be too late), connected to every being alive as they are. Mortals, creatures, Gods. It is not too far to say that they are both a leader and an outcast of the pantheon that acts as one giant family; for even Gods fear inevitable Death. Known across the world by many names, each one more terrifying by the last.

But known to her as Ruby.

For the Goddess of Snow and Reflection, Weiss knows that her partner and fellow deity is not one to lie. Death has no reason for lies, and Ruby has always been bluntly honest with everything.

So when they pull her aside once the first four Gods fall and tell her that there is no stopping this war and that the pantheon will lose, well…

Weiss knows it to be true.

But still, they fight. In the vague hope that they can turn things around. Maybe. Possibly.

It is entirely pointless, she knows this and Ruby knows this and so do the others, but they try nonetheless.

They fight and they struggle and the mortals that once worshiped them carry very little fear in their hearts. Even as Weiss destroys an entire kingdom in one move, one decision, one flick of her wrist as she brings forth an eternal winter, raining down frozen hell upon those who have betrayed them with nothing more than a single thought and wiping out a proper chunk of the mortal population. Absolute zero upon the world, even time and space freeze to her powers. 

Even as, on the entire other side of the world, the Goddess of the Sun and Sacrifice dons the regal draconic form mortals named her for; Yang Xiao Long creates deserts where lush jungles and forests once thrived, reducing everything that dares cross her path to ash.

Even as the sun's partner, Blake, Goddess of the Moon and Second Chances consumes those who survived the remnants of the dragon’s inferno in shadows; forever faithfully following Yang’s every move for the entire war.

Even as the Deity of Death itself walks the battlefield, wielding their scythe and cutting down any who dare cross their way as Ruby hunts down the betrayer Gods…

…The mortals are unafraid.

And when Weiss has the misfortune to take a hit for her partner, she is quick to understand why.

Normally, mortal weapons should not be able to hurt them.

But these?

Oh, these…

They make her bleed. Something she has never witnessed in her life as a Goddess.

(“Do not do that again.” Ruby rips their own cloak to conceal Weiss’s injury, the current field the two have fought in littered with bodies all around that they pay no mind to. Death wears a controlled expression, giving nothing away, but Weiss has always been able to read them; and the prickles of fear dotting silver like tiny stars across a pewter canvas is both heartwarming and heartbreaking. “Do not take another hit for me.”

“Ruby,” she tries, but her partner does not let her finish.

“You can only take two hits,” they explain in a grim tone, a set to their jaw as they take their gaze away from her for a second to glare at a random sword a ways away. Weiss cannot remember ever witnessing Ruby angry before. Certainly not in this life. Death can never afford to hate anyone no matter how vile they are; they must remain neutral to all beings. “Their weapons have been blessed by the heretics. You will not survive another strike.”

What must it be like?

What must it be like, being intimately aware of how close someone you care for is close to death?

(She knows. If no one else; Weiss knows what it’s like.

It drives her mad.)

Weiss softens as Ruby brings one hand up to her cheek, keeping the other firmly at her injury to stop the bleeding as best as they can. Shaking, bloodied, their fingers leave red prints upon pale skin but she doesn’t care about it (if anything, some part of her rejoices in it; just another mark left behind by her lovely Death).

In a vulnerable voice, an emotion they can’t afford often, Ruby whispers, “I cannot lose you, beloved.”

Oh, my dear.

It is not you who will lose me.

It is me who will lose you.

Faith has been set in motion.

It’s only a matter of time now.

Weiss cherishes every second like it is her last with Ruby- because time keeps ticking and soon, it will be.

“Nor I, you.”)

They continue as carefully as they can. But war is not a safe place and the mortals notice their rising hesitance, taking advantage of it. Things grow from bad to worse when the Betrayers reveal themselves as well, freed from their imprisonment in the realm of nothing by who knows which foolish mortal.

God after God, deity after deity begins to fall. And without them around, only then does the world start to fall into imbalance.

No one will survive this war. Even if the mortals win, the world is too broken for life to exist. Even if the Betrayers get what they want, without Death, existence itself will start to shatter and for all their power, they can’t stop it from erasing.

Weiss pinpoints the exact moment the death march starts.

It’s when she turns around- too late, too late, you’re too late again- and sees her beloved Death, her partner, Ruby Rose struck through the chest by a mortal’s cursed sword. There is no embellishment to it. No intense battle against deity and man. It is quick and sudden and as simple as the mortal getting lucky enough to get in close when Ruby is distracted (by her, always by Weiss, always keeping track of her safety instead of their own no matter what life) and get them when their guard isn’t up.

As Weiss has learned from being bonded to them, death is hardly ever elaborate or full of pomp. It is an everyday occurrence and if everything and everybody got the glorified ending that some individuals get, it would make their job so much more difficult.

Still, Weiss finds it insulting. Just how abrupt the beginning of the end is.

“Weiss…”

So, here she is. With her dying partner’s head in her lap, both of them safeguarded by a dome of ice she made to keep the mortals away for at least a few minutes and give her the chance to say goodbye (and give Ruby a moment of peace before they die). Weiss runs her fingers through short strands of red-tipped hair, unable to find the will to cry and beg them to stay.

Because she knows by now, it’s pointless.

Destiny has caught up to her yet again and, as always, it is her partner who pays the price for it.

(There is some sort of irony here. In death, dying. But she does not have the energy to laugh.)

“Shh,” she coos, somehow keeping herself steady even as her body trembles with the emotions she keeps to herself. Because if this is- It is, you know it is- Ruby’s last image of her, Weiss does not want it ruined by sorrow. Sorrow can wait another moment. “You need not say a word, my heart.”

“I-” Their breath hitches and Weiss trails her fingers down the side of their face. Concentrating on every part of them to commit them to memory. Beautiful as ever. “I am afraid.”

A raspy exhale, like a chuckle that couldn’t quite come to fruition. Ruby smiles, sad.

“Ridiculous, really. Death being… afraid of dying.”

“No,” Weiss shakes her head, linking her fingers with Death’s close to their chest. Over the stab wound that continues to bleed as their inhales and exhales become shallower and shallower. “It’s not ridiculous. Especially when it shouldn’t have been possible.”

It shouldn’t have been. They are deities for crying out loud. They should’ve been safe.

They should not be able to die.

But here they are.

“I’m sorry, Ruby.”

There is a shout, multiple shouts, that come from the outside of her barrier. The sound of many things impacting the ice structure echoes, the foundation shaking and beginning to splinter. It won’t hold for much longer, but it will at least hold long enough for Ruby to fade and that’s all Weiss asks for.

“Not… your… fault…”

How wrong they are.

Weiss cannot find the will to correct them, sniffling and leaning down enough to leave a kiss on their forehead. Enjoying these last few seconds of peace with them.

Tick, tock…

Tick… tock…

Tick…

…tock…

Tick…

On the other side of the battlefield, Blake knows the end is here when she watches her partner fall from the sky. The draconic form fizzles away like embers on the breeze and she runs with a cry of her name to get to her first before the damn mortals can.

When she gets there, it feels like her heart is ripped out of her chest. Leaving nothing behind but a hollow space that Yang took up.

There’s so much blood. Yang had been pelted with numerous arrows and while a majority of them have been broken away once she reverted back to her significantly smaller body, many of them still remain there as well. They should not have been able to survive two hits from those enhanced weapons, and yet, Yang has taken perhaps hundreds of them.

The instant that she makes it to her, Blake all but throws herself over her. Using the shadows to take them to a safer place (which is quite difficult to find, considering so much of the world is falling to devastation at this very moment). But she comes upon a cliffside by a burning prairie, kneeling by a motionless Yang.

She almost doesn’t want to touch her. Doesn’t want to make it worse.

But when she hears the faintest rattling wheeze from the Goddess of the Sun, somehow still alive even with her injuries, Blake reaches forward and tears the remaining arrows out of her. Throwing them aside, ignoring the way they burn at her own skin with whatever divine enchantment they possess.

“Don’t do this,” she is weak to the force of her emotions and they hit her with the ferocity of a falling star, tears spilling down her cheeks and sobs tickling the back of her throat as she begs, “don’t do this, Yang. Please, don’t do this- I can’t do this again! My phoenix, don’t make me go through this again, please, please, please!”

It’s futile. Yang barely has the strength, the energy, the life left to crack open her eyes. Purple the shade of the prettiest amethyst takes forever to focus on her, but even while she is the one dying, there is no trace of fear there. (In every life, there never is. Blake can’t understand; how someone can be so unafraid of death.)

She cannot speak, for one of the many arrows pierced her in the throat, but Blake swears she hears the unsaid words anyway.

It’s going to be okay.

Oh, how she wished she could believe her.

But Blake knows better.

She brings her partner into her arms- gently, ever so gently, she doesn’t want to make her pain worse- and cries against her. Normally the one with so much composure; every bit of it gone as Blake falls into hysterics. Begging for her partner not to leave and knowing there is nothing in either of their power that can make her wish come true.

“Don’t worry, my dear,” Weiss murmurs, only for Ruby to hear; Blake sobs and sobs and sobs, “I’m sorry, Yang, I’m so sorry. I’m sorry-”

The Goddess of Snow leaves one final kiss on Death’s lips as the deity starts to fade from her arms. Resigned, resigned, resigned; “May we meet in the next life.”

The Goddess of the Moon cradles her counterpart, the one to complete her, the one she is losing again, and vows; “No matter what, I will find you again and again. As many lives as it takes to have you.”

And I’ll lose you every time.

One would think they’d be used to it by now.

After all, this is the 619, 643rd time that it’s happened. That Weiss and Blake have had to say goodbye to their partners. Even as deities in this life, in this universe, it is the same as every single one that came before it.

They can’t escape the hands of fate. No matter how many fucking times they’ve tried to do things differently. No matter how many fucking chances they had to change it. It is always, always the same thing.

Ruby fades into specks of red that linger but a moment before they too are gone, leaving Weiss alone in her dome of ice.

Yang dematerializes in a flash of burning embers that do not harm Blake where she remains. Alone. Left with nothing but the warmth of her partner.

Weiss cries silently, the tears dripping from her face to the ground below her.

Blake cries violently, gripping strands of her hair and screaming her heartbreak for the heavens to hear until it rips her throat.

Again.

And again.

And again…

The two know very well that faith can be cruel.

And yet, it still finds ways to one-up itself in every single life.

… … …

(In that universe, the Goddess of Snow does not put up a fight once her barrier is broken. She watches with nothing but apathy as the mortals come charging at her. Some taunting, others put off by her sudden passivity.

They are merciful enough, at least, to give her a swift death so that she may go on to the next life already.

And let the cycle continue anew.)

(In that world, the Goddess of the Moon does not go down quietly. When mortals find where she is, having traced her unique magic, she bares her teeth like they are fangs and strikes with a vengeance unlike any other. It is the first time in the entire night that the humans show genuine fear against their foes, but it would be too late for them.

It’s almost enough. Her ferocity alone. It’s almost enough to turn the tides in the pantheon’s favor.

But when she stumbles across the heretics, five or so in total, Blake only manages to kill three of them before she falls.

Her death is drawn-out and agonizing.

Yet, it does not hurt as much as watching Yang disappear again, so she suffers through it in silence…

And wait for the next life to come for her.)

… … …

The beginning of their curse starts in a world full of magic. Creativity was power and the limitations of the universe itself were constantly being tested (and beaten).

Weiss Schnee was renowned for her family name, rising to the top faster than any who came before her and taking over her rights as heiress to a grand history. Forever seeking ways of improving herself, she never settled with what she had.

Blake Belladonna was not as well-known but she preferred it that way, only regarded by name by a few individuals in her life. Always striving to push the boundaries of life because she could. No one stopped her, nobody had the power to. It would be incorrect to claim she used her skills for nefarious purposes, since there were strong moral codes she held…

But when one becomes so strong that there is seemingly nothing they can’t do, it is easy to lose yourself to it. The high of control, the rush of power, the excitement of knowing nothing can stand in your way.

The ambition to achieve more.

Nothing was ever enough.

It was that drive that brought them together and it wasn’t too far off to say Weiss and Blake changed the very foundation of their world. They were looked toward as leaders of change, often revered as gods themselves (Weiss more so than Blake since it was the former that was more of the spokesperson to the public for their duo).

And it was an accident more than anything that they each found their partners.

Ruby Rose and Yang Xiao Long. Sisters from an unknown heritage just trying to make a name for themselves with unique but generally weak powers. But they had the potential, they were just never taught how to unlock it.

Ruby was the only person that Weiss felt comfortable with. Even with Blake, there was always a level of difference between them that resulted in them butting heads (sometimes, for years on end). But there was just something about Ruby that she found… calming. 

With her, she could focus on the present rather than what could be done for the future. She could take the time to appreciate everything she had now as opposed to constantly moving on to what was next. It was humbling, but in such a warm way that Weiss didn’t mind.

Yang was the only person that Blake was ever open with. That she felt safe to do so because there were things- plenty of things- in her past she wasn’t proud of. Things that came from this constant pushing of the universe’s rules, and how it was practically addicting now. How it scared her because Blake feared one day, she would simply cross a line against existence itself and it would punish her for it. How she scared herself because she wanted to get to that point; just so she could see how far she could go.

But Yang was never afraid of her. She accepted her and loved her with all of her heart and trusted her even when Blake didn’t know if she could trust herself.

They just fit with their partners in a way Blake and Weiss could not fit with each other and it filled a void neither of them realized was there.

Blake met Ruby and Weiss met Yang and suddenly, they had a family with the four of them. And logically, four minds are better than two and the sisters were brilliant in their own right that nobody really gave them credit for (nobody but them, of course). They learned and they tested and they grew and grew and grew.

But their ambition was never satiated.

After all, there would never be enough time in their lives to learn everything the universe had to offer.

And instead of messing around with time itself, they endeavored to poke at mortality. To find some way to extend their own. To make them invulnerable to every ailment, every illness, every danger. To make their organs work as pristinely as possible without signs of aging or trauma.

Immortality was their goal. Being with each other forever sounded perfect.

If they could achieve that, they could achieve anything.

The Gods knew that well.

So when they actually come close to reaching their goal, that’s when the universe decides: Enough.

The beginning of their curse is marked by a quarrel against the Gods. The four of them, mortals biting off more than they can chew and still snapping. Unrelenting, insatiable. To those who devoted so many years to perfecting their skills, it is insulting just how beneath the Gods they actually are. (It’s a bit of a reality check for Weiss and Blake. That no matter how powerful they get, they will never stand a chance.)

The beginning of their curse… starts with the death of their partners.

The first time Weiss watches Ruby die, she loses her peace.

The first time Blake watches Yang die, she loses her home.

And it should be enough incentive to make them stop and beg for forgiveness- but they don’t. Because they refuse to admit they’re wrong; and many, many, many lives from this one, the two will curse at their own damn stubbornness. If they had just stopped, maybe the Gods would’ve been kinder. Maybe they would have spared them. Maybe they would’ve brought back their partners and given them another chance to correct their ways, for the Gods always tried to be merciful.

But they refuse.

Just as the Blake in that life had always feared… They cross a line.

So the Gods see it in their right to enact punishment.

When they are killed, they think it’s over. They failed, and their punishment was death.

But oh…

Oh. They learn that it was only the beginning of their eternal hell.

The very next world they’re in, there is no magic. They wake up with the memories of everything they went through intact, separated from one another. It takes multiple years for Weiss and Blake to find each other again, having grown adapted to the modern world and just trying to forget about it all.

When they meet for the first time, they both let out a collective sigh of relief.

“I thought I was alone.”

They uproot their current lives to move in together elsewhere and discuss everything. Whether or not that was actually real. For the longest time, they start to suspect so. But it’s bizarre, for two strangers who seemingly never met to have these shared memories so it can’t be fake or a dream. They try to talk about it with others but are, as predicted, given strange looks and Blake even tells her she was locked up in an institute for a long time because people thought she was crazy.

They achieve some semblance of peace. Never quite content with what they had because there was always something lingering underneath their skin, like a constant itch that needed to be scratched. Blake was always restless, journeying many miles on end without rest because she felt like she needed to find someone and Weiss was mostly the same. They would go to sleep at night and wake up crying; longing for people they didn’t even know.

The day that Weiss finds Ruby again, it’s in a coffee shop and it’s raining outside. Droplets roll down the glass of the large windows and a majority of the patrons inside are mainly there to avoid the weather rather than buy a hot drink. When she sees silver eyes for the first time, she almost cries.

Ruby does cry as she notices her, and in an instant, Weiss is wrapped up in a familiar embrace and she is complete once more;

“I’ve found you.”

The day that Blake finds Yang, approximately a week after the other pair, it’s early morning at a tattoo parlor. The sunrise rays start to crest over the other buildings and the shop is completely empty, save for the two of them. It was just about to officially open for the first time, a fresh new arrival to the bustling city, but Blake saw her partner through the window and rushed inside to make sure it was her.

When Yang spots her, Blake can’t even get a word in when she’s bombarded with a kiss that leaves her breathless.

“I've missed you…”

It’s an emotional affair for both sides, but soon enough, all four of them are together again. They cry, they laugh, they hug. They joke around with each other and spend the entire day and night talking. Ruby and Yang move in within a month and at times they completely ignore their current lives, so wrapped up in their partners and the past.

It’s great.

Until it isn’t...

A freak accident, the fire department claims when their house burns down.

With Ruby and Yang in it.

I’m sorry for your loss.

So quickly. They die so fucking quickly and unexpectedly that Blake and Weiss can’t even say goodbye. Just like the first time.

They don’t even make it to the funeral.

Within a day or two, Blake and Weiss are also killed.

…And then they wake up again.

In a whole new world. Separate from each other. With the knowledge of their past two lives, not remembering Ruby and Yang. But always feeling like they’re missing a part of themselves.

The cycle continues.

Weiss and Blake find each other. Blake finds Yang first this time, and it dawns on her that though Yang recognizes her, her partner has a harder time remembering their first life together. It’s nothing major, just tidbits of information that could slip through anybody’s mind over some time. When Ruby is the same way, they don’t focus too much on it. Merely basking in the fact that they’ve found each other once more.

And again. They get maybe two months of pure bliss and joy. This world is a wild one full of outlaws and gunslingers and lawmen. But they’ve learned to grow adjusted to it. Learned to love it, even; Blake has an appreciation for their companion horses and Weiss shares a fondness for their weapons like Ruby has while Yang greatly enjoys causing mischief and getting away with it.

But at the third-month mark with them together, things go wrong.

For all intents and purposes, they were outlaws. Four women, giving gunslinger gangs and rustic towns a run for their money, causing mayhem where they went for the thrill. Perhaps they invited trouble that way.

Inevitably, the law catches up to them.

Well, rather, their enemies catch up to them first.

A huge shootout in an abandoned military stronghold takes place at the cusp of dusk and the ground is painted as red as the evening sky. They manage to deal quite a bit of damage, victory almost in their reach.

But then, Ruby is shot out of her sniper’s nest and Weiss knows she’s dead before she even hits the ground. She runs for her anyway though, shooting anyone who gets in her way until she runs out of gunpowder and then proceeding to fight with a blade. (Her fears are confirmed. Her partner’s heart has long since stopped beating.)

It goes downhill from there with Blake screaming Yang’s name in such a heartbroken tone, so she knows it’s almost over.

This death, at least, is fast. Someone shoots her execution-style in the back of the head at point-blank range. Not that she puts up a struggle whatsoever.

A bang.

Darkness.

And she wakes up again.

Over…

…and over…

…and over again.

Life after life. With each new one, it’s mostly the same things with just a different font. A different set of rules. A different world.

Except, with each new life, Ruby and Yang lose more and more of their memories.

With each new life, Weiss and Blake don’t always wake up immediately with the memories of their previous lives. Sometimes it’s not until they’re late into their adulthood that they get them, and by then, it feels like they’ve lost so much time.

But still, they find their partners.

And they lose them

Every life, they have the chance to find Ruby and Yang. Every life, they get the chance to fall in love with them all over again.

Every life, without fail, no matter the universe, they will always tragically lose their partner in one shape or form. Even the safest, most boring universes where there is no active danger; there are the “freak accidents.” A fire, a disease, a natural disaster, a shooting. Once, even a heart attack. With the exciting universes that are a lot more lawless and fraught with dangers, there is no end to the list of things that can kill them.

It is a never-ending loop.

And they can’t escape it…

…

In their 22nd life, they live in a world where werewolves and vampires are at war. With each other, and with hunters. But mainly each other.

It takes them a while to find each other. Hundreds of years kind of while.

Blake is a vampire who primarily lives in solitude, despite being in one of the major clans of her kind at the forefront of the war. She is but another pawn for her leader to use at one point or another, but she does the best she can with what she has (and it’s irritating being beneath someone in terms of rank. She’s not used to it and many times she’s been reprimanded for talking back).

Weiss is a werewolf who is the leader of one of the biggest packs out there. Never having accepted a mate, though many have tried, and ruling on her own. Taking in anybody who needs a home while also doing her best to protect them against their enemies.

The day they meet, it’s in battle and Weiss almost kills her. But she stops, so it’s okay. She ends that fight prematurely afterward and hopes that Blake can find her when she’s alone so they can talk.

Luckily, she does.

“You could’ve fucking killed me, you know?”

Her leg finally stops bouncing, one ear atop her head twitching to the side where that (familiar, familiar, familiar) voice comes from, and Weiss peers over in that direction. Fighting back a smile when she spots her friend across dimensions lounging in one of the tree branches, scowling at her with vampiric fangs on full display and eyes a perpetual red.

“But I didn’t,” Weiss points out, pushing to her feet at the same time Blake decides to hop down. There is an instinct within her that rebels against the idea of getting closer, the wolf registering its eternal enemy in the other beast, but she fights against it until she is within Blake’s reach, and the two fall so easily into an embrace. “I’m glad to see you, Blake.”

“Glad to see you too,” a playful grin. “Has anyone told you that you stink?”

Weiss scoffs, leaning back just enough to flick her on the nose, earning a hiss that would’ve been frightening to anyone else but her.

As always, they spend the rest of the night talking. About this current life, about the hardships of this one in comparison to the others.

“I hate having to follow orders,” Blake laments, sprawled against the grass as she counts the stars.

Weiss, sitting beside her, chuckles softly, “I hate being a leader who others depend on. Especially now.”

Turns out, being on opposite sides of a war is going to make things difficult.

“I don’t know how I’m going to convince Yang to meet with you. She doesn’t… seem to remember me, and I haven’t-”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Blake jerks upright, head snapping to the side as her eyes widen. “You mean, Yang’s…”

Weiss’s ears droop and she glances away, “A werewolf, yes. From my pack.”

“...Of course she is,” her friend mutters, running a hand down her face. “Of course she’s a fucking werewolf. As if this wasn’t already difficult enough.”

“And I take it that Ruby is…”

“A vampire. From my clan.”

Oh, this is the cruelest fate has been so far. Putting not only them on opposing sides, but also their partners. The risk of being together has always been high, but now it has skyrocketed and the war is too big to simply run away from and find a hidey-hole for the four of them to be in.

And from what Weiss has understood so far with her brief interactions with Yang…

She’s not very confident that their partners will remember them anymore. (And fuck that hurts to consider.)

“We’ll figure it out,” she says, only to remain optimistic. Letting themselves drown in the sorrow of their situation doesn’t help either of them. They can only keep moving forward, even with this revelation. “We always figure it out.”

When they part for the night, both of them aren’t very confident in this life.

The war continues undeterred. Weiss loses many of her pack members- which is somehow painful; she’s grown attached to them despite knowing her time in this particular world is temporary and there will always be more people in the next- and Blake is almost killed numerous times and receives many more scars. But they get through it as best as they can.

They don’t have another choice.

The first time Weiss comes across Ruby, she immediately transforms back into herself.

And it kills her, meeting silver eyes and watching them instantly turn red out of self-defense. The way Ruby goes on the defensive at her presence, fangs bared and claws extended and wings unfurling from where they’re usually hidden inside of her.

The fact that there is no trace of recognition in her.

“It’s okay,” she murmurs as calmly as she can despite how much her body is shaking. “It’s okay, I’m not going to hurt you.”

“You’re a beastling,” Ruby growls and Weiss chokes on a whimper, the distrust scraping at her organs. “That’s all your kind ever does to me.”

“I wouldn’t.” She scrambles to find some way to get her to stay because it looks like Ruby is a second from fleeing (or attacking). Weiss places a palm to her chest, vowing, “I would never hurt you.”

“As if I could trust you.”

“Please,” it’s pathetic the way she begs, but Weiss would get on her knees over and over again for this girl if she must to get her to stay (it never works, she never stays). “Please, Ruby, I won’t-”

Ruby tilts her head, confusion coloring her features, “How do you know my name?”

Uh oh.

They haven’t met yet in this world- and as far as she knows, vampires don’t willingly give their names out to anyone. They only ever use monikers. Nicknames either given to them or that they’ve given to themselves.

There should be no logical way for Weiss to know her name. Not in this world at least.

“Because I know you,” she takes a step but stops when that makes Ruby retreat even more, wings flexing and prepared to launch her into the air. “I know you don’t know me, and this may sound weird-”

“You’re right, it does.”

“But I know you. If you give me a chance, I can-”

“Do not take another step!” Ruby hisses and Weiss grits her teeth, ears falling flat, but she does as she’s told. If she pushes too far, too fast, she’ll lose her anyway.

Calm down, calm down.

She backs up. Takes a breath to calm her nerves. Compose herself.

“You can hear it then. Surely, you must.”

“Hear what?” Ruby warily begins to lower her guard.

“The way my heart beats for you,” Weiss swallows thickly, opening and closing her fingers to contain the wolf that wants nothing more than to tear its nemesis apart. She won’t allow it. Another breath, another second, another heartbeat. “Does it sound familiar?”

If nothing remains the same, that will.

It’s enough to catch Ruby’s curiosity. She pauses for a moment, concentrating. No doubt honing in on the sound of her beating heart.

The song it creates will forever and always be just for her alone.

Some of the tension starts to leave Ruby like blood from an open wound, her metaphorical hackles lowering as she goes from caution to interest. Her partner- not yet, not yet, she isn’t yours- takes half a step forward and pauses, eyeing her for any kind of reaction. But Weiss merely stands there, biting her lip nervously. Another, and another, and another. Closer, closer, closer.

Eventually, Ruby is close enough to reach out with quivering fingers to touch Weiss’s chest where her heart pounds away. Feeling the way it beats for her now. There is a softening to her face, something almost like recognition. Almost like remembrance.

But even as silver returns and meets blue, that perplexity remains too.

You don’t remember me… but I remember you, my dear.

“What is your name?”

“Weiss,” she gives it readily (her name, her heart, her life).

“Weiss.” Her name is never as beautiful as when it’s coming out of Ruby’s mouth and she trembles as she gets to hear it for the first time in this life. Ruby stares at where her hand is and back again, brows furrowed. “Why do I… Why do I feel like I know you from somewhere?”

“That’s…” She sighs heavily, placing her hand over the back of her partner’s knuckles. Keeping her there. “A long story.”

“We have time.”

Do they ever…

Blake and Yang’s reunion is not as peaceful.

One night, on patrol, Blake is wandering the forest (not truly keeping an eye out on anything) and loses track of where she is because the only thing on her mind is how to make the best of this terrible situation they’ve found themselves in. Somehow, some way, perhaps it’s her body’s fault, she finds herself on werewolf land.

So, of course, she’s attacked.

By none other than a wolf with fur like the sun, fiery red eyes, with the scent of sunshine clinging to her.

She doesn’t put up much of a fight, focused more on finding an escape route or a way to get Yang to stop and take a second to explain herself than actively harming her. Blake is just a touch faster than her, but nowhere near as strong (telling in the way Yang breaks down trees so easily with accidental strikes that missed the vampire).

“Wait, hold on-”

Too late. Yang finally catches her off-guard with another tackle, succeeding in pinning her to the ground as she snarls right in her face.

One bite. One bite is all it’ll take for her to finish it off.

So when Yang rears back to do so, Blake just closes her eyes with a sigh. Resigned with this outcome because she’s getting tired already and if she dies before Yang does, then at the very least, she won’t have to watch it happen again.

But maybe it’s mercy or maybe it’s the worst-case scenario, death does not come for her.

The claws at her shoulders turn to fingers, the overbearing weight of the wolf lessening, the vicious snarl growing silent.

“Why?”

Blake opens her eyes and is met with beautiful, beautiful purple. Yang wears a pained grimace, leaning over her as she is. Not moving from her place.

“Huh?”

“Why don’t you fight back?” There is a thick rasp in her voice that Blake finds exceedingly pleasant, but she does her best not to get distracted by it.

“Because I can never bring myself to hurt you,” the vampire whispers, so low but knowing her partner will hear her. (The ears on her head are adorable. She wants to reach up to touch them but figures that probably won’t go over well.)

Yang’s grip on her shoulders tightens, almost painful, almost punishing, (almost desperate not to lose her), and she leans closer with a scowl. Their noses nearly touching. “Fight back.”

“No."

“Why not?”

“Because I can’t.” Never, she can never. Not to Yang. She’ll never hurt her.

“Why?” Oh, it must drive her partner mad. She’s always been too curious for her own good. Sometimes it’s why she dies. "Give me one good reason why."

It is both scary and exciting. Blake hates it and she loves it.

It’s a hasty decision, abruptly closing that short distance between them and kissing her.

Not necessarily a bad choice, but a hasty one.

Yang pulls away first out of nothing but surprise, the anger and the hint of the growl in her chest disappearing as a bright blush colors her cheeks with a pretty shade of pink. Cute. Blake rests her head back down on the dirt beneath her, shrugging.

“Does that answer your question?”

…It’s not their best reunions, but it works. Weiss slowly gains Ruby’s trust and Blake and Yang regularly (accidentally, accidentally, of course, it’s accidentally) meet up on the border of their territories to talk or sometimes vent their frustrations in a physical manner (whether with sparring or… more amorous ways, it’s really anybody’s guess).

It is not a peaceful life whatsoever. The borders keep them separate and sometimes they run into each other on the battlefield and war is everywhere.

But even in this world of pain and death, they get moments with each other. Moments of love and peace and happiness. Laughter and tickle fights and sleeping together. Ruby and Blake become friends and Weiss appoints Yang as her number two (the best she’ll get as a co-leader since she will never find another mate).

However, it is the sisters- well, not sisters in this life, but still- that never truly meet, so their family isn’t complete.

And the one time they do come across one another, all four of them together…

It’s the day it all ends for them.

Because before Blake and Weiss can stop them-

Ruby and Yang kill each other.

It is the first time it ever happens and it leaves them absolutely stunned. Salt on a wound that will never heal.

As always, they too are killed soon after, but Blake and Weiss can never forget about that.

…

In the future, many more lives down, they never talk about attempt 22.

…

On.

And on.

And on…

One life after another after another.

Some worlds are better than others. In some, Blake has the better life. In others, it’s Weiss who has garnered more favor.

No two worlds are exactly the same. Even if they’re similar- there is another, around the 80th mark, where it’s full of vampires and werewolves again- there are still plenty of differences. In the 80th, it’s Weiss who is the vampire, and Blake who is the werewolf. And their partners are human hunters.

In another that’s similar to their first world full of magic, Blake and Weiss are some of the few individuals born without it (which is entirely unfair and such an insult to injury if you ask them).

In each one, Ruby and Yang lose more and more of their memories until, around the 150th or so time, they don’t remember them or their past lives at all no matter what they do.

But there are a couple of things that remain consistent even throughout them all. Blake and Weiss have to find each other one way or another, which they don’t always succeed in doing. They find and fall in love with their partners and somehow get their partners to fall in love with them as well.

And inevitably, they always lose their partners.

200th world.

225.

280.

360.

400.

In the 419th world, they’re the youngest they’ve ever been when they get their memories. Blake at nine, Weiss at ten. And they find their partners relatively quickly as well, Ruby at eight and Yang at ten (and they’re sisters again in this life).

It’s very strange. Having so many memories of previous versions of themselves when they’re kids. The neighborhood often regards them as being “very mature” for their age, and sometimes, they forget they’re children.

In this life, they take a different route. Attempt to, at least.

They choose to ignore the curse. To just… enjoy the life they have here.

Summer break is kicked off with countless adventures to the nearby beach or roaming the forest close by or going camping with all their families together or sleeping over at each other’s houses. Their parents in this world are rather lenient and trusting, letting them do as they want (so long as they make it back by curfew).

They go on bike rides around the neighborhood and have water balloon fights and make s’mores at night.

They watch ‘scary’ movies together and go to the nearby candy shop with what few coins they’ve managed to find each and wander around feeding treats to every stray dog or cat they can find.

They spend hours at the lake and watch the dragonflies in the evening and count the stars while catching fluttering fireflies in jars.

The love is an innocent one this time. They are just kids so the prospect of a relationship isn’t even considered. Somehow, it makes this easier. Blake can never ask for a better best friend than Yang and the same can be said between Weiss and Ruby.

They have so much fun that they succeed in forgetting about what’s coming. About what’s inevitable.

At least until Summer break is almost over… and Ruby and Yang come to them one day telling them about a vacation elsewhere that their parents are going to be taking them to for a week before school starts back up again.

Immediately, Blake and Weiss look at each other.

No…

They quickly learn the limitations they have as kids.

Because they’re kids.

They don’t get to make the final choice. No matter how much each of them begs and cries to their parents- especially Ruby and Yang, not wanting to spend time away from them- ultimately the decision goes to the adults.

“Promise me you won’t forget me?” Ruby holds her wrist with both hands tightly. Almost enough to hurt her, but Weiss can only smile.

Oh, Ruby.

That’s not possible.

Even through countless lives, she always remembers Ruby.

“You’ll only be gone a week, silly.” Weiss boops her on the nose- pretend, pretend, pretend; pretend that you aren’t so damn terrified- and Ruby wrinkles it cutely. “Only seven days.”

“Exactly! That’s, like… forever!”

She giggles, dragging her best friend into a tight hug. Hiding her face from her so Ruby can’t see the way she starts to tear up, clinging tighter.

A couple of feet away in the airport, Yang and Blake say their goodbyes as well.

“Remember to feed Guppy and Carp and Trout and Mackerel and-”

“Why did you name the cats after fish again?” Blake makes a face and Yang chuckles.

“Cause it’s funny. Oh and don’t forget that Angler and Piranha are snappy if you get close too fast.”

“Trust me, I know. Look,” Blake shows her wrist, “I have the scar to prove it.”

“I don’t want you getting hurt, Blakey.”

I will.

Not because of the cats though.

“You know, I feel like you’re going to miss the cats more than me.”

“No, I won’t!” Blake lets out an oomph when Yang damn near tackles her in a fierce hug that knocks the wind out of her. But regardless, she nuzzles closer and grabs onto her yellow hoodie that she still has to grow into. In a sadder tone, Yang mumbles against her neck, “I’ll miss you a whole lot.”

Blake draws in a slow breath. Committing her scent to memory.

It never changes in each world.

Sunshine…

“I’ll miss you too.”

With their tearful goodbyes done, Blake and Weiss stay long enough to watch the airplane take off before their parents take each of them home. Despite begging for a sleepover, their request is denied and they both spend the rest of the night locked up in their rooms. Definitely sulking.

Definitely crying.

The amount of anxiety they fall asleep with is crushing.

As always, fate catches up with them.

It’s the middle of the night, very early morning, when Weiss wakes up with a terrible feeling in her chest. Like someone has taken a spoon and scraped out everything that’s meant to be in there, leaving nothing but an aching chasm of emptiness that threatens to consume her.

She’s felt this before.

Not in this life.

But in all the others.

…whenever Ruby died…

Weiss doesn’t even put on her socks or slippers as she rushes out of bed, tripping in the entanglement of her blankets and bruising her elbow but continuing on. She tramples down the stairs, uncaring of the fact her parents are asleep, and goes to the TV in the living room without even turning on the switch. The light from the television burns, eyes unadjusted to the darkness and sudden brightness, and she starts scrolling through the news channels.

If there was anything she learned from previous worlds like this one, it’s that news stations loved to show nothing but pain.

Channel after channel after channel, she leaves one on for a minute or so before moving on.

Please, no, please, no, please, no, please, no, please-

Until she finds it.

“...flight AA 713 has tragically crashed in-” Her mind only picks up bits and pieces of it, zoning in and out. “Police report that there are currently no survivors.”

No survivors.

No survivors, no survivors, no survivors.

Weiss can only stare numbly at the screen, the face of the reporter somber and serious and sympathetic as they apologize to those who knew people on that flight. As though they’re saying it directly to Weiss.

She’s not breathing. There’s a burn in her lungs that is on another plane of existence and a clamping sensation in her throat that she chokes on and tears steadily rolling down her cheeks. The remote falls from her tiny, limp hand and she has no idea how she doesn’t drop with it.

419 times. It’s happened 419 times and-

The home phone starts ringing close by and Weiss roams to it like a forgotten spirit, barely tall enough to actually reach it where it is on the wall. She has to stand on her toes, using the wall as support as she brings it to her ear.

It’s Blake;

“It happened again…” Gods, her voice sounds so broken and it’s just the thing Weiss needs to start breathing again, a painful gasp kickstarting her lungs into working. A croak comes from her, agonized and emotional.

“Blake,” it’s warbly, her bottom lip quivering- but before she can even attempt to calm her friend down, Blake starts sobbing. Hysterical, reaching her breaking point for the first time in 419 lives.

“It happened again, it happened again, it happened again!” With each repetition, she grows louder and Weiss can vaguely hear her friend’s parents in the background calling to their daughter. Trying to get her to relax. Weiss, unable to help in any way, finally allows her legs to give out and slides down to the floor until she’s sitting, holding a hand over her mouth to stop herself from breaking too because one of them has to keep it together. And it certainly isn’t Blake. “Weiss, it’s never going to stop! It’s never going to stop- Make it stop, Weiss, make it stop, make it stop!”

She wishes she could.

It happened again.

And it’s going to keep happening.

In this life, and the next… and the next… and the next…

This is the punishment they have garnered, and if you ask her…

Nobody deserves this.

…

It doesn’t stop. It never stops.

556th life.

739th life.

864th life.

923rd life.

1122nd life.

1278th life.

It doesn’t stop.

It doesn’t stop.

They find their partners. They fall in love.

They lose them all over again.

Make it stop, make it stop, make it stop-

…

Another life they don’t talk about is their 1333rd life.

It’s not often that some of the worlds are more memorable than others. Whether because that life itself was interesting… or because it was exceedingly cruel.

In their 1333rd life, the entire world is submerged in water. They don’t entirely know how it happened, whether it was always like this or a natural disaster occurred that forced humanity to evolve or the like, but whatever the case, they’re merfolk. Or sirens.

And like a lot of other worlds, there is a war going on between the undersea kingdoms. (That, too, is becoming exhausting. Just how many wars they’ve had to be a part of, how much they’ve had to fight.)

Luckily for them, they’re on the same side for once. A rarity. Weiss gets her memories first, after one of many battles that left her with a scar across her eye. A catalyst, a trigger. It was the key to opening the floodgates and suddenly remembering so many things from so many different dimensions would be a cause for panic if she wasn’t already (mostly) used to it. Telling Blake and getting her to regain those recollections as well was simple enough.

“Why do I have a terrible feeling,” Blake mutters one night, the two of them at the very surface of the ocean and floating on it, counting the stars (ever a source of comfort), “that something is about to go horribly wrong?”

“Something always goes horribly wrong. It’s hardly a prediction at this point.”

“No, I know that, but…” Blake shifts upright, webbed fingers cupping some of the water and admiring the way it glimmers with the starshine. It gives her the courage to look Weiss in the eye and share, “Worst than the others.”

Weiss regards her for a long moment in silence, white scales reflecting the moonlight as she blows out a sigh and dives back underneath. Throwing over her shoulder as her friend follows close behind, her vision adjusting to the underwater world. “You just jinxed us.”

“Oops.”

“Your ‘gut feelings’ are never wrong. I swear you’re a bad luck charm.”

“Gee, thanks.”

“Need I remind you that you are the one who predicted we’d cross a line?” Weiss whirls around to face her, continuing downward even as she does so. “Needless to say, that line has been crossed, Blake.”

“It almost sounds like you’re blaming me.”

“We’re both at fault for this.”

“Hey, now-”

“Tell me that I’m wrong.” At this, they stop now. It never helps when their anxiety about the situation only grows. It’s not the first time they’ve argued and Weiss doubts it’ll be the last because it will never stop. Spending 1333 lives with her friend is great, but she also can’t tell whether they willingly choose to be friends every life or… well, nobody else knows about their curse but each other. They are kindred in that regard, and dealing with this alone is so much worse than being together- no matter how irritated they may get with each other. “Tell me that we weren’t the arrogant fools who thought they could stand against the Gods?”

“Speak for yourself, Weiss.”

“Excuse me?” Her eyes narrow and she scowls, jabbing a finger to Blake’s chest and causing the other merfolk to grimace. “You were right there with me.”

“I wanted to stop-”

“No. You wanted vengeance.” She softens now, glancing away. “And even if you did want to stop, you didn’t. Neither did I. It’s why we’re in this mess in the first place.”

Blake huffs, crossing her arms to hold herself tightly. Wishing for Yang to be the one to be there to do it instead. “You think I don’t feel guilty about it?”

“I know you do. I do too. I just…” Weiss runs a hand down her face, finally turning away. “Wish things could’ve been different, is all. I’m sorry.”

Blake holds no ire toward her. If she did, it never lasts long; the longest being only three consecutive lives before they finally got over themselves and discovered some things were better left swept under the rug.

Like it or not, they’re stuck with this situation and they’re stuck with each other because neither of them has ever figured out a way to break their curse. Or if it’s even possible.

(She shudders thinking that maybe, just maybe, there is no way for it to end and they will simply have to endure this for the rest of eternity.)

Nevertheless, Weiss is right.

Blake’s gut feelings are usually never wrong.

So of course, when she says something will go horribly wrong, something goes horribly wrong.

And they can’t stop it. Just as always.

There is one assault on a neighboring kingdom that they lead the charge on. Disinterested as they are, they play their parts and uphold their duties. Weiss and Blake are but a few of the chosen merfolks to possess some form of magical capability. Weiss, as she’s often prone to getting, is gifted power over ice; while Blake gains the ability of lightning.

Courtesy of previous lives, they excel in their prowess and learn how to use their abilities faster and better than every other merfolk. (It almost feels like cheating, in a way. To have so much knowledge, even if it’s from other worlds. A lot of the rules as they pertain to magic remain relatively the same, and they are quick to adapt to any new ones.)

As such, it’s no surprise that they are given the leadership role in a majority of the attacks.

It goes well for the most part. There is a fine line between feeling guilty over killing another individual or not feeling guilty because Weiss and Blake are just so detached from this world because they already know there will be another one they’ll go to. Creating bonds with anybody but each other or their partners never lasts anyway.

Because of that, when Blake releases a powerful lightning strike to the top of the underwater cavern the castle is in, resulting in numerous boulders and stalactites and rubble falling and crushing anybody and everybody underneath, she is apathetic to the death. Easily putting the odds in her kingdom’s favor. She is deaf to the cries that are cut off short, the leftover wails from those who survived the crumbling of the cavern over their fallen friends, family, comrades.

With electricity coursing around her form, lighting up her shadowy scales, she swims deeper into the destruction to find any survivors while Weiss follows a short distance away, frost creeping up her arms and covering her fingers entirely. The king of their home ordered there to be nobody left, and the only ones who can fully achieve that without complaint or hesitation or emotion are Weiss and Blake. They are a two-person team, never accepting anyone else in their troop.

Killing the survivors is as simple as placing a hand on them, the lightning going straight to their hearts to stop them. A quick and merciless death compared to those who were crushed.

As she meets back with Weiss, the two having scoured the remainder of the pathways, the entire castle is ominously silent now. There’s only the courtyard left to check. Nothing but a courtesy, because they are nothing if not thorough with their jobs.

And it is here that they meet their undoing.

There is a pile of debris and partially broken stalactites like spears at the very center like some sort of statue of ruination. The courtyard is littered with a lot more, but both of their eyes are drawn to the center.

Where they find their partners for the first time in this life.

…Half-buried and unmoving underneath the rocks. Like they had tried struggling their way out but couldn’t quite make it all the way, pierced through by some of the fallen stalactites.

For an entire minute, neither Weiss nor Blake moves. Or breathe. Or blink.

This…

This has never happened before.

Not once have they gone through a life without meeting their partners before Ruby and Yang died.

Not once have they been the ones to kill them.

Blake was the one who unleashed the strike, true, but Weiss was the one who told her to aim specifically there and fire.

We’re both at fault for this.

This time, another rarity, it’s Weiss who becomes hysterical over it. Speeding across the way and beginning to chuck off the loose stone from where her partner is, repeatedly screaming a broken, “No, no, no, no, no, no, no-”

Blake doesn’t move from where she is. Staring at lifeless purple. Blinking down in horror to her fingers where the electricity continues to buzz.

She swears the Gods are starting to have fun with this now.

Do they find sick joy in their suffering?

…

(Continuing the trend, Blake is the one to kill them in that life too. Merely lifting her hand above her head and sending off another bolt of lightning to cause more rubble to fall on top of them.

They don’t talk about a lot of lives, but they especially don’t talk about number 1333.)

…

1587.

1893.

2267.

2871.

…

On the 2985th life, Blake and Weiss don’t find each other.

Funnily enough, Blake finds Yang first (or rather, it’s probably more accurate to say that Yang finds her one day).

It is worlds like these that make Blake and Weiss truly appreciate one another. It is just so damn lonely, even with their partners, because nobody understands what’s going on besides them. It leads to a great deal of anxiety and other fun- read; not fun- mental illnesses that she is plagued with (but at least she isn’t locked up like some of the other lives).

It’s another calm world. No magic, no monsters aside from the average criminal. Everybody just tries to get by as best as they can, passions are encouraged. She becomes quite the artist- another skill picked up in a previous life- and sells her work at auctions as well as doing commissions every now and then.

When she meets Yang, it’s at one such auction of some video game or another. Raising money for charity, with popular artists and streamers invited to boost the viewings and increase the chance of donations. It works, they make a lot of money-

And Blake gets to meet Yang, so. Win-win.

As much as she may want to follow the habit of uprooting her entire life to be with her partner, she decides to take things slower this time. Hoping that not rushing into a relationship as they are often prone to doing in every life will mean that Yang gets to live longer.

It actually works. Days turn to weeks and they keep in touch. Weeks turn to months and they become good friends, always messaging each other every day. Blake gives her a discount when Yang commissions her for a whole new set of art for her social media header, icon, and logo. Yang always mentions Blake in every stream, encouraging people to check out her stuff (and she gets an influx of orders because of that). Months turn to years and they go to many more conventions together, Blake often visiting her when she’s able to.

It takes approximately four or so years for them to move in together into quite the lavish studio apartment. And two more years for them to finally do something about their developing feelings and officially get together.

It scares her. As happy as she is always being around Yang and waking up next to her and kissing her whenever she wants, it’s frightening because she never knows when the death is coming. Today, tomorrow, a week from now? A month from now? When? When will I lose her again? When, when, when?

It drives her a little crazy, honestly. So much so that it starts to affect their relationship too because Yang just wants to help and Blake isn’t talking to her.

She spends many sleepless nights with Yang in her arms, brushing her fingers through her hair. Not knowing what to do.

It takes multiple months for her to finally make a decision and try something she’s never done before.

She’s going to tell Yang about the curse and their previous lives. It was unnecessary before because Yang either remembered already, if only bits and pieces, or because Blake never thought to do it since she was so enamored with spending time with her in the present (or feared the incoming future) to focus on the past.

She has no idea if it’ll work. Or if she’s even allowed to do it.

But there’s only one way to find out.

Blake knocks carefully on the door, cracking it open and poking her head into the room Yang uses for streaming. Yang notably stops mid-sentence with whatever she had been talking about with whatever game she’s playing, Blake doesn’t focus too much on it because if it makes her partner happy then that’s good enough for her, and spins halfway around in her desk chair. Grinning instantly.

“Hey, you,” Yang motions her in with a wave of her hand, taking off her headset as she throws a thumb to the camera. “Wanna say hi?”

“What’s with you always trying to get me to say hi to your audience?” Blake chuckles, heading over toward her regardless of her words until she’s right beside her. She rests an elbow against the back of the chair, leaning her hand against the arm of it and smiling down at Yang.

“They go crazy over you, look.” She points to where the chat is on the screen, flying by so quickly Blake can hardly make out any sentences but understands the general excitement. Yang places her palm over the back of her knuckles, winking, “Just like I do.”

“Well, I’m flattered.” Blake kisses the crown of her head, brushing her fingers through her hair and murmuring. “Mind if I steal you away? Are you almost done?”

“For you, yeah, I don’t mind ending early. Just give me a minute to say goodbye.”

“Okay. I’ll be in the living room.”

It doesn’t help her anxiety, not spilling it all right away, but for Yang, she can wait. Blake has grown used to waiting, forced to have some sort of patience in the matter. She leaves the room to allow her partner to finish up, and as soon as she’s alone again in the living room, her nerves start to act up again and she focuses on her breathing.

She has no idea how she’s even going to go about it. Where does she even start? Does Yang need to know that she dies in every universe they meet? Will she leave her, thinking she’s crazy?

Will she even believe her?

It takes a few minutes, but eventually, Yang joins her in their living room. Walking in while stretching her arms above her head with a yawn.

“Okidoki,” she plops down on the couch beside her, immediately linking their fingers together to hold them close. “Everything okay?”

“We need to talk.”

“Oh…” There’s a flicker of concern in purple, her grip on Blake growing tighter before becoming so incredibly lax she might as well have let her go entirely. “Umm, alright.”

“It’s nothing bad,” Blake reassures before grimacing. “At least, I don’t think it is?”

“That’s not comforting.”

“Sorry, I just…” She groans, resting her head on the back of the couch. Squeezing her eyes shut. “I don’t know how to do this.”

“Take your time.”

A minute. Two minutes. Five minutes.

Ten whole minutes pass in silence before Blake finally starts talking.

“Do you believe in destiny?”

And she spills it all. About the curse. The many worlds. Briefly about Weiss and Ruby. Their first life together, where everything began. How they meet in every universe… and how Blake is resigned to watch her die.

And begin the cycle once more.

It takes an entire two hours to get through it all, full of many pauses as she gathers herself and commits because it’s already too late to take it back. It is slightly comforting that Yang listens intently, holding her hand all the while, never rushing her or asking questions.

By the time she finishes, Blake feels so damn exhausted. She’s never had to explain everything before, and putting it all out on the metaphorical table makes her realize just how much and how long she’s been dealing with this.

“Well…” Yang speaks for the first time since she started, scratching the back of her head. “That’s, uh… interesting?”

She doesn’t believe her.

Of course, she doesn’t.

Blake sighs, frustrated. Not entirely at Yang, mostly just about the whole situation itself. She pinches the bridge of her nose, hiding a deep wince. “I knew you wouldn’t believe me.”

“Okay, look, you kinda just threw it at me. And it’s a lot to take in.”

“I know. Trust me,” a shuddering breath, hitched with agony and fatigue, “I know.”

“And it’s very hard to believe. It honestly sounds like a movie or something.”

“It’s not a movie,” she grits her teeth, half of her wanting to wrench her hand away from Yang’s and the other only ever wanting to hold on tighter. It tears her in two. “This is my fate, this is my life.”

“I get that.”

“Do you?”

“...I don’t, but-” At this, Blake pushes to her feet and treads away. Not entirely knowing where she wants to go, if only wanting to pace. Yang, of course, follows after her. “What do you want me to tell you, Blake? I don’t-”

“I want you to tell me,” she snaps, twirling on her heel to face her fiercely, tears gleaming in gold, and the trembles have reached her voice, “that everything is going to be okay. That I won’t lose you again. That I’m finally fucking free from it.”

Even if she doesn’t believe her. Even if it’s not true.

For this moment in time, Blake wants to believe it.

When Yang gathers her in her arms, she doesn’t fight it. Tucking herself nicely in the crook of her neck, ear close to her heart as she is swaddled in her forever warm embrace. The scent of sunshine makes her tears fall more and she clings to her.

“I’m here,” Yang whispers into her hair, kissing her forehead. “I’m right here, baby. I’m not going anywhere.”

Liar.

Blake quickly learns she isn’t allowed to tell her partner like she did.

Fate is quick to punish her- them- for it.

“...famous streamer Yang Xiao Long has tragically passed away in a motorcycle accident this morning. Ambulance and police rushed her to the hospital, but she was pronounced dead on arrival. Now, fans from all over the world have gathered in her honor and…”

It’s never going to be okay.

It’s never going to end.

…

3008.

3597.

One would think the repetition would make them numb to the inevitable, but it doesn’t. 

It only hurts more and more with each passing life.

3733.

3988.

4207.

4390.

…

By their 4419th life, Blake and Weiss have noticed a new, heartbreaking pattern.

Weiss doesn’t always get to meet Ruby in every world, but she feels her. Gods, does she feel her. Like a secondary heartbeat in her chest. Always somewhere, always away from her. It doesn’t guide her to her partner, but she feels her.

So, Weiss is consistently the one to know when their partners die. Because usually when one of them dies first, the other isn’t too far behind.

On the opposite side, Blake always finds Yang in every world.

It leads to multiple arguments.

In this one, they are both leaders of their own prolific gangs. Not entirely enemies, but not entirely friends either. More neighbors that know not to intrude on each other’s business than anything else. Unless they wish to start a turf war. They keep their people in line and run their enterprise with much more success than their predecessors.

In this one, like many others, Weiss has not had any luck in finding Ruby.

In this one, like in every other, Blake has already found Yang and fallen in love with her.

They’re tired. They’re bitter about their fate. They’re irritated over everything.

So of course, Weiss takes it out on her. (Blake doesn’t blame her. She’s often prone to doing the same too. So much so they practically take turns now- in the next life, it’ll be Blake’s time to explode on her.)

They meet up at the end of every month on the highest rooftop of the sprawling city of gold and riches. Overlooking their kingdom of crime, each sitting on their separate sides. Blake takes up the rightmost portion of the city, while Weiss has settled on the left. The only neutral ground is a thin strip that cuts through the middle, and this rooftop is smack dab in the center of that safe zone.

One thing leads to another, later they’ll blame the alcohol they’ve both brought, and at one point, Weiss snarls, “At least you get to have her in every single world, while I am the leader of a fucking gang who can order people to do whatever I want and no matter how hard I look or how many I have searching for her, I still. Can’t. Find her.”

Blake listens to her vitriol as casually as ever, taking the cigar from her lips and tilting her head back to release the plume of smoke that gathered in her lungs. Like a signal for anyone searching for it. She scowls, rolling her eyes.

“Oh yes because you’re life is just so fucking difficult, isn’t it?” She flicks the cigar over the roof, leaning back against her palms and glancing up toward the stars. “We go through this every life, Weiss-”

She cuts her off, “Yes, and every life you can just go on a damn stroll around the block and find her, while I have to move heaven and hell for the chance to encounter her.”

They’re both too high-strung in this life. Tempers paper thin and so easy to snap. They’ve had to be this way, living in this kind of world. 

“Do you know what it’s like to find her and love her and still,” Blake bares her teeth, snatching the bottle from Weiss, “I am going to lose her no matter how much power I have? I can rule the whole world, Weiss. We can probably be Gods ourselves, and I am still going to have to watch her die.”

“Of course I know. Did you forget that I deal with that too?”

“You’re not getting any pity from me.”

“Good,” Weiss takes the bottle back before Blake can take a sip and it makes her scowl, adding as she brings the rim up to her lips, “I didn’t want it anyway.”

Blake’s fingers itch to reach for her gun but that’ll solve nothing and setting Weiss off more never helped them with anything. Only once did they kill each other before meeting their partners, and they mutually agreed: Never again. No matter how irritated they are, no matter if they grow to hate each other, they will never be the ones to pull the trigger again.

She runs a hand down her face, accepting the bottle as Weiss offers it back to her. Taking a proper swig of it. (Alcohol never helps. She doesn’t know why they keep trying.)

In a quieter tone, her anger running out and leaving nothing behind but sorrow, she mumbles, “We can be the most careful people in the world and they are still going to die because that’s how this works, Weiss. It’s never going to stop, okay, it'll never stop.”

No matter how many times Blake says it or Weiss says it, it does not get any easier to accept. They constantly ask themselves But what if? What if it does? What if it changes?

The only thing they get from those questions is empty hope and crushing heartbreak.

Weiss is silent from that, both of them calming from their outbursts. Watching the hustle and bustle of the streets below. People hardly ever decide to look up for some reason, so they’re usually safe in that regard. It would no doubt bring many questions if their underlings spotted them hanging out together.

“I’m so tired,” Blake is the first to whisper, reading the label of the liquor without absorbing any information from it. “Of falling in love with her over and over again… only to lose her soon after.”

“Do you think…” Weiss is cautious with her words, slow and contemplative. “It’ll be easier if we tried to be with other people instead?”

“I’ve had hookups. I’ve had other relationships. I’m sure you have too, you must have countless people throwing themselves at you no matter what life because you’re just so charming.”

“I don’t appreciate the sarcasm.”

“What are you going to do? Shoot me?”

“Don’t tempt me.”

“My point is- It’s always the same, Weiss.” Blake brings a palm to her chest, counting the one-two, one-two, one-two of her heart. “Our souls have chosen their partner.”

She’s tried. Many times in many lives.

But she ends up comparing whoever she tries to be with to Yang and…

Well. No one can compare to her.

Blake chuckles, soft and hollow, “Sometimes I wonder if this love is a curse.”

“It’s not the love that’s the curse. It’s the curse that is,” Weiss sighs, taking another long drink of the almost empty bottle. The burn of the alcohol makes her voice come out raspy, “The love just happens to be caught in the crossfire.”

“I can’t keep doing this, Weiss. I can’t keep falling in love with her in each life and…”

“Then, don’t.”

She shakes her head, “It’s not that easy.”

“It is,” Weiss hands it back to her, shrugging. “If you find her, which is inevitable, get as far the fuck away from her as possible.”

For her own safety. For her own sanity.

But…

“I can’t. I did that once. Twice… Or maybe more than that, I don’t remember, but regardless,” Blake softens despite the agony, adoring despite the torture. The faintest hint of a smile pulls at her mouth even as tears start to form. “I can’t help myself.”

Because it’s beautiful and exhilarating. Constantly finding Yang and falling in love with her. In each life, there’s always something unique about it that never fails to make it feel like it's the first time.

Maybe it’s just her partner that makes it feel that way.

Gods, it’s addicting.

Weiss exhales softly, sympathetically, finishing the rest of the bottle and placing it beside her as she closes the distance between them. Just enough so she can rest her head against Blake’s shoulder, closing her eyes. Tired, tired, tired.

“Yeah,” she whispers, only for herself to hear. “Neither can I.”

…

4637.

4803.

4962.

…

Each life gets lonelier and lonelier, the chances of Blake and Weiss finding each other growing from common to incredibly rare. She suffers most of them alone now because even finding Ruby is difficult in itself.

At the 5005th life, fortune decides to shine its light on her and give her a break.

In a medieval world with Kings and Queens and Princesses and knights, Weiss finds herself as Princess Ruby’s first knight. And it surprises her just how quickly Ruby falls for her, she’s usually never this lucky, but she isn’t complaining.

Because it’s been so long since she’s had her partner, Weiss never wastes any opportunity to show her love to her.

On a grand tour of the kingdom, set up for the night in their own personal tent, Weiss basks in the warmth of her partner in her arms. A thin blanket lays over both of them, protecting their bare bodies from the rest of the world. Only for each other to witness and worship. She can never get enough of her. Even just laying together after multiple hours of passion that will definitely leave her sore tomorrow morning.

Her partner stares with those lovely silver eyes of hers- her favorite shade; they’re not always silver in every life, but Weiss especially loves it when they are since it reminds her of the first Ruby- and cups her face so delicately. Occasionally brushing her thumb along the scar on Weiss’s eye (another thing that stays consistent in each life).

“Why do you always look at me like that?” Ruby mumbles, throat scratchy from her earlier moans. It leaves Weiss feeling accomplished.

“Like what, my liege?” Weiss nuzzles into her palm, kissing the pulse at her wrist. (You’re alive. You’re still alive.)

“Like…” Ruby frowns now, concerned, and it brings a flicker of panic in her chest. “Like you’re sad.”

Huh?

“I look sad?” Weiss questions, flabbergasted. It’s news to her, she doesn’t entirely control the way she looks at Ruby.

“Yeah. You’re always sad when you stare at me for a long time.” Her princess moves her hands away from her face now, holding them close to her chest as though afraid it’s her fault. Starting to curl away from her- and that won’t do. Weiss brushes her fingers against her arm, encouraging her to stay (stay, stay, don’t leave me, please). It only partially works. “Why is that?”

Why?

Because this never lasts long, that’s why.

Because one day soon, Ruby will be killed and there’s nothing she can do about it, that’s why.

Because she’ll move onto the next life and may or may not find her but she’ll know when Ruby dies, that’s why.

But instead of explaining all of that, Weiss only smiles wistfully.

“Because I know one day, inescapably,” she brings one of her hands up to kiss the back of her knuckles, tenderly, “I will have to say goodbye to you.” Again. “And that, I can’t bear the thought of.”

“Goodbye?” Ruby scoots closer now, as if afraid this will disappear in a second too. “Why would we have to say goodbye to each other?”

“That is just the way of life, my heart,” she emits a weathered sigh. The weight of so many previous lives crushing her. “Eventually, everyone will leave. Including you.”

“Oh…” Her partner, her princess, her love trails off. Pausing for a long moment, the gears churning in her mind to find some way to dispute her words. But Weiss knows them to be true, as does Ruby. And yet… “Well, what’s the use in thinking like that?”

Weiss can only blink, dumbfounded, “Pardon?”

“Why be sad over what’s going to happen,” Ruby shrugs and cups her cheeks again, the warmth of her palms filling her with much-needed energy, “when you can be happy with what’s happening now?”

Oh.

Weiss beholds her with nothing but shock. Stunned. Bewildered by such an easy solution.

“We only get one life, Weiss.” Incorrect, I get thousands. But every argument is erased from her brain as Ruby leans forward and kisses her sweetly. “And it’ll go to waste worrying about tomorrow. So I shall treasure today like it is my last, because you’re right. One day it will be. But that day?”

Another kiss, deeper than the last, and Weiss is weak to her will as she reciprocates so naturally. Desperately. Ruby has to hold her back from continuing to finish, “It’s not today. And today…”

Weiss gasps as Ruby rolls onto her back, dragging her on top of her with a brilliant smile. Loving and full of life, life, life.

“Today, I want you to love me like it is our last.”

She takes the words and turns them over in her mind. Over and over and over again, examining it from every angle.

…and Ruby is right.

She’ll lose her. It’s bound to happen.

But why stress over something she can’t prevent when she can be savoring every moment that she does get with her?

Yes, it hurts knowing she’s going to die. That’ll never stop.

But that future pain should never get in the way of present love.

And no matter how many times it happens, Weiss will love her again and again. Every day, like it is their last. Because one day, it will be (and she’ll get to do it all over again).

“As you wish,” she lowers herself to leave a kiss on her chest, over her beautiful heartbeat, whispering into her skin, “my princess.”

…

It’s ironic that it’s that realization that makes things a little easier to deal with.

So when Weiss loses Ruby as she feared, as she knew it would happen…

She holds her close. Gentle and loving. Vowing to do so in every consecutive life like she should’ve been doing until Ruby’s heart stops beating and she’s truly gone.

“May we meet in the next life,” she presses their foreheads together, “my beloved.”

And they do.

…

5147.

5390.

5503.

5670.

…

It takes until their 5687th life for the entire team to be together again. For them to be a family. Ruby and Yang are actually sisters as well, which doesn’t happen a lot, they’ve learned. (It at least brings them comfort knowing they will never be against each other like in some others.)

It is a terrible world, to put it lightly.

An apocalypse happened and there are zombies everywhere and they are but the few hundreds of survivors left of humanity.

And yet…

Somehow, it’s the most peaceful life they’ve had in a while?

They find each other and their partners quickly. So fast, actually, it scares them. But while there are dangers everywhere and they’re either hiding or on the move for limited supplies… their partners don’t die. Ruby and Yang are immune to the plague somehow, which nullifies the ever-present concern of them being turned into zombies.

The first weeks go by, and while there are a couple of close calls for all of them, they survive.

The first few months go by and it’s much the same.

One year.

Two years.

Three years.

Four, five, six.

Blake and Weiss don’t know how to handle it, quite frankly. They become cautiously optimistic that maybe…

Their curse is broken. The Gods have had enough of it as much as they have since it’s always the same thing.

Seven, eight, nine, ten years.

They start to think that they really do have a chance. Sure, it’s not the best world to be in, but any world where they can both be with their partners is amazing. Especially if all four of them are together, that’s a better fate. 

They even forget about the curse for a long time. They settle down in the remnants of civilization. Make friends with other survivors, mourn those that they lose. Help the efforts to try and find a cure or some way for humanity to thrive once again. There are settlements made and fiercely protected that they help to build from the ground up.

Eleven. Twelve.

Thirteen years.

Yang proposes to Blake and they hold a wedding.

When Weiss playfully asks Ruby when she’ll ask her, Ruby only furrows her brow, “I thought we were married already?”

Fourteen. Fifteen. Sixteen.

Humanity carves out its own pocket of the world, new generations being born there that will never know the threat of the creatures beyond the walls. They still volunteer to be the ones to go out and find other survivors, as well as test out new equipment and whatnot or fix problems.

Seventeen, eighteen, nineteen.

Ruby and Weiss unofficially adopt a baby that they find on one of their scavenging adventures.

Blake and Yang take in a family of cats. And dogs. And pretty much every other stray animal that they stumble across.

Twenty years.

Two decades.

They get two decades with their partners in this life.

But as always, the day comes where everything repeats itself again.

…Except this time, it’s a little different.

“No. No, I’m not leaving you, Weiss, I can’t-”

Weiss cups her partner’s cheek, bringing them close to touch their foreheads together. Keeping her there and closing her eyes. “You need to go. Take everyone and keep going.”

“Blake…”

“Go,” Blake kisses her partner’s scarred knuckles, squeezing their hands together. “We’ll buy you guys some time. But you need to get out of here.”

“Why can’t you just come with us?!”

“Because someone needs to hold them off. And we’re the only ones here who can.”

Ruby and Yang don’t like it- and neither do Weiss and Blake. But there’s nothing that can be done. Either the sisters take the group of survivors and go to the plane and get it started while Blake and Weiss buy them as much time as possible, or they all die here.

And they can’t do that to the family they’ve made. Osiria, only a year old. Other children of various ages who they accepted into their makeshift home. Close friends that have been injured in some way, shape, or form these past few days and can hardly stand.

It’s not just them anymore.

The woes of forming bonds.

But it’s perhaps because of them, because of those other people, that makes it easy to watch Ruby and Yang walk away. Knowing that they will never see them again.

Weiss sits down on the hood of a broken car, going through the bullets of her revolver out of nothing but habit. Blake leans next to her against the vehicle, twirling a knife in her fingers to keep herself calm as the swelling screams of the fast-approaching zombies becomes louder and louder.

A chuckle from Weiss has her peeking over at her.

“What?”

“I was an idiot,” Weiss snickers, and the first wave of zombies come around the corner with a feverish roar, “to think that this was over and done with.”

Blake laughs as the horde sprints to them, stepping away from the car and preparing herself. Standing side-by-side with Weiss. (Always together, always side-by-side.)

“Oh well.” She preps her blades and Weiss aims down the way, cocking the gun. And despite the situation, Blake grins. “I look forward to seeing you in the next life, Weiss.”

“Until we meet again, Blake.”

Weiss shoots and Blake charges in afterward to meet the swarm head-on.

…

Their death in this life does not hurt as much despite the fact they are ripped apart.

Perhaps their sacrifice was pointless. Maybe Ruby and Yang would die immediately after.

But there is something comforting in knowing that they chose how to go out this time.

Protecting their partners.

It is that sense of agency that they’ve so desperately needed.

…

5780.

5906.

6078.

6100.

6199.

Sometimes it’s easier for Weiss and Blake to be around each other. As moral support.

20,000.

60,000.

100,000.

Sometimes they can’t stand each other.

467,983.

500,300.

Sometimes Weiss finds Ruby, Blake always finds Yang.

564,098.

587,034.

No matter what, they lose them.

Over…

590,364.

…and over…

599,991.

605,876.

…and over.

608,945.

610,934.

615,403.

619,643.

As Blake claimed once upon a time, not even being Gods can save them from this.

Blake’s gut feelings are never wrong.

…

For their 619,644th life, they are in a world called Remnant.

It’s not the most magical, but there are skills that could be comparable to magic in some other worlds. Superhuman abilities. Unique powers that each person possesses called semblances. There is magic condensed into crystals called dust. There is a spiritual shield called an aura.

There are monsters called Grimm.

There are heroes called huntsmen and huntresses.

Weiss Schnee is born to a breaking family running one of the most powerful dust companies in the world. On her tenth birthday, the cracks become too much for her family and it splinters and she is forced to merely rock with the waves as her mother resorts to drinking in order to cope with the controlling brute that is her father. Even in such a wealthy home, she is lonelier than she’s ever been.

Blake Belladonna is born to a loving family. Warm and devoting and kind despite how much the world tries to break them with prejudice. When she is young, she has dreams of exploring the world and fighting for what’s right and finds a boy with admirable (at the time) ideals that whisks her away. Despite the protests of her parents, she leaves home and everything behind to follow him and learns too late the trap she willingly walked into.

At thirteen, Weiss wishes to become a huntress. To not only get away from her father, but to find her strength outside of the family name and discover who she is because she doesn’t quite know the answer to it.

At fifteen, Blake just wants out. Out of the life she fell into, out of the chains Adam held her in, out of the White Fang that was becoming increasingly aggressive and scary. The idea of being a huntress never truly crosses her mind, though she has encountered Grimm before, until she learns of an academy called Beacon.

In the later days of seventeen, to prove herself, Weiss is forced to fight the Arma Gigas- and the second it draws blood from her across her eye, the cycle truly begins. On the ground, with the pain pulsing at her head, she remains frozen. Stunned; more from the memories that rush their way into her mind rather than the agony of the attack.

Ah.

So, we begin again, I see.

She has no idea where Blake is. Or Ruby or Yang. But even if she did, the only way she can get to them is if she gets out of here first.

And her ticket to freedom is in the hands of her father.

So she’ll have to earn it or steal it from him, either option is fine with her.

Endure it, she grits her teeth and pushes to her feet, already knowing how to work her chosen weapon despite feeling like a completely different person now, ignoring the scarlet that rolls down her cheek and obscures her vision. I will endure this and whatever else you have to throw at me.

Until I find her, nothing will stop me.

At the fledgling days of seventeen, to save herself, Blake decides that enough is enough. She stands across the distance between two train carts with Gambol Shroud held firmly in her grip, meeting the face of her abuser. Though his eyes are covered, she stares at the mask regardless. Fear almost doesn’t let her do it. Fear almost makes her back down again. Fear almost forces her to stay.

But just this once, she conquers that fear, utters a somber, “Goodbye,” and swings. Making the decisive cut on the tether that chains her to him, on the link that keeps the two train carts together.

It’s surprising to her how Adam doesn’t attempt to chase after her with all of his power. He very well could. But he doesn’t even try, just watches as the rest of the train gets farther and farther away as the half he’s on starts to slow down.

Her memories don’t return to her until she can’t see him anymore, and it’s such a shock to her system it damn near causes her to topple over the side of the cart. Blake staggers toward the safer side of it, clutching at her head as she practically collapses against the cold metal.

For the longest time, she lays there. Curled into a ball. Not wanting to move, not wanting to play along again because she’s just so damn tired of this. (Is it sad or ironic that the second she escapes from one hell hole, she finds herself in another? One so much bigger and so much more inescapable than the last?)

There is dread instead of warmth. Resignation instead of excitement.

I don’t want to do this again…

Wherever the train is taking her, wherever fate is taking her, it’ll lead her right to Yang. No matter what she does in every life, even if she goes in the opposite direction than originally intended, she unavoidably still finds her.

And how can she not fall in love? No matter how different Yang is in every life, no matter how similar Yang is in every life, Blake can’t help but be charmed by every version of her. Is it her choice now or is it nothing more than habit? (It can’t be habit. One life, many lives, she’s done everything she could to turn off her feelings, to hate her partner, to run the other direction… but she always finds herself back there by choice.)

Blake sighs.

Fine.

Let’s try again.

One more time.

The day the new arrivals make it to Beacon, it’s safe to say that the two of them are anxious. Of finding their partners, of not finding them.

So when Weiss locks eyes with the Ruby Rose of this life…

She panics.

There’s no other explanation for how callous she is. She meets silver and remembers so much pain (and so much love) and she reacts defensively because You. You’ve hurt me before. You always hurt me by leaving. You always hurt me by making me fall in love with you and dying and-

It is not the way she wanted to meet her, but Weiss is used to not getting what she wants.

When Blake cuts in, she’s secretly grateful because there was no saving that interaction without making it so much worse. It gives her the excuse to walk away first and find some way to compose herself again (but there’s no doing that anymore; meeting Ruby always leaves her so unbalanced no matter how steady she believes she is in every life).

“Where to, Ms. Schnee?” The helpers hired to push around her baggage for her ask as she stops… somewhere. She doesn’t really know, she wasn’t paying attention, mind going a million miles a minute.

“Just… find the entrance,” she chooses a direction at random, trying to map out in her head where she came from- and where Blake will most likely be. (Because she knows her. She knows Blake’s habits by now.) “I’ll be right back.”

They don’t question her. They’re not paid enough to question her, they’re not paid enough to worry about her.

Weiss ignores everybody else as she wanders, keeping an eye out for a girl in a red cloak to avoid her and-

“Well, that was quite the spectacle.”

She stops dead in her tracks, passing through the next alley between two of Beacon’s buildings, and of course, there is Blake. Hiding in the shadows as she is often prone to doing. Always in the background, never making herself known unless it’s to the people she wants to see her. She was like that in the first life and she was like that in many subsequent ones afterward.

Her eyes are gold this time, much like the first, and there is a bow atop her head and Gods, it probably hasn’t been that long, but Weiss feels like it’s been forever since she’s last seen her.

Blake grins, mischievous, “It seems like in every universe you’re an Ice Qu-”

Weiss doesn’t give her the chance to finish.

She clears the distance between them quickly and bombards her in a tight embrace that very clearly startles her dimension-hopping, reincarnating friend. Blake stiffens at first, perhaps not used to hugs in this life, but she quickly softens and returns it as gently as she can.

Weiss is shaking. The terror obvious in every tremble, in the way she grabs onto her so tightly.

Blake understands.

Rarely does Weiss get to find Ruby this quickly anymore. This easily. Especially before Blake finds Yang.

And when that happens, it usually means Ruby will die really, really soon.

She doesn’t tell her it’s going to be okay. Because it never is.

So instead, Blake holds her just a little tighter and murmurs, “Long time no see, Weiss.”

They catch each other up about the state of their current lives. The difficulties they’ve had to grow through in this new world.

(“How’d you get your scar this time?”

“Fighting a very dangerous Grimm to prove that I’m worthy of being a huntress to my father.”

“Wow. Your dad sounds like an ass.”

“Believe me, he is one. I’d say top ten in the worst parents I’ve had.”

“Why are you always getting shitty parents?"

“Because that’s how it was like in our first lives. Have to stick with the trend somehow.”)

(“You know, your bow kind of makes it obvious.”

“What else was I supposed to do? Cut them off?”

“Not like you haven’t done something like that before.”

“And that was not a smart decision. I still feel that pain throughout dimensions.”

“I told you not to do it.”

“Yeah, I don’t always listen to you.”

“That’s where you make your first mistake, Blake.”)

There’s not enough time to explain everything. They each could go entire days sharing the difficulties they’ve faced in this life, the trauma they’ve gone through, but they only have an hour or so. Later. They leave a lot of things for later.

The most important thing is deciding on how to approach dealing with their partners in this life.

“Have you found her?”

“Nope,” Blake watches the clouds rolling overhead, leaning against the wall of the building with a veiled wince. “But since you’ve found Ruby already, I’ll give it till the end of the day.”

“Do you…” Weiss eyes her warily, sympathetically, “...have a plan?”

“Do I ever?”

That’s concerning.

“Blake-”

“I…” Blake crosses her arms as she shrugs, starting to grow closed off. “I’m just going to see what happens.”

They know what will happen. They always do.

It never changes.

But Weiss doesn’t push. Because she has learned that pushing Blake too much never works. It either breaks her, makes her run, or makes her snap and they can’t afford any of those three right now.

It’s mutually agreed upon, to Weiss’s lament, that suddenly being so nice to Ruby after that initial meeting would probably be suspicious. Or weird. So, she’ll have to keep up the act, at least for a bit.

“You could’ve been nicer.”

“Ugh, I know, alright?”

“You didn’t have to yell. Or be a bitch.”

“I know, okay, I just…” Weiss shifts her weight uncomfortably, her jaw setting. “I reacted.”

“Your reactions typically suck.”

“Fuck off.”

“Case in point.”

There is comfort, at least, in knowing they’re together in this life. It’s always so much more difficult when they have no one to rely on.

With their time running out, they decide to join the other students and let things occur as naturally as they can. (It’s the strangest part of all of this. Trying to fit themselves into this world despite having the knowledge of so many others. It feels like, no matter what world they’re in, they will never belong. Forever an outlier to the natural order of things.)

By the end of the day, Blake is right.

When she sees Yang approaching, she is thrown off by the fact she looks exactly as she did in the first life. It seldom happens. There is always one thing off; be it skin tone or eye color or hair color or height, etc. She has seen her with every eye color that ever existed, and yet, none are as beautiful as purple. She has known her with every skin tone and adores them all. She has loved her with every hair color and somehow, yellow is always her favorite.

Oh, she only half-listens to whatever it is her partner (and Ruby) say, replying distractedly, this is going to hurt so much more losing you, isn’t it?

It always does whenever she looks like the first Yang she ever fell in love with.

Blake decides to take the distant and guarded route. She’s learned that’s what works best, for her own safety. It makes it hurt less. (A lie. Nothing ever works, no matter how she behaves it’ll always hurt. And this way is probably the worst because when Yang undoubtedly makes her fall in love again, she falls so much deeper and so much harder.)

Initiation the next day is… nerve-wracking.

When it’s Ruby that she finds first in the entire damn forest, Weiss tries to walk away- to preserve her own heart- but comes back (as she always does).

Either it’s a stupid decision or the smart one, but Blake tracks down Yang on the pretense that she wants to keep her safe and it’ll be a lot harder doing so if she’s partnered with someone else. (And besides, this is her partner. No one else’s. And she is Yang’s.)

They are both hyper-aware of the safety of their partners, frequently sending them and their surroundings glances to make sure nothing goes horribly wrong.

So of course, something goes horribly wrong because they can never actually do anything about the dangers. No matter how powerful they are in any life.

This is it, Weiss holds her breath as the Death Stalker approaches her pinned partner, the sound of her own heartbeat drowning everything else out. It’s going to happen again.

Maybe it’s useless- it normally is- to try and prevent it from happening, but she does. She calls forth the power gifted to her in this universe, longing for some of the other abilities she used to have in other worlds because it would make all of this easier, and rushes forward.

…And makes it.

Somehow. Some way.

She makes it to her and protects her and traps the giant stinger heading for Ruby’s head in ice.

Huh…

So I guess that wasn’t it then?

Odd.

But she can’t linger on her confusion. There are Grimm still here and a task they have yet to complete. So she decides to leave it for later when things aren’t as dangerous because so long as they are here, there are still plenty of opportunities for the world to take her partner from her. This could’ve been a fluke. A build-up, just to make it more painful when it actually happens.

When Blake watches Yang jump into the mouth of the Nevermore, she just about has a heart attack.

Of course, she bemoans internally, playing her part and throwing Gambol Shroud toward her partner to prepare the next part of their ridiculous plan (Ruby Rose, always with the crazy ideas in every life). You’re going to be a reckless one this time. You never make it easy on me.

The reckless Yangs are always the ones to die so brutally. She can only hope this time will be different.

Even as she internally vows to make it different, standing beside Yang as they are officially named team RWBY, Blake meets Weiss in the eye and the two share a frown.

If it hasn't happened yet…

When will they lose their partners?

…

They learn it’s easier to lose them faster.

Because as the days turn to weeks, the weeks to months, the cycle continues.

Weiss, despite hiding it, falls in love so quickly with her partner in this world it’s laughable. But her bubbliness, her bright smiles, her drive to do what’s right; everything reminds her of their first life. Even as she keeps up the act of being difficult for no other reason besides to pretend, Ruby doesn’t back down. She tries and she keeps trying and that will forever be Weiss’s favorite thing about her.

(“What’s wrong?” Ruby asks once when they’re sitting in the library, going through another one of their study sessions. Her partner doesn’t like them much but she hardly complains about them anymore, and if anything, Weiss starts to believe that she enjoys spending time with her. Even if that means hitting the books.

“What?” Weiss blinks to attention, somehow succeeding in fighting back the blush at having been caught staring.

But Ruby doesn’t pay attention to that. There is only concern in silver and it’s so heartwarming.

“You… look sad, Weiss.” Her partner frowns. “Is something wrong?”

You look sad.

Her voice echoes in Weiss’s head. In mainly the same pitches, if slightly varied for some. Accented in a few. Sometimes in other languages. Many different faces, all undeniably Ruby despite how divergent a lot of them are, flash by in her mind.

Always with the same question. Always with the same concern.

(She remembers her princess. Cupping her cheeks, kissing her sweetly. Reminding her not to worry about the inevitable end and just enjoy what they have now

Oh, it makes her heart start to ache.)

Fight it as she might, it brings a rueful smile to her lips that she has to turn her head to hide.

“No, nothing’s wrong. I’m okay.”

“Are you sure?”

“Yes,” she peeks down to where their hands are on the table. So close, so close. It’ll take nothing more than a simple repositioning to let them touch. But she does not dare. Not yet, not now. “Everything will be okay.”

She’ll make sure of it. Somehow.

If she can protect her once already, she can do it again and again and again.)

Blake, despite resisting it, fearing it, becomes so enamored with this Yang that she’s in love before she even realizes it. (Only murmuring to herself one day; Damn it, not again.) She is so much like the first Yang and so… unique too. There is the hardheadedness, the recklessness, the brightness, the warmth. But this Yang is gentler. More considerate, thoughtful of others’ emotions. Protective in a way telling that she had to grow up too soon too fast.

Blake is dying to discover more about her. Blown away at the fact that each new Yang offers new things for her to learn and love.

(Her favorite time is sunrise. Because one Yang from one universe used to watch it every day and Blake found herself joining her more often than not. And it’s left a scar on her heart, a habit she can no longer break in each new world.

Sitting on the rooftop of Beacon’s dorms gives her the perfect view of the horizon. And the perfect spot to ponder.

She wants to make things different this time, but how?

Living as many lives as she’s had, having as many opportunities as she’s had, she feels like she’s tried everything under the sun.

And it always ends up the same.

I can’t stop it…

“Oh. I didn’t expect anyone to be here.” Blake jumps at the sound of Yang’s voice- so familiar, so unique, so beautiful- and glances over her shoulder. Sure enough, her partner is there. Dressed for the day already, prepared for whatever their classes have to throw at them. Yang smiles that sunny smile of hers, motioning to the spot next to her, “Mind if I join you?”

It’s better if she says no. To deny any kind of friendship, any kind of relationship. If she keeps her distance, she can protect her heart. At least for a bit longer.

But it’s too late. Her heart has already found its home.

It’s Yang.

It will always be Yang.

“Blake?” She must be quiet for too long, the question hanging in the air awkwardly and Yang’s smile dropping to make place for worry. Yang tilts her head, takes a small step closer, but nothing more. As if waiting for permission to approach. “You okay?”

“Yeah. Sorry, umm,” Blake pats the stonework next to her, “go ahead.”

“Too many thoughts?” Yang questions as she makes her way beside her, plopping down casually as if they aren’t at the edge of the roof. (Blake keeps herself alert. Just in case. Just in case Yang falls over the side. Sure, she has her aura in this life, but what if it conveniently stops working at the moment it counts?)

She searches gentle purple and has to look away first because she can’t. She can’t do this.

“Something like that.”

Silence envelops them and it is as suffocating to her as the warmth Yang radiates beside her. The warmth she is naturally drawn to, surreptitiously scooting the tiniest bit closer. Whatever she can get away with without Yang noticing.

There’s something peaceful about it, and when she blinks, she is no longer on Remnant. She is in another world that she’s forgotten the name of by this point. A majority of the early ones blend together now anyway, there’s been so many.

But the sunrise…

That tends to remain the same.

Another blink, and she is back here and even closer to Yang beside her until their shoulders are touching. It’s almost enough to get her to leap away, but if it bothers Yang, she doesn’t bring it up whatsoever. Happily, peacefully, watching the colors paint the sky.

“You know,” Yang murmurs, so soft it’s hard to hear her even when she’s so close and Blake is grateful for her cat ears (hidden as they are), “I’ve always liked watching the sunrise.”

You and many other yous.

Only a few were not morning people enough to be up by the time the sun woke up.

“Why’s that?”

“Because it means I have another day,” Yang extends one hand upward as she tilts her head back, as if reaching for the warm colors. “And I can do anything with this day. Whatever I want.”

It means, the version who taught her to appreciate the sunrise told her, so long ago, I’ve survived another day. And that is something worth recognizing… and celebrating.

Blake hums, acknowledging.

“I like watching it too.”

“Really?” Yang raises a brow in astonishment and it makes her furrow her own in confusion.

“Is that so surprising? I’m literally out here right now.”

“I know that but…” She searches for her words, shrugging. “I didn’t take you for a morning person, that’s all.”

“There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”

“And I am excited,” Yang unexpectedly leans toward her with a grin and it makes her heart jump to her throat at their close proximity, (sunshine; she smells of sunshine), “to learn more.”

And just as abruptly as she came closer, she veers away again. Adding, “If you want to tell me, of course. I’m not entitled to anything from you.”

Oh, don’t do this to me.

You’ll only make me fall harder.

“That’s… very thoughtful.” She swallows lightly, wanting to create some distance between them but unable to find the will to go through with it. “Thank you.”

“Of course! We’re partners now for at least four years. So,” Yang beams, brighter than the rising sun that fully makes its appearance on the horizon, “I want to make you comfortable. I’ll tease a bit but that’s just how I am- So if I ever go overboard, don’t be afraid to call me out.”

Four years…

It makes her want to laugh and it makes her want to cry.

Scarcely do they get years with their partners. Once every hundred thousand attempts. At most, they get months. Their last life as Goddesses gave them millennia and it was nothing but bliss.

She doubts they’ll get that lucky in this life.

But regardless…

“Will do.”

She hopes.)

Beacon goes… surprisingly well. They have their ups and downs, as with everything, but they get through it. As partners, as friends, as a team. They meet other people and they’re as hesitant to form bonds with them as they are with Ruby and Yang because neither Weiss nor Blake has gotten over the zombie world. They mourned so many friends in that universe, made a lot of them and lost them all.

But they do it anyway (asking for trouble).

Weiss and Ruby bicker from time to time but something about that is fun as well. It gives them the chance to learn how to communicate with each other better.

Blake and Yang spend every available day they can together. Whether with their teammates involved as a group outing, or just the two of them exploring Vale or the rest of Beacon or sparring.

(“Why do you never give it your all?” Yang asks through her breathlessness after one such sparring session, a small towel hanging around her shoulders.

“Hmm?”

“You always just dodge. Even when I leave myself open on purpose, you never attack me.”

“Because I can’t.”

“Why not?”

Gold meets purple and it brings them both to a pause. Blake swallows thickly, fighting against her own desires as she whispers, “I just can’t.”

And somehow, in this life, that’s enough of an explanation for Yang.)

It’s stressful too. Being huntresses means they’re constantly heading toward the dangerous things, so Weiss and Blake have their work cut out for them. It doesn’t help that both of the sisters are notoriously rash and impulsive with their ideas.

By the time the Beacon dance rolls around, they have given up trying to fight their emotions. Even as they attempt to forge feelings for other people, it’s too late (and it wouldn’t have worked anyway, they know that already).

As Blake dances with Yang, ignoring the rest of the room, the rest of the world, she gazes into tender purple and wants to laugh at herself. 

You idiot, Yang twirls her and she follows along with it smoothly, gripping onto her hand and refusing to let go quite yet as the song continues. You did it again.

How?

How is it possible to fall in love with her thousands of times…

…and each time, it feels like the first all over again?

Is it a curse? Or a blessing? Getting to fall in love with her each time. It hurts to lose her, it kills her to lose her.

But for Blake, for all of them, death is temporary.

No matter how painful it is, it will pass-

And she’ll get to do this all over again.

Is that beautiful?

Or agonizing?

When Yang hands her off to Sun, Blake is disappointed but she allows it. Because he is fun to be around too (and it’ll hurt to have to say goodbye to him too when she moves onto the next life) and Yang is busy hosting. So she lets it happen and tries to enjoy herself- and Sun makes it rather easy- but even then, she is forever distracted by her partner across the room.

After the whole fiasco of the intruder at the tower, Weiss doesn’t know whether she wants to smack her partner in the back of her head or hug her for the rest of the night because You’re safe, you’re alive. You went off to fight without me knowing but you’re alive and-

“Come with me.”

“Weiss-”

“Ruby Rose.” Weiss digs her fingers into her biceps where she crosses them in the front of her body, standing firmly in front of her partner before Ruby can start getting ready for bed. Tired from the entire night. In a softer tone, she extends a hand to her (and hopes Ruby doesn’t call her out on why it’s shaking), “Come with me, please.”

Blake and Yang are in the room as well, but to her, they don’t exist. There is only Ruby and her curious silver eyes and the trust she has not to ask questions and accept her hand. There is only her partner and the warmth of her palm in hers and the security of squeezing her fingers and feeling Ruby do the same.

Even as she leads them through the hallway of the dorms until they’re at the open rooftop, Ruby doesn’t ask any questions. It’s a bit chilly but she ignores it, stopping when they’re in the middle.

For the longest time, they don’t say a word and Weiss admires her partner under the moonlight.

You’re alive…

Another potential threat, avoided. Was she supposed to die tonight? Or was it a mistake?

I wasn’t there. It claws at the inside of her chest and she wants to scream. I wasn’t there and you could’ve died and I could’ve lost you and-

“Weiss?” Ruby finally speaks, uncomfortable with the silence. “Why are we up here?”

It brings her back to attention and she sucks in a sharp breath.

“You said you didn’t get to dance,” Weiss mumbles at first before clearing her throat, working up the confidence to be clearer. “And I don’t need you complaining about it for the rest of time. Dance with me.”

“What?!”

“Dance with me,” she repeats without wavering, keeping their hands connected but loosening her grip enough so Ruby can let go if she wants to. (She wouldn’t be able to stop her. If Ruby wants to leave, she’ll leave. Even if Ruby didn’t want to leave, she’ll leave anyway. Weiss is used to it. At least, she wants to believe she is.) “Unless you wish to dance with someone else, but I’d be hard press to find you another partner on such short notice and-”

“I don’t want another partner!” Ruby all but blurts out and the growing blush she wears is too adorable. Weiss doesn’t bother fighting her small smile. “I-I mean… Are you sure? I know you… wanted to dance with Neptune.”

(Is that jealousy? Gods, she hopes so.

But even if it is, Weiss finds it ridiculous.

How can you be jealous of someone else when you’re the one I’m in love with? When you’re the one I always choose? When you’re the one who has my heart and will break it too? When you’re the one I can’t lose?)

Weiss chuckles softly, shaking her head as she steps closer. Keeping them connected, pressing two fingers underneath Ruby’s chin to lift her eyes back up to her because she much rather have them on her than the ground in melancholy.

“I want to dance with you,” she says with absolute certainty, “No one else.”

Her blush deepens- cute- but Ruby smiles and scratches the back of her head sheepishly, “Okay. But, ah, I kinda don’t know how to dance?”

“That’s quite alright,” Weiss pulls her flush, positioning their hands in the proper places. Ruby wears an adorably focused expression, like she doesn’t want to mess this up. Like she wants to impress her. “Just follow my lead, okay?”

“Okay.” A hint of nervousness, but determination.

“Are you ready?”

“I’m ready,” Ruby winks at her, her smile growing, “partner.”

When, dear fate?

When will you take this smile away from me?

She won’t know until it happens.

But until then, she’ll dance with her beneath the moonlight like it is their last day together…

Time moves forward. They grow closer. They fall deeper.

After the Mountain Glenn incident, it leaves Blake and Weiss frazzled. The anticipation of waiting for that dreaded day to come starts to wear on them, and they don’t want to make the mistake of letting their guards down like they’ve done before when they foolishly thought it was over.

The rooftop of the dorm building becomes their sanctuary to speak as freely as they want about their worries and their curse without earning many confused glances from others.

“I want to tell her.”

Weiss sits on the leftmost part of the roof; Blake, on the right. She blinks, they both do, and the academy turns to a city of a crime they rule over with a bottle being passed between them and simple (in comparison to Remnant) but lethal weapons nonetheless tucked away. Some part of Weiss misses that world despite the difficulties, because the city had been so beautiful at night to watch from their favorite perch.

“That never goes well,” Blake regretfully informs her with a shake of her head, twining one of her ribbons around her hand and then taking it off. Finding a grounding repetition to help her through the conversation. Weiss doesn’t comment on it, so used to her nervous ticks and tells by this point. Knows not to judge her for them because Weiss has a lot of her own as well. “Need I remind you the multiple times I told Yang and she always died the next day? Sometimes hours after?”

She’s tried. Oh, she’s tried many lives.

But Yang never survives long after learning the truth.

So Blake has learned it’s better not to bother with telling them. Because nothing good comes out of it.

“I’ve never tried with Ruby,” Weiss whispers, so low it’s even difficult for her cat ears to pick up.

“Do you really want to experiment now?”

“No, but…” The heiress groans, a hint of a whine somewhere there, as she presses her palms to her face and grips at her bangs for a second. Tugging at them to bring a spark of pain and letting go soon after. Composure, Weiss. You need to keep it together, you can’t break now. They can't afford that. “I hate keeping this from her… I hate having to pretend that she doesn’t mean everything to me. I hate not being able to show her how much I love her.”

“I hate it too,” Blake shares in her misery, ears (free from their bow while they’re up here) drooping with her sorrow. She pauses from her fidgeting with the ribbon, pulling it taut between her fingers. How easy would it be to tear this ribbon compared to the string of fate that keeps her connected to her partner? “But I’d much rather see the next sunrise with Yang than tell her and… and lose her.”

If they keep this to themselves, then the chances of their partner surviving for longer increases as well.

Days. That’s all they’re trying to get for themselves.

One more day with their partner.

They’ll steal as many days as they can from fate.

As painful as it is, they keep up the act that everything is fine. Focusing on their studies instead of their looming destiny, enjoying every second of every day they have with Ruby and Yang. Sometimes separately, other times together as a full team. Though she rarely admits it, Weiss misses Yang in every life just as much as she longs for Ruby. Though she mentions it often, Blake treasures the moments she has with Ruby as much as she values her memories with Yang.

They enjoy this life. Sure, it’s not the best, not the most magical, not the most peaceful, but it’s… fun. They get into their own shenanigans, along with team JNPR, and each new day is a fresh adventure. There is comfort in the safety of being students, where they’re allowed to make some mistakes full-knowing there is someone stronger than them who will save them from the more life-threatening ones. (That doesn’t stop them from truly worrying about their partners though. Adults or no adults, nobody can keep fate away from them.)

In the early days of the Vytal Festival, Ruby kisses Weiss for the first time after a day to themselves enjoying the fun. It catches her by surprise since she hadn’t been expecting it, but she snatches Ruby by the cloak when her partner takes her astonishment for rejection and tries to run.

She can’t find her voice for the longest time and Ruby is blushing as much as her cloak that she has captive in her grasp. Keeping her partner from rushing away in a flurry of rose petals.

Please, her grip tightens and she forces away her own tears, don’t leave me. Not again, not now.

“Sorry,” Ruby mumbles, almost drowned out by the festivities happening just around the corner. They’re alone in a dimly lit part of the area, the darkness giving her partner the courage to make the first move but the silence subsequently taking all of that away from her. Weiss inhales and it hurts (roses, roses, roses) but she relishes the ache. There is something almost like shame on her partner’s face, embarrassment. “I didn’t mean to…”

She trails off, not even wanting to utter her supposed atrocity.

“You didn’t mean it?” Weiss somehow finds her words, so soft it’s almost silent. But Ruby hears her, silver flicking back to blue despite how difficult it must be for her to maintain eye contact. She commends her courage for trying at the very least.

“...I did,” her partner eventually mutters, shy but pushing through it. “I mean it.”

Weiss hums, a satisfied little thing, and pulls her closer a step so abruptly it causes Ruby to stumble. To catch herself, Ruby’s hands shoot out to the wall behind Weiss, their noses bumping lightly.

“I mean it too,” Weiss says like it's a confession.

And kisses her.

It’ll hurt, the sorrow buds in her chest alongside the adoration as she wraps her arms around her partner’s neck to bring her even closer and Ruby willingly follows along until she has her all but pinned to the wall. Kissing her like she’s already lost her in this life. But it always does, so…

This is worth it.

You’re worth it, my dear.

The morning that the Vytal Tournament is meant to begin, Blake commits to the torture that is bound to happen eventually and kisses Yang.

They’re on the rooftop to watch the sunrise. A routine they’ve built up by now. Not all the time, but often enough to where they both look forward to it.

“Do you think we’ll make it all the way?”

“Hmm?” Blake blinks out of her admiration of her partner in the colors of the rising sun, her heart skipping a beat as Yang looks over with that warm smile of hers.

“The tournament,” Yang clarifies, motioning in the vaguest direction where they know it’s going to take place. “Do you think we can make it to the finals?”

“Having doubts?”

“Nope. Just…” her partner swings her legs over the edge of the roof, rubbing a thumb against the palm of her other hand. A comfort method, she’s noticed. “It’s going to be our first tournament. I don’t care about winning the entire thing, but it would be nice.”

“Then what do you care about if it’s not coming in first?”

“I want the world to remember my name,” Yang stares at the sky with a wistful expression. Somewhat pained, somewhat gentle. “I don’t want to be forgotten.”

How can anyone forget you?

Even when Blake doesn’t have her memories restored, there is always something that tickles in the back of her mind that doesn’t make sense to her until she remembers. The loss is temporary, it always is.

“I’ll remember you,” Blake says like a promise, keeping her courage in check and her heart wide open even as Yang glances back at her. “Even if the rest of the world forgets. I’ll remember you. Does that help?”

Oh the way Yang melts at her vow drives her insane.

She loves it.

“Yeah,” Yang grins, “it really does.”

“Good.”

“It would still be cool if we won,” her partner turns cheeky now, teasing. Sending her a wink that makes her heart swoon more than it already is as Yang taps a finger to her own cheek playfully. “Maybe if I had a kiss for good luck, I can solo the whole thing for us.”

Yang clearly isn’t expecting her to take her up on the offer, if her sharp inhale as Blake cups the side of her face to turn her better in her direction is anything to go by.

Yang isn’t expecting her to lean in without hesitation, if the blush that appears on her cheeks (prettier than the sunrise) and the way she stiffens like she doesn’t want to move away with the stray breeze is telling enough.

Yang isn’t expecting her to kiss her on the lips, but even if she isn’t, she reciprocates like a woman starved for the chance to do this and nearly overwhelms Blake despite being the one to initiate it.

Oh, you fucking idiot, Blake screams at herself despite the way her fingers thread through blonde hair, bringing her partner closer, closer, closer; and Yang is much too close to the edge in her attempt to follow that instruction for comfort but they ignore the obvious threat of falling. You’re only going to lose her and you’re making it worse.

(In response to herself, she declares, Who cares? She’s worth the coming hell.)

When they part for breath, Blake almost doesn’t want to open her eyes. She feels safe in this little bubble of theirs- even if she knows she truly isn’t, she’s never safe in any world- and to open her eyes would ruin it all. But when Yang whispers her name, reverent and so loving it hurts, she can’t resist temptation.

Gods, she’s beautiful. Even more when they’re this close to each other.

“I…” Yang flounders for speech and Blake chuckles. Accomplished. “I was kidding about the… good luck kiss.”

Blake meets her dead in the eye and knows she is too far gone, so she has no problem with admitting, “I wasn’t.”

They get to have their joy for all of… a few days.

When unknown enemies from the shadows decide to strike, when chaos starts to unravel as Yang is disqualified from the tournament and Penny is torn apart and Grimm run amok everywhere and they’re separated from their partners, Blake and Weiss want to curse at the heavens.

You fucker, they swear the universe laughs at them in response, Just leave us alone for once!

They fight. Because the other options are to run or die and they won’t do either of those without finding their partners first. They help as many people as they can and kill any monster that they find along the way, but their main priority- as with every life- is finding Ruby and Yang.

They stick together as long as they can, but splitting up is inevitable as well.

The moment Blake runs across Adam- there is always an Adam in every world, and he doesn’t always go by Adam, and she’s as tired of it as she is of the whole thing- she is torn in two. That’s the difficulty of being in this world and getting old memories. Of feeling like she doesn’t belong here because it’ll just be another one of the many when she moves on. Because half of her is still affected by him, is afraid of him despite knowing there are more dangerous things out there, and the other half doesn’t care because she does not have time for him. He doesn’t matter.

Finding Yang does, before the curse can take her away without giving them the chance to say goodbye like so many other times.

But her responses to him come out instinctual, bubbling up and out of her throat uncontrollably, and it’s like there are two different (or many different) versions of herself fighting for control. The Blake born into this world, the one with roots here and knows nothing else, and the infinite other Blakes from the other worlds that know there are other things out there. The Blake in this world who only had seventeen years to live and the Blakes of other worlds who have the rest of eternity. The Blake in this world, who will only become one more from the past when she is in a different universe in the future, and the Blakes from the others who warn she has limited time to find Yang and try to fight fate one more time- just one more time, one more time, maybe we can win, maybe we can win- save her. To save them.

Because of that, on top of the fear buzzing at the corner of her senses centered around this version of Adam, she’s distracted.

And if she has learned anything throughout her many different lives, it’s that distractions are dangerous.

He overwhelms her and half of her thinks that she will be the one to die first this time instead of Yang.

“I will make it my mission to destroy everything you love.”

Just do it. Just kill me already, just get it over with, I’m tired of this, just-

“Blake?!”

No…

No, no, no, no, no-

A familiar bang from a shotgun gauntlet, and sure enough, there is her partner just out of the corner of her eye. Searching for her, just like Blake was. The blood roars so loudly in her ears and she is stock still, the desperation clawing at her chest to break its way free.

“Starting with her.”

Fate, please.

Not this way.

When she screams as Adam drives his blade into her, it’s less from the agony that comes with being stabbed and more a plea. A plea to the universe. A beg to the curse.

Hear me cry, destiny.

I will suffer eternally in your torture- so long as you leave her out of it.

But destiny and fate and the universe decline her offer.

Because Yang, ever-protective and fiercely loyal and pissed off Yang, sees her being hurt and she doesn’t know that it’s not Blake whose life is in danger at this moment. (Even if she did, even if she knew she’ll die if she takes the leap to defend her, will that stop her? Blake doubts it. Because Blake is Yang’s priority just as much as Yang is Blake’s.)

Don’t do it, Yang. Don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t do it, don’t-

She does it.

Yang leaps (right over the edge of the cliff, unaware that there’s nothing at the bottom for her but death).

Adam swings.

And Yang falls (like the dying sun, like a shooting star from the sky, like the love of her life in her arms).

As Yang collapses into a pile on the ground, Blake can only focus on the arc of blood for the longest time. It isn’t until Adam, unsatisfied, starts to stalk toward her fallen partner that she remembers that she can move. That she is still alive, even if Yang isn’t.

At the very least, even if it is too late, she can stop him from defiling her body to shreds.

It’s a trick she learned in a previous life. Though her power is different in this world, the core is the same.

Blake has always been adept at letting the shadows take the hits for her (even if she does feel the echo of the pain at her neck as he slices her head off. But that's alright with her, she's suffered that plenty of times already. What's one more?).

But she runs. Half-dragging, half-carrying Yang at her side because as much as she wants to scoop her up in her arms, the stab wound at her hip proves too troubling to allow her to do so. (She curses her own body. If she had been a Goddess like before, this pain would’ve been nothing.)

Again, Adam doesn’t chase after her. Or maybe he does, she doesn’t know. She doesn’t look behind her. She takes the safest route she can, stopping long enough to at least attempt to cover the bleeding stump left of Yang’s right arm, panicking because she’s still breathing, she’s still alive somehow but those breaths are getting shallower and Blake knows it’s only a matter of time before she dies from blood loss.

And though it’s futile now as with every other life, she begs.

“Don’t do this,” she whimpers, as content as she can be with a makeshift bandage from whatever scraps of fabric she scrounges up from the neighboring area (wherever they are, her mental map is askew at the moment). She cups Yang’s face in her bloody hands, unable to resist her tears, “Don’t do this, Yang. Not again. Don’t do this to me again, please. Please, I can’t-”

Wasting time.

She swallows the rest of her useless pleas, gathering Yang in her arms to continue to wherever a safe zone is. (Shallower, shallower, shallower. She counts each breath and holds onto them for dear life, frightened when every single one takes longer to come than the last.)

Not again…

When Weiss makes it to the airship landing where others are being ferried off in groups out of Beacon, her heart stops when she finds Blake and Yang on the ground. Whatever injury she’s received has caused her friend to succumb to gravity, unable to stand any longer- but still clinging onto her partner like it is the only thing that matters.

Weiss thinks that’s it. That she’s looking at Yang’s dead body and a mourning Blake and soon- seconds or minutes, that’s all they get- it’ll be her turn with Ruby. When one of the sisters dies, the other is usually not that far behind.

But something compels her to come closer. Maybe it’s morbid curiosity. Maybe it’s another thing entirely.

Whatever the case, it makes her gasp.

Yang is…

“Blake,” Weiss kneels by her friend, grabbing her shoulder fiercely (to ground her, to ground herself as the realization pulls the rug from under her feet), getting choked up as she finishes, “Blake, she’s still alive.”

Still alive.

The curse hasn’t taken hold yet.

And it doesn’t make sense.

Because every other time, they were relatively small things. The Death Stalker, the Nevermore scare. Mountain Glenn, Torchwick, the paladin. 

But the attack on Beacon is huge. So if there is ever a time for the curse to activate and steal their partners away once more, it’s now.

…but it hasn’t.

Yang is still alive.

And, she learns soon enough, so is Ruby.

It’s painful, letting Ruby see what’s happened to her sister. Weiss almost doesn’t want to step aside. Yet, she does and it kills her to watch the horror in silver and she wants nothing more than to take them away from here. Just the two of them. Four of them. To leave and never return and spend the rest of their days secluded in an unknown place.

But Ruby is nothing if not determined to save others. So when she volunteers on Ren and Nora’s behalf to go after Jaune and Pyrrha, to find them and bring them back, of course Weiss is going to go with her.

Because if Ruby is going back toward the danger, Weiss will be damned if she let her go alone.

She will be with her every step of the way.

No matter how scared she is, she’s not going to stop Ruby from being herself and helping others.

And even if her main priority is Ruby, there is a side of her that worries about Pyrrha and Jaune as well. They are her friends. Her family in some ways. They don’t deserve this fate just as much as Ruby doesn’t.

As such, a part of her wants to track down Jaune first after he calls them, just to make sure he is okay. But she trusts in his abilities to survive at the very least, even in his devastation, and they turn their sights to Beacon Tower. The Grimm are everywhere, making it that much more difficult to get to their destination in time.

Tick-tock, tick-tock.

Someone is going to die if you don’t hurry.

No matter how many glyphs they speed across or how often Ruby takes her along with her semblance, it still feels like they’re too late. There is a tower to scale and Grimm still heckling them from the front.

“We gotta hurry!” There is anguish in her partner’s voice, well aware that if they take too long, they might lose Pyrrha. Well aware that there is not much time left in their hourglass.

Weiss yearns for the powers she’s had before because there are just so many that would come in handy right now, but she shakes it away and focuses on every bit of strength she does have at the moment. Her gaze lifts to the tower behind them, to the very top where an occasional glint of color occurs every once in a while. No doubt the battlefield where Pyrrha is.

You both can’t go.

If they both leave, the Grimm will overwhelm the tower and tear it apart no doubt. Or find a way to get up there and put them at even more of a disadvantage.

One will have to stay behind to fend them off, if only for a moment longer.

It is with a heavy heart that she aims at the tower, extending her will and pushing her aura to its limits to create a trail of glyphs there. Ruby glances at her in question and Weiss meets her in the eye steadily.

With full belief in her voice, she says, “You can do this.”

Because if no one else can, Ruby can.

There is but a second of hesitation on Ruby’s part. Perhaps weighing the risk and reward of leaving Weiss here to get there first. Perhaps not wanting to abandon her to fight the Grimm on her own. Perhaps afraid that her words aren’t true, doubting herself.

But Weiss sends her a tender smile.

You can do this.

I’ll be fine.

Ruby understands her unvoiced words. Disappearing in a burst of petals to run up the side of the tower.

Turning away from it, Weiss meets the force of the Grimm head-on. If she can thin the numbers to a comfortable degree, then she can risk joining her partner at the top before it’s too late. She fights with a fury unlike any other, and though her magic is limited to the amount of dust she carries, they hit with a strength comparable to many worlds that came before it.

Even as the Goddess of Snow and Reflection, her power was not as great as it is now. Her desperation was not as great as it is now.

Funny how that works.

Because despite how fast she manages to destroy an alarming number of Grimm- quite impressive, if she does say so herself- she is never fast enough.

Fate is always faster in dropping the guillotine upon them.

A scream. One that echoes through the night world and sends a chill down her spine as she spins around to face the tower.

A blinding flash of light that makes her wince, forced to look away even as she’s all the way down here.

Ruby…

“Ruby!” She calls out- there’s a hollow in her chest now and it is terrifying- and runs into the tower itself. She won’t have the aura left needed to take her to the very top from down here, so she scales as many floors as she can before climbing out one of the many windows (dangerous, dangerous, dangerous, she doesn’t care about the risk of falling) and using the last of her strength to make it there.

The top of the tower is in ruins. The dust has yet to settle and it makes her cough immediately, eyes stinging.

There is no immediate threat. The wyvern is turned to stone apparently, or at least it isn’t moving. There is nobody left standing either. No Pyrrha anywhere to be found.

And Ruby is on the ground.

Not moving.

Weiss races to her side. Knowing how this ends. Knowing what’s going to come next. She brings Ruby into her lap (as she’s done countless times before) and fruitlessly tries to wake her up, to no avail. With shaking fingers, she presses them to the side of her neck and holds her breath.

She doesn’t know why she’s trying. She’ll search for a heartbeat that isn’t there and that’ll be that and-

There’s a heartbeat.

There’s a heartbeat. Weak and fluttering, but there.

A sob rips free from her very soul and she cradles Ruby closer in her arms, crying, “You’re alive…”

…And it doesn’t make sense to her.

Ruby has been spared too. Yang, though heavily wounded, is alive.

Neither of them has died when they could have. Should have- because that’s how this works. They meet, they fall in love, they die, and that’s it. There is no missed opportunity from the world. If there is a chance for it to happen, nine times out of ten it’ll happen and they’ve gotten lucky enough in this world.

Weiss doesn’t comprehend any of it.

But there’s no time to question it. Because Beacon is no longer safe and when Qrow arrives- somehow getting to the top, she honestly has no idea how because one second she’s alone with her partner, and the next, he’s there and helping her to stand and carrying Ruby- they have to leave. It’s heartbreaking, no doubt.

Beacon was her home too, so she’s sad to see it go.

There is a whirlwind of activity that follows. Neither of them honestly knows how they keep up with it all. They make it to a rendezvous spot where the survivors of the Fall are, trying to rest and recover from it all. Jacques Schnee tries to take her away but Weiss practically holds her rapier at his throat, dangerous blue meeting his as she declares in a cold, unwavering tone; “I am not leaving her.”

She sends him running and doesn’t care that he denounces her rights as heiress. It doesn’t matter to her. She can worry about it later.

(Blake attempts to leave only once but thankfully, Sun tells her in advance and Weiss manages to catch her. Which is a first, honestly. Blake is so good at disappearing, in every life.

“Weiss-”

“You’re not going anywhere.”

“If Adam-”

“You’re not. Going. Anywhere, Blake,” Weiss shields the door with her body, arms crossed tightly over herself as Blake stands directly in front of her. Sure, it probably wouldn’t be too hard for her friend to shove her out of the way, but they’ve called a truce in this life never to lay a hand on each other. “She needs you.”

“He’ll come back. He’ll come back, and he’ll…” Kill her.

“Then you’ll stop him.”

“I can’t,” Blake chuckles; empty, empty, empty. “I’ve tried, I never can whenever he’s the main issue in my life.”

“Then this time will be different.”

“Weiss.”

“Blake,” she steps forward now, placing a hand on her shoulder, and though she is gentle with it, it’s enough to make her friend crumble. “This time will be different. It already has been.”

And Blake can’t argue with that. Can’t say It’s always the same because this time it isn’t.

Their partners are still alive.

That alone is different enough.

So maybe Weiss is right with this too.)

They stay at the recovery zone for about a week until the doctors deem their partners well enough to go home and Taiyang more than welcomes them along for the journey. He’s exceedingly appreciative of them and Blake and Weiss come to enjoy his company. When it comes to parents, he’s thankfully not the worst that they’ve encountered in their many universes. He tries his best and it isn’t always enough, but his love for his daughters is undeniable and that is all they’ve asked for. For Ruby and Yang to have a family that adores them.

A week goes by and though their partners remain asleep, they’re stable. Not once do either of them randomly stop breathing or die overnight like they fear.

Another goes by and Blake and Weiss find the chance to talk about everything that’s happened. So very confused- but grateful- about why nothing has gone wrong. About why Ruby and Yang are still here. About why they have not moved on to the next world to continue the cycle as routine.

The night air in Patch grows colder as the days go by, the first traces of snow on the horizon. They give it another few weeks before it starts to fall and stick to the ground.

“I don’t get it,” Weiss, more comfortable with the chill than Blake, stares into her mug of coffee that she hasn’t finished. It’s gone disgustingly cold now so she probably won’t drink the rest anyway. “I don’t… feel Ruby anymore. Not like I always do.” She brings a hand to her chest, her steady heartbeat. “It’s like she’s gone, but…”

She isn’t.

"So, why?"

Blake has no answer for her. Concentrating on the palm of her hands, focusing on that sensation in her chest that is gone as well. The second Yang fell, it disappeared. It feels like every single time they’ve lost their partners. But if she goes back inside, Yang will continue to draw breath.

The next rolling breeze brings a shiver through her, uncomfortable with the cold.

But even more so because of the random voices that filter through the air.

“Because you are free.”

The breath catches in her throat as Weiss whirls around, the mug slipping from her grasp, but…

Stopping.

Her brow furrows, as does Blake’s as she finally glances up, momentarily distracted by that, before their attention transfers to the random two individuals that now stand on the grass a short distance away from the cabin. Within their line of sight. Not standing directly next to each other, but separated by more than an arm’s length (as though they dare not tread closer).

One of them gives the appearance of a man, but certainly not a human. Nor a Faunus either from this world. His skin is a light grey that reflects the moonshine bearing down on the clearing, hair black as the shadows and hanging down in gentle waves at his back. There are eyes, but the sclera, the iris, and the pupil are pure white. He wears robes of black and white, ribbons of fabric draping from his arms and legs like chains.

The other gives the appearance of a woman. Her skin is a darker grey, absorbing the light of the moon’s radiance. Short white hair frames her features, with curls like the crescent of the moon. As with her companion, her eyes are a solid black (and though there is no visible pupil within the color, Blake and Weiss gulp as they pass over the two). There is armor resembling chain-mail that guards her body, gauntleted arms crossed.

Both of them have long pointed ears. The boy wears a mischievously wide grin (unsettling), and the girl glares so harshly it’s as though Blake and Weiss have offended her with their very presence (frightening).

And it’s been so long - 619,644 lives, each with varying years to them- but the two of them know exactly who these people are, even if their names have been forgotten.

The very Gods that brought upon this curse in the first place.

It immediately sets Blake and Weiss on edge confronting these beings again, and though they are nothing compared to the Gods- they’ve stood against them once and, clearly, lost- they still have not learned any better. Despite the countless eternities of torture. They prepare themselves for a fight, both of them blocking the way to the door as though to stop the Gods from going to their partners (even though it’ll probably be the easiest thing in the world for them to do as they wish).

But the boy, the jester, throws his arms up in defeat and declares, “We give up.”

“What?” Weiss narrows her eyes, still confused but on guard.

The girl, the warrior, speaks in a rough tone like she has not known gentleness, repeating like it’s obvious, “We give up.”

“Give up?” Blake makes a face and the warrior sighs as if annoyed.

The jester roams around the grass like he’s stumbling- or dancing- with a curious hum. Investigating the world they’ve found themselves in. While his companion does not move an inch from where she is, as solid as a statue. Immovable, indomitable.

“We didn’t expect you two to last this long. We thought maybe in the hundreds, but yet, here you are,” the boy stops, and the parts of the yard where he stepped does not rise again. Withered and grey. “Still trekking along. Still living each life.” He peeks pointedly at the entire cabin and back again, giggling, “Still falling in love with them.”

“But, the curse-” Weiss starts, but the girl cuts her off. How rude.

“Does not automatically make you fall in love with them.” The warrior’s stare does not waver and it makes Blake fidget in place and Weiss begins to cower. (How did they ever manage to fight this God once? Were they braver back then, or stupider?) “That is a choice that you two make. In every single life. All we do is take them away, but you are the ones to find them.”

“Not once,” the jester holds up a finger, “have we been the ones to fabricate your emotions. Or theirs, for that matter. That, darlings, is all you.”

…Appropriately, it leaves the two of them speechless. And sure, they could be lying. Just another trick for them to fall into and get hurt from.

But what does one say in response to being told that it is not a greater power that makes them find and fall in love with their partners endlessly? That it’s only ever been their choice to do so? That in every single life, that love was reciprocated?

It leaves them quiet for so long, struggling to wrap their minds around it, that the Gods continue.

“So,” the jester snaps his fingers, lamenting a missed opportunity, “we give up. You have proven your wills. You have proven that your love can transcend dimensions.”

“Wait, so,” Blake is the first to regather herself, scowling, “this whole time you’ve just been waiting for us to… what? Not fall in love with them?”

“As a matter of fact, yes.” The warrior takes a single step forward, a silent threat, and Blake hates how it’s enough to make her back off. Taking heed of the unsaid warning to calm down. “We were trying to understand how deep your emotions ran, considering what you tried to do the first time for them. We expected you to break at one point. To hate them or blame them, even.”

“But again and again,” the boy with white eyes sighs in something akin to mourning, “you only ever fell in love. Despite the odds. Despite knowing it was better if you didn’t. And they, too, did the same.”

“So, that’s it,” the girl with black eyes… softens. The fierce glare smooths to something almost tender. If sympathetic. “No more lives. No more jumping to another universe after death. Though that does mean you’ll be stuck in this world,” she takes a brief scan around and back again, chuckling (condescending), “but I’d say it’s one of the more favorable ones. All things considered.”

“And besides,” the jester scoffs, annoyed, and peers up at the sky that has grown darker without them realizing it, scowling. “The Gods of this world aren’t quite keen on sharing their toys. We’ve made it a point not to interfere if we can help it.”

“It wouldn’t be worth the effort," the warrior adds, insultingly. You're not worth the effort.

“This entire time you’ve been playing with us?” Weiss gawks at them, torn between righteous fury and sheer disbelief.

And the Gods have the audacity to outright chirp, “Yep.”

“You-” The two of them attempt to growl out, but the warrior holds a palm in their direction. It is the jester who truly interrupts them though.

“Look, you can spit and snarl at us all you want, but did you hear us?” The boy has come closer now and Blake longs for her weapon while Weiss takes a single step forward as if to meet him halfway. Prepared to fight him with her hands alone if she must. “You are free. Your curse is broken. This will be your final life, and you will not lose them prematurely because of us."

“Regardless, because of the dangers of this world,” the girl takes a step back, ever the opposite to her counterpart, getting ready to leave, “there will be trouble that you’ll no doubt run toward. You’ll have to fight,” there is pride that enters her tone now as she finishes, “but you two are fighters if I’ve ever come across any.”

The jester winks at them before backing up as well, the warrior long since vanishing from one blink to the next. Once he’s an appropriate distance away again, he gives a dramatic flourish of a bow.

“Farewell, Blake Belladonna. Weiss Schnee.”

He, too, vanishes within a second before they can even think of stopping him to give him a piece of their minds.

Still, time remains frozen as his voice echoes in their ears, carried by an imaginary breeze.

“And live every day like this is your last life.”

Time ticks forward, the mug crashing into the patio and breaking into thousands of tiny pieces.

One for every life they’ve had.

619,644.

…

(For the longest time, neither of them move. Breathe.

Skepticism is immediate in their hearts because they’ve been fucked over one too many times already to believe this at face value. They’ve thought the curse was broken plenty of times before and it never was.

But they’ve never had it confirmed and…

A sniffle has Blake snapping to attention, gaze honing in on where Weiss stands. A tremble to her body, and as she takes a step closer, Weiss finally turns around and-

She’s crying.

But smiling too.

“We’re free…”

It resonates within Blake’s chest and now, now that it’s Weiss who is saying it, her friend through the heartache, her friend through the dimensions, her friend through life and death (and life and death and life and death and life and-)... she believes it.

Blake smiles back, tears spilling free. Repeating.

“...We’re free.”

The two fiercely embrace each other, painful almost, and they don’t know whether to laugh or cry their relief.

Regardless…

Their smiles never leave them.)

… … …

“And that… is why you should never let hubris control you.”

Blake wants to laugh at the look on the children's faces. A mix between awe- fully absorbed into the story- and fear- even if they did hold back on details, just the sheer expanse of it all is a lot- and disbelief. Because yeah, it’s a hard story to believe.

“Wow,” her eldest child, a sixteen-year-old boy named Rook whom they very well couldn’t leave behind when they stumbled across him all alone in Vacuo, deadpans from the very back of the group. Clearly trying to show disinterest, but the fact that he’s still here listening reveals otherwise. “How interesting.”

“That was so cool!” Lycia, only at eight, raises her arms up in exuberance. With dark hair like Blake’s but eyes as purple as Yang’s, she is the complete opposite of her twin, Solana, who inherited the blonde hair and gold eyes (and cat ears). Her sister wears a small frown, arms held close to her as she mumbles, “That was so sad.”

“Is that real?” Osiria, ever curious like Ruby at ten (eyes a gentle blue, with hair a mix of red and white), tilts her head as she glances between her mother and Blake. Weiss huffs a soft breath, sharing a look with her friend and back again to her daughter.

“What do you think?” Weiss answers with a question.

“It’s obviously not real,” Rook clicks his tongue, shaking his head. “You asked for story time, they just pulled this out of their-”

“Rook,” Blake raises a brow, immediately quieting the boy. “What did we say about cursing around the young ones?”

“I didn’t even say it!”

“You were going to.”

“I was going to say butts!”

“Hehe,” Lycia grins over at her brother, “you said butts.”

“You’re a butt,” Rook sticks his tongue out at her and Lycia returns it with a giggle.

“Alright, alright,” Weiss intercepts before it can devolve into chaos. As it’s prone to doing with all their children together. “Why don’t you all go play outside before it gets dark? Dinner should be ready soon.”

Hopefully, at least.

Then again, when Yang and Ruby are the ones in charge of dinner, it can always go one of two ways. If Yang can keep her sister under control, then they do just fine. But if Ruby manages to coerce her sister into mayhem, then it’s just a mess.

Better to check on them now before it can potentially go bad.

“Momma,” Osiria stands in front of her with a smile, pointing to the bundle in her arms. “Can I take Karina?”

“Okay, but remember to be careful.”

“Always!”

“Alright, Schatzi,” Weiss carefully passes the sleeping newborn to her daughter, making sure she’s holding her correctly. “Have fun.”

With a beam, the younger children trek off toward the front door of their two-story house. Rook stays behind for a moment, studying both of them. A second passes and it seems like he wants to ask them something but chooses not to, simply smiling before turning away.

“Kit,” Blake calls after him, making him stop before he can disappear around the corner. “Remember you start your training at Beacon tomorrow. Don’t stay up too late.”

“I won’t, mom.”

It never fails to bring a flush of warmth through her chest when he calls her that. It had taken… a while for Rook to fully let them help without being difficult. Because he had been so used to being taken into a new family and then tossed away within months.

But he’s been with them for a decade now and it’s finally taken him this long to understand that This is home. I’m safe here.

Blake stretches her arms above her head as she gets to her feet, a vague limp in one of her legs that has never truly gone away. Weiss follows after her without needing an invitation, the two of them navigating through the house toward the kitchen (forever following an instinctual pull in their very souls). Where a fair amount of noise greets them.

“You’re gonna burn it, Yang!”

“No, I’m not, it’s not even cooked all the way!”

“I can see it burning.”

“Who died and named you the expert on-“

Blake clears her throat from where the two of them stand at the threshold leading into the kitchen. Her partner peers over her shoulder at her, mid-wrestling with Ruby over control of the stove.

Weiss can only shake her head in amusement at her partner’s sheepish smile, like she knows she’s been caught but she’s saying Look how cute I am, you can’t be mad at me. (She can’t. She really can’t be mad. No matter what life.)

“It took you two an hour to start fighting.”

“She started it,” the sisters say in unison, pointing at the other.

“That’s a new record,” Blake snickers and wanders over, fitting herself on the other side of Yang (even though Ruby immediately moves away to make her way to Weiss), and wrapping an arm around her lower back. She stands on her tiptoes, leaning into her and resting her chin on her shoulder to oversee her cooking. “But I’m getting hungry so I hope you’re almost done.”

“You’re getting hungry or the kids are?”

“Both. We’re being starved.”

“So dramatic,” Yang chuckles, turning her head just enough to kiss her nose. Blake nuzzles closer, letting out a content sigh.

Home…

It smells like sunshine.

Her favorite...

“Where’s Karina?” Ruby asks as soon as she’s close enough, instantly grabbing her hands just for the excuse of touching her. Weiss lets her. She always does.

“Osiria,” Weiss responds and that's enough of an answer for Ruby (the young girl, so enamored with her little sister). “My own daughter is stealing my baby from me.”

“When it’s not you, it’s her,” Ruby teases and it makes her scoff.

“I don’t steal her.”

“I swear I only get to hold her once a week.”

“Dolt,” Weiss rolls her eyes, guiding her in for a sweet kiss and then lowering Ruby’s head enough to kiss over the scar on the right side of her face. Gentle, ever so gentle with her. Ruby wraps her arms around her waist, keeping her close.

“Everything okay?” It comes out quieter. Private, just for the two of them. Ruby circles her thumbs at her hips, a flicker of concern there.

Many voices, many faces, many lives.

All with the same concern.

All undeniably Ruby.

This is the life she gets to keep. It hasn’t been easy, certainly. There was a great war against a seemingly unbeatable evil. They lost many of their friends and almost lost each other so many times too.

But they persevered.

They endured.

And now they’re here.

With scars. With nightmares.

With a home to call their own. With a family that they get to raise and love. With a life they get to finally have.

Blake with her partner, her home, her Yang. One of many others, but this one she gets to have for the rest of her life.

Weiss with her partner, her peace and hope, her Ruby. One of many others, but this one she’ll love for as long as they both shall live.

With their kids. Rook and Lycia and Solana. Osiria and Karina.

No matter what, they will leave a legacy behind. 

Even if they die, which they’ve done numerous times already, they will continue to live on regardless.

As will this love.

“Yeah,” Weiss smiles, sharing a look with Blake across the room.

“Everything’s okay.”

…

When they are cursed by the Gods for standing against them, Blake and Weiss learn that there are a few things in every universe that are inevitable. Unavoidable.

Destiny.

Fate.

Death.

And in some ways too…

Hope.

Life.

And love.

Isn’t that beautiful?