The Princess' Rogue - Chapter 12

(It is highly recommended that you read the Author's Notes below before reading this chapter).

***


She felt it in her stomach.

Fear.

Panic.

Terror.

The smoke surrounding them was choking, the air filled with ash and the fiery remains of leaves and bark. It was as if all oxygen had been replaced by a powdery, burnt sludge, one which razed her throat instead of refreshing it, leaving it drier than the sands of Haven's dessert. She was suffocating, slowly, from the smoke. Of course, it didn't help that her scorched throat was still healing from her run in before, the flesh of her neck still a raw red colour in the shape of a hand.

A cough.

But that was nothing compared to the drowning torment she felt every time she turned her head to look left.

“Just a little...” A wheeze. “A little bit further, Yang…” Weiss grunted, struggling to keep them both upright. “Just a little bit further…”

Huffing.

“…and we’ll be out of this place…”

Weiss coughed again, the white haired girl sputtering for air when she accidentally inhaled a bit of ash.

They had made good progress escaping the escalating inferno just behind them. But while they evaded the scorching flames and the heat which came with it, the wind carried the smoke and ash farther and faster than Weiss could have ever thought possible in such a short period of time.

Pushing those worrying thoughts aside, Weiss tried her damnedest to focus on something, anything, except for the blonde hanging off of her shoulder, almost completely limp. That was a little hard to do however, especially as Yang stumbled over an above ground root, nearly sending the two of them sprawling to the ground face first. Weiss somehow managed to keep them on their feet though, a grunt escaping her lips as she did so. Tightening the grip on the arm around her shoulders, her hold on Yang’s waist also going tighter, Weiss trudging ahead with all of her strength, half dragging, half yanking her companion with her.

“Weeeiiiissssss…” Yang slurred.

Weiss bit her lip, nearly drawing blood.

“Lets- Ngh!” A pained warble. “Lets meh go-”

“No!” Weiss rasped, tearful blues glaring at the blonde. “For the last time already! I am not going anywhere without you!”

Already glazed lavenders struggled to remain open, a tired smile twitching on Yang’s lips.

Weiss gazed ahead again. “Don’t,” she said, her voice cracking. “I know what you’re going to say, and you’re not.” A heavy breath. “You are NOT a burden.”

Beads of sweat rolled down the sides of Weiss’ face, once pale cheeks now flushed from exertion and blackened with soot.

“Weeeiiisssssss-”

“No!” the ex-heiress exclaimed, coughing a bit. With her chest heaving, Weiss struggled to hold back the tears of frustration pooling in the corner of her eyes.

“I said I’m getting you out of here, and that’s what I’m doing!”

Ignoring the thickening smoke blowing across their backs, Weiss trembled as she forced another foot forward. Wavering constantly under Yang’s extra weight, Weiss did what she could to ignore her own growing weakness, drawing upon what little reserves of strength she had left. The rogue remained quiet all the while, drawing Weiss' concerned glance after a few more silent steps.

Yang was fading far more quickly than Weiss could have ever imagined. Weiss supposed part of the reason was the stream of crimson running down the length of the Yang’s limp arm (her left one), a trail of red left behind them in the grass and dirt. Even with Weiss’ tattered jacket wrapped tightly around the shoulder wound in a feeble attempt to staunch the blood, liquid crimson continued to flow unending.

And the other part? Well, just thinking about the other part made Weiss want to scream.

So she did. But less because of her mounting frustration and helplessness and more so because of the fist size rock in their path she failed to notice. The moment her booted foot connected with it, she tumbled forward, collapsing to her hands and knees, Yang going down with her.

“Damn it!” Weiss cursed, the ex-heiress’ body shaking. Tears rolled down her black smudged cheeks, a sob threatening to spill forth.

How did things go so wrong?

***

~ Emerald Forest. One hour ago. ~

“My true name is Yang Xiao Long,” Phoenix said. “And that little girl you saw, Ruru-”

A drawn out breath.

“Ruby…” the rogue amended. “... was my sister.”

Weiss slowly dropped to her knees, the strength in her legs suddenly non-existent.

“W-Was?”

Weiss sucked in a hollow breath, her chest constricting almost painfully for some reason. A hand clenched at the fabric of her shirt covering her stomach, the same organ feeling as if it was doing somersaults. Awful ones at that. Turning to look forward again, Weiss' gaze fell on Phoenix, or rather, she stared at Yang, the blonde wistfully looking at the forest before them as she spoke up again.

“I was just a few days shy of my seventh birthday when it happened...”

She awoke to the sound of shouts and screams.

Jolting upright in fear, limbs flailing uncoordinated, the back of her hand met something soft and warm, an audible smack echoing throughout the otherwise silent room. Wide eyes were locked onto the closed curtains covering her partially ajar window.

Weiss blinked rapidly as a fragment of memory emerged from the depths of her mind.

“Owwie!” four year old Ruby exclaimed next to her, monetarily thrashing. Quickly gathering her bearings about her, Ruby sat up and held her reddening cheek.

“What was that for Yaya!?” the younger girl pouted.

Getting no reply after a few seconds, Ruby tugged on her sleeve, trying to get her attention.

“Yaya?”

Like before, this memory wasn’t hers. While knowing this relieved Weiss to no end (thank the gods she wasn't going crazy!), that did nothing to stop the pure, unfiltered terror running through her system as Yang recounted her past, oblivious to Weiss' plight.

“Bandits attacked our village in the dead of night,” Yang said, the fists at her sides shaking noticeably. “They thought it would be easy pickings, catching us off guard so late.”

The door to her bedroom swung open, clacking noisily when it hit the adjacent wall. Ruby jumped at the sound, as did she, her little sister immediately clinging to her arm, shaking.

“Mama!” she exclaimed, her voice trembling. “What’s happening?!”

“But we fought back, and things got… ugly…”

“Yang, honey-”

A terrified shriek ripped through the air, making them all flinch. It was quickly followed by a loud bang from outside, one which shook the foundations of their wooden house. Only when the noise died down did she hear the screams and shouts again, in full force, those wails unlike anything she had ever heard before. Her skin crawled.

Ruby clutched at her arm, whimpering, cutting off circulation to her captured limb.

“Yang, take your sister to the cellar and stay there until we come get you-”

“But Mama-”

“Yang please!” their mother shouted, desperation in her voice and eyes. Realizing what she had done, their mother’s voice softened.

“Please Yang,” the older woman repeated, her hands shaking as she cupped her cheek and patted Ruby’s hair. “Be a good girl and do it for Mama?”

Weiss' jaw clenched, her nails digging into the fabric of her jacket arms as she hugged herself. It was terrifying just how in sync Yang’s recollection was with the memory currently invading her sight and hearing.

Was this punishment for something she had done? If not, was this just a cruel joke the gods were playing on her?

Weiss shook her head.

No. This was neither of those things. It was something much worse. This was something that had happened to Yang a long time ago, something which Weiss had been completely oblivious to. Up until now.

Weiss felt sick.

How naive she had been this entire time.

“There was a small cellar our family had,” Yang said, the rogue’s words drawing Weiss momentarily out of her thoughts. The memory continued on, still in perfect sync with her companion's words, despite Weiss’ efforts to squash it down and forget it.

“Yaya, I’m scared,” Ruby whimpered beside her.

“It was not attached to the house like everyone else’s, but closer to the forest at the back of our land. It’s where we kept dried meat and other things for storage. If a wild animal came wandering by, it would go after the food and leave us alone.”

She wrapped an arm around Ruby’s shoulders, pulling her in for a tight, shaking hug. “Me too, Ruru. Me too.”

The clumps of dull, white jacket in Weiss' grasp rustled, on the verge of being torn into two as the ex-heiress clutched at herself tighter. She paid that muffled sound little heed however, Weiss' mind assaulted by much more agonizing things at the moment.

It took everything she had to ignore the freakish screams seeping through the crack between the cellar’s double doors.

She wanted this to stop.

The sights. The sounds. Even the smells.

But it wouldn’t. It wouldn’t until it was over, and that’s what terrified Weiss the most. The ending of this real life nightmare.

“Our parents were supposed to be right behind us… They were supposed to be-”

A breath hitched in the rogue’s throat, Weiss suddenly finding it hard to breathe. The next few words spoken by the blonde were forced out through clenched teeth, partially muffling them in that action, but they were clear enough to be understood.

“Instead, they were… They-”

She couldn’t breathe.

“Mama!”

She couldn’t think.

“Papa!”

She couldn’t believe.

“Wakey up!”

After spending who knows how long in that dark, cold cellar, she went against her mother’s instructions and left. Despite knowing she would be punished severely for disobeying, she took Ruby and ventured back outside.

She had to know.

She had to know what had happened.

She had to know why things were suddenly quiet now, when before there was nothing but screaming and sobbing, and terror.

“Mama!” Ruby wailed again, her small hands shaking the stiff, still body underneath them. “Wakey up!”

They should have never left the cellar.

“We were the only ones left,” Yang said, her voice cracking.

Palms covered Weiss’ eyes, tears streaming down her cheeks. Unable to sit still any longer, useless, she forced herself to stand on wobbling legs, Weiss' chest heaving with suppressed sobs as she stumbled towards her companion.

“Everything was either on fire or was burned to the ground already,” Yang said, the blonde not flinching in the least when Weiss wrapped her arms around the rogue's waist from behind, burying her tear stained face in the rogue's back.

“People too,” Yang continued on, her voice hollow.

Weiss squeezed her companion that much tighter, weeping.

“Our parents… they-”

She collapsed to her knees, hot tears spilling down her cheeks. The ground was muddy and red, sticky with the blood of the fallen. Stained with the blood of their parents. Ruby continued to wail next to their parents’ bodies, screaming at them to wake up.

Unfortunately for the both of them, Ruby’s pleas fell on deaf ears. The daggers sticking out of their parents’ backs made sure of that. The daggers were as black as onyx, and half as wide as her forearm. While that in itself was impressive, their most distinguishing feature was the design of flames embossed on the dagger hilt.

It would be an image she would never forget for the rest of her life.

“S-S-Stop. Please s-stop,” Weiss begged, clutching at Yang as if her very life depended on it. In some ways it did, or rather, her sanity did.

The barred gates of Lohr Am Main.

Sneaking past the guards when the refugees rioted after they were refused entry into the city.

Taking cover in some filthy back alley, using abandoned, wooden crates to escape from the elements.

Ruby getting sick.

That first memory had been the start. Once that one finally freed itself from the confines of her unconsciousness, the rest quickly followed, rampaging through her mind like an avalanche. Despite them all being Yang’s memories, Weiss remembered every single one of them in perfect detail, as if they were her very own.

From the greedy, old healers who turned them away because they had no lien, to the bruises and scratches she hid from her sister after she was caught stealing food. From the countless, sleepless nights she experienced, wondering if they'd ever survive long enough to see the next day, to Ruby--

Weiss choked on a sob, barely feeling her companion shift in her arms.

-- to Ruby not waking up.

She relived them all.

She snapped awake to the sound of booming thunder. With her heart pounding away in her chest, her gaze quickly scanned the immediate area, sleep blinked away almost instantly. After realizing it was only the storm which had been threatening to soak them for days, she lay down on her side again, at the mouth of the crate they were using for cover, using her slightly larger frame to protect her younger sister from the wind and the chill these nights were known for.

Almost three weeks had passed since they snuck into the city of Lohr Am Main. As beautiful as the city was, with its pristine chapels and white marbled buildings, the residents here were cold and ruthless. No one batted an eye at them as they struggled to eat on a weekly basis. No one cared they only had the clothes on their backs to protect them from the nearly frigid nights.

Between the two of them, she fared only slightly better than Ruby. With her semblance having surfaced just weeks after her sixth birthday, she really didn't feel the cold too much anymore. While she was still untrained in using it to the fullest, as any child would be at her age, her Semblance always insulated her from the cooler temperatures, making her almost impervious to most levels of cold. Sadly, Ruby wasn't gifted like her sister, and quickly succumbed to illness by the end of their first week. Since then, she'd only gotten worse.

Taking a few more seconds to verify there were no dangers lurking about, at least ones she could see that is, she made herself comfortable again (as comfortable as she could get in a cracked, empty wooden crate) and closed her eyes. All of two seconds passed by before her eyelids split open again, her gaze immediately narrowing in on the small one next to her.

Ruby was terrified of thunder. No matter what time of the night it was, no matter how soft it was, no matter how far in the distance it was, the moment Ruby heard it, she would launch herself into her big sister's bed, wailing. But as it was right now, Ruby lay eerily still next to her.

She swallowed thickly. “Ruru…?”

Seconds ticked by but Ruby remained silent.

“Ruru?” she said, louder this time. She reached for her sister’s shoulder, giving it a small shake.

Nothing. No groaning. No whining. No coughing. Just absolute silence.

“Ruby!?” she shouted, her voice shaking. She frantically shook the smaller girl next to her.

All that answered her was the crashing of thunder and the howling winds.

“RUBY!”

“Shhhh,” came a soft voice next to her ear. A calloused, yet gentle hand ran through her hair.

“I'm sorry,” Yang said, her voice tinged with sadness. “I didn't mean to burden you with this.  Don't cry.”

Weiss opened her mouth to say something, pulling back to look at Yang in the face, but only managed to weep more. While the pain Yang felt was nothing that Weiss had ever experienced before, first hand at least, the former princess couldn't but feel as if it had happened to her personally.

“It's okay,” Yang said, continuing to stroke her hair. The hand not in her hair was wrapped around the back of her shoulders, embracing her warmly.

“It's alright.”

Weiss clutched at Yang's shirt, her knuckles going white. The tears would not stop, nor would the heaving breaths she took every time she gasped for air.

“Shhhh,” the rogue repeated, rubbing her back. “It's alright. You're okay.”

It hurt.

It hurt so much.

And Weiss wanted nothing more than to make all of that pain go away.

“All of that was in the past,” Yang said quietly. “You're alright. You're safe.”

But she didn’t know how.

So Weiss did the only thing she could do. She cried for the both of them.

A kiss was pressed into her hair, the gesture making Weiss sob harder. The grip around her shoulders tightened a bit.

Yang’s physical tears may have dried up a long time ago, but the emotional ones hadn’t.

Not yet.

Weiss could hear them in the hollowness of the blonde's voice. She could see them in the way the rogue slumped ever so slightly as she recounted her darkest memories. She saw them in the lavender eyes which looked so melancholy as they stared at her. And to her, that was so wrong. She may have known Yang for only days, weeks even, but it didn't feel like that. It felt like she had known the rogue all her life, and Weiss wouldn't have wanted it any other way.

“Well, well, well,” a voice said behind them. “This is a surprise.”

Yang immediately tensed against her, Weiss yelping in surprise when the blonde became a blur of motion. She quickly found herself hidden protectively behind Yang’s body, the rogue’s forearms armored in her weapon. All of that happened in a mere three seconds.

“Oh,” the voice said again, a distinctly female voice. “Someone’s got a fire to them, don't they?”

“Who are you?!” Yang growled, Weiss flinching at the rogue's dangerous undertone.

Despite sensing the immense danger this person posed to them, one which Weiss had no explanation for, Weiss couldn’t but dare a peek around Yang’s muscle taut figure to get a look at their guest. The person’s voice was familiar to her for some reason, very chillingly so, and she had to know why.

Blue eyes widened into saucers when her gaze finally landed on the other with them.

“Lady… Cinder Fall?” Weiss murmured.