RWBY: Lex Talionis - Male Reader x Harem (Complete)

Part 103

After a moment of gathering themselves, she stared at the new line on his palm, frowning and speaking with a quiet voice as she traced the scar.

"What happened to you?"

"I think-you'll need a bit of context before I can answer that question." Y/N replied, knowing it would trail back years. "I hope Ozpin has you all caught up in history lessons..."

He recounted his tale from the beginning when he grew tired of the living world and was cheated of death.

She clutched to his hand as he recounted dying, falling into bed with a belly full of medication.

As each detail was ironed out, she began to understand his pain, fears, and strength.

He was forced to change to survive and hope of ever seeing her again, but by then, he had changed so much he was scared to be by her side.

She hated how calm he was, despised it with every fiber of her being.

He never deserved such a fate; she would even go as far as saying she wished it was someone else who had taken the fall.

That stare he made as he told each detail was still present, a far-off glance that was almost faded in attention.

He had gotten well past the pain; it was just overall sorrow he displayed for his fallen friends and comrades.

That's what Glynda hated, his current state of mind where he felt foreign in his own body, telling a story of a grief-stricken man trapped in a nightmare, while what came out on the other end was a cold blooded killer possessing his body.

That stare he made showed how far he had gotten mentally, how much pain he endured to be here right now with her.

She remembered his words well, how he forced them out as he caressed her cheek, thinking her life would be better off without a monster.

As his story ended, it finally came to her why she hated it so much. It wasn't the fact that he suffered; it was the fact he did it alone.

"Next thing I know, I woke up back in Vale... there I had food-actual food, then afterward I saw you..."

Still holding her hand, he spoke as she rubbed over his damaged skin, unable to meet her gaze.

"There was a time I believed that-If I was going to die, then it was going to be out there, fighting. It never seemed right to end it myself, not after everything Gretchen told me..."

His voice dropped to a whisper as he conveyed his once lost and purposeless life.

"I don't know... It was a weird way of thinking when I wanted death; I hoped for it. And when I went to Vacuo, I got it; I ran a guy-I don't even remember how far, but my lungs were pretty much done for... I was declared dead for nearly two days until I woke up, but while I was out, I met Gretchen..."

He visibly swallowed, still reeling from their sudden reunion and separation. "She set me straight, told me that it wasn't my fault in what happened to her or those people... then when I woke up, I met her, Sangria, but her real name was Guinevere."

The emotional distress he showed for this unknown woman was real, their connection real.

"She offered to buy me a drink," He shook his head, much t her surprise. "Couldn't think of drinking again, since then I've been sober for... nine-ten years."

He went from there, telling how sick he felt when he thought he was in bed with another woman and how much he wanted to apologize despite their separation.

His journey continued, off to Atlas, where he received guidance and an ancient sword that shook the planet as he pulled it from the mountain.

Then he met Fria, a living example of his fear of returning to her, a widow who had to leave everything behind to protect her son and the world.