Reaper's War

Chapter 30: All She Could Do

Summary: Simply, all she could do was watch. Fear stricken, frozen.
In complexity, all she could was watch, frozen but not in fear: in complete utter awe.

A/N: Well hiiiii...
I was meant to post this awhile but totally forgot and then I couldn't find the motivation to do so. My motivation for things has been lacking since, well, in the last year or two. Then there's the damned writers block since I last posted. It isn't fun, I can tell you that much.
Anywho, I hope you enjoy the slight shift in writing technique in this chapter.
Happy reading :D

All she could do was watch through herself. All she could do was standby in her own mind helplessly as something else controlled her body like a puppet on taught strings.
Every time her rapier came close to piercing through her partner's aura, she couldn't help holding her breath or yelling out for the younger girl.

There was nothing else she could do but to standby in her own mind, helpless, as the young faunus narrowly evaded a flurry of quick jabs from the rapier the white-haired girl had no control over.
It was like looking through a keyhole, watching the fight unfold,watching as her partner began o tire, witnessing the heart shattering moment Ruby's aura fell from her body like broken glass, breathing heavily and struggling to stay standing.

Still, the young Reaper stood. Unwavering. Determined. Bound.

Unwavering even in the face of death. She'd been there too many times to cower in fear of the possibility of dying. The odds are completely, relentlessly stacked against her, yet she still laughs. She laughs in the face of death and she stays standing even though she's clearly at her limit.
She chuckles lowly at the prospect of death taking her now and Weis can't help but watch, helplessly from inside her mind, trapped and frightened. It's all she could do. But then she realised that Ruby was most likely laughing at the prospect of her own death because there was one fact the white-haired girl had forgotten:

Ruby was Death.
For a time at least. So, why would the dark Reaper fear the very thing she had been? She wouldn't. The only thing the younger girl would ever fear about death was the prospect of leaving her loved ones behind. Or her loved ones being taken away from her, leaving her all alone in the world like she had been before. That's what made the girl so determined in anything she set her mind to.

Although, determination was just the tip of the iceberg, especially for someone like Ruby. No, that was wrong. It was only the tip for Ruby herself. So much so that it wasn't just determination that drove the girl or kept her unwavering in the face of death; it was also her devotion to her friends, to her family. It was loyalty and faith she held for them, particularly for Weiss. But, then there were other things that drove the girl to keep fighting for the sake of her family.

Guilt, sadness and anger.
The guilt of causing her family harm, almost killing them or changing them in ways that could never be undone. The guilt the young Reaper felt ran so deep it had become a part of her very soul, seeping into everything she tried to do, whether it was simply doing maintenance on Infernal Rose or trying to save her girlfriend's life.
She spent so long keeping her weapons in tip-top condition so she would never be powerless against the people that would do her friends harm. But as it were, she only had her handgun and even that had its limits so of course, she felt the guilt that had been eating at her since forever but she turned into something useful. Something that enabled her to keep going no matter how exhausted she was and no matter if her aura had been shattered. That guilt allowed the dark Reaper to laugh in the face of Death itself even if it caused her to be sad at the outcome.

Weiss hated seeing her girlfriend sad, she hated the way her silver eyes glittered with unshed angry tears. She hated how her lupine ears were pinned back against her head in both sadness and anger. But all she could do was standby and watch the younger girl struggle to stay standing against the horrific odds.