RWBY: Siblings Three (Malereader)

Highway to Haven

The sun had begun its descent, casting long, skeletal shadows from the trees that lined the winding mountain road. The Thorn ate up the miles, a steadfast rumble in the growing quiet. The initial, frantic energy of their escape had faded, replaced by a heavy, pervasive silence. Weiss's arms were still wrapped around Y/n's torso, but the grip was less one of necessity now and more an anchor in the disorienting reality she found herself in.

She watched the back of his head, the black hair with its stark red tips, a style so deliberately opposite to the white-streaked look he'd had before. It was a renunciation. Everything about him felt like a renunciation of what he had been.

"Y/n," she said, her voice softer, no longer needing to shout as he'd eased their speed slightly on the curving road.

He didn't respond, but she saw the subtle tilt of his head, a sign he was listening.

"Thank you," she said. "For getting me out of there."

A grunt. It might have been an acknowledgment. It might have been dismissal.

She pressed on, choosing her words with the care she'd use navigating a Dust minefield. "When we get to Haven... what then? You just... walk in?"

"Something like that."

"You can't just... appear," she insisted. "After all this time, after they thought you were dead. Yang will... I don't know what she'll do. Ruby will cry. You can't just walk in like you've been on a vacation."

"What would you have me do, Weiss?" The question was sharp, edged with a simmering impatience. "Send a scroll message? 'Hey, sorry I'm not dead, be there soon, try not to get killed by my murderous family before I arrive'?"

"Don't be obtuse!" She snapped, her own temper flaring. "You could let me go in first. Let me prepare them. Seeing you like... this..." She gestured again at his transformed appearance. "It's going to be a shock. It is a shock."

"Every second I'm not there is a second something could happen to them. My father. I'm not going to wait on the doorstep because my reunion might be... messy." He glanced back at her, and the setting sun caught his eyes, making them look like chips of flint. "Messy is better than dead."

The simple, brutal logic of it silenced her. He was right. The threat was immediate. But the human cost...

"And what about after?" She asked, her voice barely above a whisper. "After you've... dealt with your father? What then?"

This time, the silence was absolute. He didn't twitch. He didn't grunt. He just stared ahead at the road snaking through the darkening mountains, as if the question had no answer.

He didn't slow as true dusk began to bleed into the sky, painting it in shades of deep violet and bruised orange. He pushed on, the headlight of the Thorn cutting a solitary beam through the gathering darkness. The mountain air grew cold, sharp enough to bite, but neither of them commented on it. The cold was just another sensation, another thing to be endured.

Weiss eventually gave up on conversation, resting her head against his back, the vibration of the engine a constant, monotonous hum. She was exhausted, mentally and physically. The ordeal of captivity, the shock of his appearance, the brutal reality of his methods it had all carved her out, leaving her hollow.

It was deep into the night when the lights of a small, remote town nestled in a valley below came into view. It wasn't their destination, just a speck of civilization on the long road to Haven.

"We're stopping," Y/n announced, his voice abrupt, making Weiss jolt awake.

He guided Thorn off the main road and down a narrower, rougher track that led to a dilapidated-looking motel on the town's outskirts. The sign flickered erratically, missing half its letters. It was the kind of place that asked no questions and remembered no faces.