Black

A commission for pojoe, who asked for the Monochrome angst.

Disclaimer: I do not own RWBY.

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							     Black

Weiss had been the last to know.

It seemed like she always was.

She'd just come back from a mission of her own to find Ruby and Yang collapsed in each other's arms on the dorm room floor just... sobbing.

Wailing.

Howling.

Tears overrode their expressions.

They screamed. Shuddered. Cried some more.

Weiss couldn't comprehend what was happening.

The entire school had been shrouded in solemn silence since the second she'd returned. Whomever she'd asked to explain had simply told her to hear it from her teammates and turned away.

And now here she was, but her teammates could barely say anything to her.

Yang saw her first, and her miseries were increased tenfold. There was fear and puzzlement in the heiress' eyes.

Weiss didn't know yet.

She tried to speak past the choking sobs.

"We... iss..."

Yang blinked more tears away, but for every one she erased, two more returned. She couldn't continue right away, and was forced to bury her face in Ruby's shoulder once more.

She couldn't do it.

She couldn't say it.

Ruby's sobs were stifled into her sister's shirt, the hiccups and the pained wails that racked her body proving too great for her voice to surpass.

Weiss stood numbly above them as her eyes traveled around the room.

The beds were the same as always. The posters were untouched. Nothing was out of place.

Except for one thing.

She swayed, and her heart began to slam against her ribcage enough to make it shudder. Before long, her blood was pounding in agony.

She could barely breathe.

But she needed to ask.

She needed to know.

Her eyes went back down to the sisters, huddled and clinging to one another on the floor, unable to communicate in any form other than tears.

She had to try a few times to find her own voice, because the first three times, it didn't work. When she tried to ask, only a wisp of air escaped.

She struggled to stay on her feet, but her knees were trembling so badly she knew it was only a matter of time.

She fought the tears back, knowing they would do her no good.

It took her several minutes to finally be able to use her voice. Just two simple words.

"Where's Blake...?"

And the wails grew louder.

Ruby was all but screaming as she clung to Yang with an incomparable desperation, shaking and shuddering and sobbing. She was trying to say something, but none of the words were coherent, not when they were interspersed with heaving breaths and heart-shattering cries.

Weiss knew her partner wouldn't be able to give her an answer. So she looked to Yang, pleading.

And she shook her head as the tears finally slipped out.

She could see it in Yang's eyes.

Hopeless.

If Weiss had been good at anything, it was lying. Denying whatever she didn't like and twisting the reality until it appeased her.

But even now, she couldn't lie to herself.

The emotion on Yang's face was too raw, too undeniably real. Not even Weiss could paint over it.

The heiress took a step back as she felt the blood drain from her face.

Please don't tell me...

She would accept anything else.

Anything-

Anything but that.

Her heart was halfway up her throat, her own chest now jolting with breaths as she tried to swallow her voice and the inevitable sobs she knew were coming.

No.

Tell me anything else.

Tell me she left.

Deserted us.

Tell me she left us to rejoin the White Fang.

Tell me she got captured.

Tell me she's halfway across the world somewhere.

Just...

Not that...

Anything but that...

But Weiss' two-worded question soon yielded a broken, two-worded response.

Yang's voice was barely a whisper, as it was all her voice could afford:

"She's dead."

Weiss fell to her knees.

To say that the world was crumbling around her would be an understatement.

The entire planet seemed to heave, shift, shatter...

It broke apart, tearing itself into shreds piece by piece.

Or maybe that was just her heart.

She threw her hands to the floor and hunched over herself, coughing so fiercely against the sobs she nearly made herself ill.

But maybe that was for the best. Her stomach was burning with bile, an acidic taste trickling unnaturally up her throat.

It couldn't be real.

She'd just seen Blake this morning. She'd just gotten off a call with her a few hours ago after discussing their missions.

She cried harder in thinking she might've been the last person to have ever seen or heard Blake alive.

She couldn't fathom it.

The memories surged up.

From the first time they'd met, that almost snide little comment of "It's heiress, actually," to the arguments that had ended in heavy hearts and separation.

From the time Blake had ran away in the night, and Weiss had searched hours for her. Twelve long, harrowing hours.

The relief when she'd found her again, the camaraderie when she'd lectured her about confiding in her teammates next time.

The concern when she hadn't been sleeping enough, the attempts to make her feel better.

The confusion that had faded into understanding when she'd woken on the train after being stricken so hard she'd lost consciousness, only to find she'd been rescued by her.

The countless times they'd had each other's backs in battle.

The nights they'd studied together for exams.

The books they'd picked out together in the library.

The way they'd rolled their eyes at some joke Yang had told.

The way they'd laughed together while watching some movie Ruby had picked out.

They way they'd talked.

Looked at each other.

Smiled at each other.

Grown closer.

Become friends...

And now...

Weiss couldn't comprehend it.

She didn't even feel Ruby's arms around her, didn't even hear Yang's attempted words of comfort.

Nothing seemed to matter.

Her conscious faded just like it had back on the train.

Only this time, there'd be no one there to save her.

And her world faded - into what she longed for, what her heart ached for, what she'd never asked for, but would always miss.

Black.

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A/N: I've written too much sad today ;u; But hope you enjoyed!