Weiss finished up the final classroom in her hallway, marking the door with a red marker she had. She turned around, back towards the large collapsed center path. It had only been about fifteen minutes since it fell, but it was still crumbling, smaller chunks falling down into the hole. Weiss glanced passed it and noticed Yang walking out of one of the classrooms, her weapon at her side.

"Hey! Find anything?" She yelled out, trying to make contact with her partner. It took a few seconds, but Yang eventually whipped around and noticed Weiss. Weiss say Yang make some gesture, but due to the distance between the two, she couldn't tell what it was, so Weiss assumed she just didn't hear her.

"Did you find anything?" She yelled once more, louder. This time, Yang seemed to understand some of it because eventually, Yang called back to Weiss.

"No!" Weiss heard faintly, the sound of Yang's voice being muffled by the distance.

"Okay. Met in the hallway over there!" Weiss yelled back, gesturing and pointing to the hallway to her right. Yang didn't move at first, so Weiss just began to gesture again. This time, Yang did seem to move, but almost like she had heard something. Weiss watched as Yang raised her weapon, and moved to left, towards the direction of where Blake went. Weiss shrugged it off externally but internally, she was a bit worried for Yang's safety.

Sure, she had been the drill instructor for the RATF for the last three years and was physically fit, but they were facing off against an unknown assailant who seemed to always be a few steps ahead. Weiss worrying about Yang in turn made Weiss worry about herself. Weiss began to panic slightly, fearful of what may come next. She had already watched two of her friends die and a third be used as target practice and a reminder. She had seen some fucked up shit in the past, but nothing recent and certainly nothing even close to this magnitude.

Weiss took a deep breath. She concluded that if this R.R. girl wasn't going to fight fair, then neither would she. Weiss might be on a mission to apprehend the suspect, but Weiss decided to make an executive decision that this was no longer about bring the suspect in for justice, but a true fight for survival. With that new narrative in her mind, she decided to pull out her secret weapon, or rather, ammo.

Weiss reached into one of her front pockets and pull out six .44 Magnum Hollow Point rounds. She concluded that if R.R. was gonna rush her or do anything to her friends, she would put an end to it, right then, right there. She found a solo desk out in the hallway and quickly changed the standard ammo out for her special ammo. She noted that while she only had six rounds, she would most likely only need one. She shoved the six standard rounds into the same pocket she pulled the hollow points from. Weiss had a smirk when she finished changing out the ammo, noting mentally that she felt just a bit safer, although deep down she knew it was most likely just down to placebo.

"Ooh. That's some fancy ammo." A voice said from behind Weiss. Weiss spun around and was met with the face of the girl, smile creepily at Weiss. Weiss quickly tried to pull up her weapon, but it was too late. Almost as if the girl predicted the move, she grabbed Weiss' right arm and forced it over her head, the gun now pointed towards the sky. With her other arm, the girl elbowed Weiss in the face as hard as she could, knocking Weiss unconscious almost immediately.

/

"Wakey, wakey. Rise and shine sleepy head." A voice said, the voice seeming to echo in Weiss' brain as she slowly came back to her senses. "Hey!" Weiss heard, before a hard slap could be felt across her face, jolting her awake. "You awake now?" The voice said. Weiss responded with a grumble, her face still stinging from both the slap and the elbow she took.

"Okay good. I thought I killed you with that hit." The voice said, sounding a bit worried. Weiss, still not fully awake, began to take notice of where she was.

The room she was in was poorly lit, save for a single light above the desk Weiss was sitting at, but she could still tell it was some sort of classroom. There were student and teacher desks scattered across the room in various states of decay and quality. She could see some graffiti on the wall, dimly lit by the single light in the room. The walls in the room were falling part, chunks of the drywall already missing. Weiss herself was seated a small desk with an attached chair. The desk seemed to be more pristine than the others in the room, like it was regularly cleaned

Weiss tried to move around more but found it to be very difficult. She looked down and saw the situation she was in. Her hands were tied behind the back of the chair and there was also a think piece of rope wrapped tightly around her waist, keeping her restrained to the chair.

"Don't bother trying to escape. I know for a fact that it's impossible to escape from those knots." The voice said. Weiss looked up and saw her assailant. She was standing in the dark and her back was turned to Weiss.

"Hey! Let me go! Untie me!" Weiss yelled. Her assailant just let out a heavy sigh and dropped her shoulders.

"Why do you guys always say that? Do you think I brought you here just to untie you and follow your commands?" The girl said. She then turned to face Weiss and Weiss notice she was holding her weapon.

"Hey! That's mine!" Weiss yelled. The girl gave her a dirty look.

"Yeah. I know. I stole it off your body when I brought you hear." She said, moving towards Weiss, inspecting the weapon. "It's a beautiful gun. Taurus Model 44, chambered in .44 Magnum, six round chamber with a matching 6.5-inch barrel. It can do some serious damage," she said, suddenly putting the barrel of the gun against Weiss' forehead, causing her breath to sharpen. "Especially since you loaded it in hollow point rounds. I gotta say, that's a first for me." She said, quickly yanking the gun away from Weiss' forehead, letting her relax. She began to walk away before stopping. "What's your name?" She asked Weiss.

"Fuck off." Weiss responded, giving the girl the same dirty look she gave her.

The girl once again sighed. "They always say that too. Why do they always say that? Why don't they give me a straight answer for once?!" The girl said, becoming increasingly angry. Suddenly, she pulled back the hammer on the revolver and pointed it at Weiss. "Just tell me your name or I WILL kill you." She said, tightly gripped the gun.

Weiss decided to play it smart and follow along with the girl's questions. "It's Weiss." She responded. The girl relaxed, lowering the weapon. "There! Was that so hard? My name is Ruby. Nice to meet you." She said, still holding the gun.

"Nice to meet you too, Ruby." Weiss said, being very careful with her words.

"Thank you. How old are you, Weiss?" Ruby asked.

"I'm 26." Weiss responded, a bit confused as to why the girl would ask that question.

"Ah, you only a couple years older than me then." Ruby responded, suddenly pointing the gun back at Weiss. "Now, who sent you here?"

"Uh, what?" Weiss responded.

"Who sent you here? Why are you here? What's your mission? Simple questions." Ruby responded, pushing the gun into her temple.

"I'm not gonna tell you." Weiss replied.

"Let me remind you that I can kill you." Ruby said, still shoving the barrel of the gun into Weiss' forehead

"But you need information from me. You wouldn't kill me." Weiss said with a smirk, believing she had the high ground.

"And how do you know that?" Ruby responded, placing her finger on the trigger.

"I don't." Weiss said, moving her head forward, pushing the gun even harder against her head.

Ruby sighed and quickly pulled the gun away from Weiss, causing her to relax and fall forward a bit. "You're right, I can't kill you. I need information from you about you and your friends and killing you would make getting that information harder to get." Ruby said, turning away from Weiss. "Which is why you're gonna tell me. Everything. With pleasure and a smile on your face." She continued, peaking over her shoulder at Weiss.

"Oh yeah? And how's that?" Weiss replied, a comedical smile on her face.

"With a game." Ruby simply replied.

"What game?" Weiss asked, a bit worried.

Ruby just smiled. "Tell me, what you do know about the Great War?" She said, changing the subject.

Weiss thought about not answering at first but decided to humor the younger girl. "It was fought between the then four kingdom. Vacuo and Vale on one side, Mistral and Atlas on the other. Depending on who you ask, it lasted anywhere from five years to over a hundred. It was won by Vacuo and Vale when the King of Vale deployed the first and only ever use of nuclear weapons against a large force of Atlas and Mistral soldiers. The other three kingdoms bowed down to him in fear and wanted him to rule, but he decided not to do so. The four kingdoms met on the island of Vytal to sign a peace treaty and we've been at peace ever since." Weiss replied, pulling everything she could from her school day teaching.

"That's a great summary of the war. Prefect for a PowerPoint presentation. But what about the people? The ones who fought. The actual people who did the killing?" Ruby asked.

"Well there were both good and bad people on both sides. Most notably…" Weiss began.

"Did you ever learn about Magna Russia?" Ruby interjected, sounding impatient.

Weiss thought for a moment. "No. I don't think I did." She said, sounding confused yet intrigued.

Ruby sighed. "Magna Russia was a general for Vacuo during the Great War. He was credited for helping Vacuo leader push Atlas and Mistral out of Vacuo. He was even given the title as lead intelligence officer for the Vacuo army. However, unlike most intelligence officers of his time that used information from spies and lookouts, he preferred a more, hands on approach. Which is why his main method of gaining information was through torture. He argued that they were just intensive interrogations, and no one was getting hurt. Whether or not the Vacuo government believed that is still unknown. What is known is how effective he was at getting information out." She explained, facing away from Weiss, the gun still in her hands.

"He had a variety of different methods he used. Bone breaking, limbs removal, burning of the face and, other body parts. All time tested to be very effective at getting what he wanted. However, his favorite method was one that would put his name on the map. One that would prove to be the most effective, not because it hurt the body, but the mind. He simply called it Magna Russia's Roulette." Ruby said, turning back around to face Weiss, suddenly slamming the revolver down on the desk in front of Weiss.

"The setup was simple. First, he took six lucky prisoners of war and sat them down at a round table with six seats, each coated in a red paint-like splattering. Then, he took his personal, gold plated six shot revolver," Weiss explained, picking up the revolver.

"Unloaded all but one of the bullets," she said as she unloaded all but one of Weiss hollow point rounds, the rounds clinking against the desk.

"Spun the chamber counter-clockwise," she explained, spinning the chamber.

"Before slamming the chamber shut and placing the gun down on a table, the barrel pointed at one of the contestants, as he called them," She continued, placing the gun down at the table, pointed as Weiss as she gulped.

"Now, five out of six times, when the hammer was pulled back and the trigger was pulled, nothing happened." Ruby explained, suddenly cocking the hammer back and pulling the trigger on the gun, causing Weiss to flinch dramatically, only to be met with the sound of a dry fire.

Ruby smirked. "However, if you were lucky contestant number six, when that trigger was pulled," She said, cocking the hammer back again.

BANG!

Ruby pulled the trigger, the gun aimed just over Weiss' head. The bullet left the chamber at 1380 feet per second, passing just over Weiss' head in the blink of an eye before impacting against the wall, the hollow point fragmenting in all different directions. "Well, you get the point."

"Now, the person holding the gun varied from session to session. Sometimes, Magna would have a helper. Sometimes, Magna forced the players to do it to themselves. And sometimes, he just did it himself. But no matter who held the gun, there was one constant, the gun was always aimed at the head, for maximum fear." Ruby said with an evil grin.

By now, Weiss was officially scared, and it showed. Never in her nearly ten years of service was she put into a situation like the one she was in now. There was a genuine chance of death at the hands of a psychopath. And the way things looked before she was kidnapped, there were very few chances of rescue. Her only chance was to somehow survive this, but it looked slim.

"Now since you want to be difficult, you get to be my lucky contestant. However, this game isn't really fun for one person. So, I'll make it even. I'll play too." She said with a grin while loading up another bullet. Weiss looked at her with shock and confusion. She wasn't sure if she should be more worried or less, given the type of person she was.

Ruby placed the bullet in the chamber and spun it. "You know what, I'll even go first." She said, suddenly slammed the chamber shut, pulling back the hammer and pointing the gun at her own head. Weiss recoiled severely, turning her head and shutting her eyes, waiting for the inevitable bang.

CLICK!

"See, not so bad. Now it's your turn." Ruby said, placing the gun on the table. Weiss opener her eyes and looked at the gun. Surely this had to be a dream. Or a nightmare. There was no way this girl was forcing her to play a game where the only goal is to not kill yourself. Surely, there had to be another way.

"Oh, silly me. I forgot you were tied up." Ruby said, sounding like a clumsy teenage girl trying to be cute. Ruby picked the gun back up, pulled the hammer back and pointed the gun at Weiss. Weiss froze like a deer in headlights, unable to move as she looked down the barrel of her own gun. The person holding it, smiling like a kid in a candy store.

CLICK!

Weiss flinched, expecting that to be the last thing she ever saw. By now, Weiss was breathing heavily and beginning to feel nauseous. Ruby seemed to have noticed this and walked over to a corner of the room to grab a small trash can. She walked back over to Weiss and placed it at her feet, and not a moment too soon. For the second time in under an hour, Weiss began to throw up, the contents being that of whatever food was left in her stomach and the stomach acid itself, burning her throat and mouth as it left her body. As she was doing so, she noticed that the area floor around her seat was darker than the rest of the floor. When Weiss finished and looked up, Ruby was leaned up against the desk in front of her with her arms crossed, just looking at Weiss.

"How you feeling?" She asked in a monotone voice.

Weiss spit towards Ruby. "You're a monster." She replied.

Ruby shrugged. "Fair." She said, standing back up. "You know, this is very similar to how the contestant felt when Magna played this game. The purpose of this game was to get information as you know. The way that was achieved was through physiological torture instead of physical. Magna knew that he couldn't get information from someone if their brains were splattered against the walls, so he was very meticulous in how he arranged the contestants. The first two would usually just be foot soldiers or people who already told him all he needed to know. People who weren't worth anything. That way they would either be used as examples as to how the game worked for the other four or would die first. Win-win either way he saw it.

The next two would be ones who still had information that needed to be shared but had already shared some of what they had stored. The third and fourth seats were usually the ones to die so the information he still needed to extracted wasn't too important. Usually just troop movements or supply routes, stuff that he could find out other ways if the person was to suddenly decided to repaint the walls with his own brain matter.

The final two were the most important people in that room. Spies, high ranking military combatants close to the leaders, sometimes, even the leaders themselves. These guys had the most valuable information but also some of the toughest nuts to crack. Most of these guys were first time offenders, seeing the game played out for the first time. And if that gun got to them, they were figuratively and literally shitting themselves, simple because of odds.

When the game first starts out, there is a one in six chance you get killed, or 16% chance. Next trigger pull, one in five, or 20% chance. Then a one in four, 25%. One in three, 33% chance. However, if it got down to the final two, that chance jumps to 50%. Meaning, you had basically the coins flip chance of either redecorating the chair or handing it off to the next guy. And if that gun clicked in your hand, welp, contestant number six was guaranteed to do some repainting since his chance was 100%." Ruby explained.

"Right now, we're sitting at a 25% chance and it's my turn. I like those odds." Ruby said with a grin, turning the gun on herself, cocking the hammer back and pulling the trigger.

CLICK!

Weiss flinched again, this time keeping her eyes open. Her breath sharpened upon the click, mean Weiss had to go again. Ruby meanwhile barely moved, the grin remaining the whole time.

"Ouch. That means you got a 33% chance for your turn. Halfway done." Ruby said, pointing the gun at Weiss, cocking the hammer back. She pointed it at Weiss, the barrel pressed up against her forehead. Weiss began to breathe more heavily as she saw Ruby begin to pull the trigger. Weiss closed her eyes, fearing the worst.

"Before I pull this trigger, anything you want to share?" Ruby said. Weiss felt the warm touch of the barrel leave her forehead and she snapped her eyes open. She began to hyperventilate, fear racking her body.

"It's okay, take your time. I know this is stressful." Ruby said, twirling the gun around. Weiss felt nauseous again, her head spinning and feeling like she was gonna faint.

"B… Bl… Blake. An…and Yang…" Weiss said, trying to regain composure.

"Blake and Yang? Are those the names of the other two you were with?" Ruby asked quizzically. Weiss only nodded, still trying to compose herself. "We got names!" Ruby said in a cheerful voice. "See? What wasn't so hard!" Ruby said, squishing Weiss' cheeks like a baby before pushing her face away, causing Weiss' head to move backwards.

"Now I'm going to ask you a simple question: Why are you here?" Ruby asked, turning very serious very fast.

"We… we… were sent out here… to… to…" Weiss said, still not fully composed.

"To do what? Arrest me? Kill me? Did the RATF not see what happened to the last group that tried that?!" Ruby said angrily, almost yelling. "Who sent you?"

Weiss took a deep breath. "Pull the trigger." She said with a determined look.

Ruby look back at her with surprise. "What?" She asked.

"Pull the trigger. Pull it. Pull the fucking trigger!" Weiss said through gritted teeth, starring Ruby in the eyes. Ruby obliged, quickly shoving the gun against Weiss' head so hard, she was forced to move back a bit, never breaking eye contact with Ruby. She pulled the hammer back and…

CLICK!

Both Ruby and Weiss recoiled. Weiss started breathing heavily again and became very scared since she believed that the gun was going to go off. Ruby meanwhile began to pace around the room, stifling a chuckle.

"You know, you're not the first person I've played this game with, not even close. But you are the first to provide your own weapon and ammo and be the only person to willing want that trigger pulled. I gotta say, I'm impressed. Most people are weeping wrecks by this point, willing to tell me their whole life stories just for a chance at survival. But you are willing to die for your cause. Too bad it's flawed." Ruby said.

"What do you mean?" Weiss asked, regaining her composure.

"You'll find out." Ruby said with a smirk. Then, she looking Weiss right in the eyes and raised the gun to her head and pulled the hammer back. Weiss held her breathe. If the gun didn't go off, then… Weiss couldn't think of what would happen next, she could only focus on Ruby. Weiss inhaled and held her breath as Ruby passed momentarily, the gun pressed up against her temple and her finger on the trigger.

Without breaking eye contact, she winked at Weiss and pulled the trigger.

CLICK!

Weiss exhaled sharply and once again, began to hyperventilate. This time, her breathing was mixed with tears.

"No… no… no…" She whimpered as she lowered her head, tears rolling off her cheek and into her lap.

"Oops." Ruby said, the smirk never faulting. Weiss raised her head, anger and confusion plastered across her tear covered face.

"You rigged it." Weiss said.

"Maybe. Perhaps I did rig it. Perhaps I got lucky. Or perhaps I simply counted the shots. Whatever the case, it really doesn't matter now. What matters is that these are your final moments. Probably not how you envisioned them. Tied to a chair in a dimly lit room, forced to play a friendly game of who's the luckiest." Ruby said, looking at Weiss, who was silently crying to herself. Ruby sighed. "It's a real shame. But, life ain't fair. Sometimes, it likes to shit down your throat and watch you suffocate on it. Oh well, no time like the present."

Ruby then picked up the loaded firearm and point it at Weiss. She steadied her arm, focused right in between the eyes. The sound of the hammer cocking back cause Weiss to look up, her eyes red and bloodshot from the tears. Her eyes met Ruby's who were void of any real sympathy. Ruby just looked back at Weiss, her aim steady.

"Ah. I can't do this." Ruby said, lowering the weapon. This caused Weiss to relax but she kept her guard up. "When you execute someone, especially with hanging and firing squads, you are supposed to blindfold them or put a bag over their head. That way the executioner wouldn't be able to see their distorted faces. And frankly, I really don't want to see that from you. I don't want my last memory of you to be your blood-soaked face. Hang on, let me find a bag." Ruby placed the gun down on the table, still pointed at Weiss while she scoured the room, looking for a bag.

Weiss began to tear up again. For a split second, she thought she was saved. But it was just this, this monster toying with her. She sniffed and looked at her gun. She knew it was loaded, and all it needed was a trigger pull to go off. If only she could reach it, she could end this nightmare. She began to struggle in her seat, trying to loosen her binding, trying desperately to reach her own weapon which was just inches away. Her struggling only increased as time passed as she got more and more desperate, her tears whipping off her cheek and landing on her lap and the ground surrounding the desk.

"This should work." Ruby said from one of the corners. Weiss suddenly stopped struggling, her quite crying quickly turning into sobbing, realizing there was nothing she could do. Ruby returned to the desk, holding a small potato sack. "I guess it was cooking day at school." She said with almost a true, friendly smirk as she placed the sack over Weiss' head. Weiss felt the sack engulf her and she could see the world around her go dark. Her sobbing continued, becoming slightly muffled by the sack.

"Try to think of happy thoughts, okay?" Ruby said as she picked up the gun off the desk. Weiss heard the hammer cock back, setting her future in stone. Her sobs became nothing more than a pathetic whimper and she shut her eyes, although what was the point now?

She was going to die and that was the end of it. She would never see her friends again, never fall in love and start a family, never do any of the things she wanted. Instead, she would die her, strapped to a chair in the dark, a fearful and crying mess. It felt like an eternity since she last heard the hammer of her own weapon get cocked back, and Weiss was beginning to believe that…

BANG!