Final reminder that this story's rating has been updated to Mature. When the next chapter is posted, these notes will be removed.

Ruby Rose slammed her back into the shipping container, breathing hard for reasons that had nothing to do with physical exertion. She'd initially tried to chase after the fleeing Vampire, but the warning sprays of hot buckshot from Yang's shotgun had successfully corralled her back into the direction she'd come from. Yang seemed less willing to waste ammunition on her the further she was from that vampiric bitch, and Ruby was quite happy for a moment of respite.

Still… it was curious that none of the blasts had actually hit her, even partially. Yang was… usually a better shot than this.

Maybe the weird mind-control stuff wasn't letting her operate at full capacity?

"We need to find some way to disarm her."

Ruby yelped in surprise at the suddenness of Blake's voice beside her, nearly leaping out of her cover. She felt her ears pin back and clutched her chest as she looked back to her mentor, whose ears were similarly pinned back.

"Did you… not know I was here?" Blake asked cautiously.

"I watched you die!" Ruby cried out.

Blake shook her head.

"You watched a clone of mine die. I thought you chose this stack of containers because you knew the rest of me was here?"

"Uh…" Ruby glanced back and forth furtively, wiping the tears away from her eyes. She shoved her emotions down; there would be time to be hurt later. Right now, she needed to save her sister. Fortunately, she had a lot of experience pretending everything was fine. "Crazy random happenstance? T-Thanks for saving me, by the way."

"It is my job, as your mentor, to make sure you don't die." Blake rolled her eyes, before her shoulders drooped and she began rubbing her arm. "I'm… sorry. I know I said she'd snap out of it before it came to this, but… something felt wrong. Neon must have done a real number on her… That's why I tried to stop you from rushing in."

Ruby thumped the back of her head against the container behind her.

"I'm sorry I didn't listen to you." Ruby closed her eyes for a bit, letting the gears spin and fighting back her emotions before cracking an eye open again in Blake's direction. "Who's Neon?"

"The girl you punched." Blake answered. "She's… one of the more powerful ones in the area, but I didn't even consider her because she can only have one thrall at a time and Yang said she was…" Blake took a deep breath, leaving the thought unfinished. "Shit."

"It's not your fault, Blake. It's hers." Ruby exhaled slowly. "Do we have to get to her to free Yang?"

Blake shook her head.

"No, it wouldn't make a difference. Even if Neon were to die, her type of enthrallment would remain intact. We have to find a way to snap Yang out of it. I'm… still not sure how Neon affected her so much in such a short period. Yang's strong! She should have…" Blake shuddered. "I should have… taught her to protect herself. I just didn't think it was likely enough to worry about."

"Hey, hindsight is twenty-twenty, right?" Ruby reached over to place a hand on Blake's shoulder. "You can't blame yourself for this, alright?"

Blake let out an uneasy chuckle.

"Shouldn't I be the one telling you that? I'm the therapist, here."

"Aw… it's alright, Blake." Ruby reached up to muss Blake's hair, as revenge for earlier.

Blake laughed shakily and tried to slap her hand away, but weakened as she was, it wasn't very effective.

"I won't tell Dr. Fall." Ruby finished.

It sounded quite a bit sadder than Ruby meant it. She was trying to suppress her emotions, darn it!

"Right." Blake sighed. "So, back to the point. How do we disarm her?"

"Do we actually have to?" Ruby asked. "Maybe there's a way to fix it without doing that?"

"I mean…" Blake shifted uneasily. "Since Neon ordering her to attack you wasn't enough to break it, the best, easiest alternative is going to be using a counterspell, but we'll need her to hold still for a hot minute for that to work. Next easiest is going to be enraging her. Like, not just angry, but truly enraged. But... given that she'd still be really pissed off at that point, we don't want her holding a shotgun when that happens. We could also keep her from getting back to Neon, and letting a few sunrises wipe it away, but that'd take too long, and we'd still have to worry about Neon herself. Last option is severe emotional or head trauma, but…" Blake trailed off.

"No." Ruby finished for her. "We're not doing that to her. We're going to save her without hurting her!"

"Much." Blake added under her breath.

Ruby shot her a look.

"What?" Blake asked. "She's fighting us! It'd be unrealistic to assume she won't take any hits!"

Ruby's look didn't waver.

"Okay, look, how about this?" Blake said. "Yang's immune to fire, right? We just… set her on fire, make it hot enough to damage her weapons so she can't use them, and then she'll come out no worse for wear!.. If a little… underdressed." Blake's cheeks reddened.

"She's immune to fire, right? Not explosions?" Ruby asked, and Blake nodded. "We try that, we'll cook off all her ammo, and that will kill her."

"Right…" Blake slumped a bit.

"And… I probably can't fight her in Soul Form." Ruby continued quietly. "She's tough, but she isn't invincible. I don't think I can keep enough control to avoid hurting her."

Blake nodded.

"That's why there's a rule against fighting normal humans in Soul Form. Even the more experienced Reapers have trouble holding back."

"Right, so… we'll just have to stick to being… normal-ish humans." Ruby sighed. "No superpowers. That means Yang is absolutely going to wipe the floor with us…" She shook her head. "At least if she kills us in base form, we can just… come back."

"Yeah." Blake swallowed. "You should do that."

"What?" Ruby asked, looking over to her mentor. "You say that like you won't be."

"I… can't." Blake sighed. "Until I've recharged from losing a clone, I'm stuck in Soul Form. I guess I'll… I'll have to split up, lower my strength. With... seven of me, I'll be about as strong as you, so I shouldn't hurt her. Plus, I can act as extra eyes and ears for you, and add magical support."

"Okay. That'll be helpful." Ruby let her Soul Form drop, and the world deadened around her. "I'll just… have to find a way to disarm her, and then you can rush in and hold her down or something."

"I don't know that I'll be enough…" Blake shook her head. "Yang is… strong. And I'm honestly not that experienced with fighting people. I can try, but…"

"Aw, don't give me that, Blake! You're, like, totally a ninja! You can do it!"

Blake shook her head again.

"Surely someone taught you to fight!" Ruby continued. "Weren't you in a gang or something before you died?"

Blake gave her a flat look.

"I was their bookkeeper."

Ruby tilted her head slightly.

"Gangs have bookkeepers?"

"Yes." Was all Blake offered in answer.

There was a beat as Ruby tried to figure out if Blake was messing with her or not, but her mentor's expression remained deadly serious.

"Shit." Ruby swore under her breath, banging her head into the container again. "She might actually be able to beat seven of you."

"Yes." Blake nodded. "And if it's all the same to you? I'd rather not risk oblivion."

"Okay." Ruby swallowed down the thickness in her throat. "Guess I'm… guess I'm playing bait. That… sounds fun."

It really didn't.

"We don't have much time. She's getting close." Blake said, tensing, ready for action.

"Okay… I uh… let me go first and I'll…" Ruby trailed off as she looked at what she had around her to work with. Not far from the container she and Blake were huddled behind, she spied a pallet with frayed shrink wrap, making it relatively easy to spy its small, dull-reddish contents. Maybe she didn't remember it, but throwing a brick had apparently worked against Weiss.

Kind of.

...She still got captured.

Still, Weiss's head-height was Yang's chest-height. If she could replicate the throw… well, it would probably hurt Yang. Like, quite a bit. But Blake was right: they weren't going to get Yang to stop her apparently murderous rampage by playing patty-cake.

"Ruby?" Blake asked quietly.

"I think I have a plan." Ruby said, matching Blake's volume. "Go as soon as I start shouting."

Blake nodded in response.

Ruby took a deep breath, stretched out, popped her neck, then took off in a sprint. Without the superpowers of Soul Form, regular sprinting was unbearably slow, but Ruby knew she was still much faster than most. She had been even before the gods brought her back in a somewhat idealized body. It only took an agonizing four seconds to reach the pallet, another five to wiggle a brick out of its place in the stack, then another three seconds before she was back out in the open, face to face with her sister.

Yang's tears betrayed the blank expression on her face. Her bright-red gaze fell immediately to Ruby, but her eyes still seemed a bit… unfocused.

Yang clearly wasn't operating at full capacity. She could do this.

"Hey Yang!" Ruby shouted, moving laterally to avoid any potential shotgun blasts, despite the firearm not being pointed her way. "Catch!"

Ruby chucked the brick at Yang as hard as she could, sure to aim lower than her face. Simultaneously, the scampering sound of multiple sets of feet emerged from the other side of the container, drawing Yang's attention. One of the Blake clones was attempting to leap over the top of the container. Yang's eyes and aim immediately snapped to it.

Okay, it wasn't exactly how they'd planned, but at the cost of one of Blake's clones, Ruby could potentially take down a distracted Yang. With a hard cut, she shifted her angle to the most direct route to Yang.

The shotgun fired, loud and violent.

The Blake atop the container gripped her neck, gargling out as she fell forward off of the container, vanishing into shadow as she fell.

Then, without looking, Yang's right hand came free of the trigger, snapping out into the perfect place to catch the brick out of the air before it hit her.

Ruby couldn't help but be a little impressed.

But she was still committed to her actions, and not far behind the brick. With Yang having only one hand on the shotgun, Ruby knew it would be her best chance to knock it away.

Then Yang's eyes snapped back to her, angry red and far more focused than they had been earlier. A sharp impact hit her ankle, and Ruby was off balance. She could already imagine her dad chiding her on her sloppy balance. Yang had always been good at taking advantage of little weaknesses like that. Still, this was her chance! Grab the gun, and even if she took it to the ground with her, Yang would no longer have it. She reached out with dogged determination.

Her attempt was thwarted by a brick being smashed into her fingers.

Ruby reflexively curled her hurting hands under herself as she hit the ground. The impact knocked some of the wind out of her. She'd forgotten how comparatively weak she was in base form. Yang's boot pressing down into her back finished the emptying of her lungs.

With her soulsense, she was aware that the shotgun's barrel was aimed directly at the back of her head. This was it. Her first death at the hands of the absolute last person she would have expected to kill her. Hopefully there wouldn't be too many of those. At least she could come back from it.

She braced for the shotgun blast.

It never came.

"She said… kill them if I can." Yang said, struggling against her own words. "I… I can't do it. I can't kill my sister. I promised. I h-have to take care of her. Sorry mistress. I-I've failed. But Blake is… o-only a friend. I'll… I'll do my best."

The missed shots suddenly made sense. And when Blake had knocked her away the first time? She wasn't standing in quite the same position Ruby had been. She hadn't been trying to take the hit for Ruby. That meant… Yang…

...Yang probably could have hit her despite Blake's attempt, had she been trying.

That was a scarily sobering thought.

"Yang, please!" Ruby struggled to push herself up from under Yang's foot, still short on breath. "Don't hurt Blake, you don't have to-"

"Shut up!" Yang growled. Her foot left Ruby's back for a split second, only to slam right back down, crushing Ruby against the concrete once more. "Stop fighting! Y-You're making this h-hard!"

Ruby wheezed, failing to suck in much air at all, and completely unable to respond.

At least with Yang focused on keeping her pinned like this, she couldn't chase after Blake. Ruby was… a semi-successful distraction. Unfortunately, that did very little to make her aching chest feel better.

"Yang? Chill." Blake's voice rang out from somewhere behind them, and suddenly they were being buffeted by strong winds and small pieces of hail. Yang was forced off of Ruby's back, and Ruby rolled out of the way of Blake's spell.

Yang, meanwhile, braced herself against the very container Ruby and Blake had previously been hiding behind, steadied her breath, took aim, and pulled the trigger.

The spell shattered. Blake's right arm hung uselessly, while her left clutched at her shoulder where she'd been hit. Another deafening blast, and this Blake collapsed into shadows as well.

Ruby caught her breath just enough to scramble to her feet. Before Yang could tackle her again, Ruby sprinted away, finding a different container within the maze of cargo to hide behind for a bit.

The fight had just started, and things couldn't be going worse! They were already down… three Blakes, two of which were part of the seven they'd formed their strategy around. They hadn't gotten much out of it, either: they'd only cost Yang 3 shotgun rounds (Ruby remembered her saying something about carrying somewhere around 30 of them) and… learned that Yang was still a ridiculous badass in a fight?

Well, she supposed they'd also learned that Yang was unwilling and unable to kill her… it was a slight comfort, but it did ruin their strategy.

One of the remaining Blakes slipped in beside Ruby.

"Gods, she's like a fucking terminator." Blake groaned out breathlessly. "How were you worried that she wouldn't be able to handle herself in a fight?"

"She didn't know what she was up against!" Ruby snapped back. "Plus, if I were in Soul Form and using my scythe, she wouldn't stand a chance!"

"Well, I think it's safe to say that neither of us want to destroy her soul, so that strategy is right out. Any other ideas?"

"She… doesn't want to kill me, so even when I'm trying to distract her, you probably need to stay hidden." Ruby sighed. "Throwing things at her doesn't seem to work, not even to make her waste ammo, and I'm kind of useless if she pins me down again. We can't afford to lose one of your clones every time that happens, either."

"I am, admittedly, not a big fan of dying." Blake deadpanned. "I could do some illusions." Blake perked up as she continued. "Make it look like the last time, except those will be the distraction for you."

"A distraction for me to do what, exactly?"

"I don't know! You're the martial expert here!" Blake shot back.

"I'm not really an expert, and I sure can't beat Yang!"

"Even if you fight dirty?"

"She's kind of used to people doing that to her." Ruby sighed. "I dunno. I might be able to get her on the ground, but it's not like you could just freeze her in place or some-"

"That's it!" Blake interrupted. "I might not be able to freeze her, but…" she whipped a small notebook out of her pocket, and began drawing, "if you can get this underneath her and knock her down," she tore out the page, and handed it to Ruby. Each side featured a stacked link glyph and pull glyph. "I might be able to get her stuck there! Then you can get rid of the gun, and I can do the counterspell!"

"That's as good a plan as any." Ruby shrugged. "Are you ready?"

"Just a sec." Blake said as she drew out a complicated illusion spell in the air. "Okay, on your signal."

"Right." Ruby adjusted her stance, and prepared to sprint out of the cover. "Now!"

Ruby took off in a sprint with an army of illusory Blakes scattering behind her. She rounded the corner, and watched Yang take the bait, the thundering boom of the shotgun rang out and one of the illusions played out a dramatic death. With an extra burst of speed, Ruby dove for Yang's legs.

But, before she could make it to the ground, a flying brick struck her in the chest, once again knocking the wind out of her and halting her forward momentum.

Holy geez that hurt! What had Ruby been thinking when she'd thrown it at Yang in the first place? Ruby wheezed. She never intended to hurt Yang this badly!

Of course, Yang still remained uninjured, which was great and terrible at the same time. She took a step towards Ruby, and all Ruby could do was roll in the opposite direction.

And Yang let her. She turned around, and began jogging around the container Blake was behind, ignoring the illusions that were taunting her. A quick glance told Ruby what Yang had noticed: none of the illusions cast shadows. She tried to call out a warning to Blake, but her lungs lacked the air to do so. Blake let out a startled yelp before the shotgun rang out once more, and the illusions faded.

Only four Blakes left. Ruby really needed to find a way to stop Yang. She glanced at the piece of paper in her hand.

Shakily, Ruby got up. Catching her breath was still hard; her ribs had taken a beating. An inward glance via soulsense told her that one of her ribs had cracked slightly during the last scuffle. It hurt. It hurt a whole lot. But Ruby had been through worse. And she would go through worse if it meant saving Yang. She'd have to power through.

Ruby jogged up beside the container, waited for Yang to come back around the corner, then struck.

It was really just throwing her weight around at this time: wrapping her arms around Yang and driving her back until they slammed into one of the other containers. Sure, Yang weighed more than her, but the one year Ruby had been coerced into playing football had taught her at least one thing: low shoulder wins.

"Blake! Now!" Ruby yelled, just before the butt of the shotgun came down hard onto her back.

Ruby stumbled to the ground and rolled away, but Yang couldn't follow. She struggled fruitlessly to unstick herself from the container.

"Finally." Ruby sighed out, taking a more leisurely pace in approaching her sister. "Don't worry, Yang. We'll get you back to normal."

The hurt that flashed in Yang's eyes at that gave Ruby pause, but only for a moment before she pressed on. Yang swung the butt of the shotgun at her, but with her back locked in place, there was no weight behind it. Ruby easily caught the blow, placed one foot against the container, and wrenched the weapon away from Yang.

With a heavy sigh, Ruby stepped back, withering under the indignant glare Yang was giving her. It was never pleasant to have her sister's eyes red and pointed in her direction.

"I got her, Blake. You ready with that counter spell?" Ruby called out.

"Yeah!" Blake responded. "Just a sec, since I've already got a spell on her, I should be able to do it remotely!"

"Okay!" Ruby called back. "Uh… good!"

Ruby almost missed Yang's hand snap down to her hip, drawing out a familiar dagger.

But it wasn't there to try to pry Yang free, or threaten Ruby, or even just to be held in self defense against a perceived threat.

Almost as soon as it was in Yang's hand, it was leaving it again, tossed in a high arc.

A second later, and Blake let out a startled yelp. Yang immediately pushed free from the wall, tackling the shotgun away from Ruby. In one fluid motion, she rolled, fired at the glyph-holding piece of paper fluttering down from where it had been stuck to the container, then swept Ruby's feet out from under her.

Shortly after Ruby hit the ground, Yang's heel slammed into her chest, right into the injured rib. Ruby wheezed, grabbing weakly at Yang's ankle.

"I don't want to hurt you, Ruby." Yang said quietly, with genuine sadness in her eyes. "So please. Just… stay down. Don't get back up. Don't make me hurt you any more. I'm begging you! Stop fighting and just let me take care of you!"

The heel came off, and Ruby still couldn't breathe effectively. To be honest, there was some temptation to just… do as Yang said. Not only because her sister had been a constant source of great advice in her life, but also because the repeated trauma to her ribs and constant lack of air was starting to get to her.

And for the moment, she couldn't stand up if she tried.

Yang jogged off, and a short while later, her shotgun went off near where Blake had called out.

Three Blakes.

Ruby panicked. She struggled to get to her feet, but the air still wouldn't come. With a great deal of effort and far too much time, she managed to get herself into a crouching position, before being violent wracked with a coughing fit. A small amount of blood splattered onto the concrete in front of her.

A muffled clap of thunder. Yang crying out in pain. Then, the echoing report of the shotgun, and Yang was quiet again.

Two Blakes.

Things were getting desperate! Screw the rules, Ruby didn't have the time to struggle with mortal limitations! She began the shift into her Soul Form, even though it paralized her as she healed the damage.

As soon as it finished, Yang's shotgun barked out twice more in rapid succession.

She hoped Blake was keeping her clones far away enough from each other that there was still one left.

But either way? She was out of time. Her intent had been to shift right back to base form once healed, but at this point, Blake had either already met oblivion or was far too close to it for comfort. This was a desperate measure, but these were desperate times. Ruby took off in a superpowered sprint.

She closed her eyes, reaching out with her soulsense to see the world. Blake shined bright: her soul a beacon in the dark, and comfortingly familiar. She was still alive. Yang was there too, a fiery conflagration tearing its way towards Blake's final hiding place. She and Yang were on opposite sides of Blake, but Yang was much closer.

Ruby tore towards Blake's position at full speed. Yang didn't want to hurt her, right? Maybe she could act as a human shield for Blake.

Ruby whipped around the corner, praying the gods would understand why she was breaking the rules, why using her superpowers against a mortal, praying that Yang would notice her soon enough not to pull the trigger. Praying that she could shift back to base form fast enough if Yang didn't.

With a powerful leap, Ruby dove through a shadow, passing over Blake's crouched, panicked form, and began the slow (relative to superspeed) process of shifting back.

The shotgun was already leveled.

The muzzle flashed.

The world was dark.