This is not part of "Pollination: The Bumblebee and White Rose". This was an experiment, a decision to try something different.

As the sun sets, we continue to march. Ruby leads us in silence, massive red ursa skin cloaked over her shoulders. I remember when she first discarded her original cloak for the skin. It was originally black. Alas, that was many years ago, and that cloak reminds me of what was once a paradise every single time I lay eyes on it.

Looking back, I sigh. Blake and Yang march behind me, faces stoic with discontent. I know with all my heart that it is not from such a steep hill that we are currently traversing. Instead, it is from the many griefs and turmoils that we have BEEN traversing for the past seventeen years. Team RWBY cannot go on like this.

I growl at myself as I hang my head, marching behind our fearless leader and my own wife. I have said that to myself a thousand times, and yet I persist. I am Weiss Schnee! I once had access to a vast and wealthy empire of industry! I could have very well chosen to return to the family business and play the pretty potted plant! I could have hired a thousand servants to dote over me for the rest of my life!

But I threw all of that away.

And for what? To follow a lover through the country? To watch as she built a reputation as the greatest huntress to walk the earth? To hear her cry of pure agony as she lost her eye in combat? To see her become a shell of what she once was?

Perhaps I have been a fool.

"Whelp! I think this spot will do nicely!" Yang declares with a laugh as she stops in her tracks, taking in the steep hillside that we walk on. "The sun's about to set anyways." She looks to Ruby. "Wanna call it a day, sis?" She asks. Her smile is forced. It has been for years now.

Ruby stops. She slowly scans the hill. There's not much to scan, really. Tall trees, big rocks, taller trees, and even bigger rocks. "No." She curtly replies.

Yang sighs, slumping her shoulders.

Blake briefly gawks at her. "Why? What is wrong with this place?" She looks around for herself. "There isn't any wildlife for miles! The rest of your army is only a few miles behind us. We can shoot a flare up to let them know of our position, and we can bunk here for the night." She explains to our leader.

Yang's stomach grumbles. Placing a hand over it, she feebly offers, "I'm in favor of that move, sis. I could REALLY go for some grub."

Ruby turns around to face us, revealing the frown and the black eyepatch on her face. I never thought that her left eye could be so menacing to compensate for the loss of her right. "No." She repeats. "Not until the Grimm are destroyed, annihilated." Every day she has spoken those words. Every single day for the past twelve years.

"Why?" I've had enough. I've had enough of this vendetta. I've had enough of this despair. "For WHAT?!" I shriek in rage as I close the distance between us. I have never physically assaulted her before. Not once. The element of surprise could not be more destructive for her. I topple her over, and we roll a few feet down the hillside.

Blake and Yang step aside.

I roll on top of Ruby. Pinning her arms over her head, I glare down at her one remaining eye. "The Grimm are on their KNEES! We pushed the entire species into the endangered zone TWO YEARS ago! We don't need to exterminate them out just to prove we've WON!" She struggles to throw me off of her.

She's grown much stronger over the years. But so have I. It's taking most of my strength to hold her down. "We wander this country at your leisure! When Beacon told you to stop killing them, we fought WITH you! We destroyed EVERY army they sent against you!" I scream into her face. Oh, perfect, tears are just what I need now. At least they're landing on her face. She hasn't bathed in ages. None of us have. "We burned that school to the GROUND! We even followed you into the city and subjected it to the same fate!" The horrors we've committed in the name of survival. I now know what true shame is.

She still struggles. She doesn't even look at me.

"WE were the ones to train YOUR new recruits while YOU recovered from your injuries! WE were the ones to nurse you back to health!" I scream into her face as tears continue to fall.

"Yang, help me." Blake instructs as she reminds me that they're here as well.

Blake grabs Ruby's left arm, and Yang grabs her right.

"So I ask again." I gasp as I refrain from throttling her with my newly freed hands. "WHY?!" Instead, I opt to slam them down on her chest. "WHY did you throw away EVERYTHING we could have ever POSSIBLY been?! Why did you throw away what WE wanted to do as a team?!" Oh, I can't stop the tears now. They're just rolling down like an avalanche. Look at yourself, Weiss Schnee. You're pathetic.

"Why did you throw away my love for YOU?!"

She stares at me, blankly. This is the first time in twelve years that anyone has opposed her, that anyone has done anything but cave under her might.

And all she can do is stare.

None of us speak for a few moments.

Blake is the first to speak. Scoffing, she said, "It's silly. Yang and I wanted a small cottage with a white picket fence." She looks up into the sky with a smile on her face. Yang looks hurt by her words. "We wanted to adopt a kid or two. We'd both teach them combat, but I would teach them proper cooking and art." She sighs fondly.

Yang sighs, looking down directly into Ruby's eye. "That was before we kinda got branded as terrorists, outlaws, and criminals. And, kinda, sorta before we started killing people."

"But was it before or after the hunting teams started defecting to us?" Blake asks, looking into her own wife's gaze. "We've been on the run for so long, I'm afraid I've forgotten." Blake breaks down into laughter.

Yang quivers and actually begins to sniff. She brings up a hand to wipe her eyes. "I don't know what went on in your mind, sis." She whispers to Ruby as Blake rolls off of her, clutching her stomach in her fit of hysteria. "But I really wish you would've talked to us about it." She gets off of Ruby and moves to collect Blake.

Ruby gets to her feet and staggers away from them, backing up towards me.

Yang holds Blake in a bridal position and turns back to face her sister. Frowning, her eyes display fatigue, both emotional and physical. "Maybe then you would've let go." She turns away and begins trudging back down the hillside.

Ruby reels around and stares at me. Her breathing has increased, no doubt due to the rush of this unconventional convention.

Glowering at her, I raise my boot up and kick her to the ground. This time, she stays down. "I loved you." I growl with gritted teeth as I march past her and join Yang, who now holds a crying Blake in her arms.

I did love that woman.

I really did.