Ivoryblood
Summary: Yharnam is undoubtedly a city of nightmares, but it has never been taken this literally. It has not sought to drag hunters back into the birthplace of the plague set upon them before, but times change.
I've been thinking of doing a crossover between RWBY and Bloodborne shortly after I started playing, the worlds are similar in many aspects and this is my attempt at 'merging' them into one that hopefully doesn't come off as too unnatural. I also noticed I wasn't the first to notice this, due to there being a whopping seventy-some fics in the crossover section (seriously amazed here, I expected to find one or two fics, maybe five; that's what I usually find when looking for anything that sparks my interest within fanfiction these days sadly, especially when it comes to stories I actually like and end up reading through in entirety). I hope you'll enjoy this story.
~ From even the greatest of horrors irony is seldom absent. ~
H.P. Lovecraft
The crackling of fire filled her ears, the wind whistling through the numerous cracks in stone buildings, her heels clicked on the cobblestone road as she walked along, her path lit by a few mere lanterns placed at odd intervals. It made the shadows stretch across the ground, clawing closer to the edges of the oil-powered light that was threatening to flicker out and die as the wind howled down the passage.
Weiss could barely see seven feet in front of her due to a heavy mist that further restricted the usefulness of the lanterns to the point that they were just a soft yellow glow in the distance, illuminating nothing around them except for the few inches of the pole they were attached to. Her grip tightened on her rapier as she glanced to a building on her left, where the sounds of a fire was coming from, but it was far from pleasant. The window was stained with grime and dirt, making it nearly impossible to see inside. She could only identify a dark shadow passing the window, a figure seemingly pacing around the fire drawn in by the warmth.
If the form didn't look so twisted through the window or due to the flames of the fire she might have tried to open the door. There was something very unsettling about whatever had taken refuge in that house. This whole place had her on edge.
The buildings soared up into the sky, reaching up with iron fingers to touch the heavens, a clock face painted on one with glass. The tips of an iron gate that reached above the mist were bent, twisted or broken off completely. Something that took a good deal of force to accomplish. From what she had seen she would think it was safe to assume the town had been abandoned, but her skin crawled with each step she took, as if she were being watched.
With her white and baby-blue outfit she would certainly be easy to keep track of among the grey stone stained with brown dirt and... a darker redder substance that looked to have been splashed onto the walls.
Weiss stopped in her tracks, staring at the dry blood stains around her. Just what had happened here? To this town? A grimm attack? It looked too gruesome to just be grimm. Bandits maybe? Followed by a horde of grimm... it wasn't uncommon. What she really wanted to know was why her mind had come up with such a landscape to escape from reality after another hard day of training for the Vytal Festival.
She reached out with her right hand to run her fingers over the stone, rough beneath her flesh, with pieces chipped away, edges that threatened to cut if she pressed down hard enough. It not only looked real, it felt real.
Her hand dropped back to her side as she turned back to the path she had been set on. Mainly because it was the only one she had seen. A shiver ran through her as the wind came tearing through between the buildings more fiercely than before. The air was already cold without it, near freezing with the trapped liquid in the air. Her combat skirt didn't do much to combat the cold, unfortunately.
It would be nice if she wasn't alone. If her mind would conjure her teammates to her side; so that she didn't have to come up with her own terrible puns. Yang would probably be proud of her for that one, unlike when they had faced off against Roman in that machine.
Weiss sighed in the now still air, taking a step forward only to halt all movement when she saw a dark form within the mist, could hear the large footfalls as it grew closer. As if she wanted it closer than ten feet just to see what it was. Still she didn't move, trying to calm her heart back down as it had begun to pound within her chest when the mist began to part from around it.
The creature was huge, covered in grey skin and a dark cloth, not black fur or bones. Its eyes reflected the dim light rather than glaring back at her in angry red. In fact, it seemed just as stunned as her to see someone else on this road - or rather something else. This was no grimm, but it couldn't be human either.
It let out a grunt after another second, the moment of silence broken as it reached for the abnormally large hammer on its back. Weiss stared as it raised the weapon above its head, it took a second for her brain to register that it aimed to crush her with it; the same time it took for it to retrieve its weapon in the first place.
Her right hand snapped forward as she summoned one of her glyphs as a whistle sounded in the air above her. The hammer met the solid glyph an instant later, holding against the force being applied to it somehow. Weiss had taken a step back, crouching slightly, fearing that it wouldn't hold in that moment before impact.
The beast stared at her through the glyph, clearly not comprehending why it hadn't struck its intended mark. Weiss was just happy she had been fast enough to get her defenses up. For such a big creature - and a hefty weapon to boot - it was faster than she had expected.
It let out a roar then, raising the weapon back up, and Weiss took a step forward, crouching slightly as the hammer came back down onto the glyph for a second time. She only held it there long enough to dart off to the side, hearing the metal crash onto the cobblestone a second later. The sound of the stone shattering on impact made a shiver crawl down her spine, but she focused on her target, using the wall to vault over the creature, raining down quick precise slashes at its head when she sailed over it, landing behind it and thrusting her sword forward into its back.
Its frustrated cries filled her ears and she quickly withdrew her rapier as it began to turn around, swinging its hammer once more. The weapon tore through a nearby building on its arcing path, sending shattered bricks and stone to the air. Weiss flipped back, barely avoiding the weapon as she felt it graze past her legs. A hairs' length closer, a millisecond slower and it would have hit her.
Her heels clicked as she landed on the cobblestone, quickly raising her rapier as she spun the chamber to the red vial of dust. An explosion sounded when she pulled the trigger, fire slamming forward into the beast, the heat immediately making her break out in sweat.
The creature roared, backing away from the flames as it raised one hand to block the fire from its face. But its other hand swung its weapon forward again and Weiss jumped this time, landing on the long handle of the hammer and running quickly up the length to plunge her blade forward into its eye socket as the flames began to disperse.
There was a rumble behind her as the hammer collided with another building, but the creature didn't go to tear it back out, it didn't try to bat at her with its other arm. It had stopped moving once her blade had connected with its brain.
Weiss let out a sigh of relief, pulling her sword from the lump of vitreous jelly that remained of its eye. She got out her handkerchief to to rid the substance from her blade before jumping down from the hammer.
This time Weiss kept a much tighter grip on her rapier as she walked into the building on her right, the gaping hole the creature had left giving her easy access. She didn't wish to run into more of those down that path. So she took a short cut through the building, picking through its remains anyway.
A torn piece of paper caught her eye as it fluttered in the wind, held down by a lump of rock that probably came from the ceiling above. She was quickly starting to see how such damages had been made, especially after seeing what sort of creatures patrolled the streets. It was a miracle the entire town wasn't just a pile of rubble. Weiss picked up the piece of paper, glancing over the cursive words that cut off so abruptly.
Miriene has come down with a sickness.
I'm taking her to the Healing Chu-
I'll see you when I get back h-
She frowned at the remnant before all this carnage. This had been someone's home, but from the heavy layer of dust on everything it had clearly been like for a century if not more. The structure itself spoke of how old the place was. There was no evidence of more advanced technology in this place, everything was made of either stone, wood, or metal. They even used oil lamps instead of electricity at the time all this happened, which for some reason were still lit. But she could just chalk that up to it all being some bizarre dream.
So she really shouldn't be so concerned with how old the place was since it didn't matter. But taking everything into account it had to be more than a few centuries, they had electricity during the Great War. This really was a weird thing for her mind to conjure up, along with that creature.
There was a prickling at the base of her skull, a part of her that still believed that if its hammer had even clipped her ankle it would have sent her spinning, the small bones broken and twisted, along with a spark of pain in a foot that would be a bloodied mess.
Weiss stuffed the piece of paper into her pocket, pushing such thoughts out of her head, forcing her breathing to keep even. Not to panic.
It's just... the detail in this place. It was amazing for a dream, considering she usually felt like she was just floating through them, not hearing rotted wood splinter and crack beneath her feet.
She walked faster now, pushing fallen boards out of her way, tugging on the door a couple times to get it to open. Weiss stepped out onto a thin walkway, the metal railing missing from various sections, bent in others. She took a step forward, glancing down at a city that sprawled out beneath her, tall and short buildings scattered within a maze of brick and iron. She could see more walkways, bridges connecting to spiraling towers and fortresses with gargoyles perched on their peak, and smoke rising from above the mist that hid so much more below it.
This... her brain had never come up with something so intricate before. She stepped back from the edge, not letting her mind wander to what would happen if she fell from such a height and didn't manage to catch her fall. Or caught it only to land amidst more of those creatures.
Okay, yes, she was officially freaked. Now would be a lovely time to wake up from this nightmare.
A word pushed its way into her thought process a second later: place. Not a nightmare, a place. Also absurd. Such a place couldn't actually exist, that creature couldn't. It was the grimm that ruled the world outside of the kingdoms not... The thing had looked similar to a troll she had seen in a picture book when she was younger.
Weiss frowned, shaking her head to dispel these thoughts. Clearly all of this was being taken from some fairy tale she read as a child. There was no reason to continue to overthink it-
A scream filled the air and Weiss spun in place to face the direction it had come from. She didn't have to spare a thought before she ran forward, speeding her way forward with her glyphs, jumping over a gate that blocked off a large balcony. The moment she landed she hurried to the rail ignoring the corpse on her left and the ravens surrounding it, looking down to try and further pinpoint where the scream had come from.
She found the source when they let out another scream, and she could clearly see the reason why the person was screaming. A creature similar to a wolf had just gouged their side with a large set of claws, but a second later - before it could strike again - the person dissolved into a white mist, simply disappearing from existence it seemed. The bright colors of their outfit faded grey before becoming mist as well, along with the weapon they carried. He just... ceased to be after one strike from the wolf-thing.
A gasp slipped past her lips, equally from racing here and from seeing such an impossibility. It was still the uneven footsteps behind her that made her turn so quickly, seeing an axe raised above a dark grey cap Weiss quickly stepped to the side to avoid its predestined path and thrust her sword forward at an angle.
Her blade slid through the cloth covering the man's chest easily, piercing through to the heart beneath. She froze, eyes widening as the man's body began to slump over, sliding off the blade with no effort from her. Glassy eyes stared back at her, a mouth with broken skin and little holes peaking through the rotted flesh that let her see the heavily stained yellow teeth.
It was the corpse she had run past moments before, or it had been a corpse... looked like one? Did she just stab a man? A living person?
Weiss took a step back, her heel sliding on smooth stone when a caw sounded right not far from her left, a fluttering of wings quickly following and causing her to stumble back and land on her butt. She looked up in time to see two crows above her, much larger than she was used to, talons reaching for her, curled beaks thrusting forward.
And she let out her own scream as she flung her arms up, feeling her skin slice open when the talons met her flesh, blood spraying through the air to land on midnight black feathers. She could feel the warm liquid running down her arms as they tore at the thin layer of cloth covering her. A beak snipped at her wrist as she flicked it down, directing her rapier towards the crows, fingers fumbling with the chamber to find the blue vial of dust-
"Weiss!"
Her body shook suddenly as she heard her name, as her finger curled around the trigger.
"Weiss! Wake up!"
The black feathers turned to ice when the shot rang out, the claws still embedded into her arm were dragged down as gravity directed the crows prone bodies back to the ground, shattering into shards of ice on impact.
"Weiss!" The frantic cries grew louder, closer. She could feel a pair of hands clasped onto her shoulders, shaking her even harder now and she jolted up from the bed, breathing heavily. "Weiss!" Ruby sounded much more happy now that she had woken up, but her body continued to tremble even without her insistent shaking. "You sounded like you were having a bad dream."
"You mean a nightmare?" Yang asked her sister.
"Oh, yeah." Ruby rubbed at the back of her neck. "I guess that would be a nightmare."
"Are you okay?" Blake was staring at her, crouched at her bedside like everyone else.
It took a moment for Weiss to catch her breath, her legs ached, and her hand was clutching at the sheet in its search for her weapon that it had held seconds before. "Mhm." She managed to nod her head, to comfort them as much as herself. "Yeah. Just a bad dream, like Ruby said."
"You sounded terrified."
"I was attacked by a crow."
"A tiny nevermore?" Ruby asked, looking confused as to why that would be considered terrifying.
"No. A really big crow." Weiss didn't know what else to call it, its eyes had been closer to the color of flames than bright red. It had been more terrifying than a nevermore. She sat up fully, forcing her hands to let go of the blanket they were under. "Thanks for the concern, but I just want to go and wash up."
Ruby glanced to the clock. "We still have two hours left till the alarm goes. You could try going back to sleep-"
"I don't want to go back to sleep," Weiss said a little harsher than she had intended, looking away from her partner as Ruby's lips began to pull down. "Sorry. I just don't think I can go back to sleep right now."
"Okay. I understand."
Weiss kicked off her covers, suddenly feeling trapped by them and slid from the bed, rubbing at her arms as she did so. The chill of that place seemed to be lingering on her skin. She was quick to exit the room, hurrying down the hall to the shared bathroom.
The moment she was inside she turned on the faucet and collected some water in her hands, splashing it onto her face. Weiss took in a breath with her eyes closed, water dripping down her cheeks before she opened her eyes.
Her reflection stared back at her, hair disheveled due to the dream she had. She usually slept peacefully enough that her hair wasn't too twisted when she got up. This morning was different, of course. No one could sleep peacefully if they were being forced to fight in their sleep. There was a grey tinge beneath her eyes, further attestation to this fact.
It didn't concern her as much as the state of her arms when she turned her gaze to them. Dried blood covered her forearms, little steams running down to her elbow, now frozen over instead of flowing freely down her skin; just like it had in her dream... Weiss grabbed for a wash cloth, soaking it in water from the faucet before scrubbing at the underside of her arms to get the blood off. It took a couple minutes to rid the coagulated blood from her skin, but once it was off she could see scars on her arms. Not wounds, scars. The cuts she had received from the crows were already healed over, if it hadn't been for all the blood it might have taken her until she was getting dressed to have noticed them.
One of her teammates probably would have noticed them before she did. Unless she was rubbing her lower arms or something, then she would have felt the scars; well, she would have noticed the blood first. But she hadn't upon waking up, she didn't remember the sheets feeling soaked through with the liquid either. So it must have already frozen over, but... that made no sense.
Neither did waking up from a nightmare with wounds to have scars in the exact places where the crows had struck her. It certainly looked like talons had tried to carve her arms up, she could even identify the spot where the crow had tried to bite at the major artery on her wrist.
"What the... But it was a dream."
Nevermind that, she told herself. Her aura should have protected her body from any sort of harm, she hadn't been struck in the dream before the crows came after her. So she shouldn't have received these... scars in the first place. Her aura hadn't been broken down so that it couldn't protect her.
This..."None of this makes any sense," speaking the words aloud didn't help her understand what had happened. It just made it that much more obvious that she didn't know what the heck had just happened. Now or half an hour ago when she was still sleeping and wandering through that weird gothic city.
Weiss glanced down at her nightgown, specifically at the pocket on her right hip. There was a small bulge there, something thin enough that she hadn't noticed it before. With a trembling hand Weiss dug her fingers into the pocket, clasping them around the item and taking a deep breath before pulling it out.
It was the note she had retrieved from the desolate building.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
Weiss paused after placing her hand on the door. She was still unsure about coming to the nurse's office when her wounds had clearly healed over, but perhaps she might get some answers to why her aura hadn't activated then... beyond the fact that it had been a dream. A nightmare that tore across the walls of reality.
This was beginning to sound like a stupid idea again.
She had been arguing with herself about doing this the whole day, and now that she was here she was still undecided on the matter. Weiss bit her lip, tugging down on her sleeves for what seemed like the millionth time to make sure her scars were covered. She had already changed into her clothes earlier than her teammates so they wouldn't see them and ask questions that she had no clue how to answer.
It was one of the reasons she didn't want to open this door. She didn't want to be asked about how she had gotten them, especially when one's aura was suppose to protect them from these sorts of things. She hadn't been on any dangerous hunts recently or otherwise, and she hadn't sustained an injury since taking the trial her father had required of her to even study here.
She should get her aura levels checked, to make sure something wasn't wrong. Like a rare disease or something unknown. Weiss gripped the door handle tighter before pulling it open and walking into the office.
The room was pretty bland, sanitized and medical; so it was understandable that her gaze fell on the group of people in bright colors shortly after entering. Flynt and Neon were standing beside one of the hospital beds, along with one other person she didn't recognize but assumed to be their teammate. Weiss took a few steps closer to them, eyes widening as she recognized the hunter lying on the bed. The colorful shirt was gone due to the bandages wrapped around their mid-section, spots of blood staining through the fabric.
She took a step back, remembering the claws that had torn into the hunter's flesh with perfect clarity. So they had been injured in the dream as well. Or she had been dreaming the same thing as they had. No, that made even less sense. It would make more sense if they were both in the same dream... and even that sounded insane. A dream was something that happened in your mind, where nothing bad could happen to you, and anyone you saw in your dream was just your imagination, including what Ruby would call 'nameless NPCs to spice things up.' A nightmare wasn't accurate either. She shouldn't have gotten these scars, and this hunter shouldn't be in the nurse's office because of wounds he had received in a dream of all things.
God, her mind was going to collapse on itself trying to figure this out.
"They said he woke up like that."
Weiss whirled around when she heard a voice coming from behind her. "Emerald?"
"Hey Weiss." she said with a smile, before her gaze landed briefly on the hunter. "I haven't ever seen anything like it."
"You haven't?" Weiss had been holding onto the hope that this was something that was considered normal, even if it was a rare occurrence; that someone else would have an explanation for just what was going on.
Emerald shook her head and Weiss walked over to take a seat next to her, guessing the huntress was waiting for the nurse herself. "Apparently he woke up screaming, freaked out his teammates. They thought he just had a nightmare at first, but he was still screaming, saying he was in pain. That some creature had injured him in his sleep. They had the lights on then and saw his sheets were soaked through with blood and tore them off, cleaned him up quickly to pinpoint where he had been injured. But there were only scars beneath the blood." The same as her. "But he was in agony so they rushed him here, where the nurse had to perform surgery because of damage he had sustained to his internal organs from... whatever it was I guess."
"Oh." That made sense, the claws had looked to have gone pretty deep, from what she had seen anyway. It still didn't explain much of anything, other than that the two of them had been in the same place and something similar had happened to the both of them. There was still no answer as to how, or even why for that matter.
How did one dream themselves to a place where someone else was also dreaming and happen to be attacked by the creatures there? She hadn't done anything special when she went to sleep, so it's not like she had asked for any of this to happen to her. Besides, magic wasn't real. The only thing the came close was Dust and... that couldn't have anything to do with it. Or she would have heard of something like this happening before, if dust was linked to the cause.
"Hey, you okay?"
The question startled her from her thoughts, but Weiss nodded her head. "Yeah. I'm fine."
"Why did you come to the nurse's office?"
Right, her own reason for being here... "I just wanted to get a salve. My own scars have been bothering me."
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
Weiss stood with her back pressed to a stone cold wall, staring at the tiny passage she had found herself in. She knew the moment she closed her eyes where she was, or rather that she was back in this place. Inside a jail from the looks of things. The hallway was thin, the ceiling low and curved, and there were iron doors at numerous intervals down the passage. A small wooden chair stood outside one of them, covered in a thick layer of blood. From the splatters on the bars next to it it seemed safe to assume the prisoner had gotten the jump on the guard. And had probably been dead for awhile now, if the corpse was still inside.
She hadn't gone over to check.
Not after what happened the last time she saw a corpse. Her heel dug into the wall behind her, wishing it would just open up so she could leave this place. It smelled of old blood, rotting flesh, death.
It made her head spin. If it weren't for the fact she was breathing she would swear the air was toxic. Then there was the cries of some creature sounding from further in, assaulting her ears and making the stone around her tremble.
Another reason why she didn't want to move from her spot. Whatever was making that noise couldn't be small, it had to be huge with a set of lungs like that. It wouldn't be able to fit in this tiny hall or the small cells that accompanied it. Whatever it was it was probably in a large chamber, and from the sound of chains rattling someone had locked it up in this prison.
As time slipped by it was becoming clear she wasn't going to wake up by just standing here though, but she didn't want to mauled by crows again just to wake up either. Or something worse than crows, she knew now that she would wake up with any injury she received here, and she shivered again at the thought of that troll clipping her leg with its hammer.
She had been very lucky to dodge it. Weiss really didn't want to risk further injury, especially if it reached deep enough inside her to cause internal damage since when she woke up only the top layer would be healed. Scarred over, the only reminder that what had happened was as real as it had felt at the time.
But there was no where else for her to go but forward, towards the cries of the beast. Weiss pulled her rapier closed before taking one step forward, and then another. She forced herself to walk down the passage, not sparing one glance at the cells on her left and right; she opted to ignore the occasional sounds that came from within them when she passed, instead focusing on keeping her breathing steady.
Don't panic. Keep your wits about you. Be ready to dodge at a moment's notice.
That's what she kept repeating to herself as she moved down the hall, flinching when the cries got louder. There was never a question of what direction she was going, she was never given a choice. The hallway twisted and turned, never merging with another.
When she did see a half-open iron gate ahead, her gaze was quickly drawn to the iron bars that filled the wall next to it. Beyond them was a wide chamber, with a beast in its center, chains shackled around its ankle and wrists. Every time it screamed was from insistent pulling on the chains that kept it there. In a way... it seemed to be weeping, clawing at the ground in front of it with massive claws, pushing its snout forward into the dirt, shoving human bones aside as it tried to dig its way out.
There were nails embedded into its legs, legs that looked to have fur-like fungus growing out from them. The fur on its body was matted and dull, thick and covering what looked like bone beneath. It was hard to tell with how dirty it was. The only other thing she could make out without any trouble was the horns on its head, misshapen and pointed at the ends.
Weiss walked forward slowly, not wanting to alert the creature to her presence. She wanted to get through that iron gate, to escape this place and hopefully wake up before she ran into something that wasn't chained down or stuck in a cell.
The closer she got to the creature she became aware of voices - a single voice? Coming from the edges of her mind, the very back of her skull, like something was pushing inside, whispering directly to her instead of hissing at her ears.
It was a thin trickle at first, then it slammed into her, causing her to fall forward screaming as she dropped her rapier, clutching at her head as a thousand words filled it. Most of them raced by too fast for her to make out, but she tried to concentrate, to push back her fear of just what was happening and listened. She gathered less than a handful of the words in her head: Yharnam. Hunter. Mercy. Vicar.
And then it stopped. Weiss let out a gasp, hands slowly falling back to the floor as her head was no longer pounding from the intrusion.
When she raised her head back up she could see the beast staring back at her, its claws dragging over the ground, the curved gleaming bone pointed at her. It was letting out little snarls, crushing the human bones surrounding it as it moved its body to face her completely. The beast tugged at its chains a couple times, no longer crying out as its tongue rolled in its mouth, long pointed teeth bared at her.
Weiss took in a sharp breath, reminding herself that it couldn't reach her, that even if it could manage to break the metal bars the chains holding it didn't provide enough slack to come after her. Even if it did break free she would likely be crushed from the ceiling caving in before it could get its claws on her. Or its teeth.
She got up slowly, wrapping her fingers back around the grip of her rapier. The creature let out a louder snarl, one clawed hand slamming forward into the ground and making the prison walls tremble around her. Weiss paused, glancing from the creature and where its eyes seemed to have focused: her blade.
After a second she holstered it to her side, watching as the beast went back to clawing at the stone, letting out little snarls as it did so. It didn't seem as interested in her with her weapon sheathed. She took another breath to force the fear back down and made her way to the door, slipping through the thin opening it provided.
Her eyes shot open seconds later, her breath coming faster for a few seconds before recognizing the dorm room she shared with her teammates. Weiss pushed herself up into a sitting position, quickly checking that she hadn't received any new scars before glancing over to the clock.
She had only slept for an hour, if that.
And she wasn't keen on going back to sleep. If there was one thing she didn't want it was to end up back there and if she closed her eyes again there was a good chance she would end up somewhere else in that city. Yharnam.
She reached up with one hand to touch at the base of her skull, where she had heard the word coming from. The moment she did it had stuck in her mind, it had registered somehow that that's where she was. She just knew the moment she heard it. A pinch of knowledge sprinkled over her.
Nothing had come with the other words. She was already familiar with them and their meaning. She knew what a hunter was, she was training to become one after all. Mercy was just a simple. It took her a few seconds to remember what a Vicar was, but even then when she put the words together they made next to no sense.
Weiss sighed, clutching at her head for a second. Why was she even bothering to think about it? It was a dream. Dreams meant nothing. They should mean nothing.
Yet a shiver ran through her body at the mere idea of going back to sleep, to dream again. She got up, pushing the covers off, changing quickly into her school outfit before taking off. Weiss went straight to the cafe to make herself a cup of coffee first, then she cradled it in her arms as she walked, taking sips as she sought to keep her body moving, to stave off the feeling of exhaustion as she kept herself awake.
~ o ~ O ~ o ~
For once she wasn't listening to anything Professor Port was talking about. She would usually zone out when he was recounting a hunt and then tune back in for when he was offering advice on how to to 'fell such a beast.' But today she just couldn't be bothered to tune back in. She was tired, something expected since she had refused to sleep after having another waking nightmare.
Her teammates had noticed her sluggish nature and gotten her a cup of coffee, but after drinking it all night it didn't seem to give her as much relief.
She was currently sitting with one hand raised to keep her head propped up, staring at the black board but not seeing what had been written on it, the illustrations wavered in her vision and she had squeezed her eyes shut for a few seconds to make it stop for a little while. While digging the tip of her pencil into the palm of her hand and lessening the amount of aura there so that she felt enough pain to keep awake. To remind herself that she could end up in greater pain if she fell into unconsciousness.
Weiss was twirling the pencil in her hand currently, giving her something to do. As long as it was moving she was still awake. It was something for her to take comfort in. So when it slipped from her fingers she jolted in her seat.
Thankfully the clattering of her utensil went unnoticed by Professor Port, who continued to talk about one of his hunts concerning a pack of Ursa. Weiss glanced down under the table where she had heard the pencil clatter after losing track of it. She bent forward, noticing Ruby glance at her from her peripheral vision, perhaps checking that she wasn't falling from her seat. Upon noticing the pencil she was reaching for Ruby turned her attention back to the Professor.
Weiss on the other hand had to stop herself from jolting in her seat once more when small bone-like fingers rose out from the stone that seemed to be bubbling suddenly, a thin mist leaking after it. She had to be hallucinating, the lack of sleep had to be getting to her. So Weiss reached forward with a frown, fingers swiping over the floor where she knew the pencil to be... or she thought it had been.
She stared wide-eyed as a small creature pushed it's way from the warped ground in front of her, little fingers still gripping the pencil as it extended it up towards her. Along with a thin piece of paper that looked to be stained from the elements. Weiss paused before snatching at the air where these things were, her blood running cold when her fingers came in contact with her pencil and the paper.
She sat up quickly as Professor Port began to turn his gaze to her side of the classroom. Her grip tightened on the pencil, crushing the paper in it as she waited for him to ask a student if they were listening on the other side. Weiss opened her fist, unfolding the paper to gaze down at a set of numbers. She narrowed her eyes to bring the numbers into focus, quickly recognizing the set as coordinates.
It didn't take her long to decide to find the location they pointed to after the class was over. She wanted the nightmares to stop, to be freed from the prison such a solace had become. If she got some answers as to why all this had happened to her and why she she still had those scars on her arms then she would consider it a bonus.
That's how she ended up in Forever Fall, rapier at her hip, every slot filled to the brim with dust, extra containers on her because of the Grimm that inhabited the forest. Her scroll was open in her hands as she walked, glancing down to make sure the numbers were adding up. She stopped short when they changed to the exact ones she had seen on the paper she had stuffed in her pocket.
Weiss glanced up quickly, frowning when she didn't see anyone or any thing in the area. The clearing she found herself in was empty of everything except grass that was as red as blood. She scowled, glancing around for any indication that someone had been here before screaming at the top of her lungs, "Leave me alone!"
Some thing responded. The air above her shimmered, twisting in on itself to reveal a swirling magenta void. It was like a bright pink at the edges, coils of black running off it before slinking back in, towards the center where there was a black hole in the blaze of color.
The air around her seemed to still in the following seconds that she stood there staring at this impossibility. There were no eyes, ears, mouth; anything to indicate it was a being, but she felt sure there was something here with those qualities. She just couldn't see it.
Then something moved in the darkness of its center and when she went to take a step back tentacles exploded outward, black with a slight amaranthine tinge quickly coiled around her body causing her to drop her scroll. She felt her feet leave the ground a moment later and started to struggle within the bonds that held her in place. Her heart was beating fast as it pulled her closer to its center, taking its time as if to torture her.
It didn't take long for panic to overtake her. What was it doing? What was it? "Let me go!" she screamed, wriggling within the tentacles, hoping to get them loose so she could get free, but they only seemed to tighten their grip on her. Weiss tried to tug one arm up out from its clutches, resulting in a burn in her shoulder as it threatened to come loose from the socket with the force she was exhibiting.
One of the tentacles raised up to run its slimy appendage along her shoulder and Weiss flinched away from its touch, fearing what it was going to do to her. She looked back up just in time to see the void in front of her, An inky pit of moving shadows that she was dragged into to become enveloped in darkness.
If you are interested in a continuation of this 'blended universe' then please leave a comment.