"I'll be right back!" Ruby called over her shoulder as she dashed out of the dorm room she shared with her teammates. She turned to face forward just as she collided with someone.
She cried out in surprise as she fell backwards onto the hallway floor. "Oh, gosh," she muttered, embarrassed. She looked up at the person she had just run into, tilting her head slightly to one side. "Sorry. Are- are you okay?"
"I'm fine," the girl replied in a cool voice, holding out a hand. She had dark skin, mint green hair, and crimson eyes. "Just watch where you're going." She offered a small, friendly smile as if to say, "No harm done."
"Oh, heh-heh, right… Sorry." Ruby took the girl's hand and let her pull her to her feet. Once standing, she released the girl's hand and introduced herself. "Um, I'm Ruby! Are you…" She had started to ask the girl if she was new here—Ruby hadn't seen her around before—when she noticed the boy standing beside her and trailed off.
Silver eyes met dark gray and then…
A loud ringing noise pierced through Ruby's skull and she cried out in pain, falling to her knees. She cradled her head in her hands and curled up into the fetal position on the floor. Tears were streaming down her face and she could feel herself screaming, though she couldn't hear anything above the ringing.
There was a burning sensation on her upper back, near her left shoulder, as if someone had heated the tip of a blade and was now carving something into her skin. She felt something wet run down her back.
She was no longer aware of the world around her. The pain and the noise were the only things that mattered—everything else was blocked out completely.
The agony only lasted about a minute, but it felt to Ruby like an eternity. All at once, everything began to fade away. The ringing grew quiet and disappeared. The pulsing pain in her head became a dull ache. The burning changed to a light stinging.
Ruby felt dizzy, like her head was spinning. Her hands clutched the sides of her head, fingernails digging into her scalp. The ringing now gone, she thought she could hear voices in the distance. She couldn't make out what they were saying or even who they belonged to.
And then she couldn't hear anything.
When she woke up, she was laying in a bed in Beacon's infirmary, surrounded by the worried faces of her teammates.
"Ruby!" Yang launched herself at her younger sister, throwing her arms around her and pulling her into a tight, but gentle, hug.
"Yang?" Ruby croaked, her voice hoarse. She cleared her throat. "What happened?"
"We should be asking you that," Blake replied. "We found you unconscious in the hallway."
"You were bleeding," Weiss added, her voice uncharacteristically soft. Ruby noticed that her face was also a bit paler than usual.
"We heard you screaming." Yang pulled away from Ruby, but kept a hold of her arms, as if she didn't want to let go of her completely. Tears had begun to form in the corners of her eyes. "Ruby, what happened?"
Ruby paused, her mind going blank as she tried to remember. She'd left the dorm to get her board game from the library, ran into a strange girl in the hallway, and then…
"The boy," Ruby suddenly gasped, her eyes widening as the memories came back to her. Her teammates stared at her, expressions blank. "What happened to the boy? Where is he?" She looked past her teammates at the other beds in the room, all of them empty.
She frowned, wondering if he didn't go through the same thing she did.
"What boy?" Blake asked her, puzzled. "You were alone when we found you."
"I..." Ruby's frown deepened as she processed that information. "I was? But..."
"Ruby," Weiss stepped forward, her voice a bit stronger this time. There was also more color in her face; she appeared to have regained her composure. "What's going on?"
Just as Ruby opened her mouth to respond, the door to the infirmary opened and the nurse stepped in, Professor Ozpin right behind her.
"Miss Rose," Ozpin greeted with a warm smile. "How are you feeling?"
"I'm okay," Ruby answered, her voice filled with uncertainty. "I have a bit of a headache, though."
Ozpin chuckled quietly and nodded. "That is to be expected, after what you went through tonight."
"Yeah, about that." Ruby fidgeted with the edge of the blanket. "What happened to me?"
"That's what I came to talk to you about," Ozpin replied. He took a short sip from his mug. "Have you ever heard of soulmates?"
"Soulmates?" Ruby repeated. Out of the corner of her eye, she noticed Blake stiffen. "No."
"It is believed that soulmates are two people who are destined to be together," Ozpin explained. "When you make eye contact with your soulmate, you form a bond with them."
"What kind of a bond?" Yang asked, her eyebrows drawing together in confusion.
"A sort of… psychic bond," Ozpin answered. "It's difficult to put into words, but that is the best I can describe it."
Weiss scoffed. "No way." She crossed her arms over her chest and stuck her nose up. "That's impossible. I don't believe it."
Ozpin merely smiled at her before turning his gaze back to Ruby. "A bond between two soulmates is also called the soulbond. A soulbond is extremely rare, so rare that most people don't even believe it exists." He glanced at Weiss as he said this, then back to Ruby. "The best way to tell if you have been bonded is by the mark."
"Mark?" RWBY repeated in unison.
"Yes." Ozpin gestured to Ruby's left shoulder, which—she had just now noticed—had been covered by a large, square-shaped bandage. "When a soulbond is formed, your soulmate's emblem appears on the back of your left shoulder as physical proof that you are bonded to one another."
Ruby reached up and brushed her fingers along the edge of the bandage. Hesitating, she glanced over at the nurse for permission. "Can I…?"
The nurse, who had been standing silently by her desk this whole time, nodded once.
Ruby pulled the bandage off slowly, letting out a small squeak as it revealed what appeared to be a tattoo on her skin. A gray boot with a wing on the ankle.
"Wh-what-"
"That is your soulmate's emblem," Ozpin said, taking another sip from his mug. "It's proof that you are bonded."
Ruby lightly brushed her fingertips over the mark, mouth open in awe.
Yang was also staring at the mark. "That's so awesome!" She cried, lunging towards her sister and enveloping her in another hug, squeezing her a bit tighter this time. "My baby sister has a soulmate!"
"Yang," Ruby gasped, trying to wriggle out of her sister's grip. "You're squishing me!"
Yang laughed and released her. "Sorry, Sis. I'm just so excited for you!" She rested a hand on Ruby's right shoulder and grinned.
"Ruby."
The girls all turned to look at Ozpin.
"If I may ask, who did you bond with?" His flicked around to the empty beds.
"I don't know his name," Ruby answered somewhat sheepishly, her eyes falling to her lap. "I didn't get a chance to ask."
Ozpin nodded and took another thoughtful sip.
"I was wondering about that, actually." All eyes in the room turning to Blake. "Ruby's bond-mate should have gone through the same experience as her. Why isn't he here?"
Mercury woke with a groan. He felt like crap—there was a dull ache in his head, the back of his shoulder felt like it'd been stung by a group of bees, and he was exhausted in every sense of the word.
He was laying on his stomach on the bed in his dorm room, and could feel a weight on his back, as if someone was sitting on top of him.
"Finally awake?" That someone questioned. He felt something brush against the sensitive area on his back and he hissed, trying to squirm away from it.
"Hold still!" Emerald snapped, pressing her hand down on his right shoulder to hold him in place. "Unless you want to be covered in blood."
"Blood?" Mercury ran a hand down his face and tried to remember what happened. Why was he bleeding?
The tip of Emerald's finger brushed against that spot again and, again, he hissed in pain and tried to twist out of her grasp and away from her touch.
Emerald growled and held him down more firmly. "Will you hold still?" She barked, annoyed. "I can't wash this properly if you keep squirming."
"It hurts," He snapped back through gritted teeth.
She rolled her eyes. "Don't be such a baby." Despite her harsh response, she attempted to be more gentle, lightly swiping the wet cloth over his skin and avoiding any skin-to-skin contact with the new tattoo on his back.
After a few seconds, Mercury relaxed with a quiet sigh. He let a few moments of silence pass before he asked, "What happened?"
"You and that Ruby girl passed out in the hallway," Emerald explained. "You both took one look at each other and just started screaming." She paused, a smirk slowly forming on her face. "I know that you've bragged about 'having a way with the ladies' before Merc, but-"
"Shut up," Mercury grumbled, interrupting her before she could get to the punchline. He buried his face against the bed.
She rolled her eyes again. "Cinder and I had to rush like hell to get you out of there." She wadded up the bloodied wash cloth and tossed into the trash, glaring at the back of his head. "Do you know how much attention you could have drawn to us? We're trying to be undercover here, remember?"
"Yeah, yeah," he mumbled, voice muffled by the bed. "Whatever."
Emerald pursed her lips and glanced down at his back. "Nice tattoo, by the way."
"Tattoo…?" Mercury sat up suddenly, twisting his head around to get a look at his back.
Emerald fell off of him with a surprised shriek, landing on the floor. She glared daggers up at him, her nostrils flaring with anger. "Mercury-!"
"What is that?" He exclaimed in shock, his eyes glued to the mark. It was on the back of his left shoulder, the tattoo of a red rose. But he didn't remember ever getting a tattoo, and he certainly wouldn't get one of a flower. He reached over and touched it lightly; it didn't hurt the way it did when Emerald had touched it.
Emerald got back on her feet and brushed imaginary dust off of her pants. "You're such an ass," she mumbled. "I'm going to go get Cinder and let her know that you're awake."
Mercury waved her away dismissively and with a huff, she turned on her heel and stalked out of the room, slamming the door shut behind her.
Once she was gone, Mercury climbed off of the bed and hurried across the room to the mirror hanging on the wall. He turned so that his back face the mirror and peered over his shoulder at the reflection, trying to get a better look at the tattoo.
He stared at it, wondering where the hell it came from and what it meant. There was something about it… something he couldn't figure out. He reached to touch it again.
The door reopened and Cinder stepped into the room with Emerald following behind her. Emerald closed the door and took a seat at Mercury's desk.
"How do you feel, Mercury?" Cinder asked, no hint of any real care in her voice.
Mercury answered her anyway, and honestly. "Like shit," he said. "Do you know what this is?" He turned his back to her, showing her the rose.
Instead of answering, Cinder pointed to his bed and commanded, "Sit." He did as she said. "Have you ever heard of soulmates?"
"Can't say that I have."
"Soulmates are two people who are destined to be together by fate."
Mercury scoffed, wanting to laugh at that. She couldn't possibly be serious, could she?
The cold glare she sent his way said she could, and was.
"Soulmates are rare," she continued. "When you make eye contact with them for the first time, a bond will form between you. The bond is unbreakable and comes with several… interesting side effects." She gestured to his shoulder. "That mark is physical evidence of the bond."
Mercury shifted uncomfortably on the edge of the bed. He crossed his arms over his bare chest, uneasiness twisting around in his belly. "So, I have a soulmate?"
"It would appear so." Cinder replied, her voice and expression remaining neutral, adding to Mercury's feeling of unease.
The room was silent for several long minutes. Emerald's eyes flicked between them, from one to the other, nervously. Cinder watched Mercury with a heavy, unreadable stare. Mercury looked anywhere but back at her, his fingers absently rubbing at the mark.
"What now?" Mercury finally asked, his voice quiet.
"Now," Cinder replied, "we use your new bond to our advantage."
Mercury looked up at her, surprised. He'd expected her to say that the bond had made him useless to her, a liability. He'd expected her to kill him. "What do you mean?"
"That girl is the same girl who keeps getting in Roman's way," she replied. "Use your new bond to get close to her and her friends, and make sure that they stay out of our way." She looked over at Emerald. "You, too, of course."
Emerald nodded obediently. "Yes, ma'am."
Mercury wanted to roll his eyes at her.
"Good." Cinder turned and walked to the door. Resting her hand on the knob, she turned back to them. "Get ready for bed," she ordered. "Your new mission starts tomorrow." With that, she opened the door and left the room.
Ozpin had insisted that Ruby stay in the infirmary for the rest of the night so that the nurse could watch her and make sure everything was normal. He had promised that he would be back in the morning before classes started to check on her. In the meantime, he was going to call her father to inform him that his daughter had bonded to someone.
Ruby wasn't looking forward to the awkward conversation that would entail once she got to see her dad again.
Laying in the infirmary bed, Ruby stared up at the ceiling and thought about the events of that evening. She had a soulmate. She had been bonded to a boy whose name she didn't even know yet.
She turned onto her side and thought about him. She squeezed her eyes shut so she could picture him better in her mind. Silver hair, dark gray eyes…
She remembered the feeling that had passed between them in the split second before the pain started. She could even feel it now, laying in the infirmary. A pull.
It was trying to urge her out of bed, past the door, into the hallway and down the left…
The door to the infirmary opened then, and Ruby's eyes snapped open. She shot to a sitting position, all of her attention focused on the door. It was a strange reaction, one that surprised even her.
She relaxed, a bit disappointed, when she saw that it was just Blake who had entered.
The nurse looked up from her desk and frowned. "Miss Belladonna?"
"May I talk to Ruby for a couple of minutes?" Blake asked in her usual quiet and respectful tone of voice. "Please?"
The nurse thought it over for a moment before nodding. "A few minutes."
Blake smiled at her gratefully. "Thank you, ma'am."
The nurse decided to give them a few minutes alone and left the room.
Blake sat down in the chair next to Ruby's bed. "How are you feeling?"
Ruby gave her a reassuring smile. "Oh, you know," she replied, trying to keep her voice light. "I've had better days. What are you doing here?"
Blake looked down at her lap, fidgeting with her hands. She remained quiet for a few seconds before looking back up at Ruby. "I wanted to show you something."
Ruby frowned, confused, and raised an eyebrow. "Show me what?"
Blake stood and grabbed the hem of her pajama shirt, pulling it over her head.
"Blake? What are you-" Ruby stopped mid-sentence as Blake turned to show her back to Ruby. Her eyes found it, what Blake had wanted to show her—a mark, an emblem, on the back of her right shoulder. It was similar to Ruby's emblem, a red rose but with a stem and a slightly different shape.
But there was something else. A scar, crossed diagonally over the mark, as if someone had stabbed her there.
"You have a soulmate?" Ruby asked, her voice barely above a whisper. Without thinking, she reached her hand out.
"Sort of." Blake shifted uncomfortably on her feet and began to pull her shirt back on.
"What is this scar?" Ruby's fingers had barely brushed over the mark when Blake suddenly hissed and flinched away from her reaching hand. She turned to scowl at Ruby after yanking her shirt back down over her head.
Ruby blinked at her, eyes wide. "I-I'm sorry," she stammered, a soft blush lighting up her cheeks.
Blake's expression melted into something warmer, and she sighed. "No, I'm sorry," she said. "When anyone other than me or my soulmate touches the mark, it burns."
"Oh." Ruby looked down, a bit ashamed of herself. "I'm sorry," she repeated.
Blake shook her head and smiled. "No, it's okay," she assured her, her voice soft and understanding. "You didn't know." She sank back down into the chair by Ruby's bed and the two fell into silence once again.
"So, why is there a scar over it? I mean, if you don't mind me asking. You don't have to tell me if you don't want to. I totally understand. I was just curious..." Ruby rambled, her eyes on her lap, voice growing quieter with each word.
Blake chewed on her lower lip, thinking. "I'll tell you later," she promised, and stood up. "Get some rest. I'll see you in class tomorrow." She hesitated, then surprised Ruby by leaning over and giving her a gentle hug. Then she stepped away and walked out of the room.
When the nurse returned a couple of minutes later, Ruby had already fallen asleep.