A/N: This is not my story. It's based off a comic by LycanHeiress on tumblr, but it made me cry enough that I wanted to write a story out of it. A few things are paraphrased, but nearly every line from the comic is here. I hope you cry as much as I did.
You're conscious.
You can't open your eyes yet, you're too tired to move.
You don't remember anything.
You slip unconscious again.
You're conscious again.
You remember your name.
You are Weiss Schnee.
You remember most of your life, but it cuts off at a certain point.
You open your eyes.
Two figures are beside your bed.
One of them is sleeping. A girl with black hair and cat ears. A Faunus. She lies, slumped, her head resting on her arms, one hand softly placed on your leg.
The other is standing. She's short, young. Brunette. A smile on her face. Nothing will get her down, you think.
You don't recognise them.
The sleeping one awakens, her head tilting up in a snort of surprise as her pupils dilate, move, focusing on you,
And she calls out your name.
"Weiss! You're awake! How do you feel?"
Her voice is low, worried, riddled with pain and fear. She missed you. Her cat ears perk up, and a smile spreads across her face.
The brunette standing beside your bed smiles widely.
They remember you.
But you don't remember them.
"Who… are you?"
The smiles fade from their faces.
"Weiss. It's me, Blake," says the black haired girl.
She tells you her name is Blake.
"We're teammates-
Comrades-
Friends!"
You don't remember any Blake.
You tell her so.
"Weiss, you-
You really don't remember?"
Her face is drawn, tears rushing to her eyes. The brunette doesn't interfere, standing by your bedside in her strange red cloak, her lips pressed together.
After a while of crying on your bedside, trying to make you remember,
She leaves.
"I- I need to go."
You don't say anything.
You don't blame her.
You've fallen back asleep, but you're jerked away by pain, pain rushing through your skull and beating you down.
You scream.
It's a migraine.
The red girl was beside you at that time.
"Weiss!
What is it?
What's happening?"
She held you while you crumpled from the pain.
You keep screaming, and tears fall down her cheeks as she watches you.
"Hang in there, okay?
I'll call the nurses!"
She alerted the nurses.
Fragments, bits and pieces hit you like bricks.
"I can't believe you! You- you Ice Queen!"
A fight.
Yelling.
"I think tea's gonna be better for you this time, Weiss."
Care.
Comfort.
"Teammates for life."
"No. Friends for life."
Friendship.
They're of the same person, the Faunus who calls herself Blake.
"Blake…"
You eagerly await her arrival the next day. She comes in, followed by another girl.
She is happy when you tell her.
Her face lifts and the sad smile is gone, replaced by a real one.
"Weiss, I-
You-
You remember me!"
She's happy.
So is the busty blonde she is with. She beams, her shoulders lift and her eyes twinkle. She says her name is Yang.
"Whoah! Congrats, Blakey!"
Blake tells you she's happy you remember her. She stands up, next to Yang, and grins down at you.
"That means there's hope you can remember the others!"
You hope so too.
The blonde nods. She smiles.
"Remember me!"
But something's off about her somehow.
The red girl smiles and congratulates you.
She leaps onto your bed, her arms wrapping around your shoulders in a hug.
You decide to call her Red for now.
Red seems to visit you more than the others do.
And when the next memory came, she was there as well.
Lie Ren. He's pretty quiet. You don't have many memories of him.
He's always with- with this other girl.
On the other team.
Orange hair, energetic. You think they're in a relationship, but you aren't sure.
The next time his team visits, you tell them. They crowd around your bed, cheering.
Ren and Blake.
Months pass.
You remember Team CFVY. Coco, the leader. Velvet. Fox. Yatsuhashi. They visit often. Red seems to like them.
You remember Team CRDL. You haven't always been on good terms, but they're here anyway.
You remember Team JNPR. Ren and Nora. Pyrrha, the girl you tried to befriend when you started Beacon, but instead ended up befriending...
Red.
And Jaune. The one who constantly flirted with you. He's in a relationship with Pyrrha now. Good on him.
You remember Team SSSN. Sun, who you had been prejudiced towards. That had led to a fight with Blake. Scarlet and Sage. Not many memories of them, either.
And Neptune. You used to have a crush on him, but now it's someone else.
But you can't remember who.
And still you do not remember your own team.
Just Blake.
Red visits a lot.
She even visits after hours.
She tells you stories.
She lies on your bed next to you and animatedly talks. You're okay with this. You don't have to put effort into talking.
She moves her hands sometimes as she talks. She's very energetic. You enjoy lying in place and watching her hands move, her eyes light up as she talks.
When you ask her how she's able to visit after hours, she chuckles.
She taps her nose and grins.
"My semblance, when you remember~"
You remember thinking it was rude of her to play with you like that.
-
You have another bad headache.
As the scenes
More fights. Yang lifts her fist and you raise your sword. Red steps in the way.
Flash by,
Warmth. You're all sitting on the couch. Yang's semblance is the fireplace.
You know it's another memory.
Jokes. Yang is making terrible puns with your name. You can't Schnee Weiss she would do that.
But a migraine this bad only happened once before.
When you remembered Blake.
Yang Xiao Long. Blake's partner.
You tell her the next time she and Blake come to visit.
"We go back Xiao Long, Princess!"
She beams and puts her hands on her hips.
She's happy, of course.
But her happiness seems forced. The slight chuckles, the slightly-too-wide grin, the look in her eyes.
As though she is only smiling for your sake, and not for hers.
It gives you an odd feeling.
Red is happy you remember Yang, but she, too, seems sad somehow.
-
Your recovery is going well, and your memories are steadily coming back.
Weapons training. Port's classroom.
Studying for a test. Red's done something to your notes so you'd talk to her.
Yang trying to fit the whole team on Bumblebee.
Shopping for clothes. The others showing you what clothes regular people wore. You buying them all expensive jewellery as a gift.
However, you cannot remember how you got into this state,
Nor can you remember who Red is.
-
You have asked her a lot of times, but she never says her name.
She sticks her tongue out.
She smiles and gives you riddles.
"I'm a prickly girl. You can't get too close to me."
"Mom told me I used to shine like a gem."
She says she is mildly offended that it's been this long and you still don't remember her.
She'd stand, put her hands on her hips, with that cute look of mock offense on her face.
You have a feeling she's very important to you.
Your friends and family are happy for you, as you might get discharged from the hospital soon.
You've been practicing with Myrtenaster, swinging a sword in a hospital gown. It's fun, for a while.
But something seems off.
Like how it was with Yang.
You mentally kick yourself for only noticing it now.
"I'm glad you're okay."
Yes, everyone is happy for you.
"Thank goodness."
They are smiling.
"Welcome back, Weiss!"
"Get well faster, okay?"
They're avoiding something.
They smile, but you feel a certain emptiness behind it.
You are running.
You are in what seems to be a dark forest.
You are scared.
You stand in a clearing and look up. The shattered moon hangs directly in the sky.
Rose petals float through the breeze.
You are looking for something,
Frantically,
Desperately.
The shrill cry of a Nevermore echoes overhead, but you won't give up.
You have to find-
Whatever it is you're looking for.
You are on a hunt, you remember.
There were four of you.
You got separated.
The number of Grimm you were told to expect did not match with the number you encountered.
You concentrate on your comrade's auras.
They are faint, like yours.
Warmth.
You head that way.
Moments later, you encounter yellow.
Yang goes with you.
Shadow.
You head that way.
You find the black.
Blake goes with you.
Only one more.
The nevermore shrieks again.
This time, there is a gust of wind accompanying it.
It is swooping in for the kill.
You see the Nevermore,
You follow the Nevermore,
You see red.
And Red is all you see.
You go flying, colliding with a bush, and looking up.
You are fairly certain not all this blood is yours.
Why,
-the gash on you isn't even half the size of the gash on that overgrown fowl!
"Yang!"
Blake yells.
Yang's lying on the ground, injured.
Yang leaps for Blake, and Blake catches her, but the Nevermore has hold of her leg.
It's gone.
The Nevermore swoops around, flies at Red, and you're too late, you can't do anything about it, and it flies forwards, Red's not looking, no! No, this can't-
You wake up in cold sweat.
And a bad migraine.
You don't know when you started, but you're crying.
What took you so long to remember?
You feel a hand rest on your shoulder.
You know it's her.
She's always early.
You look up at her.
You have no idea how happy you are.
Now that you've regained your memories.
You have no idea how great it is to see her.
You haven't said anything, but she knows what's going on.
She smiles.
She's happy.
And unlike the others, her happiness doesn't hide a foreboding sadness.
It makes you feel at ease, somehow.
She laughs, and throws her arms around you,
Hugging you close like she used to.
You can't move, you can only cry.
Cry in relief.
After the last memory, you thought she'd-
"I'm so happy you remember me, Weiss!"
She cries out, and you know she's crying too.
She nuzzles your shoulder, and you know she's trying to wipe her tears on her shirt.
She holds you close, and she's warm.
But your shoulder isn't wet.
A feeling creeps into your stomach as you reach up and try to hug her back, only to find-
Nothing.
There is nothing there.
She pulls away from you,
Smiling,
Even as tears fall from her eyes into your hands.
But there are no tears.
"I'm so glad, Weiss."
No.
No, don't stand.
"Ruby!"
You finally choke out, finding your voice amidst the sobbing.
You don't know if it's just your tears, but she's getting blurry.
You reach out to grab her,
Or anything, really,
Just not-
Her hands clasp around yours.
She's warm.
"I love you, Weiss."
You can't do anything.
"I'm not leaving, so-
Don't cry, okay?"
"Ruby, don't-
Don't say that…"
"I'll always be here."
The warmth fades.
The world ceases to matter.
A/N: And that's all she wrote.
To be completely honest, I want to take their idea and run with it. I might write an ending. An aftermath. I might even make an alternate ending, a happy one, because I desperately want them to be happy again.