Thousand Cuts

Yang looked over her shoulder. "You done yet?"

A hum. "Just a few more minutes..."

"You said that four minutes ago, Gōngzhǔ. Just pick a damn gun already!"

Yang really hates going out on missions with Weiss. With Blake, it's fine because she talks enough to make the Assassin's silence tolerable. And being sisters with a Mechromancer like Ruby makes it easy to talk about weapon upgrades or Crescent, or what have you. But with Weiss, well...she isn't sure what it is, but something about the Siren just does not gel with the Berserker. The white-haired woman is decent, bordering on good most of the time when she's in Beacon at the shops or just sitting and reading a book, but then there are times that Yang wants to break out Ember Celica and teach her how to make out with a shotgun. Like now, for instance.

For whatever reason, Weiss is needlessly picky about what weapons to add to her arsenal whenever they come across a crate of them. Eberle Armaments were too cheap looking, Vasilias Tech was annoyingly shiny-seriously, one time Yang was worried she was gonna burst into flames when the sun reflected off of Ruby's new prize-Haywood Corp's weapons basically turned the victim into a well-tossed salad, and so on. But for some reason, she was more than happy to overload herself with Schnee Corporation guns. Even though she could complain about every little minute detail, which she did one bored afternoon for 45 straight minutes (Yang made a good amount of money timing that rant), she had an affection for anything that came from that Atlas-based company. Their designs were intricate, but refreshingly simple; there was even balance across each weapons type, from pistols and assault rifles to snipers and rocket launchers; and they never crapped out at a crucial moment.

A snap of Weiss' fingers brought the blonde out of her musing.

"I've been trying to get your attention for the past five minutes," she scowled. "We're leaving, I have a sufficient weapon."

Yang scoffed. "Lemme guess, another Schnee Corp?" A small 'humph' told her she was dead on the money. "You know, princess, I'm pretty sure Schnee Corp dabbles in products besides guns."

Weiss gave her a confused look. "What are you getting at, Xiao Long?"

"I'm just saying, you love them so much. They have other things you could buy if you ask the right people. They aren't guns, per se, but they are bullets."

"Yang, I swear I'll freeze your organs from the inside out," Weiss threatens, tattoos glowing. Most noticeable to Yang is how the top of her tattoo trailing down her left eye glows more intensely than the rest.

"Seriously though," Yang puts her pistol in the holster on her thigh as they continue walking to the Fast Travel. "I rarely see you using a weapon that isn't Schnee Corp. What gives?"

Weiss' tattoos dim to their normal state as she simply answers, "Dust."

"Dust?"

"The guns almost...feed me Dust, if that makes any sense. Whenever I have one, I can feel it flowing through me, powering my bullets. It's almost symbiotic in a way, increasing my Aura and abilities while I in turn use them more." To demonstrate, Weiss flexed her fingers and created a ball of ice. She threw it at a baby Creep resting nearby. The ball hit the Creep right on the forehead, lifting it up in the air and putting it the Siren's Frozen Stasis. Without blinking, Weiss drew out the pistol on her hip and put three rounds into the floating beast. Electricity crackled around the Creep, slowly encasing it in ice. Then, the stasis fizzled away and the Creep fell to the ground, shattering on impact.

"If I used another weapon, I could still do that, but the effects wouldn't be the same," Weiss continued. "It's hard to explain...but it feels like the weapons are made for me. To increase my Semblance, specifically."

"Is that why you came to Pandora? Because you're addicted?" Yang asked.

"I'm not addicted, brute. I can use any weapon I choose to."

"Which is why you rarely use or buy one that isn't a Schnee Corp one. If you're an addict, Weiss, I'd like to know now so this doesn't give us a problem later."

"I am not a Duster!" Weiss' tattoos flared again. Ice slowly crept around her fingers and forearms. She took a deep breath and calmed herself. "Let's just get back to Beacon."


That night, after they had returned to Beacon and headed to their rooms, Weiss sat in her bed. Her weapons were neatly arranged in a chest near the window, all but the pistol she had used earlier. Her thumb traced over the 'Schnee' logo slowly, taking in each letter, eyes trailing the curved 'S'.

Her gaze turned to the stars. She looked past Pandora's moon, past the large 'T' that symbolized the Torchwick Corporation; what she was certain was the location of the planet Atlas. Her home. She wasn't wrong when she said it felt as the Schnee Corp weapons were made for her. The things she had talked about with her father-increase the clip size for the snipers, reduce the firing rate for the Spitting Hydra-were in there, details only she knew. She supposed, in their own way, it was how her parents were helping her as she learned more about being a Siren. Before, they were filled with joy and pride, and then...well, she was on Pandora now, it didn't matter.

But as she shelved the pistol in its chest and closed it shut, she thought about home. About her parents, and how they forced her to pack up and leave; about her sister, whose smile was a front for uncontrolled jealousy. She didn't know if she would ever return to Atlas in the near future, but she knew that these weapons were more than just killing machines.

They were, at this point, the only real family she had.


In the Borderlands universe, there can only be six Sirens in the universe at a time. In this AU, Weiss is one of these six-you can probably guess who one of the others would logically be. Let's just say that being a Siren in addition to being in the family of one of the largest weapons manufacturers in the galaxy is pretty tough. More will be explained later. Leave comments and reviews if you have any feedback.