"Weiss!" - Regular Speech
'Dolt!' - Thoughts
-{Sis!}- Radio/Scroll communications.
Chapter 7: Soothing Ice
Command Centre, Schnee Family Rare Plants Facility
Glynda grimaced as she watched Taiyang destroyed yet another illegal plant on the screen. She had almost lost count of the number he had destroyed by this point. What had the Schnee Family been thinking when they had built this facility? They must have known that one day it would be discovered.
-{Glynda, that's another one taken care of.}- Taiyang reported, -{Moving to the next one now.}-
"Roger that, Tai." the Professor replied. She hesitated before adding in, "Tai…around about now, Ruby will be having the antidote administered to her."
-{My poor little rosebud…}- Tai said sadly, -{From what I remember reading, it's…agonising, isn't it?}-
"Yes." Glynda said, "But your daughters are made of stern stuff; I am certain that Ruby will endure it."
-{Just one more reason to burn the bastard who did this into ashes.}- Taiyang growled.
"Agreed. Now, get going to the next plant." Glynda said firmly.
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Ruby Rose's Room, Infirmary, Beacon Academy
"Err…doctor? What's that?" Ruby asked as she eyed the odd-looking necklace that Doctor Peach had taken out of a locked box and was holding very gingerly.
"This is an Aura Inhibitor." Peach told her seriously, "When you put this on, you will be cut off from your Aura…completely."
"EH?!" Ruby yelped. She hadn't been cut off from her Aura since the day Yang had unlocked it for her. The thought of going without it was terrifying. "Why do I have to have my Aura locked out?!"
"Because otherwise the pain you feel will be magnified from merely agonising to unbearable." Peach replied, "Once the antidote is administered, your Aura will clash with not only the Mistilteinn, but with the antidote if it isn't suppressed, which will make it a three-way fight inside of your body and draw things out to an unacceptable amount of time. The records are very clear on this."
"But…I thought it was impossible to completely suppress a person's Aura?" Ruby said in confusion.
"It is…this Inhibitor suppresses ninety percent of your Aura." Peach nodded, "The remaining ten percent is what causes the pain. Even then, once you put it on, the Inhibitor can only last for half a day, at best, which is why we haven't used it on you before now."
"O…Ok…" Ruby nodded meekly.
Peach gently clipped the steel necklace around the young girl's neck before stepping back.
"Next, we have to restrain your limbs." Peach said, "In the past, victims have trashed and injured themselves amidst the pain, so…"
Reluctantly, Ruby allowed her arms and legs to be secured by strong looking manacles with padded interiors to prevent undue harm to the wearer.
"Finally…this." Peach held up a thick leather strap.
"What's that for?" Ruby asked in trepidation.
"For you to bite on." Peach replied solemnly, "It'll stop you from screaming or biting your tongue."
"Will…will it be that bad?" the brunette asked hesitantly.
"It will." Peach confirmed, "I wish it were otherwise, but it is the only way to remove the Mistilteinn safely. If left to work its way out of your system naturally, your body would be damaged to the point that even your Aura wouldn't be able to fully heal you. Your organs and muscles would be badly damaged, to the point that you may never be a Huntress."
This made Ruby pale and she willingly accepted the strap into her mouth as Peach placed the antidote into a syringe gun and set it to inject rather than draw.
"OK Miss Rose…this is where it starts." Peach said as she pressed the needle into Ruby's upper arm, "For what it's worth…I'm sorry."
With a squeeze of the trigger, Peach injected Ruby Rose with the antidote. She quickly cleansed it and put a bandage over it before retreating from the room.
Ruby stiffened as her arm started to feel warm, then hot…then scorching. That feeling had her writhing uncomfortably, but when it spread to the rest of her body, the pain grew and Ruby screamed into the strip of leather as the sensation of being microwaved from the inside out magnified itself when Mistilteinn met Váli.
Outside the Room…
Yang watched her sister screaming and writhing in pain and felt sick to her stomach. She was supposed to protect Ruby from pain, to never let this kind of thing happen to her. And what happened? She let her guard down and her sister is almost assassinated. Now she's screaming with pain and she was helpless to help Ruby yet again.
Next to the blonde, Blake felt her cat ears flatten to reflect her internal distress. She had left the White Fang because she hated seeing humans suffering, regardless of their bigotry. Ruby was a sweet girl who had no discrimination against the Faunus race. She didn't deserve this kind of pain, less so than any other human she had ever encountered.
On Yang's other side, Weiss was having a hard time controlling her expression. She had been used to the idea that she would be alone, because of the White Fang and other rich families who wanted her dead. She had even encouraged it by acting like a haughty bitch and pushing people away.
She had been seven when someone died in front of her from poison. One of her father's business partners had been poisoned by Night's Breath, which killed within seconds. He had eaten a canapé and was enjoying it, before he vomited blood up and died.
She had almost eaten one of those canapés. Just a handful of seconds more and she would have been dead.
The same thing could have happened here. Ruby usually persuaded her to have at least one cookie during their private studying sessions, unless they were doing one of Professor Port's essays. If she'd started with another subject, Weiss could have ended up in a similar situation.
'What are you thinking!?' she scolded herself in horror, 'Being glad that it was just Ruby to get poisoned? What kind of a selfish monster am I?!'
Ruby was her first friend in a long, long time and she had promised Ruby that she would be the best teammate possible. A Schnee never broke an oath once given and so she would change. Change from a selfish bitch to the best teammate she had promised her leader.
Still, this was impossibly hard to watch. Ruby was writhing as if she was being tortured, her eyes bulging and her screams muffled by the leather strap she had in her mouth. She could see Ruby biting hard into it.
"Damn whoever orchestrated this." she said coldly.
"Agreed." Blake said, her voice cracking, "How can she bear it?"
"Because she, like her mother and sister, is a true Huntress." Qrow said as he stared at the pain-wracked form of his youngest niece emotionlessly, "She is enduring this because it is the only way to return to being a Huntress, her dream. Ozzy didn't just let her in because she beat up Torchwick, you know. He has the ability to see the hidden talent sleeping inside of someone. He let her in two years early because he knew she could handle it…though I don't think he was expecting her to have to endure this."
"No, I didn't." Ozpin said as he walked briskly into the room and stood next to Qrow, "Nevertheless, Miss Rose is enduring this far better than I could have expected her to."
"She shouldn't have to endure this!" Yang hissed angrily, her eyes turning red, "I really hope you're plugging those holes, Professor. I do not want this to happen to my sis ever again."
"And you can rest assured, Miss Xiao Long, that I am doing so." Ozpin said with a nod, "I have done my best to ensure that, while Beacon's grounds may not be proof against Grimm, they are proof against more sophisticated infiltration. Now that the security has been proven compromised, I am finally able to prove that upgrades are needed and can wrest full control of Beacon's finances from the Vale Council. And of course, all available resources will be devoted to finding the perpetrator behind Miss Rose's poisoning."
"Good." Yang said shortly as she returned her gaze to her suffering sister, her hands clenching and unclenching as she worked her frustration off that way.
"How long will this last?" Blake asked quietly.
"At least half an hour." Ozpin replied equally quietly, "The exact time varies from person to person, but Miss Rose did ingest quite a large amount of poison-laced cookies, so I'm afraid it could be as long as an hour."
"Ruby…!" Yang whimpered, tears' falling from her eyes as her sister was wracked by another bout of pain.
Blake hesitated for a moment before drawing the usually irrepressible brawler into a hug. PDA wasn't really her thing, but anyone could see that Yang needed some kind of comfort and Weiss was even worse at these kinds of things than she was.
Yang clung to Blake as muffled sobs burst free. She had been keeping them in for over a day and couldn't keep them contained now that she had someone to hold her. She could be strong for Ruby, but being strong for herself was another thing, especially when her sister was suffering right before her eyes and she was helpless to do anything about it!
"I swear that whomsoever poisoned Ruby will feel my blade." Weiss ground out, unaware of the tears that fell from her eyes as she spoke, "So I promise as a Schnee."
The next forty-five minutes were pure torture for Ruby's teammates to watch as their teammate suffered from the antidote battling with the poison within her body. She tried to move her limbs, but they were held down by the restraints.
Eventually, Peach re-entered the room, a look of pain on her face, as well as tear tracks on her cheeks. She went over to Ruby and, with some difficulty, ran some tests on the thrashing girl before exiting the room and walking over to Yang and the others.
"The poison is in remission." she reported wearily, "Soon, it'll retreat back to the place that it entered Miss Rose's body."
"Her stomach?!" Weiss wrinkled her nose at that.
"Wait…you don't plan on making her throw up the poison, do you?" Blake asked in revulsion.
"Nope; another stomach pump." Peach replied, "It'll take about ten minutes to get the poison out…there was only about ten cookies in that packet, and she only ate nine of them, so the initial amount of poison should be quite small, even if it's self-replicating."
"You make it sound less like a drug and more like a type of man-made bacteria." Weiss remarked.
"In a manner of speaking, it is somewhat similar to bacteria." Peach allowed, "It is more insidious and deadly and isn't in any way alive, but it does spread itself like bacteria."
"Doctor Peach, how much longer until you can remove the poison?" Ozpin asked.
"Ten minutes, give or take a minute or so." Peach replied with a sigh, "Honestly…this girl. Just how concentrated was the poison that she was given? The record length of time eighty years ago was thirty minutes, and that was for a Major in the Vale Army!"
"That's my niece, always breaking boundaries." Qrow said with a short chuckle.
"Doctor…will there be any lingering effects from this?" Yang asked.
"Hmm…she'll be weak for a while." the doctor replied after a moment, "She'll have to take it easy, as in no combat practice and no heavy lifting, for at least a fortnight while her Aura focuses on repairing her damaged internal organs and muscles. Of that, she'll be in the infirmary receiving healing from my Semblance once a day for the first week. During that time, she will be totally helpless. Other than that, there should be no adverse effects."
"She won't be helpless, because we will be with her as much as possible." Weiss said sharply.
"Damn right, Princess." Yang agreed vehemently.
Blake merely nodded firmly in agreement with her teammates.
"It's always good to see my decisions play out for the best." Ozpin remarked quietly to Qrow, "I just wish it hadn't taken this sort of event to bring it to the surface."
Qrow nodded.
Same Time…
Unknown Location…
"Shit." Roman Torchwick cursed mildly upon hearing the information from one of his informants inside Beacon.
The orange-haired criminal had taken a big risk by paying that irritating thief girl Emerald to steal the last ingredient of the Mistilteinn poison that had cost his boss, Cinder Fall, a lot of time and money to acquire. She hadn't planned on using it quite yet, so he'd had to improvise.
Fortunately, Emerald Sustrai's loyalty to Cinder was equal to her loyalty to her bottom line, so bribing the impudent little bitch to do a job for him hadn't been hard. Coercing a chemist with enough skill to make the poison had been far harder to do.
As to why he had done all this? The answer was one Ruby Rose, known as Red to Torchwick. She had interfered twice in his operations. Once at From Dust 'till Dawn and the second time at the Vale Docks. Admittedly, the second time had been more that odd Penny girl and the Kitty Cat than Red, but she had been there.
Torchwick had been so successful in the criminal underworld due to his habit of killing off enemies before they could become problematic. Two interferences in his plans and he turned his mind to how to destroy them. He had decided that irony would be best suited for little Red and how much more ironic could it be than to kill her off with her favourite treat as the delivery system.
Unfortunately, she apparently had the luck of the devil, because she still wasn't dead. One of the strongest and deadliest poisons on Remnant and she still refused to die. How typical.
"You and you." Torchwick pointed at two members of the White Fang nearby, a horse Faunus and a cat Faunus, "Gear up a squad for an assassination mission. Make it quick."
"Sir." they said and hurried off.
"Well Red. Let's see how your luck holds. Will it be two for two, I wonder?" he mused aloud.
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The Next Day
Infirmary
"On you go." Peach smiled as she let the three members of Team RWBY into the Infirmary's main ward, "Fifteen minutes only though. She's exhausted."
"Understood, doctor." Blake said as she led her teammates into the room.
"And Miss Xiao Long!" Peach added, "Your sister is far too fragile for your usual level of hugging, so no bear hugs."
"I'll treat her like crystal." Yang promised fervently. The three walked to the far side of the infirmary, where a small brunette was reading her Scroll.
"Guys!" Ruby looked up from her device in happiness at seeing her friends.
"Hey sis." Yang said as she sat on Ruby's bed and drew her sister into the first hug they had shared in almost two days, "You scared me."
"Sorry." Ruby returned the hug weakly, "You know I wouldn't worry you if I could help it, Yang."
"I know…but…this is the closest I've come to losing you…since then." Yang sniffed, "Not having you around…the thought terrifies me."
"We'll always be together Yang. I promised you that when you promised me the same thing." the scythe wielder said soothingly, "That is…if you still want me around…?"
Shocked, Yang looked into Ruby's eyes and saw honest uncertainty in them. Just like they had after the one and only time she had left Ruby alone when she was sick. She had desperately asked if Yang didn't want her anymore.
"Idiot." Yang gently touched her forehead to Ruby's own, "You're my adorable little sister. I love you and I will never, ever not want to be with you. Get that into your head, Ruby Rose."
"Thank you…" Ruby whispered with a small tear falling down her cheek at her beloved elder sister's answer.
Yang squeezed her lightly before getting but and letting Blake in.
"Hey Ruby." the cat Faunus said with a small smile, "How are you feeling?"
"Considering I should be dead, pretty good." Ruby replied with a tired shrug, "I still feel like I've been used as a football by an Ursa Alpha though."
"Ouch." Yang winced at that.
"Well, I brought you some books to help you pass the time." Blake took out three thick books from her bag, "All of them are your favourite genre as well."
"Oh, thanks!" Ruby's eyes shined as she accepted the books, "I've been reading on my scroll, but I've wanted something new to read."
Blake smirked as she stepped back. Ruby was almost as big a book lover as she was and her favourite genre wasn't too hard to figure out…hero's who did good deeds and saved the day…Fantasy, in other words.
Lastly, Weiss stepped forward and just looked at Ruby for a moment before hugging her as well, much to Ruby's wide-eyed surprise.
"You dolt." Weiss whispered in a trembling voice, "Don't you ever do that again, do you hear?"
"S-Sorry Weiss." Ruby apologised automatically.
"Dunce. Why are you apologising?" the Schnee Heiress said harshly, "The correct answer is 'I will not get poisoned and almost die in front of you, Weiss.'"
"I'll try." Ruby replied as she weakly reached up and wiped the tears that had started to fall from her partner's eyes, "But you do know that poisons are usually used because they're hard to find, right?"
Weiss pulled out her Scroll and tapped a few keys. "I've just transferred a list of all known poisons on Remnant, including their distinguishing characteristics and how to detect them by sight, smell or taste, to your Scroll. You will memorise it."
"Yes Weiss." Ruby said quickly as the ice-blue eyes of her partner bored into her, "S-so how have you all been?"
"Worried out of our minds for you." Yang said flatly, "Just so ya know, at least one of us'll be with you all day from here on out."
"Why?" Ruby asked in surprise.
"Ruby, the poison used on you was illegal." Blake said gently, "And right now, you can barely life your Scroll, let alone Crescent Rose. If Torchwick or whoever it was that ordered this done sends someone to try and finish you…you'd be helpless. So we'll be rotating guard duty on you, approved by Professor Ozpin himself."
"Thanks." Ruby smiled at her friends and sister happily, "Who's first?"
"That'd be the Princess." Yang said, smacking Weiss on the back hard enough to drive the air from her lungs.
"Y-You brute!" Weiss choked out.
"Man, that's just Weiss cold!" Yang complained cheerfully.
"Dammit, Yang!" Ruby, Blake and Weiss groaned in unison.
After a few more minutes of conversation and Yang's bad puns, Doctor Peach chased Blake and Ruby's sister out of the Infirmary. Weiss sat down on the chair next to the bed and pulled out some notes from the days she had missed class.
"Um…Weiss?" Ruby said shyly.
"Yes?" the alabaster-haired girl asked.
"Umm…a-about our room…" Ruby trailed off.
"Because Blake is a Faunus, the staff used some very powerful deodorisers to remove the scent of blood from everything." Weiss said gently, "We also have a new desk."
"O-oh…good." Ruby said awkwardly.
"How are you coping with everything that's happened, Ruby?" Weiss asked after a moment, "You put on a good front for Yang and Blake, but…"
She trailed off. Ruby took a breath.
"I…I'm not sure." she said, "I've never imagined that someone could be so spiteful as to poison me. I only want to help people. I don't know how I should feel here."
"Angry? Scared?" Weiss suggested, "I certainly would be…and currently am."
"Huh?" Ruby looked nonplussed.
"Ruby…I haven't had a friend in years." Weiss said softly, "Because anyone who got close to me was either attacked or had an alternate motive for doing so. I kept people away by being a bitch, because it was better than feeling pain when they either fled in fear or were discovered to be false friends.
Then…you turned up. Constantly cheerful, constantly irritating and endearing at the same time and constantly wearing me down until…I started to think of you as a friend."
"Weiss…" Ruby said in a choked manner.
"You are the first friend I have reluctantly had in years and you almost died." Weiss said shakily, "I am angry and scared and lot of other things at the moment. I'm angry that you were almost killed, angry that someone was cowardly enough to not face you head on to do it, scared that you almost died and scared that someone could kill you in the future."
"Do…you still want to be friends with me?" Ruby asked in a small voice.
"Against my better judgement, yes." Weiss said with a sigh. It was true. Though the part of herself that had guarded her emotions for years was screaming to push Ruby Rose away and rebuild the wall of ice that kept her that way, the emotional part of herself cried out against that and won.
"I promised to be the best teammate you could hope for and abandoning our…friendship…" she said the word as if it were a foreign concept to her, "…because of this wouldn't be befitting a member of the Schnee family. Just…don't die. Please?"
This last was said in such a small voice that Ruby struggled up and hugged Weiss, finally knowing why the alabaster-haired girl had seemed so lonely. She had been afraid of getting close to anyone because of trauma in her past.
"I promise to do my best." Ruby said simply, "I won't leave you willingly, Weiss. We're teammates and partners…and more importantly, friends."
The smile that lit Weiss' face was fleeting, but proved that the so-called 'Ice Queen' of the First Years was willing to open up to Ruby and that made being poisoned worth it, despite the pain and loneliness Ruby had gone through.
"Now go to sleep, dolt." the Schnee Heiress ordered briskly, "You need to recover and sleeping is the best way to do that."
"Yeeeesss~" Ruby sang as she snuggled down with a smile on her face, "Weiss?"
"Yes?"
"Thanks you. Thank you for being my friend." Ruby said simply before she closed her eyes and started to drift off to sleep. Weiss stared down at her with wide eyes for a moment. No one had ever thanked her for being their friend. Cursed and wailed, yes, but thanked her? Never.
A small smile graced her face as she whispered, "Dolt. I'm the one who should be thanking you."
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Next Chapter: Shadows in the Moonlight
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