The halls were empty as Weiss walked through them. Adjusting the black cloth crossing her face, she frowned. It was a good thing that she had stopped and talked to the doctor before leaving the infirmary, since Clare had failed to mention a few things. Like how she was supposed to wear an eyepatch for a few days until the scratches in and around her eye socket healed. The doctor she talked to had been nervous, but a few quick questions revealed why: apparently some strange woman had threatened him with bodily harm if he didn't lie about her eye's status in the report. At least that was one less thing Weiss had to worry about. Reaching Professor Port's classroom, the heiress took a moment to breathe deeply before opening the door.
All eyes turned towards her, and even Port stopped lecturing as she quickly walked to her seat and sat down. Flashing a small smile to a worried-looking Ruby, Weiss turned to the professor and waited for him to resume his story. A few more silent seconds passed, and then he launched into a tale about clearing out a beowolf infested cave with nothing but a lighter and a sausage.
As soon as class ended, Weiss found herself surrounded. All of her friends, and most of her classmates, came over to check on her and offer their support. Luckily Ruby had already told everyone that Weiss was okay, so she all she had to do was explain that the doctor had told her to wear the eyepatch to keep her eye clean. After a couple of minutes most of the people left, leaving just team RWBY and JNPR in the room.
"You kinda look bad-ass, Weiss," Yang poked the black band sitting above Weiss' eye. "Maybe you should keep it." Weiss gave the blonde her best glare, and Yang grinned. "Yeah, definitely makes you bad-ass. Okay, everyone who thinks she should keep it, raise your hand!" Five hands shot into the air. Weiss stared.
"I can understand Nora and Jaune, but you too, Pyrrha?" The redhead smiled slightly at Weiss' exasperation.
"While it would limit you in combat, I can't deny that it's very impactful to your image." Ruby nodded energetically, hand still in the air.
"Yeah, you look so cool! Like you're ready to take on an death stalker all by yourself!" Weiss shook her head at the statement, but couldn't keep the smile off her face.
"Maybe I will keep it," excited faces greeted her. "I'll keep it just to use when you aren't listening to me."
"Aw, that's no fun."
"Come on, we should really head to our next class." Grumbling about the fun being ruined, Yang and the rest of Team Eyepatch gathered their things and left. Walking a few feet behind the rest of them, Weiss stiffened as something grabbed her right hand. Jerking right to look, she was greeted by the face of a sheepish Ruby. The cloak-wearer squeezed her hand lightly and leaned in to whisper in her ear.
"I'm really glad you're okay, Weiss. I-is it all right if we do this until we get to the classroom?" Puppy eyes stared up at her, and Weiss knew she couldn't say no. A quick squeeze back was her response, and Ruby smiled the whole way to class.
Moonlight trickled into the silent dorm room, barely illuminating it. Weiss listened to quiet breathing of her sleeping teammates as she sat up slowly and checked her scroll. Ten minutes until midnight. Getting up and quietly heading for the door, she paused and looked back at her bed. Sighing softly, she grabbed Myrtenaster and hooked it onto her belt. Now prepared for anything, she left the room without looking back.
If she had, maybe she would have seen the silver eyes watching her silently.
"You came," Clare's eyebrows sat high above her sunglasses as Weiss approached. Huffing, the heiress looked down at the woman sprawled on the cliff's edge.
"Of course I came, I agreed to this 'special' training of yours," her eye wandered the nearby area, and seeing nothing unusual in the grass, focused on the woman laying on her back.
"Well, I didn't think that you'd actually show up, Snowflake," rolling backwards, the huntress used the gained momentum to stand. "Let's get started then. First, put on this."
Weiss stared at the length of black cloth held out to her. "... A blindfold? Why?"
"Because this'll be the quickest way for you to learn. Oh right, let me explain. You know how to control your aura and activate it on command right?" Pausing, she waited for a nod before continuing. "Well, aura is good for a lot of things. It protects us, it can be used to defend, heal, or harm, and it's really the only reason huntsmen don't get squished in our fights with Grimm," reaching out, she snugly tied the cloth over Weiss' face, rendering the already dark world black. Fighting the urge to rip it off, the heiress focused on keeping track of the leather-clad huntress. "But most people stop at the level of control." Clare's voice moved as she shifted position, and Weiss tried to turn to face it. "You're going to jump past that level, and learn something that most hunters can't do."
"And what's that?" Weiss could barely keep the worry out of her voice. Multiple scenarios flew through her head, and only a few ended well for her.
"Using your aura to see. Well, 'see' isn't quite accurate, but it's close enough. It's a lot like reaching out with your hands in the dark. At first you'll just feel empty air or bump into things, but after a while you can tell where things are just by touch." A hand brushed Weiss' shoulder and she jumped. "I'm going to stop moving in a second, and I want you to use your aura to figure out where I am."
Weiss nodded and focused on her breathing. While there were many ways to activate her aura, she found that controlling her breath was the easiest method when not in battle. Slowing it down, she felt the familiar prickle of activation, and knew that an icy white halo had formed around her. Now came the hard part. Balling her hands into fists, she tried to mentally push her aura out. Straining for a few minutes, she let out a held-in breath, and tried to think. Blindly trying to force something with no knowledge wasn't going to work, obviously. So instead, she focused on her center. Imagining her aura as a block of ice, she slowly let it expand, frost creeping away from her and ice crystals slowly reaching out in all directions. Slowly but surely, it reached out six inches, then a foot, then two, then four feet. Weiss smiled to herself and kept reaching, searching for the huntress.
Clare sat on a boulder ten feet behind the heiress, and grinned as she watched the cold aura flare up and out. Uncoiling her own aura, she decided to give the girl a hand.
Weiss shuddered at the sudden touch to her aura. It was warm, and slimy, and wrong. Her frozen aura tried to pull back, but the intruder wrapped itself around an ice crystal and tugged slightly, pulling behind Weiss. It and Weiss' aura began a tug-of-war for control, until the heiress finally gave up and relaxed. Focusing on that direction, she slowly let the ice follow the pulling, until it hit what felt like a mass of worms. Remembering what she was supposed to do, Weiss returned her attention to her physical body and turned to face behind her. Clapping hands broke the silence and startled her.
"Well done, and on your first try too. You might be a natural," smirking, Weiss pulled the blindfold up so she could see again.
"Of course I can do this, I am a Schnee after all." Clare shrugged in response. Weiss frowned as she thought about the thing that helped her. "So was that your aura? That thing that pulled on me?"
"Mhmm. Everyone's is different, so don't be surprised if you come across an odder one some day. Yours is seriously cold, I thought it was going to give me frostbite, Snowflake," the whited-haired girl blinked at the comment, and a thought crossed her mind.
"Does that mean that everyone will be able to tell that I'm doing this? I thought the whole point would be that nobody knows I have to do this."
"Eh, it'll depend. Most won't figure out what's happening, and at the most they'll just feel a small chill. Someone with great aura control may realize what's going on, but they probably won't know how to track it back to you," walking over to the worried girl, Clare pulled the blindfold back into place. "Anyways, it's not like you'll be focusing on other people's auras. Once you get used to it we'll start on feeling for inanimate objects."
"What about Grimm? They don't have auras. How can I fight them if I can't sense where they are?" The silence stretched out for so long that Weiss worried that Clare had left.
"Grimm are easy to sense, once you get the hang of it. You just have to find the nothingness, the shadow in the world, and you'll know where they are," a hand patted her shoulder. "But for now, let's run the same test a few more times and then call it a night."
"Okay," activating her aura, Weiss let it travel out, much faster than before. A triumphant smile spread across her face as she found her target again and again.
Two hours flew by before Clare ended the lesson. Sneaking back into her dorm room, Weiss was glad to see that all of her teammates were still deep asleep. Quietly changing into her nightgown, she slipped into bed. Activating her aura repeatedly was exhausting, and she could feel sleep creeping up on her. Closing her eyes, she let a contented smile cross her face.
Her next lesson would be tonight, and she couldn't wait. Weiss wasn't so foolish to think that spending too much time with Clare would be safe, but it was undeniable that the older woman's knowledge was useful. Soon she would be strong enough to protect her friends, even the Ruby of her dreams.
Sitting under the clear night sky Clare stretched and sighed peacefully. Cracking her neck, she sent her aura racing out, quickly locating a familiar storm of an aura. Leaning back onto the grass, Clare pushed her sunglasses up so the she could watch the stars. "That's all for tonight. I told you it'd be fine, didn't I?"
"You showed that you can be around one student after being ordered to not harm them," clothes rustled as Glynda approached the open cliff top from some nearby trees. Stopping a few feet from the grinning woman, she frowned. "Pardon me if I'm not impressed with your newfound respect of orders."
Clare's eyes crinkled in amusement. "So I guess that means that I'm not off the hook yet?" Staring down, the blonde raised an eyebrow.
"Of course not. Be thankful that I even agreed to let you do this," Glynda glanced at her scroll and sighed. "We should go, it's late and we have much to do tomorrow," groaning, the tall huntress slowly stood.
"Please no. I'm not going to survive if you keep having me 'help' with your presentations," stumbling from an invisible push on her back, she grinned at the blonde. "I'm moving, I'm moving."
"We weren't the only ones here, by the way," Clare shrugged.
"I know. It was just a little mouse, nothing to worry about," looking up at the sky one more time, she watched the moon for a moment before slipping her sunglasses down. "Hey Glyn, the moon is beautiful, isn't it?" Glancing up, Glynda hummed a quiet agreement as they left the cliff behind.
Morning was greeted by a smiling Weiss, still joyful from her successful night. Not even Yang's half-asleep insults dampened her mood as she hurried her team to be ready for the day. Once the blonde and the faunus were out the door, the heiress started heading for breakfast herself. A light tug on her jacket made her pause.
"Ruby? Is something the matter?" The hold on her jacket released, and instead gripped her hand. Ruby wove their fingers together and looked at Weiss with worry lines on her forehead.
"Yeah, there is. I woke up last night to use the bathroom, and I saw the you weren't in bed," the red-cloaked girl took a step closer. "Is there something wrong? You can talk to me about anything, you know that, right?"
"It's... It's nothing, Ruby. I woke up and couldn't sleep, so I took a walk," looking away from her partner, Weiss winced at how easily the lie slipped from her lips. While she didn't look fully convinced, Weiss knew Ruby wouldn't question her. "Don't worry about it. Now, let's go to breakfast," pulling away, she headed for the door.
Ruby stood frozen, her empty hand held out towards the disappearing white back, fingers grasping only air. Quickly swiping at her prickling eyes, she hurried to follow her partner.
A/N: Another chapter completed, yay! I accidentally fell asleep while writing this chapter (maybe I shouldn't write in the middle of the night), and ended up having to edit out a huge chunk of that just said 'Weissssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssssss'. To answer your question about the prosthetic, guest, it's just a really high-quality glass eye.