Mind Numbing
Chapter 8: Lost and Found
A/N: Sorry for the delayed posting for this story. It was finals time for University when I last uploaded, or at least I had to study around then. I planned on updating sooner but I have had some personal issues the last few days. So please forgive me for the delay! One or two more chapters to go from here, so I hope you enjoy!
Weiss, or at this point Ruby, gripped her head in pain. The girl of white groaned as she stood up, stumbling around as she couldn't get her bearings. Everything felt foreign to her... So strange indeed.
Ruby gasped as she realized she could move her own being once more, looking around rapidly as she was free to do so. The girl would be almost happy had it not been for the major detail of her new found abilities.
She was Weiss.
Ruby looked at the mirror beside Yang's desk and froze in place. She was Weiss indeed, moving her hands around as she had become her partner. Her voice quivered as she asked aloud if anyone was there, fearing the silence.
"W-Weiss...?" Ruby asked quietly as she waited a moment afterwards.
No response.
She couldn't feel anything in her head, trying to get a feel of this new form. A sharp headache gnawed at her, causing the girl to drop to the floor as she fought off the pain. It was all so surreal. It couldn't be reality. No, this had to be fake!
"Weiss..." Ruby cried to herself as she leaned against the bed of the girl she occupied, sobbing to herself as she held the plush seal close to heart. It was all she had left of Weiss. Her friend, she was gone.
The door to the dorm room was flung open, the flock of friends entering as Yang and Blake ran to her side. Ozpin stood just behind them, holding a potion in hand. His face looked grim as he saw the remains of the explosion, spotting Ruby's body across the room and the horrified look on Weiss's face.
"Oh dear..." The Headmaster kept his position, thinking deeply as he considered his options.
"Weiss? Are you okay?" Blake asked as Ruby sobbed into her hands, refusing to look at her friends.
"W-Weiss... she..." Ruby spoke through Weiss in a broken voice as Blake put two and two together, stepping back as she cupped a hand over her mouth in shock and fear.
"Ruby...?" Yang asked as Ruby nodded sadly, the brawler enveloping her sister into a deep hug. The pair held one another in sadness, Ruby crying her icy eyes out as Ozpin stepped forwards, taking hold of the situation.
"Girls. Listen to me." Ozpin thought as he looked to the body of Ruby nearby. The shattered appearance of the girl seemed to have stopped now that Weiss had been ousted from control of her own body, yet still she looked frozen and cold. "Miss Belladonna, bring along miss Rose. Ruby and Yang, I need you two to gather yourselves and come with me. There is little time to waste."
Ozpin moved out of the room and down the hall, pressing onwards as the group of girls looked to one another. The trio decided that Ozpin must have had something planned, doing what they were told and moving out of the room. Blake held Ruby's body in her arms, bringing her along with the group to their destination unknown.
Ozpin pressed his Scroll against the elevator of the CCT, the automatic computer system reading off his identification. Pocketing the device, the Headmaster then planted his right palm against the very same scanner, which read the impression and his fingerprints for confirmation.
"The Vault." Ozpin spoke to the artificial intelligence within the machine, a sharp ding sounding as they began to descend to the depths of the structure. The group looked anxiously around as they traveled further and further into the dark below Beacon, eventually exiting within a massive underground complex.
"This way." Ozpin spoke quickly as the Headmaster lead the group down the hallway of the basement, the Vault flooded by deafening silence. Ruby still cried to herself as Yang held her close. Blake moved quickly with Ruby's body in tow, begging the gods above that Weiss wasn't gone forever as she feared.
The group turned a corner, away from a machine housing an injured woman the girls did not know. Proceeding down another hallway the group stumbled upon a separate chamber, within sitting two tables with various inscriptions drawn.
"Set Ruby down on this table." Ozpin spoke quickly as he set down the flask of the potion. "We need to move quickly. Miss Rose, lay here please."
Ruby did as instructed and climbed atop one of the tables, looking over at her former body. She looked so cold and broken. Tears welled up as she could only think of Weiss.
Ozpin pressed the potion into her hands, ushering her to drink.
"You need to lay back in order for the procedure to begin." Ozpin spoke as Ruby drank a long sip. It tasted smooth like apple cider, something Yang would make occasionally. "You will experience a sensation of nothingness, then transcend into your astral being. A ghost, if you will. If we hope to retrieve Miss Schnee, you must find a tether of her being and reach out to it. Something she has attachment to."
Ruby nodded, laying back in against the metallic display.
"And Miss Rose?" Ozpin spoke as he latched a device above her head. "As you are going to be venturing to a place outside of our reality, you may witness things you will not comprehend. But listen to me. Please, do not let anything else return with you besides Miss Schnee."
Ruby went to ask to what he was referring to when suddenly a massive tug yanked her very core. Her vision went dark and she swore she felt her very Aura and Soul disassociate themselves from her being. Then her world reemerged in a flash of brilliant white light to which she was blinded by.
Ruby felt her entire being jolt again in a flash, and suddenly she could feel nothing anymore, yet she still could. It was so very strange for the small Rose. She blinked as she took in her surroundings, finding herself floating in the air above the room in which her friends sat. She looked down to her hands, finding herself in her old form, oddly enough. She tried to touch her being, which she had been gone from for so very long, but found her arms only faded through themselves. Ruby was a ghost, in all sense of the word. The Rose tried to call out to her friends, realizing that they couldn't hear her let alone see her.
"Guys?" Ruby asked as she floated down to their level, waving a hand in front of Yang. The group simply watched in both eagerness and fear as to what would occur now that Ruby had gone under. She wondered if time was still flowing normally, as it took them a while to even blink or breathe as she floated around aimlessly, still growing accustom to the sensation.
Ruby remembered her job, floating around the room. Ozpin had said the portal would be somewhere with Weiss's essence, attached to something meaningful. But she hadn't brought anything, had she? Would she really need to move all the way to their dorm to find anything.
Then it struck her: the seal!
Ruby floated over to the object, noticing a faint glow within the left eye of the plush. Ruby gently reached out and tapped the orb, finding herself yanked into another reality.
Ruby appeared in a snowy forest, the ground densely packed with the fluffy powder. The girl looked around at the dense brush as she walked forwards, finding her footing in this strange place. She figured she was in some sort of afterlife, or an endless dream perhaps. It was peaceful, yet she sensed it hid something vile and sinister. Not the Grimm, but something else. Unsure of what to do, the girl proceeded forwards, making imprints into the snow with careful footsteps. Her figure glowed faintly as she went, looking around nervously for anything. She expected more than just this... endless forest. It seemed familiar, but it clearly wasn't the Emerald Forest... no... it was as if she had seen this place in a dream.
Ruby walked for what felt like miles, eventually stumbling upon a small clearing. Within the ring stood a single woman of white hair who looked confused and lost, and Ruby couldn't be happier.
"Weiss!" Ruby screamed out as she ran forwards to greet her, anxious to take her home.
"Ruby?" Weiss asked, turning around to face the red headed girl she knew. Weiss had a faint white glow around her, as if she were an angel. "Ruby? What are you doing here?"
Ruby hugged Weiss as tight as humanly possible, or in this case spiritually. Ruby didn't really care about the literalist sense of the situation. All she cared about was Weiss.
"It's so good to see you!" Ruby sobbed as Weiss held her close. The pair held one another for what seemed like an eternity, basking in the glow of one another as they had once feared they would never see the other again.
"Ruby? How did you get here?" Weiss frowned for a second, the smaller Rose hushing her partner.
"It doesn't matter. I'm here now and I'm getting you out of this place pronto!" She sighed deeply, eyes locked to hold her tears back.
Ruby clearly opened her eyes for a moment, looking just behind Weiss through the tears as a look of horror began to develop on her pale face.
Far off, she spotted something else.
Someone else
Another angelic looking woman, looking withered and aged. Long scythe in hand, bent and contorted as if used for cutting crops rather than enemies. An ancient cowl hid her face, but her mere presence signaled fear into Ruby's being as she dragged her feet along the thick snow.
And she was moving towards them with agonizing steps.
A/N: More hopefully to come soon. Love you all!
