Warning: This chapter is violent. Skim the violent areas and skip to the next paragraph for plot if you do not wish to read them. This warning will only appear in applicable chapters.
Save her, save her!
...
I'm trying! She's lost too much blood!
...
No, no, no! Ruby, wake up! Wake up!
...
Ma'am, I'm going to have to ask you to step outside.
...
Blake, I killed her, I killed my own sister, oh god, oh god no.
She was a murderer... you saved Weiss' life... you had no choice.
I shot her, she was bleeding everywhere, why did I shoot her, Blake, why?
You had no choice, she was crazed... her aura was low, Yang, anything would have damaged her...
...
Doctor, save her, please, I beg you.
At this point, Ms. Xiao Long, any further action would merely be desecrating a corpse. Mrs. Belladonna, if you would please remove her from the premises?
...
Yang, stop, she's dead... shhh, stop crying...
There was no pain. Her eyes were open, but they were dry and one of them couldn't focus on anything. Slowly blinking, the scents of human and faunus and disinfectant around her, Ruby tried to figure out what was going on. She had no idea how long it had been since she'd heard a spoken word. She rolled her eyeballs and found that one of them was deflated.
Craning her neck to look down at her body, her vision slowly returned as she felt her drained eye refill with vitreous fluid. A Y-shaped incision had been cut into her chest, her skin lifted up and peeled to the sides. The entire front of her rib cage had been removed, exposing her ragged lungs and heart. Even as she watched, the perforations in her lungs sealed and her damaged heart began to close up. Her heart began to move again, pulsing gently.
Listening closely, she heard the voices of the pathologists and nurses discussing the extent of her injuries in another room. An autopsy, she realized. I'm in the middle of an autopsy.
A squeaking sound came from the hallway. Ruby stilled her eyes and her face, but her traitorous heart kept beating as a nurse wheeled a trolley into the room. Catching a glimpse of movement, the human nurse frowned and moved closer to investigate.
Her jaw dropped. "What the..."
Her other arm useless, Ruby propelled herself up with just her right arm and was still able to latch onto the soft underside of the nurse's throat, despite her lack of attached chest muscles. Working her jaw, she bit down and severed her vocal cord, then let herself fall back. ripping the nurse's throat out. The nurse spasmed and clutched her neck, arterial blood spurting. In a matter of seconds, she had fainted and fell onto Ruby, the blood continuing to splash out and onto Ruby's face.
The smell of blood aroused her appetites, making her leaking stomach growl with hunger. Chewing and swallowing the piece of neck meat, she tilted her face up and directed the spray of blood into her mouth, drinking until the flow lessened. Ripping off another chunk of flesh, she swallowed greedily. She was voracious, feeling as if she had not eaten in years, and she savored each bite of flesh. The meat seemed to disappear even before it got down to her stomach.
Her left arm healed first, allowing her to tear off chunks flesh even faster and cram her mouth, eating with wild abandon.
A scream came from the doorway, and Ruby realized that the medical personnel had come back. Shoving the body off of her, she managed to get a glimpse of the pathologist fleeing the room, screaming for help. She tried to get off the examination table and stand up but she realized too late that her abdominal muscles had been cut away, and she fell to the floor, coils of intestines spilling out. She tried to shovel the intestines back in, feeling curiously numb as she felt only the sensation of her hands and no pain. The ropes of flesh were slippery and ragged, some sections breaking off faster than Ruby could place them back into her body.
Giving up, she dragged herself to the wall, propping herself up and trying to will herself to heal faster. Unfortunately, Ruby realized that a set of ribs and an entire layer of skin and muscle didn't heal very quickly. She sighed and shifted herself into a more comfortable position, resigning herself to waiting.
A few minutes later, Glynda Goodwitch burst into the room. Ruby looked up and made eye contact with her, stopping her in her tracks as she looked at Ruby in shock and confusion. Recovering quickly, she drew four glyphs, two binding Ruby's arms behind her and two binding her legs to each other. Without her hand keeping them in, Ruby's insides started to spill out again. Glynda paused, wondering what to do.
Taking out a roll of steelsilk, she began wrapping Ruby in the silvery gray strips, trying the best she could to push her organs back in while also trying not to touch them. Ruby forcibly suppressed a smile as she tried not to laugh at the absurdity of the situation.
A string of intestines was still hanging out between the wraps of steelsilk, as Glynda waved her wand and moved Ruby onto the trolley. Rolling Ruby out of the room, she left the nurse's savaged body for someone else to clean up.
"She's alive?"
Jack Everest, head of the department of State Affairs, had been a semi-permanent resident at Beacon during the search for Ruby. He was preparing to leave after finalizing Ruby's death certificates and taking down the warrant for her arrest.
Now, he stared at the pale body that was surrounded with glyphs and strapped onto a trolley, being wheeled to the confinement chambers.
"She doesn't look alive to me," he said skeptically.
Glendall Goodwitch, psychiatric examiner and brother of Glynda Goodwitch, spoke from next to him.
"Trust me, she's perfectly alive, just look at the body in the autopsy room if you want proof. She managed to eat part of the poor nurse before another someone found her and called for help."
Everest frowned.
"Can we question her now?"
"She might not be able to answer, considering that her diaphragm was cut open during the autopsy, but if we can get someone to sew her back up I don't see why not."
Everest grimaced. "Alright, get a surgeon and let's go."
Ruby was strapped to the wall in the confinement chamber, the entrance shrouded in a thick layer of glyphs. Her limbs were strapped to the hooks on the walls with a couple of layers of steelsilk.
The barrier to the confinement chamber suddenly went down, allowing the sound of voices to travel into the chamber.
"Sir, I haven't done anything like this before-"
"Yes, yes, just sew her back up, nothing to it. We need her to be able to talk, and that ruptured diaphragm isn't helping."
A nervous man carrying a toolbox walked in, followed by Professor Ozpin, Everest, and Glendall. The small room was suddenly crowded, the three of them cramped into a corner to give the surgeon space.
He set down the toolbox, straightened his coat, and introduced himself. "H-hello," he began carefully, "I'm Thomas, and I'm going to reseal your chest and stomach area so you'll be able to talk."
Ruby felt a little sorry for him, so she gave him a smile and nodded. The fact that her face was smeared with blood and her expression looked more like a grimace didn't seem to deter the man, who gave her back a grateful smile as he pulled out a needle and steelsilk thread from the toolbox.
As he worked on her, Ruby felt only a slight tugging sensation as the needle passed in and out of her skin, pulling the flaps of fat and muscle on the sides of her torso back together.
"I can't do anything about your ribs, and you might still be a bit leaky, but I think you'll be able to talk at least," Thomas proclaimed as he finished.
Ruby pulled in a weak breath. "Thank you," she exhaled softly.
Thomas nodded and walked out of the room.
Professor Ozpin stepped forward, preparing to introduce the two next to him, when he heard shouting coming down the hallway.
"You may not see her! She's being questioned and you cannot interrupt them!"
"Like hell I can't! Ruby's my sister!"
Glendall looked at Ozpin. "Perhaps her friends can get her to talk, before we start asking questions."
Ozpin nodded. "I agree." Shouting, he said, "Let them in! They are allowed to enter."
Yang appeared in the doorway, followed by Weiss, who looked guilty and distressed, and Blake, who had a blank expression on her face.
Yang paused, not knowing what to say. "You're alive," she began. "I... I thought you died. I thought I killed you, sis."
Ruby's face had frozen as she recalled what had occurred before she died. "I did die, and you did kill me. You killed me, and you took away my love. I don't really want to speak to you guys right now."
Yang looked crestfallen, stepping back with tears brimming in her eyes. Seeing Yang's expression, Blake bared her teeth, but even her attempt looked halfhearted as she saw Ruby's freshly heartbroken expression.
"Ruby, was the person you lived with called Alysonne?" Weiss asked, a mournful expression on her face as if she knew what the answer would be.
Ruby's barest hopes were dashed at the mention of Alys' name in the past tense. She nodded slowly, unable to speak, waiting for Weiss' response.
"I had a... a sort of crush on her. I know you're probably not listening to me, but I saw her on a trip to town when I went to buy dust. The next time I went to the store, I saw her with someone. Was that you?"
Ruby closed her eyes and gave the tiniest of nods, tears beginning to trickle down her face. Weiss had started crying, too.
"When you asked me earlier if I had anyone I liked, I was thinking about her," she said in a trembling voice. She paused, trying to regain her composure but failing, her face crumpling.
"I'm so sorry Ruby," she cried, her tears dripping down her face as her sobbing intensified. "I'm so, so sorry. I loved her too, I didn't ever want her to be hurt either. Ruby, believe me, I, I-" Weiss choked up, unable to go on.
Blake had been holding Yang, comforting her, and she now pulled Weiss into her embrace, too. Her arms over both of their shoulders, she turned and walked out of the room, never looking back at Ruby.
The three had been watching the spectacle quietly. Glendall now walked forward, hands glowing with aura, and traced three glyphs around Ruby's head. A few seconds later, he jerked back, rubbing his palms as if he had been burned.
Ruby felt his intrusion into her mind and looked up.
"I was so lonely, so lonely, no one would be with me, so I made them part of me forever." she whispered. "I'm changed, I found love, but now I'm alone again."
Ruby gave a sad little smile and looked back down.
The room was silent.
Everest was the first to speak. "I've seen enough."
Gesturing for Ozpin and Glyndall to follow him, Everest left the confinement chamber and walked down the hallway and into a conference room. Ushering them in, he glanced back and closed the door behind him.
Note:
Yes, a chapter daily. Maybe more on the weekends.
Pew pew, next chapter will be more interesting as the plot moves forwards.
Next chapter already written, I just need to edit and so forth, let's see if I can get two published tonight.