Chapter Fourteen
Tests
Ruby knew why the initiation exams were so specifically scheduled just before a weekend.
It not only allowed Ozpin and Glynda to enjoy the last of the summer, but also forced the accepted students to use their weekend going through rigorous mental and physical evaluations.
Ozpin had kindly given them the first slot, dropping their appointment on their laps at precisely 0500, giving them an hour to get ready and present themselves to Monty Memorial. They had to abandon their planned morning workout until they finished, much to Yang's dismay.
So, while the poor schmuck assigned as their mental health evaluator picked and prodded Yang's brain, she got to be examined by the CT machine.
Her request for a prescription of estradiol valerate and progestin had raised quite a few eyebrows from the head nurse, first off, since those were two specific drugs used for hormone replacement therapy, and second, since her age meant her ovaries were in their prime and she didn't need the therapy.
It had taken the combined persuasive abilities of her team to convince them to grant her a screening, and the bet of ten Lien if the radiologist could point out her ovaries on the screen. That part had mostly been in good spirit, but the attending moved quickly to inject the contrast and fire up the machine, wasting no time in shooing Yang away for her appointment, and shooing Weiss and Blake into the shielded viewing room.
"Should I be asking why you're convinced your leader needs this exam?" Dr. House's voice echoed about the enclosed chamber she was nestled in. "By your age, she should be in the middle of puberty, ruling out a congenital defect or it'd be in her file, leaving ovarian failure, or a disorder of the thyroid or pituitary gland as the most common causes of low estrogen. Not, as you're all pointing out, missing ovaries."
"The only reason she's in there in the first place is because you want to win ten Lien. There are other tests for low estrogen levels." Chase leaned back in his seat as image after image poured onto the monitor.
"What's wrong with wanting earn ten Lien?" House twiddled with the sucker in his mouth. "Besides, it's an excuse to play with the multi-million Lien machine for the sake of settling a ridiculous bet."
"Because we know what the problem is, but she can't get her treatment without this hospital first confirming there is a problem." Weiss answered, casually sitting against the back wall with Blake a content pile of purring Faunus in her lap.
"You refuse to answer why you know it's a problem, but you know what the problem is." House spun around in his chair multiple times, coming to a stop to face his two guests. "So what happened? Botched training accident involving precise surgery? A two-bit hack in a back alley with a hacksaw offering an oophorectomy?"
"Sometime like that." Weiss responded, taking care to brush gently across Blake's ears. House's demeanor shifting into pensiveness combined with agitation, his default for attacking complicated mysteries.
"She's a healthy fifteen year old girl with no indication..." The computer beeped loudly at his statement and displayed a monochrome cross section of Ruby's pelvis. There were the usual two white blobs of pelvic bone, along with snippets of the intestine and a full image of the uterus, but nowhere among the gray blobs could they find an inkling of two ovaries. There were no cysts, no partial or deformed ones; they just simply weren't there. "But that's impossible."
"Told ya."
"Yeah, yeah." House waved her comments aside, exploding the cross section to look more closely. "There's no scarring, but the fallopian tubes look to be intact. This was either a congenital defect only affecting the ovaries, or a surgeon with far more experience than Chase here removed them."
Salem may not be a surgeon, but playing with a mortal's body was the equivalent of a toddler playing with putty. It certainly explained the ease of implanting the gem and carving those lines on her back.
"There's no medical reason other than an oophorectomy. There's no defect, no cancer. The only cure for her now is hormone replacement therapy."
"And you won't tell me when she had this supposed oophorectomy, and you're one hundred perfect sure this wasn't caused by some rare paraneoplastic syndrome specifically attacking the ovaries?" House wiggled the cross sections, browsing the different slices and angles to see if they weren't awkwardly hidden from him behind some tissue or fat deposit.
"You're smart enough to figure out she'd already be on HRT if this wasn't a recent surgery. The only reason she's going through this is because it's all covered as a Hunter of Beacon, but if you need to list when it was done, write down 28/6 of this year."
"All of you Hunters are cagey, never willing to tell me all the details until one of you is dying." House sighed and scribbled down the numbers she told him. "When she eventually starts dying because of the random virus or cancer you refuse to tell me about, you owe me a new flat screen. A nothing cut rate since you're a Schnee and can afford it."
"I'll remodel your office if she does."
"Good." House pulled out his scrip pad, jotted down some barely legible words, and tore it off, giving it to Weiss. "You can go pick it up anywhere you like, but we have a pharmacy somewhere in this building. Can never remember where. Chase, pay the girl."
He left before Chase could argue, making a swift exit despite his usage of a cane. He made a weird face to his fellow, pressed a button on the CT machine, and left through the swinging doors, making himself scarce.
"Keep the money. We just wanted to make sure she got what she needed." Weiss tried to get Blake off of her lap, but several nudges didn't do anything to wake the girl from her stupor. It wasn't until Ruby walked into the room she perked up, pupils wide and dilated, hair looking quite messy from Weiss' ministrations.
"Thanks." Chase stowed his wallet. "And the pharmacy is near the front desk. You can't miss it." He left after his words, chasing down his boss to cut his cane in twain.
"She could've gone for her physical, not spent the time in your lap getting attention." Blake stared her leader down, the picture of satisfaction. It was a futile effort as Ruby couldn't see the stare, but she got the point across just the same. Blake was a glutton for tactile pleasure, always was and always will be. "Your Aura feels like you've just had a good shag by the way."
Understanding she wasn't going to get anything from her quiet wife, Ruby lead to two out of the large room, picking up their variety of weapons and leg pouches from a table, the metal not being allowed in the room. Ruby slid her sunglasses back on, having kept her eyes closed throughout the procedure and relying on her shells. Weiss gently guided her to the pharmacy, Ruby not being able to read as the words didn't raise any bumps or register on her shells.
She would've had to learn braille if she didn't have Rei to lend her her eyes. Taking notes in class and reading from the board would be a challenge she'd have to overcome at a later point. Her team would've to take notes for her to read later in the privacy of their room.
How the pharmacist could read the chicken scratch House counted as words was a mystery Weiss would never solve. She could make out a vague 'e' shaped letter, and maybe a 'v' along with a 'p' but everything else was lost in translation.
They got two little innocuous boxes which Ruby pocketed into her leg pouch, and Weiss lead them further into the hospital to keep with Ozpin's appointments. Ruby had some semblance of mercy for the therapist, letting Weiss go ahead, while Blake and her funneled into separate rooms for their physicals.
She had no doubt Blake would pass with flying colors, Yang brutally whipping the four of them back into shape over the last two months.
"Miss Rose?" Ruby slightly frowned at her name. Her birth certificate must've been sealed under Qrow's and Ozpin's request. She knew the codes to unlock the seal, but what was the point. It would do nothing for her own personal identity and would strain Tai's and Qrow's relationship. "I'll be your doctor today for your evaluation. You call me Cameron or Allison if you prefer."
It was Cameron's turn to frown as her patient only nodded. "You just came out of an CT exam confirming your lack of ovaries, and were given prescriptions for both estradiol valerate and progestin. Is that correct?"
"Yes." Cameron wrote down the response, shivering as the monotone washed over her, her instincts screaming for her to leave the room and have Foreman do the exam, but duty kept firmly in place. "Can you confirm your full name for me?"
"Ruby Rose, born 12/21/66, height 5'7", weight 61 kg." She rattled off a series of memorized numbers, Cameron noting and checking each one as a quality control check before she had to ask.
"Any alcohol or drugs I should know about?" She responded with a negative, wondering if Yang's Aura could count as one. It left its user high on Aura, making them feel happy, had a slightly addicted feeling, and could be used as an aphrodisiac given an incentive.
"Good, but regardless, I'm required to draw blood and have it tested for them, along with tests for glucose, proteins, pregnancy, and other health indicators. Though, you don't have to worry about the pregnancy part." Cameron pulled a cart from the side and bid Ruby to take a seat. "So what makes a young girl like you realize she doesn't ever want kids? I saw the report."
"I have my reasons Doctor." The rest of the blood draw was done in silence, her blood pressure and pulse rate noted down by the shaken Cameron. There was nothing behind that voice and Ruby held nothing back, not deeming it necessary to hide from her. "Any blood samples you take are to be destroyed."
"Of course. Alright, since that's all done we can move on to vision testing and color perception. You're going to be asked to read out a series of letters on the wall from a set distance and then after, you'll be asked to read a number from a colored plate."
"Do you have specific tests for the blind?" Ruby took her shades off, clipping them to her tee. Her dead eyes fought against Cameron's jade green, slowly pulling the life from them into the abyss. Fortunately, Cameron's intrigue fought right back and she strode forward, pulling out her penlight.
Ruby remained still as she examined her eyes, poking lightly underneath the skin and flicking the light across her pupils, testing them to see if something responded. The black marbles remained quiet under her tests, revealing nothing. There was no solid distinction between the sclera, iris, and pupil, just a seamless mass of black.
"Umm...how long have you been blind?" Cameron quickly rechecked Ruby's documents, the sounds of rustling paper filling the room. "There's nothing in your records."
"Because I've managed to keep it a secret from everyone except my team, and it'll continue to remain one. As it pertains to my duties as a Hunter, it'll be listed down in my hospital profile, but under no terms will my disability be listed in my public documents." Cameron dutifully followed along, making sure it'd be kept away from prying eyes. Monty prided itself with confidentiality, knowing information of the Hunters needed to be protected.
"Since you passed the entrance exams, I assume you manage to visualize the world in a different way. Your disability will remain hidden at your discretion as long as you can show competency in identifying a series of objects around the room."
"I can tell where you are from the feel of your Aura. I can tell the room is approximately four by three meters. I can tell the contents of the cart by your side include a number of documents pertaining to me, along with seven vials of my blood. Your hair is styled into a high bun, you wear your stethoscope around your neck, and your identification is clipped to the lower right pocket of your lab coat, though I'm unable to read it."
Cameron was dealing better with her voice, the shivers and sense of oncoming dread abating the more and more she learned.
"You identify by Aura pulses then, or some variation of them." She noted it down, checking off the box for visual competence, but still marking the box for a disability. Only Ozpin, Qrow, and Glynda would've access to the document, and it wasn't as if she was deliberately hiding, she just wasn't informing them of the change. "You realize your superiors will be notified as soon as an you're assigned an official mission?"
Ruby nodded, having to accept the fact. It wasn't the easiest secret to hide, and she could feel the potential clusterfuck brewing if Qrow, Tai, or Ozpin learned of it. The last's reaction would likely be the most surprising, knowing her eyes were fragments of his own Aura, and nothing of lower power could remove them.
Or her consent.
She gave it a few hours before he found out and called her to his office.
"Your last test with me will be an ear examination, before I send you off for your psych eval." She pulled over another machine with dozens of knobs and sliders. "You'll signal me with a raised finger for each sound you hear, starting with your left, then right, then both at the same time throughout a range of frequencies."
Ruby placed the offered headset on and the sound of the climate control went away, replaced with quiet. The first sound was incredible low in her left ear, but she could hear it and she raised a finger. The same sound replayed a few seconds later, confirming she had indeed heard a sound and wasn't faking. The process continued, the pitch of the bleep rising in frequency, before the sound switched over to her right and it repeated. It was repeated another time with both ears, Ruby catching every note.
"I suppose it's only natural your hearing becomes more sensitive with the lack of sight." Ruby handed her the headphones back. "You weren't augmenting your hearing with Aura at all, were you?"
Ruby again shook her head.
"Other than the super sensitive hearing, and lack of sight, you get a clean bill of health. Please let me know if anything changes in the near future, or before your next examination, and I can update your documents." Cameron stamped something on her papers and she filed them into a folder, presumably with her name on it, and handed it over. "You can go through that door where my colleague will administer your psych eval."
"Thank you." Ruby placed her glasses back on, protecting Cameron from the further effects, the temperature of the room rising as she left.
"Hello Miss Rose. I'm Dr. Angela Ziegler. Please have a seat." The blonde doctor with a foreign accent bade her towards the seat across, taking the offered documents. She briefly looked over the top sheet, skimming the most important parts before setting the folder aside. "You have a rather interesting history and file, at a glance."
"I'm sure you're disappointed you're not psychoanalyzing the former White Fang terrorist in the room next me." Ruby blandly stated, reclining into the comfy loveseat, the soft leather molding against her form. It was meant to lower any patient's guard.
"Perhaps, but we're here to talk about you, not her." Angela's smile would've been disarming if Ruby could see it.
Actually, her entire body would've been disarming if she could see it. Her hair was nicely styled into a high ponytail, her features were high and angular, her clothes rather tight fitting, and her Aura was warm and comforting, not at all different from Yang's.
They were certainly well versed at this hospital, and Summer loved them for it. They have kept numerous grievously injured Hunters alive during their first war and had ferreted out spies at Blake's behest, delving deep into the mind's of potential traitors.
You're going to fail. The demon within her whispered, Re'iyah sitting next to her peacefully, a stark contrast to their usual relationship.
Ruby had no doubt.
"Did you leave your therapist sane when you were done?" Ruby was apparently the last of her team to finish her exams, the three of them sitting against the wall and waiting for her. The question came from Yang.
"She was definitely shocked with some of my answers from the way her Aura reacted, but she's a professional, so I'm sure she'll deal with it."
I'm still convinced we should've revealed our darkest secrets and left her comatose.
Yes, because telling her she had an alter ego, who once massacred thousands, if not millions, of White Fang members and Atlesian soldiers, was a better idea than answering those oddly specific questions about funerals.
What a grand idea.
You still failed. It was just a matter of how badly you failed. Ruby closed off the link with her, leaving Summer to her devices. She couldn't help but notice Re'iyah was ever so slightly larger than before, perhaps a few centimeters in length and height, yet she remained just as docile, save for her constant surprise attack and playful gnawing.
Something to check on when they were back in the privacy of their room.
"Then it's a good thing I managed to finish my report for when Ozpin calls you into her office later today." Weiss took Ruby's offered hand, getting pulled to standing.
"If he remembered half as much as he meddled, then we wouldn't have a problem." Ruby remarked, her team neatly filing behind her as they left the hospital and headed through the district towards the air ferry. Their documents were now in the hands of an orderly, who'd shortly file them properly and send them to Ozpin for final review and decision.
"We'll follow your lead, but I don't see how you'll explain your failed psych test, or your lack of eyes." Weiss spoke for the rest of the team, Blake and Yang nodding with agreement. "He has every right to deny your placement at Beacon, and with no explanation, you'll be removed and sent home."
"Summer will throw a fit, I know." Pulling her from her environment of protecting her Hunters would drive Summer either insane or into a depression, and none of them wanted an incapacitated High Commander to rely on.
"Yes, and we'll follow you back to Patch and have to wage a crusade against the White Fang and Cinder alone, without the help of Beacon's resources, along with lacking any credibility. It would destroy my future prospects as CEO, and destroy Blake's standing in Menagerie."
"I couldn't escape the test. I could only answer it to the best of Ruby's abilities. Summer whispered her own answers to the question, but lets hope you crafted me well enough to slip under the radar."
It was still relatively early when the ferry dropped them off at the Beacon pads. The bright sun was only barely full circle above the tree line, casting long shadows down the cliffs leading down into the lake. The CCTS tower blocked its direct warmth, but the morning chill faded nevertheless, bowing to its strength.
A few teams milled about the outer perimeter of the school, all of the older teams with at least a couple years under their belts already, used to the harsh conditions Beacon instilled on its students. They were the only first years moving about, having to wake up as a necessity.
Pyrrha wasn't up and about for whatever reason, but they'd be sure to change that soon enough. Summer wasn't going to risk JNPR being led by a weak and spineless Jaune who couldn't do anything until his Pyrrha died.
"Detention on the first day anyone?" Ruby stepped aside from JNPR's door, tilting her head at it to indicate Yang to take point. The juggernaut planted her foot down, a glyph keeping her anchored, while she sent her other foot into the wood near the lock.
You know, you could do some personal 'training' with Blake. Summer whispered as the door frame splintered and the door was sent careening harshly into the wall, the hinges barely able to hold on. Or Weiss, or Yang. Preferably with all of them.
I wasn't aware you had a sex drive. Pyrrha, Ren, and Nora instantly shot away, reaching for their weapons in their sleepy haze, instincts flipping the safeties and leveling them at the noise. Their leader raised his head up, eyes still shut, and went straight back to bed. What's changed?
You've infected me. This annoying Grimm is causing this, I know it. Re'iyah stared up at Summer with her impossibly cute puppy eyes, flattening her ears entirely and standing against her thigh. It'd almost be bearable if it was larger.
Rei exploded into a massive blast of black smoke, causing Summer to hack out the infiltrant and sprint away, Crescent Rose materializing in her hands. The mist tarried across the bleak landscape, seeping along while a form coalesced within.
Summer found herself having to stare up at a pair of large, glowing eyes as the smoke cleared, being sucked into Rei's form.
Oh shiiiiiii- Was all Ruby heard as the tank sized wolf gave chase, leaping after Summer with playful bounds, tongue lolling out in joy.
Interesting. Ruby left her mindscape behind, returning back to witness Yang holding up Jaune by an ankle and vigorously shaking him. She needed a moment to realized he was in fact upside-down and not in fact, the right way up.
What was more interesting was the bleed of personalities between Summer and Ruby. As much as Summer was the perfect Huntress in every sense of the word, she distinctively lacked any notion of banter or sex drive. They were two characteristics added to Ruby to round her out.
It wasn't an immediate call for panic. Ruby was just a severely mellowed out version of Summer in the first place, acting as a barrier against her more violent and brutal tendencies. It wasn't the best example of dissociative identity disorder as both of the alters were relatively sane and had some degree of control over the other.
Summer enjoyed being a Hunter at her core, one of the few activities able to draw emotion from her, but she was a terrible leader and a worse beaurocrat, a trait the rest of her team had pounded into Ruby to make up for the other's failure.
Contingency:Prune would have to be updated if this merging continued, and neither alter was sure how their team would react.
Ozpin stared at the four psychological evaluations, separating them into their own personal screens and staring at the constructed profiles.
Team RWBY was an anomaly.
He didn't quite know, or care, how exactly Monty performed the evaluations, but he knew there were several results, and they were usually entirely accurate from the hour or two they spent pelting the students with questions.
All four of them had received recommendations for bi-monthly therapy sessions at Monty, ranging through reasons of excessive desire for violence to complete apathy for anyone they deemed as enemies to them, or to Vale.
It couldn't be random coincidence their answers to certain questions were nearly entirely similar, such as the question dealing with their response to an immediate and potentially large threat to one of Vale's border districts.
They had answered correctly when the threat was Grimm-based, but they had given the same answer when the question changed to an unidentified human threat with large weapon caches and considerable population.
Their answers were frighteningly similar and explicite, with only a few words misplaced or shifted to indicate their responses weren't copy and pasted.
Send Blake into their base under to cover of darkness to take advantage of her Faunus heritage, and have her execute any commanding officers. He had to double take at the same four words used across the girls' transcripts.
Given an all clear, the other three members would rain havoc on the remaining members within the base, making full use of Yang's volatile Aura, Weiss' control of her glyphs, and Ruby's speed to cut every single person down.
Each of them had added on caveats they'd have to confirm such reported threats in the first place, and change the attack time if there were Faunus, but none of them had strayed from their answers.
When asked to explain why she, Ruby, believed such a decisive strike was necessary as team leader, she had stated verbatim 'that they had chosen to harm innocent lives with their misguided goals, and their lives were forfeit under her abilities and prerogative to protect and serve'.
Her three teammates had echoed something similar, stating they would follow their leader if they agreed with her reasoning and their assessment of the threat.
It was far from the duties the Hunters performed, such cases being handled by the military, and as much as he disliked them, they had their uses.
The only reason he wasn't tossing the four of them out and sending them to an asylum was because of the remarkable loyalty they had displayed to each other.
Usually, each student answered differently to where their loyalties lay. Some answered their loyalties were to their friends, some to their families, some were selfish and pointed to themselves, but most were unsure, having never been asked such a question.
Weiss, Blake, and Yang said their loyalties were solely to Ruby, and each therapist had taken to note their answers were quick and without hesitation. Whether their loyalty would continue to remain, and why they chose to follow Ruby, was yet to be seen.
Ruby's answer was the same, stating she followed her team's decisions, but after a moment of introspection, stated she defended the people of Vale, not Vale itself.
Angela had noted, with several red exclamation points, it seemed the girl was taking advice from somewhere else, but a cursory check revealed no devices in her ears. There was a smaller note asking about the distinction she put behind the people and the country, and her response filled him with pride as she correctly pointed out Vale was a people, and not a country.
His larger worry remained with his potential successor as she'd failed to answer a few key questions her teammates had successfully passed.
The girl was a fully blown psychopath, something Tai and Qrow had completely failed to advise him of, leading him to believe they weren't aware of her condition.
A small blip on his screen popped up, notifying him he had received a direct message from one of his students, and he nearly swiped it away until he noticed the sender.
One, Weiss Schnee, using Ruby's codes to contact him.
Ruby hadn't yet received such a privilege, so how she managed to do so was another mystery on the ever growing pile he was going to cordon off his desk for. Maybe he'd have to move some of his cocoa from his hanger if his desk became inadequate.
That was blasphemy in itself, but allowing a potential danger to roam about his school wasn't high on his list as Commander of Beacon.
Everything to do with Ruby and her team was nothing but potential at this point and it frustrated him beyond his experience. He'd be foolish to allow her to disappear from his sight, having witnessed the power she wielded on the battlefield, and commanded as her team worked flawlessly with her.
He put the psych evals aside for now, pulling up the message. It's subject declared her team was aware of their assessments, and were further aware of their leader's condition, quite blatantly referring to it as psychosis. The attached report was actually a series of reports from the three of them, detailing the last two months exquisitely.
The same question from his first meeting with her echoed in his head.
Ruby Rose… who are you?
AN: If you haven't yet noticed, I had to re-upload Chapter 13 since the formatting was screwed up a little bit. Hope you enjoyed the chapter!