One
One word
That can kill
Destroy all hope
Shatter everyone
Shoved into the black void
Fighting for breath but loosing
Just can't fight anymore
When a dear friend lies
Straight to your face
Can you live?
One word
One
With one word Weiss would've set the whole thing ablaze, except for the innocents mixed in with the traitors. As training for her new position at White Harrow, Weiss was required to kill deserters and traitors that would otherwise endanger the operation currently going on at White Harrow. The instillation was shrouded in secret but Weiss knew that her parents had built it for a reason. As the people danced on the floor below, Weiss considered what do do next. As things stood it would only take one word into the comm system spoken by her to set the whole dance hall ablaze. It would be an effective method to eliminate the insurgents.
But where was Ruby? Weiss's mind was plagued by this question for some time now, and she couldn't shake the feeling that Ruby should have been here. She felt partly responsible, not keeping track of Ruby. But then again the explosion had been unexpected, and unpredictable and therefore based on reason Weiss couldn't have done anything to prevent it. A folded paper was clutched in Weiss hands, containing a poem like prophetic collection of words.
Its words were only meant for the eyes of the head of Schnee Dust, White Harrow, and the heir to each corporation. It wasn't recommended at all to share it with anyone else. Mainly because it told of a word that if spoken by someone would give them the power to control the void and unimaginable destructive power. That and it dealt with friends and lies plus betrayal. Not meant for everyone's eyes.
Weiss's phone rang and she picked it up, looking at the screen. The caller ID read Yang's number. "Hello Weiss Schnee speaking, what do you want … Yang?"
"Well first of all what's going on?"
"Nothing."
"Where are you?"
"I'm at the dance. Where are you?"
Yang sounded slightly mischievous when she answered, "Well … I'm trying to sneak into the hospital."
"The hospital? Which one? There are 50 in the kingdom of Vale. Be more specific please."
"Why you planning on trying to stop me?"
"Trying?" Weiss said, glad for the destruction. She was mainly waiting for the three more innocents to leave so she could blow up the dance hall. "Oh please Yang, I'm currently controlling the payroll of the 5th legion of the White Harrow Army. Don't make me come and get you, or send them to come and get you."
"Can't I have any fun?"
"You're talking about breaking into a hospital, why would you want to do that in the first place?" The line was silent for a moment, Yang was waiting for Weiss to get it. "What's going on Yang?"
"Ah, I've decided to pay our dear friend a visit."
"You mean Blake? She's with me Yang, she told you she'd be going to the dance."
"Yeah, with you! What the hell Weiss? I was going to take her."
"Oi, stop changing the subject Yang. What's going on? And are you really trying to break into a hospital? You know that's illegal after visiting hours, right?"
Yang sighed. "Yeah I know. But I miss her."
"Who?" Weiss said finally getting it. "Who are you trying to visit after hours?"
"Ruby," Yang said finally deciding to tell Weiss. "I just want to check up on her, what's wrong with that?"
"Absolutely nothing," Weiss said. "It's just that I'm pretty sure you'd get arrested if you visited her after hours. And besides, are you sure you want to see her?"
"Of course!" Yang said. "Why wouldn't I want to visit my own sister?"
"You don't know what happened to her!" Weiss hissed into the phone, almost yelling. She was shushed by Blake who stuffed a whole cupcake into Weiss's mouth. Blake snags Weiss's phone and speaks into it.
"Hello there, Weiss sounds pissed at you. Yang?"
"Hey there Blake. Well guess I'm here."
"Where? Blake what are you doing?" Blake asked with concern.
"I'm going to get my sister."
After a moment Blake growled, "Don't you dare. Her injuries are too severe, I've been told by Weiss what they are. Trust me on this you don't want to remove her from whichever hospital you're currently trying to break into. Now Yang, if you care about your sister even a tiny bit, you'll let her recover."
"Ah ... fine. But what am I supposed to do now?" Yang asked. She then fell silent at a lack for words, having just realized that she had almost broken into a hospital.
"Well you could come to the dance!" Blake said.
"Wait a minute..."
"Hmmm?"
"Weren't you supposed to go with Sun, Blake? Didn't you guys end up dating during the summer?" Yang said, remembering that she hadn't seen Blake almost at all during the summer between their first and second years at Beacon.
"No ... something else happened. And if you come to the dance after getting dressed, don't worry about a date I'm sure plenty of boys will want to dance with you, I'll tell you and Weiss all about it," Blake handed the phone back to Weiss, who by that time had finished eating the cupcake given to her by Blake.
Weiss spoke, "You didn't end up kidnapping Ruby did you?"
"No I'm about to drive away from the hospital, I'm going to make a quick stop at the dorms and wait for you two to get there," Yang said.
"Why don't you just come to the dance?"
A pause then Yang said, "Cero Redek will be there. And let's just say he and I aren't on the same page when it comes to a lot of things."
"But ... as far as I'm concerned you're still together. Right? You didn't break up?"
"No sadly. I've wanted to break up with him for a while now," Yang said the sound of her voice telling Blake that she confessing something that had been on her mind for a while.
"And how long have you had the urge to dump him? I mean he's a lizard man, obviously. What's wrong with that?"
"Hey I gotta hang up, I'll text you when I get back to the dorm. Se ya!" Yang hung up after that, and Weiss shut her phone and put it back in her bag.
"I have a question," Weiss said.
"Shoot," Blake said grabbing her glass filled with punch and settling back in her chair.
"You asked me out, and I've kinda just accepted that you'd rather go out with a girl faunus…they a guy faunus," Blake blushed then reiterated. "I mean you and Sun? Wouldn't you rather go out with a member of your own race, rather than the heir of both Schnee Dust and White Harrow?"
"Hmmm…when you put it that way, year it seems strange," Blake turned her head to look at Weiss. "But can I be honest with you?"
Weiss nodding looked out at the crowd but was still paying attention to Blake. "Go ahead I'm listening," She said just to be sure.
"I didn't really love Sun, I mean yeah it was great and all going out with him … but I can't stop thinking about it." Blake closed her eyes the memories returning to her. "Those spiders, colossal like I've never seen before. I've heard of Grimm … but these can't be our normal enemies."
"Maybe not, but I'm leaning more towards yes."
"How do you figure that?"
"Well," Weiss said, "think about it. The Grimm as they get older inevitably get stronger and bigger and of course smarter. Now look at the colossal spiders, what are they? Do they fit the categories? Yes … to some degree. First how old are they?"
"I don't know," Blake chuckled. "And thanks to the frustrated look on your face, I can tell you have no clue do you?"
"Yeah," Weiss grunted in frustration, which meant she was really frustrated. Because usually when Weiss was upset she would talk it out, but when something was bugging her so much that it forced her to stoop low enough to use the common grunts of the lack of social grace … let's just say something serious had just crossed the heiress's mind. "I wonder how we can find out. You mind checking the school records? I've learned that you're quite the hacker, and I'm sure you'll have no trouble bypassing the school's security system."
Blake huffed and said, "Not all of it."
"No," Weiss contradicted, "you're gonna need to go through all of it. Again Blake, stay on your toes it's obvious. If something this big, colossal sized grim spiders living under mountains only 100 miles form a major settlement? You'd want to keep this buried as deep as you can, just so it wouldn't spread mass panic."
Weiss picked up her phone and dialed Yang's number, it rang but Yang didn't pick up. Good she's driving and she's probably on her way, Weiss said knowing Yang never answered her phone while driving her motorcycle, now time to phone Ruby…hope she can actually pick up.
It rang and rang, but then suddenly out of nowhere someone picked up.
...
"Hello? Ruby?"
...
"Come on … no on else knows you have this phone. Pick up I know it's you."
… "I…"
"Ruby?"
"…the hole…such…tearing up…moving…"
"Ruby, do you want me to come over? That way I'll be understand you, I can't … you're voice is breaking up."
...
"No Ruby nothing's wrong with your phone, nothing can go wrong with that phone. Heh, it's indestructible."
… "When will it stop?"
"I'm sorry?" Weiss asked stunned at the voice speaking so clearly, she couldn't tell if it was Ruby's or not.
"So much pain and blood, how's she suffering so much without a friend by her side?"
Weiss froze and went ridged, the person speaking definitely wasn't Ruby … but the same tone and speech patterns were there.
"Who is this?" Weiss said afraid of the answer.
"Why aren't you here Weiss Schnee?" The person on the other end scoffed. "If you're going to be running … Schnee Dust … and White Harrow you'll need to treat your friends better. I'm warning you now so you'll remember it later. You're gonna need good friends when the future comes crashing down on your head."
"Who are you? What have you done to Ruby?"
"You think I'm responsible for the attack on S.S. Grace?" The voice on the other end got angry, but her voice never rose so Blake could hear. "I will not tolerate the person's existence, the one who did this to her."
"Listen, who are you? I've asked you three times now," Weiss said getting angry herself but much more so then the stranger in Ruby's hospital room.
"You'll find out soon enough, but you don't have much time. Precious little Ruby will go under again in less than 4 hours, be here before then and you'll get some answers," The stranger paused and chuckled again, sounding way too much like Ruby. "Oh and when you get there? Act like you're not suppressed, whatever Ruby tells you don't press for more info … at least until she gets better. You here that honey? Don't tell them why just tell them who, I'm leaving now, think you can do that Ruby?"
"Sure mom … thank you."
"Shhh…don't strain yourself darling."
Weiss shut her phone and fell silent. "Who was that?" Blake said her voice of kilter slightly.
"We need to go now, call Yang and make sure she meets us at the hospital immediately. Ruby's awake and she wants to tell us something, but we've only got less than 4 hours until she…falls back under again," Weiss stood her entire body ridged. "I need to get everyone out of here … no not everyone just you and me. Come on let's go."
Blake shrugging her shoulders follows Weiss out of the dance hall. As they exited the building Weiss muttered a word. The glass of the entire building exploded floated out the windows in sparkling tendrils. All sound was cut out for a moment and the glass converged on a point 100 feet above the dance hall. "Wow … don't see that every day."
"Think we should stay?" Weiss said her acting skills coming into play, if she wasn't careful Blake might suspect something. But how could she? Blake didn't know about the One Word … and even if she did Weiss knew Blake would assume it to be a myth.
"Well…hey there's Yang!" Blake cupped her hands around her mouth shouting. "Hey Yang! Over here!"
Yang powered her motorbike, and it screeched coming up on the sidewalk. Yang put in in part, putting the break on and hopped down rushing to the dance hall. She stopped once she looked up, Yang hurriedly ripped off her helmet cradling it in her hands. "What the hell?" Yang's voice was filled with wonder.
People, adults mostly were streaming out of the doors of the dance hall. "Where are all the students?" Blake asked.
"To safety," Weiss said softly, both Blake and Yang heard her. Weiss waited a moment 'till she had their attention. "They're back at Beacon, they're a little confused but their memories will tell them what a great time they had there, and walking back to school."
"Wait … you mean you did this?" Yang asked.
"No…" Weiss said, lying. "I'm just in wonder as you, oh look the sphere's moving."
Both Yang and Blake looked up above the dance hall to see a floating sphere of erratic glass shards. Many sizes were floating within the sphere, most of small but all of them sharp. Sure enough the sphere was moving, and once it got near an adult, a man around the age of 30, it enveloped him. After it completely enveloped him it lifted into the air taking the man with him. The worst sound coming from a human throat came from within the sphere, after a few terrifying seconds the sphere changed.
Almost imperceptibly, but it happened and Weiss knew something had gone terribly wrong. She hadn't meant for someone to get killed … outside the dance hall. "Oh holy fuck. This. Is. Bad. Run…" Weiss took off in the opposite direction of the sphere and suddenly all she could see was glass shards.
"NO YOU DON'T! STAY AWAY FROM HER!"
Weiss felt herself get shoved out of the way and she heard a loud shotgun blast sound from behind her. Spinning around Weiss found Blake standing between her and the glass sphere. "Uh Weiss what is that thing?" Blake asked.
Weiss stood up and examined the thing currently getting pummeled by Yang - the blonde was furious using her shotgun gauntlets with furious punches to lay into the ambient collection of glass shards.
"That is … a Glass Harrow," Weiss whispered in reverance.
"A what?" Blake yelled now facing Weiss. Behind her Yang was loosing against the Glass Harrow.
"It's … completely magical. I summoned it, for a different purpose then attacking Yang I assure you."
"Oh yeah and what about that man back there?"
"You didn't see that he was a White Fang member?" Weiss's words cut Blake off and the heiress sighed. "Look I really can't explain, and besides we need to get out of here."
"Wouldn't it go rampaging?" Blake asked looking worriedly at Yang. The blonde was suffering injuries, and would soon go berserk; even Blake knew that up against this enemy she wouldn't survive another 5 minutes.
"Well, first you must know that a class 1 Harrow will disappear after it's eliminated its targets," Weiss loped over at Yang and here eyes widened. There was A LOT of blood flowing down the blonde's skin; her normally yellow t-shirt was falling off Yang's body it was so sliced up. Below the shirt Yang's flesh suffered worse, it seemed several hundred minuscule shards of glass were spinning right up against Yang's skin. When she moved yelled and tried to get them off, the glass shards just scattered for a moment then moved back in.
"That's it, stand back Yang … go to Blake! Ready … NOW!" Blake gripped Yang's shoulders and both of them ran screaming for cover. The Harrow's targets revealed themselves their invisibility cloaks finally running out of charge. The Harrow then went haywire, attacking the 50 some odd guests of the Valle Dinner Hall. This time tentacle like apparitions of flowing glass flashed out from the Harrow and jammed themselves down the throats of the adults.
The first five tentacles pulsed and the hearts of the dinner guests were swallowed traveled up the tubes and vaporized by the Harrow's energy. Weiss by that time had ran after the others, knowing all the things the Harrow was doing would drain it's energy reserves and eventually it would just shift itself out of existence. With only one thing one her mind Weiss ran as hard as she could; this had been a Siege of White Harrow's doing.