Hello everyone, this is the newest version of Van that I didn't know would actually take the time to write a chapter. Presenting sick Van. So yeah, for the past week I've been incredibly sick, so I wasn't writing as much as I normally do, ergo posting on Sunday instead of like 4 days ago. Also, I'm starting the spring semester tomorrow, yay, please don't let them take me.
Anyway, we get to have the conclusion of the suspenseful story arc I started last year. I think I've wrapped it up kind of nicely. If not, blame sick Van. He did the writing. He may also say some weird stuff in the reviews.
With that, on to reviews:
CyberBUNNEH: One doesn't have to dodge when they have mad skillz.
rob. york. 1690: I WILL GET AS CLOSE TO KILLING CHARACTERS AS I WANT TO! *hides in bunker where the Pyrrha board is* Anyway, here's the next chapter.
FoxyFoxation: I've already fixed that. Weird visuals.
Star-The-Writer: I honestly had no idea for the name of the chapter, so I figured to go along with the AN.
boomnitro: Remind me to stand away from you when mad.
BladeMura: *catches pitchfork* Already did, now there's a new problem, but I'm getting better.
Pink Cat Glory: And that is when I know I made a good chapter.
Lyall777: You're welcome. Thank you and fuck you too then.
GrnDrgnzrd: Delirious writing is interesting for me. Now we see what sick storytelling does.
Nemasis Demarini: I randomly went back and saw a couple of the sleep deprived Van chapters and you seem to be on to something. I'll have to have a talk with him when he regenerates in a little while. I burned him alive before I got sick.
(Sassy) Guest: Yay, it worked. I was not going to have a Ruby ex Machina for that situation. I've used that way too much already, but I was building up to Weiss ex Machina. I also forgot that I passed 100k words. I should probably get to work on the plot. I honestly had no idea what the Worf effect was, so I had to go look it up. Yeah, I apparently did that without knowing.
Rapter267: DnD does kind of play a part in this. Maybe once in a while I will make an acrobatics roll for some characters *cough* Jaune *cough*, I think you've said that in a different chapter. Maybe the carnival ones, or maybe the dungeon.
rebekahtpe (chapter 4 review): Yay, another one who supports that theory. Episode 8 also goes along with the theory when Qrow was explaining his bad luck semblance. He basically said that his semblance is not good for raising a family, then he looked over to Ruby. I swear, they better either confirm or flat out deny this theory, or I will lead the flaming pitchfork charge.
Rebekahtpe (chapter 9 review): That's how it starts. When someone finds an interesting fanfic, they will sit and read it for a long time. For me it was when I discovered the 'Professor Arc' story.
Kid Nonexistent: I PLAY VIDEO GAMES, THEN DECIDE TO WRITE THE NIGHT BEFORE POSTING!
Enjoy
Weiss sat there cradling Ruby's body for a long time, weeping into the younger girl's chainmail. She didn't know what to do. Her magic wasn't working, so she couldn't heal her. She managed to defeat Roman with a surge of magical power, but after the mysterious girl made Roman disappear, Weiss felt completely drained.
It was a short while after Weiss stopped sobbing, she heard a loud commotion outside. Upstairs, there was a loud crash and then the sound of the floor breaking. Then there was the sound of a door crashing open.
"Ruby!" Weiss heard Yang shout from the walkway. She turned her head and watched as Yang jumped then landed on the icy floor, her magic melting the ice with each step. "Weiss, what happened."
"W-we were kidnapped, then-then we were knocked out," Weiss sputtered out as she held Ruby. "When we woke up he-he tried to kill me. Then-then he started to beat Ruby, till, till-"
"Who? I'll kill him!" Yang roared as all the ice in a five meter radius melted.
"He's gone," Weiss said as she looked Yang in the eyes, tears streaming down her face. "It's Ruby, she's-"
The warehouse doors burst open after Nora hit it with her enchanted hammer. She was carrying a mage over her shoulder while Blake followed removing an arrow from her own. They looked around the room before they saw Weiss and Ruby. Nora dropped her hammer and the mage onto the ground before she and Blake ran over to the two. The girls watched as Shadow flew into the building before flying back out.
Qrow slashed his broadsword to the final lock opening the brig. Inside, the slaves barely turned to look at the sound, and the ones who did just stared off into the distance with blank looks. Jaune and Ren immediately went to work opening the shackles. From outside, the knight could hear the sounds of an approaching bird and the cawing of a crow.
Seconds later, shadow flew under the deck and landed on Qrow's forearm. It cawed several times and flapped its wings, as if it was frantically explaining something to the knight. Qrow looked down before turning to Ren and Jaune. "Ren, come with me. Jaune I need you to stay here on the ship to watch over these people."
"What's going on?" Ren asked him as he followed the knight to the stairs.
"I have no idea, I don't speak bird," Qrow told him as they both ran onto the deck before jumping onto the docks.
"Then how did you know you needed my help?" Ren asked them as they followed the bird around the corner nearing a series of warehouses.
"If there is a serious situation, I think you'd be a bit more help than the bard," Qrow told him as the slowed down and saw several dead bodies and destroyed objects. "Also, I'd trust the guy with the shield to be a guard instead of a twin daggered fighter. Come on, I see the others."
The two of them ran into the warehouse to see Weiss holding Ruby while Yang just stood there looking terrified. Blake was checking over Ruby while Nora was keeping an eye on a mage she had pinned against the wall with her hammer.
It took Yang a second before she snapped out of her daze. "Uncle Qrow! It's Ruby-"
Qrow didn't respond as he quickly ran over to Weiss and Ruby. He placed two fingers against Ruby's neck and held them there for a while. "She's not breathing, but she's not dead," Qrow told them and he looked over to Ren. "You, get over here and work with your magic."
"It's not magic, but I will do my best," Ren said as he ran over to Ruby. His hand started to glow for a second before placing it on her chest. "Chi isn't as effective as actual healing magic. So I can extend how much time we have by a little."
"It will have to be enough," Qrow said as he looked around the room seeing the ice everywhere. He then looked over to Weiss. "You had a magic surge, didn't you?"
"I don't know, when I saw him beat Ruby, my mind went blank and then this happened," Weiss managed to say. "When I made it over to Ruby I tried to heal her, but my magic wasn't working."
"I see, so your emotions took control of your magic making you use nearly all of your magic. Then after you were done you couldn't access the rest. Without a catalyst, you couldn't do anything else," Qrow said as he looked around. "Yang, Nora, where is Weiss's equipment?"
"We haven't been looking around, but it's probably still in the warehouse," Yang said.
"Search the building, find Weiss's rapier and her bag with the crystal," Qrow told them as they began to walk further into the warehouse. "Nora, if you find her crystal, do not touch it."
A couple minutes later, it was obvious now that Ren was struggling with his chi. Around that time Nora ran out of a nearby door carrying Weiss's rapier and crystal bag while Yang was carrying the rest of the equipment they found.
"What now, uncle Qrow?" Yang asked as Nora handed him her items.
"Well, as far as we know, Weiss is the only one who has healing magic," he said as he took the crystal out of the bag, "but she is almost tapped out of magic at the moment. Now the only way to use healing magic is for Weiss to access the little remaining magic she has, and that requires a catalyst."
"But, didn't you say that we needed a blacksmith who specializes in magic?" Blake asked him causing him to nod.
"Exactly, and this is an emergency, so we need to do some blacksmithing," he said then tossed Yang the crystal before tossing the rapier at her. "You are the only one here who is a blacksmith and can use magic. With Weiss being drained, this process should be relatively safe."
"What do you mean 'relatively safe?'" Yang asked him.
"A mage's crystal is a great source of their power, but it is one of their greatest weaknesses," Qrow explained as he walked over to the mage and ripped off his necklace. He then threw the necklace's crystal into the ground shattering it. Suddenly the mage was electrocuted by himself till the point he died, then Nora's hammer started to glow from being charged up. "If the crystal is destroyed, a mage can be killed. If someone was holding it when it broke, it would divide the magical damage between the two. Having Weiss being drained, even if her crystal broke, the magic has a very little chance of killing her. When putting the crystal into something, the less magical energy the crystal has, the easier it can be combined."
"So Yang has the best chance to combine them now," Nora said as Yang looked at the two items in her hands.
"But I don't know the first thing about this kind of smithing," Yang said as she gripped the items tight.
"I do," Qrow told her. "I saw this happen once in Shion, when I travelled with your father. I remember most of the steps, but those required the forge. What you will do, you will be doing with magic."
"Let's do this," Yang said placing Weiss's items on the table nearby. "What first?"
"You need to heat up the sword's handle till the metal is easily manipulated," Qrow told her has he picked up the crystal. She took the leather grip off of the handle and held the cool metal. "The metal your father made this from is extremely resistant to heat, so you need to focus. Normally you would heat the whole thing or cause it to light on fire, but you need focus."
"I'll try," Yang said as she closed her eyes and focused on the weapon in her hand. Her hands ignited in flames, but the handle started to glow orange from the heat. Qrow extended his scythe and tossed the crystal in the air, then he sliced the crystal in half vertically before catching the two halves. The metal in Yang's hands started to melt causing Yang to look over to Qrow.
"Ok, now this is a tricky part," he said placing the crystal halves in her right hand. "When you combine these, the crystals need to be perfectly across from each other, and you need to constantly be flowing magic into both the crystals and the handle. If you don't do this properly, it will shatter the crystal."
"Very reassuring," Yang muttered as she aligned the crystals on the handle. She focused her magic through her hands and into the crystals and handle. As she did this, Yang pressed the crystals into the handle. She reshaped the metal on the handle so the metal was close to the original shape. Then, from the crystal, the metal started to cool down and harden. After that the handle appeared back to normal aside from the halves of the crystals near the blade under the hand guard. "Is it done?"
"Yes, which is really surprising, since last time the blacksmith failed and blew up his shop," Qrow said to her causing Yang to nearly drop the sword. He turned to the others and saw Ren had stopped trying to heal Ruby and had nearly passed out. "Blake, I need you to help Weiss up to her feet. She needs to be able to cast this." As Blake helped her stand up, Qrow took the sword from Yang and handed it to Weiss. "Now, this will be really difficult especially since you're mostly drained already, you will need to focus really hard, but when you are casting your healing magic, you'll need to listen to what your body is saying. One wrong movement and you'll cast the wrong spell."
"A-alright," Weiss said as she stood on her own, wobbling a little bit. She held her sword with both hands and focused her magic into the weapon. She took a step forward with her right foot, but then an icicle shot from the tip of the weapon past Ren and Nora's heads impaling the wall. "Damn."
"You weren't listening to your body," Qrow said as Weiss stood back up shooting him a glare. "If you're getting mad at me, don't I'm trying to help you out. You probably have just one more chance to save Ruby before it's too late. If you don't listen to your body you will mess up again, then you will not have enough magic to heal Ruby and she will die. You don't want that to happen, so listen to yourself and save her."
"Alright," Weiss said to herself as she closed her eyes. She moved her legs closer together standing up straighter. Then she let go of the sword with her right hand. Holding the sword vertically in front of her, Weiss started to emit a white aura while the air around her started to swirl. The swirling air started to speed up as a circle of warm light appeared below her. Weiss then opened her eyes revealing that they were now glowing a light blue. She let out a yell as she flipped the blade around and stabbed the ground causing the wind to blast outward hitting everyone in the room. Weiss then fell to one knee before passing out.
Weiss woke up, her head throbbing from an immense headache. As she looked around, she saw that she was in a room somewhere. She looked at the door and saw Qrow standing there leaning against the door. With a smirk he got off the door and walked to a chair near Weiss's bedside.
"I see you've finally decided to join us," Qrow said as he sat down on the chair backwards resting his arm on the back of the chair. "You've been out for a couple of days. Magic depletion will do that to you."
"Why are you here? Shouldn't you be watching over Ruby?" Weiss asked him as she started to rubbing her right temple.
"Well, Yang's been watching over her, and so have some of the others," he explained to her. "Blake was in here a little while ago, but she decided to see if this town had a book shop since she has been reading the same book over and over for three months now, as she explained it."
"So, Ruby is-?"
"She's fine," Qrow said causing Weiss to breathe a sigh of relief. "You saved her. Your magic actually healed everyone in the area. Blake had some arrow wounds in her shoulders and they healed up just fine. Ruby, however, has been slipping in and out of consciousness for the last couple days. Considering the amount of wounds she received, it's surprising she's not in worse condition."
"Ok, well, since I'm better, I'll just- ahh!" Weiss groaned as she tried to get out of bed before Qrow pushed her back down.
"No, you won't," he said then stood back up. "When a mage depletes their entire magic preserves, they can either not have magic for a period of time before regenerating, or die. To be honest, if you didn't wake up today I was going to assume you weren't going to. So, since you woke up, you're not going to be able to use magic for roughly two weeks."
"So, I won't be able to fully heal Ruby," Weiss said as she laid back on the bed looking up at the ceiling.
"You've healed her enough to the point where she can heal herself, by the time you're able to cast magic again, she won't need healing. You just stay here and recover, I have something to do here in town," Qrow said then exited the room.
It wasn't very long till Jaune walked into the room to check up on Weiss. He appeared normal at first, but his hair was majorly disheveled, he had soot on some parts of his face, some of his hairs were singed, and he had some tears in his clothes. He walked over to the chair next to Weiss's bed and sat down instantly looking tired hanging his head back.
"What the hell happened to you?" Weiss asked causing him to raise his head and look at her.
"I could ask you the same thing," he said to her before leaning back.
"I had to heal Ruby and I can't cast magic for two weeks," Weiss told him.
"I inadvertently became a pirate for a couple days," Jaune said to the ceiling feeling Weiss's eyebrow raise asking for an explanation. "Apparently, nobody came back to me and tell me what happened, so I was stuck with the freed slaves. The drugs they were on wore off, and they apparently weren't happy. After I told them I helped set them free, they praised me as a hero, but they repaired the ship in less than an hour and started a three day rampage on the open seas destroying any save ships they recognized. Then they started to pillage regular ships and got a decent amount of weapons, food, and gold. I asked if they could take me back and they agreed. I came back this morning and ran into Blake. She told me to come back to the inn and check up on you and Ruby."
"Jeez, that's quite a bit," Weiss told him earning a confirmatory grunt from Jaune before he started to fall asleep. Weiss waited there for a while, but didn't feel tired at all. So after she heard Jaune's loud snoring, she sat up on the edge of her bed. "I guess even if I can't heal Ruby, I should probably go check up on her. Maybe she hasn't told anyone." As soon as she put weight on her legs, she could already tell how sore they were. Deciding to bear with the pain, she walked forward suddenly feeling a pain in her chest that seemed to feel like a bruise from Torchwick sword.
Stumbling her way out of the room, she immediately heard the sounds of the tavern below the rooms. Looking over the balcony, Weiss saw Ren and Nora sitting in the middle of a group of guys. Nora however was seated across from a muscular man, their arms interlocked in an arm wrestling competition, the man seemed to be having trouble pushing Nora's arm down. Nora simply smirked as she pushed the man's arm down on the table causing everyone to groan in frustration.
Walking to the next room, Weiss entered and saw Yang sitting on a chair next to Ruby with her arms folded across her chest, eyes closed, but trying to open themselves in a fight to stay awake. She didn't even notice as Weiss walked over to her, but when she tapped Yang on the shoulder she immediately woke up.
"What'cha- hey," Yang said nearly hitting Weiss from being woken up, but stopped when she saw who it was. "Nice to see you're awake. Ruby was a little while ago," she then yawned and looked out the window seeing the sun setting. "Or maybe it was a while longer."
"You should get some rest, my bed is open, you'd just have to deal with Jaune snoring in the chair next to the bed," Weiss suggested to the brawler.
"I'm fine, I need to stay by Ruby's side, just in case she wakes up," Yang said looking over to her sister who was sleeping peacefully before she herself felt her head fall before snapping it back up. "Maybe I am a bit tired."
"Come on, I'll stay with Ruby, go get some sleep," Weiss said pulling Yang off her chair slowly causing the brawler to begrudgingly agree and tiredly stumble out of the room. Weiss sat down on the chair and looked at Ruby's sleeping figure. She seemed perfectly healthy considering the condition she was in a couple days ago. Weiss leaned over and brushed Ruby's bangs out of her face before leaning back into her chair.
Back in the warehouse, Qrow walked down the hall dragging the tip of his broadsword on the ground towards a certain mage who was currently tied to a chair at the end of the hall. The mage immediately started to panic and began to try and cast his own magic only to see it failing.
"Courtesy of the princess," Qrow said lifting the tip of the broadsword to the mage's neck pointing at the fixed magical inhibitor. "Nice to see you wake up. So, did you enjoy your stay on the other side before her highness healed everyone?" The mage let out a muffled protest through the gag he had in his mouth before Qrow bolted forward placing the edge of the broadsword against his neck. "I have some questions, and if you answer just right, you may just live to the morning."
"Hey," a hoarse voice greeted Weiss immediately causing her to look at Ruby who was now sitting up on her bed smiling at Weiss. She coughed for a second and her normal voice returned. "Good morning."
"Ruby, it's dusk," Weiss corrected her causing Ruby to look out the window.
"So it is," she said then looked back to Weiss and raised an eyebrow. "So, you're a princess."
Weiss chuckled. "You know, I knew I was going to need to tell you sometime. Tied to a chair after being kidnapped was not my first choice," she sighed. "Yes, I am the princess of Atlas. My father, Jacques Schnee, is the king. Up until certain events, I lived in the castle there."
"It actually makes sense now," Ruby said confusing Weiss. "When we first met, you didn't know how to properly saddle a horse, how to farm, how to put on armor, didn't know the prices for some pretty common things, also you would do whatever you could not to reveal your last name or talk about your past."
"Well, to be fair, it was a good idea for me not to reveal who I am," Weiss told her. "I'm presumed dead back in Atlas, and to the White Fang, which I needed."
"To get revenge for your mother, you mean," Ruby said causing Weiss to nod. "So, who knows who you really are?"
"Not that many people, as far as I know," she said, "There's you, Blake, your dad, and Qrow."
"And Roman Torchwick," Ruby told her then immediately snapped back up. "Wait, Blake, dad, and Qrow?"
"Blake is a faunus, and they kind of have mixed feelings about my family. Your dad did a job for my father once, and your uncle just seems to know," Weiss explained to her. The following was uncomfortable silence as the two didn't know what to talk about. After they looked around the room for a little bit in the silence, Weiss looked at Ruby. "Does it still hurt?"
"A little," Ruby told her pressing a hand against her side. "My chainmail took a lot of the hits, but Roman did hit pretty hard."
"Why did you provoke him?" Weiss asked her. "Why did you hit his nose, or even ask him that question? He wouldn't have hit you then."
"I knew that," Ruby said causing Weiss to raise an eyebrow. "I saw you were fine from the slash, but if I did nothing, Roman would've seen you and probably killed you. I had to do something, so I drew his attention while you got up and broke the inhibitor. I needed to make sure you were safe."
"But why? Why would you put yourself so far in harm's way just so I could break the inhibitor? You nearly died, no, you would have died if Yang hadn't attached my crystal to my rapier. So why would you do that?"
"Because I care about you," Ruby nearly yelled at her. "We've been travelling together for a while, and you've been a great friend. Even tied to that chair, I just had to do anything I could to keep you safe. I don't want to lose you."
"Dunce," Weiss muttered to herself as she looked down. "Look, I care about you too, but please don't do anything like that ever again. I don't want to lose you either."
As Blake walked through the streets, she pulled her cloak tighter to herself due to the air becoming colder. Qrow explained it as due to Weiss's magical outburst, the local area became a lot cooler. Since it's already late fall, the magical outburst is quickening the season's progression.
She darted through the market district till she saw an interesting shop that appeared to have no customers. When the wind picked up, blowing open Blake's cloak, she decided to quickly go into the store. The inside was pretty impressive since there was nothing but books lining the walls. Behind the counter was an old man, that Blake swore she had seen somewhere before. He had a bald spot on the top of his head, long grey hair on the rest of his head, bushy grey eyebrows, and as far as Blake could tell, he hadn't opened his eyes.
Blake decided to look around the store for a while. Reaching a section labeled 'Grimm,' she decided to look at the shelves. The shelves were covered in a thick layer of dust, but there was an empty spot on the shelf where a book appeared to have been taken out very recently. She then decided to take a look at a section labeled 'Demons,' and yet again there was a lot of dust and a book missing. Deciding to look around again, she looked over to a section on magic to yet again find a lot of dust and a book missing. She turned around and immediately bumped into a man with silver hair wearing small shaded glasses along with a suit consisting mostly of green and black. Slung over one shoulder was a black bag with something in it. In one hand he was carrying three thick leather bound books and in the other he was leaning against a silver cane.
"Oh, terribly sorry," he said as he backed up. "Not many people actually take time to go into book shops. Though, the wind caused me to duck into this store."
"Ah, yes, same for me too," Blake said backing up slightly.
"And yet, just a few days ago it was a lot warmer, but that changed suddenly, like magic," he said tilting his head down and looking up over his glasses. Then he started to make his way over to the front counter. "Like some mage had a sudden outburst."
"Who are you?" Blake asked him as she reached to her short sword while he placed gold coins in front of the sleeping man.
"Not your enemy, Ms. Belladonna. My name is Ozpin, the commander of Fort Beacon. I actually met with one of your friends earlier this month," he said putting bookmarks into the three books before placing them in his black bag then closing it. Then he tossed the bag in front of Blake causing her to look at it for a second. He took that chance and reached into his pocket to pull out an emerald. Then he quickly pressed the emerald against Blake's forehead causing her to immediately fall into a daze. "When the wind picked up, you ducked into this store. After you saw that this store sold books, you decided to purchase some. Though, before you entered this shop you purchased the clothing located in this bag for the cold weather."
He removed the gem from her forehead causing her to remain completely still and in the daze. Ozpin calmly put the emerald back into his pocket before taking a couple steps back from Blake. Then he pulled a knife from his pocket and stabbed it into the air for a second before pulling it down causing a green line of light to appear. The line opened into an oval revealing a familiar desk located in his tower.
"I don't think Glynda would appreciate me borrowing this artifact, but I would rather not make the trip on horseback," Ozpin said as the door to the building opened blowing a blast of cold air into the shop causing him to shiver slightly. He stepped into the portal before snapping his fingers causing it to close. "I hope those girls know what they are doing. Winter is coming, and it will not be friendly this year."
He sat down on his chair long enough to make himself a cup of a Vacuoan brew. As soon as he raised his cup up to his lips, the doors to his office were thrown open using magic. "Ozpin!" a very angry blonde mage shouted as she entered the office. "Give me back the planal knife!"
"Nope," he simply said stabbing the knife into the air behind his chair before quickly dragging it down. The portal opened just in time for Ozpin's chair to fall backwards into it along with him in it. Before Glynda could pull him back through using magic, the portal closed.
And there we go, end of the suspense. At least I think. *checks over chapter* Should be. If not, sick Van is to blame.
Anyway, Weiss is tapped out of magic, but she has a conduit. Yang can do magical smithing. Jaune became a pirate. Nora and Ren are scamming the locals. Ruby is healed. Some WhiteRose. Weiss brought a man back from the dead. Blake has some new books. And Ozpin is acting like a child.
So, would the scene with Weiss and Ruby kind of classify as the beginning of WhiteRose? I think it could be, with the somewhat confession near the end.
I'm getting better, so sick Van shouldn't be around for much longer. I do have classes start up this week so chapter updates may be slower. I will try to keep posting one a week, so I may be posting on the weekends.
So, if anyone has been looking into the reviews, we have a new member to the group. Knowledgeseeker66. They have been doing an in-depth analysis of each chapter. As of now they're on chapter 11.
Anyway, have a nice day, don't get sick,
-J. Van A