The newly christened Autumn all but ran for the restroom once she got back from Beacon. The new maiden hunched over as her stomach emptied itself of all its contents. Autumn shut and locked the door before slowly lowering herself to her knees (Ruby's knees) a tiny traitorous voice in her head whispered. Autumn's body, (Ruby's body) the voice insisted, shook violently and sweat was pouring down her head. Autumn probably spent the next twenty minutes just kneeling on the flour, her body shaking compulsively.
Autumn stood on shaky legs and curiously stared at her reflection in the mirror. Ruby's face was what stared back at her, Ruby's face with Ruby's hair, and Ruby's silver eye. But if the maiden concentrated enough she could have sworn that she could see Amber's darker skin, and brown hair staring back at her. Autumn felt weak in the knees again and hunched over, only to throw up once again.
Autumn sat herself down and propped herself up against the wall shakily, her hands (Ruby's hands) still had the distinct smell of blood to them. Autumn couldn't see them but in the quiet of the restroom she could hear the spirits just fine. The maiden had to fight back a wave of nausea as her two different sets of memories waged a battle in her head. The new maiden's mind was split, one half recognizes the voices calling to her, cherishing them even. That was the half that was willing to kill for the voices, the half that was willing to go as far as she had to in order to please them. But the other half of Autumn's mind had no recollection of the voices, and that's all that they were to that half of Autumn's mind, voices.
Autumn let out a small cry of pain as Ruby's memories surged to the forefront of her mind, "Please Yang, Weiss, Blake." Autumn, though she really felt more like Ruby whispered, "We will free you, I just need more time."
Autumn threw up yet again when Amber's memories pushed Ruby's to the back of their mind. All of a sudden she was in a strange place, and her memories were dark, Amber remembered being attacked by three people but she couldn't recall anything else. She could remember being cold and in the dark and then she was awake. But Amber felt different, weaker, smaller.
Ruby snarled in anger as she once again made it to the forefront of their mind, "No!" Ruby managed to weakly stumble out of the bathroom only to all but collapse onto the couch, "What's going on? What's happening to me? To us?"
Autumn felt herself repeatedly shift from Ruby to Amber over and over again for the next half hour, before she somehow managed to take control once more. Autumn groaned as a killer headache came crashing down on her. "What's going on?" The Fall Maiden asked the empty living room, "These memories, these emotions. They're fighting for control."
Autumn shivered as she recalled the uncomfortable feeling of two different sets of memories being repeatedly pushed to the front and back of her mind, "It makes sense, I guess." Autumn muttered as she stared down at Ruby's hands again, "Amber's aura, her soul is foreign to Ruby's body. And both Amber and Ruby are fighting for control of the body."
"But where does that leave me? I'm both of them. Or am I." Autumn's eye (Ruby's eye) widened in horror at the thought, "Amber is dead and is fighting for control of Ruby's body, but so is Ruby."
Autumn began pulling at Ruby's hair trying to make the thoughts go away, but they wouldn't and for some reason she kept talking, "What if Ruby died in that chamber too." Autumn felt herself heat up as her body, (Ruby's body) began shaking once again, "What if she died too, and I'm all that's left." Autumn whispered to herself.
The maiden made the mistake of looking over her shoulder. Staring at her was Ruby's ghosts, each looking pale, dead, and angry. But what scared the maiden so much was the fact that the spirits had a new member. Autumn fell off the couch and scrambled back to the wall, only to shiver when she felt cold breath and a single blank eye glaring at her hatefully. Autumn threw up one final time because Ruby Rose had joined the ranks of the dead.
A/N: Here's a short little chapter exploring some of the repercussions of the last chapter, No Ruby didn't actually die in the aura chamber, Autumn just thinks that Ruby died. The way I would describe Autumn is a fusion of Ruby and Amber, but she wrongfully thinks that she is a whole new person. Sorry for how short this one was, but I want to enjoy my Christmas Break but I also wanted to write one more chapter before Christmas, and this was the end result.
P.S.: If you notice any contradictions in how I describe Autumn as a combination of Ruby and Amber please don't tell me in the reviews, trying to explain exactly what happened is very hard for me to put into words, and there will probably be a time where what was said previously will get contradicted.
Firewyrm2: What happened to Autumn in the last chapter is something that has never happened to anyone on Remnant before, the closest thing is Ozma's reincarnation but even that is different because when Ozma reincarnates he eventually just becomes the dominant soul and basically erases the original person, but here Ruby and Amber essentially mixed and became one entity, sure there will be times when Autumn is more like Ruby, and times when she's more like Amber. Autumn will eventually share Ruby's past, but it would be when she's more Amber than Ruby.
Random65: Right now Autumn is in no condition to do much of anything, her body hasn't settled yet, and she's going to have problems because of HOW she received the maiden powers, basically they won't work for Autumn yet, why will be explained eventually.
Sebine: Over break I'm most likely going revisit older chapters and fix spelling errors
Merendinomiliano: Thanks
TheGamerMarine76: No that's not what would happen, Ruby did more than just assimilate Amber's power, she merged their auras together, that's why she has Amber's memories on top of her own, what happened in that chamber is nothing like how maiden powers are traditionally passed on.
ARXENIX2.0: I always thought that it was interesting that they needed to transfer Amber's Aura to Pyrrha in the show in order to give Pyrrha the maiden powers, and the idea kinda just took of from there, the way I see it Ruby merged her aura, the manifestation of her soul with Amber, doing something like that is going to have serious repercussions, and Ruby and Amber basically becoming one entity of their own is a serious matter, the only problem currently is that Autumn thinks that she essentially killed Ruby.