"I can't believe I did that."
"What, rumpling a king's hair like he's a kid? Yeah, I can't believe it, either!"
Weiss released a small chuckle as she looked up at the brooding monkey boy. After speaking with King Ozma and Oscar, she and Sun immediately returned to the living world.
Sun was sulking, since then. Sure, she had laughed at the face of his boss and ruffled his hair, too, but they still left in one piece!
There was no throwing Weiss into oblivion forever. No firing nor punishing Sun. All good.
All that plan on asking him or them about this King Ozma slash Oscar business was forgotten, though. Perhaps she'll ask when they see each other again. Just for her safety. And curiosity.
Currently, they're hovering in the twinkling night sky with the greatest view of Remnant's broken moon. Seventeen years of existence and she still has no idea why it shattered like that.
Well, there were fairytales about it, but—whatever.
"And I can't believe you're capable of pulling off a face like that!" she retorted.
With a scoff as Sun's only response, Weiss ascended to face him better. "No, seriously, I thought you were all sunshine and rainbows."
"And I thought you're as hard as a stone."
"What?"
"Or—" he mocked a gasp. "Do you have a kink for younger-looking dudes or something?"
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "What's that supposed to mean, you rapscallion?"
"The way you looked at him," he began, smirking. "It's so gentle I don't know how to feel about it."
"Oh," Weiss merely said. She held her ordeal up and stared at it for a good three seconds before clarifying. "It's not like that," she began. "It's— he just reminded me of someone so dear to me."
When Sun didn't say anything, Weiss looked back at him. "You read my file, didn't you? You know my family life. So, you know who I'm talking about."
Sun frowned a little and nodded, then he ruffled Weiss' hair, completely back with his toothy grin.
"Hey!" she exclaimed.
"Anyway," Sun shifted comfortably at his broom, ignoring her cry.
"King Ozma said that until the ordeal is finished, you keep a pulse in your body. But that won't help if it's cremated at the funeral."
With a gasp from Weiss and a supporting chuckle from Sun, the two quickly flew back to the girl's abode, one purpose in mind: to prevent Weiss' body from becoming a barbeque.
Then suddenly, Weiss' frantic flying was put to a halt.
"What's wrong?" Sun asked, stopping a few feet before the ghost.
"How do I exactly inform them that I still need my body to be able to go back?" Weiss inquired. "Is there any way for a ghost such as myself to communicate with living people?"
Sun grinned. "There is!"
...
Weiss pinched the bridge of her nose. This will not work. Her mother was so far from being sedate. She was hunched over Weiss' altar, three to five empty bottles of hard liquor were cluttering the place.
She was currently holding a half-empty bottle, hiccupping as she hugged Weiss' framed photo with her free arm.
"Snowflake, how dare you—" she hiccupped again, "leave your mother just like that," she said gravely.
Weiss sighed.
"Weiss—" Willow continued, sniffling, "I know a mere car won't kill you. I've seen how strong you are." She clumsily wiped her tears with her hand that was holding the damn bottle.
Weakly, she added, "I'm your mother, I know your capabilities. I have yet to—" then, she passed out, letting the bottle silently fall.
"Well, that's just sad," Sun commented.
Weiss again sighed. "Well, that's going to be a tragedy if she continues to be like that."
She needed to come back or her mother would face the same fate as her. Or worse. At the very least, Weiss somehow did a good thing before dying. Her mother, on the other hand, would perish from alcohol poisoning.
Weiss doubt King Ozma would want to make an ordeal with that kind of end.
She bit her lower lip.
She floated up, leaving their apartment. "This isn't going to work. She will not listen, and even if she would, she'll be too hungover to do anything about it. Let's move on. I think I know someone who will."
Stand at their bedside, Sun had said earlier. Human beings were, according to him, more attuned to the supernatural when they were asleep. Therefore, Weiss could talk to Pyrrha.
If she was even asleep.
Pyrrha used to pull all-nighters to finish school assignments. Weiss just prayed to Salem, hoping that Pyrrha was asleep, so she could finish this talking-to-people-while-she's-a-ghost business.
"I kind of missed hanging out here," Weiss mused when she finally entered Pyrrha's room.
"Why did you stop, then?" Sun curiously asked.
She merely shrugged. "I had to stop being a pest, eventually."
Looking down, thankfully, the girl was sound asleep. Perfect. Weiss stood beside her bed, smiling at the sleeping face of her friend.
"Still so perfect even when in deep slumber."
"Hey, Pyrrha?" Weiss said softly, leaning close. "Listen—" she abruptly ceased when she saw Pyrrha's face frown a little. Tears began to fall from her closed eyes as she whimpered.
It made Weiss frown as well. "Hey, what's wrong?"
Unbeknownst to the ghost, inside Pyrrha's dream, she was chasing after Weiss. No matter how fast she was or how she towered over her friend, she still couldn't quite catch her.
"Weiss!" she hollered. "Weiss, wait up! Please!"
Running with all her might, reaching for her ivory-haired friend who was walking away from her, Pyrrha called out again, "Weiss! Please talk to me! You don't have to pull yourself away from me, from us! You're family. To my father, to my mom, to me—"
Then, she fell, looking up at her friend.
Still walking away from her, not even giving her time of day.
"Wait… Weiss… Wait…" she whimpered in her sleep.
Weiss quietly gasped. Was she causing Pyrrha's affliction? She clenched her hand into a fist.
"Last time," Weiss began, resolved. "Pyrrha, this will be the last time I am going to be a pest in your life. I'm… sorry for hurting you."
She wiped some cold sweat on her friend's forehead, brushing the crimson threads in the process, and gently, oh so gently, wiped Pyrrha's tears with her thumb.
"Listen to me, Pyrrha. I'm coming back, okay? It's… weird, bizarre, mystifying! I don't even know how to explain this, but I am coming back. I'm currently an eerie ghost, and—"
Weiss smiled when Pyrrha's head slightly nodded.
She continued, "I need you to take care of my body until I come back. You've got to tell my mother not to cremate me. Also, tell her to stop wasting her life on liquor because we're going to be okay. She's not— I'm not done being her daughter yet."
Pyrrha nodded again, her tears still falling from her closed eyes. Weiss frowned. "I will return to the world of the living, alive and kicking butts. I swear. I— I don't want to see you cry anymore."
Wiping Pyrrha's tears again with her thumb and thinking Weiss had said everything that needed to be said, she leaned in and kissed her friend's forehead.
Then Pyrrha woke up with a gasp. After a moment, she sat up, looking around.
"Weiss?" she quietly called. When nobody answered, she touched her forehead. "Was it just a dream?"
Feeling the warmth in her visage, she shook her head. "No, I felt her."
It felt like a dream yet it also felt real.
Weiss was there, in front of her.
The way she glided her calloused fingers in Pyrrha's visage, was so Weiss. The way Pyrrha saw those icy blue pools watering a bit in worry about her well-being despite hiding it.
Pyrrha couldn't explain it, but it was real. That was all real.
The crimson-haired girl took a deep breath. First thing in the morning, she would inform aunt Willow.
And she did. Well, at least, she tried to. Only, Willow had the widest grin when Pyrrha arrived at her home. She began to recount her dream, all of a sudden.
"I just had the strangest dream about Weiss," she said fondly. "My little feisty snowflake was living in some other world full of ogres and she kept knocking them down until she became their leader."
Willow smiled as tears fall from her eyes. "Sounds like her, doesn't it?"
Pyrrha smiled at the woman sadly. "I dreamed too," she carefully said.
"Oh?" that perked up the woman. "Was it like mine?"
"Um—"
"Then, maybe it was true," Willow interrupted, blue eyes much like Weiss pleading at the young girl and Pyrrha could only respond in a shammed concurrence after a desperate display.
"Yes. Perhaps."
Meanwhile, Weiss facepalmed as Sun perused the scene, still hovering above their apartment building. An indication that Weiss was still a ghost and if this continues, she will be forever.
"This dream your mother had seems to give her comfort and Pyrrha doesn't want to take that from her."
Weiss could only groan. "Sun," she said as she took a deep breath. While it's good that her mother was being comforted, for the time being, her meat is about to meet the flames of its end.
"Yeah?"
"Is there any other way to communicate with living people? This dream business is obviously not working."
Sun hummed, crossing his arms. After what felt like an eon, he snapped his fingers. Grinning now at the deadly glare of the ghost.
"Yeah!"
...
Kicking another can on the road, Yang Xiao Long for the nth time, heaved a sigh. Her life now was too mundane and too lonely without that tiny Weiss cream to fight with.
In all honesty, she couldn't understand why. And just thinking about it made her mood sourer. Well, at least, her gang was still with her despite her foul mood.
"Cheer up, Yang," said Mercury. "We're going to find another strong opponent to fight with. Or I could spar with you if you want."
Mercury was a badass kicker, too, Yang supposed. Of the dudes, he's the best one to have sparring with. But it was different with Weiss.
Again, she couldn't exactly put a finger on it as to why.
It was like they've connected somehow. Camaraderie?
She had connected with her friends, though. So, what was so different with Weiss that Yang was so hung up on her? Was it her beauty? Her grace? Her sharp tongue?
The fact that she seemed lonely, too? The fact that Yang could relate to some degree?
She shook her head. No thinking about dead people, goddamnit! She's had enough of that.
Yang forced a grin at her friend. "I'll pass. Maybe tomorrow?"
"Sure. Whatever floats your boat."
Keeping on their aimless journey, Yang had to appreciate these guys. Mercury, for his subtle concern. Neptune, for his goofiness. And Sky, for sticking up for them. If it weren't for them, Yang would have drowned in that invisible water of despair a long time ago.
They weren't perfect. In fact, she knew they were a bunch of ne'er-do-wells, but they made her continue. As dramatic as it sounds.
Lost in her thought as the boys talked amongst themselves, Yang felt it again. Godsdamnit. She ceased her walking and looked behind her, glaring.
"Something the matter, Yang?" Neptune asked.
Scratching his head, Sky offered when Yang didn't respond and continued to glare behind them, "Do you think we're being followed?"
Yang rubbed her nape, now looking ahead. "Yeah, sort of. I'm feeling the chill."
"We've been followed by a… flu?" Sky shrugged.
Yang snorted and shook her head as Neptune slapped his palm on his forehead.
"I think it's the tickle feeling kicking in," Mercury supplied. "Is there a ghost nearby again?"
Yang merely nodded, still looking ahead. She had this 'tickle' since childhood. Some voices were chasing her overnight, scary men and women whispering in her dreams; sometimes they were being merciful by only slightly scaring her through the day, but most of the time, they were keeping her from her deserved slumber.
She even felt ghosts at Weiss' funeral, but she was too miserable to confirm them at the time.
At one point in her life, Yang wanted it all to stop. But she couldn't and she wouldn't. Not when there's this one ghost she wanted to talk to so badly. However, it didn't come to her. At least, not yet.
She didn't know how to call one, either. She was still waiting, though.
"What a surprise," Weiss began, she and Sun following the gang. "That brute actually has a purpose."
Suddenly, Yang glared at her making Weiss glare back in surprise. Then, the blonde looked back at her gang, whispering, "The ghost is behind me. It just made a noise, just so you know."
"Are you sure?" Neptune inquired, leaning in.
Mercury hummed. "Is it the scary old lady with a big tooth again?"
Yang snorted, waving her hand. "Nah! It's like a puny ghost. Like a… haunted raccoon or something."
The nerve of— Okay, sure, Weiss wasn't the tallest of people, but surely her vibrations weren't that miniature! Yang was just being a buffoon as always! If she could stamp her feet, she would, but Weiss was floating. And a little bit crossed.
So instead, against her brawling street rule, she pulled out her wooden sword and started pummeling Yang's head.
"I'll show you puny, you—" she growled. Only for her to glide through the living brute.
Right. Ghost body or whatever.
Hearing Sun's guffaw behind her, the irate ghost floated back to his side. "You can forget it, Sun! There is no way I am taking control of that dunderhead!"
"Here's my impression of Weiss Schnee," said Sun, expression empty. Then, "Look at me! I'm burning!"
He waved his hands lethargically, grinning so wide, Weiss was sure if she didn't need him, she'd pummel his lame brain too.
Weiss growled instead, closing her eyes. She put her face into her palms. She couldn't do this. Why does it have to be the brute?
The dream communication wasn't working. Her mother just has to dream about that stupid ogre stuff and use it as an escape from her devastation. And Pyrrha, bless her soul, needed to be more assertive!
"There's always the final method," Sun had said earlier. "You can talk to Pyrrha by taking control of someone else's body."
Sort of like a possession, Weiss thought. However, according to Sun, she couldn't do it to just anybody. She has to know them personally and they have to be unusually aware of the supernatural.
Stupid rules, to be honest.
It felt like the universe just doesn't want her to be resurrected. Granted, it's impossible in the first place. She was lucky enough to have been given a chance.
Luck. Weiss had to scoff. Luck hadn't been on Weiss' side, had it?
She was screwed.
Disregarding Weiss' inner turmoil, Sun grinned at her. "Ready?"
Apprehensively, the ghost looked up at the grim reaper. Then, resigned to her fate with a sigh. "Fine," she grumbled.
With a final rumpling on the girl's hair, Sun grinned and clapped his hand once. Weiss didn't bother to react.
Although, she had to widen her eyes when Sun glowed and produced two glowing yellow clones of himself. The said clones then jumped towards the unaware Yang Xiao Long. They pummeled her head and body, but that didn't result in any injury.
Instead, the clones disintegrated while Yang stiffened.
Noticing her friend's change of demeanor, Mercury then asked, "What's wrong, Yang?"
"You look a little pale," Sky added. "Guess I'm right about the flu."
Despite her friends' prattles, Yang continued to rigidly stand on the ground. Sun then tapped Weiss' shoulder. "Alright. She's ready for the taking."
"I'm going to ignore how creepy it sounds coming from a big man like you," Weiss deadpanned.
Taking no notice of Weiss' jab, Sun apprised, "But I'm only giving you one hour before the effect wears off.
A human body like Yang's couldn't stand any longer than that. If you miss this chance, Weiss, there probably won't be another one. So, do the best that you can."
"I will."
Then, she glided towards the blonde brute.
