I wrote this after sleeping for less than four hours so I have no idea if it's any good, but I'm impulsive so I'm going to post it anyway. Enjoy!
"Do I know you?"
The question makes Yang's heart drop. Surely, Ruby couldn't have hit her head that hard, right? She'd seemed dazed and confused, but there's no way she could have forgotten everything like that. That sort of thing only happens in the movies.
After everything that's already gone wrong today, Yang refuses to believe that this is possible. She masks her concern with anger. "Ruby, that's not funny. Quite messing around."
"I'm not!" Ruby winces, a hurt expression coming over her face. Yang immediately feels bad for yelling at her. "I just want to know what's going on. Where are we? What happened?"
"You—you really don't remember us?" Weiss asks, sounding more subdued than Yang has ever heard her before.
Ruby shakes her head. Silence falls over the four of them, broken only by the sound of the wind and the falling snow. They can't stay out here too much longer. Before it gets too dark, they're going to need to find somewhere to shelter for the night.
"Ruby." Blake's voice is gentle, but it still makes the younger girl flinch. "Sorry. My name's Blake." She smiles reassuringly at Ruby. "If you don't mind telling me, what's the last thing you remember?"
"Uh, sure." Ruby frowns, tilting her head slightly as she thinks for a moment. "Um, I was helping Yang pack for Beacon and then she dropped me off at Dust til Dawn so I could check out the new weapons magazines—and after that, I don't really remember anything else. What happened?"
"That's kind of a long story," Blake replies, exchanging a glance with the girls on either side of her. "And given that you took a pretty hard hit to the head, and it's freezing out here, we should probably talk about it somewhere else. Right, Yang?" She elbows her partner in the side.
Yang snaps out of her thoughts, shaking her head. "Of course. Blake's right. Let's get you out of here." She pushes herself hastily to her feet, offering a hand to Ruby to help her up. "Can you walk?"
Ruby's head hurts.
Nothing seems to make sense. The last thing she remembers is being in downtown Vale, on a warm fall evening, so why is she in the middle of nowhere now, surrounded by snow? Her sister is here, Yang looks different, from her clothes to the way she carries herself. And Ruby herself is different—her hair is in a new style, and she doesn't recognize the combat skirt she's wearing. What happened?
Trying to puzzle out everything only makes her headache worse.
She can't walk. She gives it a try, when Yang pulls her to her feet, but she can't quite seem to find her balance, and her legs tremble under her weight. When she tries to walk, she only makes it a few steps before collapsing to her knees, head spinning. Moving shouldn't be this hard, but she's so tired, and her head is pounding so much that she sees stars if she tilts her head the wrong way.
In the end, Yang ends up carrying her on her back the way she used to when they were little kids, while Ruby does her best not to drift off. "Rubes?" her sister says, nudging her foot slightly to get her attention.
"M'yeah?"
"You're awfully quiet up there."
"I'm tired," she says, barely able to keep the whine out of her voice.
"I'm sure you are, but try to stay awake a bit longer, okay? At least until we can get you cleaned up."
Ruby mumbles something in agreement, which is apparently enough for Yang, as she lets the matter drop. She focuses on staying awake, and not shivering even though she's absolutely freezing, not wanting to jostle her head any more than she has to. She huddles close to her sister, basking in the warmth from her semblance.
"You really don't remember going to Beacon?" A quiet voice startles her from her thoughts. She glances over to see that it's the white-haired girl from earlier.
It's a weird question. Ruby won't be old enough to apply to Beacon Academy for another two years. It's not like she's some prodigy or superstar that they would let in early. She's just an ordinary student at Signal Academy. She shakes her head, wincing as her head throbs in protest. "Um, no. Sorry, uh—"
"Weiss Schnee," the girl automatically supplies her name. She seems nice enough, but Ruby can sense a hint of something sharp under the surface. She half expects the girl to start yelling at her for not recognizing her, but instead she just smiles sadly, shaking her head.
Ruby wonders how these girls know her. She can't remember meeting them at all. Maybe they're some of Yang's friends? Her sister always was good at making friends wherever she went, unlike Ruby, who prefers weapons to people and spends most of her time working on Crescent Rose. Yeah, that would make sense.
Something about that explanation doesn't sit right with her, though.
It doesn't take them long to rejoin the rest of the group. Ruby doesn't recognize the old lady or the boy standing beside her, but she lights up when she sees her uncle. Finally, another familiar face. "Hey uncle Qrow!"
"What took you four so long? It's getting dark. We've been worried sick—oh." He trails off when he sees Ruby's face. "What happened?"
"Uncle Qrow," Yang begins hesitantly. "We've got a bit of a situation on our hands."
They decide to stay in the train for the night. The forest around them had already been shrouded in darkness by the time they'd explained what happened to Qrow, and it wasn't as if Ruby was in any shape to go anywhere fast. The younger girl had already dozed off after Qrow cleaned and bandaged her wounds and gave her a brief explanation of what was happening.
"So, she really doesn't remember attending Beacon?" Oscar asks. The frown creasing his face makes him look much older than fourteen.
"No." Blake shakes her head.
"She didn't recognize Blake and I at all," Weiss says glumly. Not being recognized by her own partner seems to be hitting her very hard.
"I see," Oscar's eyes are glowing faintly, indicating that Ozpin has taken control. "That is a troubling development."
"What should we do?" Yang scowls into the fire they've made at their makeshift campsite. "Qrow explained what he could, but Ruby's still pretty confused and out of it. She's not in any shape to be out here. We need to get her somewhere safe."
Ozpin nods in agreement. "It would be most prudent of us to make our way to Argus to rejoin the others as quickly as possible. From there, we can try to find a way to Atlas, and see how things develop further."
"Fair enough," Blake says. The rest of them nod in agreement. They're all still angry with Ozpin for hiding the truth about the lamp from them, but arguing about it now would only attract Grimm to them while they're stranded in the middle of the snowy woods. They'll have to discuss it later.
"I spotted a trail earlier while we were looking for your friend," Maria announces, as nonchalant as ever. "We could check it out in the morning. Trails usually lead somewhere."
"That sounds like a good place to start," Ozpin says, inclining his head towards Maria. "Now, tomorrow we'll need to get an early start, so I would suggest that—"
"Jaune!" Weiss exclaims suddenly. The others frown at her.
"I beg your pardon, Miss Schnee?"
Weiss blushes. "Sorry, professor. I was just thinking, Jaune can amplify other people's auras, so maybe he could amplify Ruby's aura and fix her memory loss?"
"That is certainly an idea. It would be useful to have Miss Rose back at full capacity. All the more reason for us to make our way to Argus as quickly as possible. Now, as I was saying before, we'll need to get an early start in the morning, so I suggest that the rest of you get inside and try to get some rest. I will take first watch." He glances up at the moon, keeping one hand on the lamp at his side. "I have a feeling that tomorrow is going to be an exceptionally difficult day."
Thank you for reading! Please leave a review if you liked it.
I am simultaneously excited and terrified for RWBY to start up again. I will be liveblogging the episodes every Saturday as they come out, so if anyone is interested in seeing me scream in horror and make terrible jokes, you can find my at fandomdabbles on tumblr. I've been told that it is entertaining.
Just a reminder that I do take requests for fics, so if there's an idea that you'd like to see me write, feel free to message me and if I like it, I might end up writing something for it.