04/28/1999 ... 7:15 am

Jaune didn't sleep well last night...

How the hell could he? His brain went a mile a minute as his mind was swarmed with second guesses and doubts as he's forcibly detoxed from his Antidepressants. It's been two days now since his prescription ran out, and it was making him pay for it!

He sat around his normal table with the girls, but he was locked in his own head, as he tried to push out the negative thoughts. It was a struggle to simply try and fight the tickle in the back of his brain that told him he was going to have an episode in a few moments. That was one thing he learned in the last two days. He could feel the hallucinations coming on. Almost like his mind was about to have and earthquake hit it.

An earthquake, that seemed to be a good way to describe it. Sometimes it'd be a small tremor, he's get a wave of guilt and feel sick to his stomach. Other times it's rage in his head as he saw the bloody hallucination of Pyrrha screaming bile and hate at him. Right now it's a 3.0 on the Richter scale of his brain. and he knew it was going to hit him like a truck when it ramped up to speed.

"When is it going to hit, when the fuck is it going to hit?!" is the thought that looped in his head, he was completely unable to focus as he was only operating on a scant few hours of sleep since the first detox hallucinations hit.

As he forced himself back into reality. He looked around the others were just chatting away idly not paying much attention to him. One of the perks of being mute is that even if he's being quiet it didn't look to out of place..

Ruby knew the situation pretty well and was intentionally not drawing any attention to it. They came up with a code phrase to sign if he needed to go to the nurses off to get it out of him. "Maybe I should have told someone what the fuck really is happening" Jaune thought to himself as he suddenly noticed her looking at him.

Once his attention was on her she signed out [You doing okay over there? I know you said you've been having migraines all week, do we need to get you to the nurses office?]

Jaune shook it off and signed back [I'll be fine, it's only minor right now, I'll let you know if it gets bad okay?]

Suddenly Jaune vision blur's and distorts like his vision was a playback from an old VHS tape Ruby would notice the change in his eyes, the look that he was no longer entirely looking at her he didn't see her, but as he looked right at her he could hear a voice in his head. "Aw, you should tell her, I mean what's the worst that could happen, she dumps you over it?" He heard the sickly sweet voice of his dead ex girlfriend speak in his head.

Jaune was not in control of what he was seeing as he looked at Ruby, he hoped whatever he saw wouldn't be to severed. He reached up to rub his eyes as the voice kept speaking "If she dumps you, then she won't be dependent on you, and you won't end up killing her like you killed me."

"I didn't kill you" Jaune said out loud, knowing the others wouldn't hear it anyways.

"My poor mother is going to be hurt you know, when she learns that you still haven't let me rest." The voice said. "You really fucked that up mister"

"Get out of my head!" Jaune shouted as his distorted vision showed the face of a concerned Ruby looking at him. He didn't catch it at first but he had apparently been clenching his fists.

"You can't tell me to get out that easily, I'm part of you!" the voice cackled somewhere nearby.

"Then shut the fuck up!" Jaune shouted out. as he closed his eyes.

A few moments later when he reopened them. Everything was normal. The others looked at him with a look of serious concern. Jaune waved it off and signed [Sorry, got a bad wave of nausea just now.]

"That must of been a hell of a stomach cramp you go there." Weiss said as she looked at him with a look of concern.

"Maybe you should call it a day dude." Blake said with a curious look on her face "I can tell your not doing well right now." something about her tone spoke of a sort of unspoken understanding of the situation that didn't sit well with Jaune.

Yang was next to speak up "Hey we all can, I mean I get your not feeling hot right now, but don't overdo it."

Jaune signs out a quick [It's fine, it's already passed, I think i'll be good to go from here okay?] with a suddenly more exhausted smile on his face, just in time for the bell.

Everyone at the table out of habit pointed at the bell for Ruby's benefit as they all got up and away from the table. Jaune lingered for a moment as everyone started leaving, only to see Blake waiting as well.

[Something up Blake?] Jaune signed out knowing she could understand it. That was one thing that impressed him about Blake, how quickly she picked up on signing.

"Can we talk after school today? Just you and me?" Blake asked him.

Jaune gave a thumbs up and pointed at the table to tell her "Yes lets meet here"

Blake smiled and walked up to him closely and looked him in the eyes. "I've seen that look before, but we'll talk about it later."


04/28/2019, 4:00 pm at the The Library...

Ruby had been waiting for close to half an hour for Winter Schnee to arrive. She had been keeping herself entertained by reading quietly to herself. It wasn't until she felt a vibration on the table did she look up and see Winter looking back at her with a smile. In Winters hands was a whiteboard she picked up from the dollar store to make communication easier.

Winter rested the small whiteboard on the table with a note on it reading 'Okay kiddo, what do you got for me?'

It wouldn't be a lie that to say Winter wasn't expecting much from this at all. One of her sisters friends claimed she could maybe come up with a design for some custom leg braces for her sister to help get her out of that god forsaken chair. It was a nice thought if nothing else but until Ruby was able to show her something, then it was just a thought.

Ruby slid out a small manila envelope with a rather well drawn picture of a couple of legs with a detailed drawing of a pair of braces. Winter noted that someone else had gone in after the fact and labeled parts of the brace, and comically enough, what the part listing at the local hardware store could be used for a prototype.

Winter wrote out on her whiteboard 'Okay so I'll admit I'm impressed, and these actually do look like they would do a solid job for taking the weight off of Weiss's knee and ankle.'

Ruby gave her a thumbs up and wrote out a note on her notepad as well 'So do we want to hit up the hardware store tonight, we could put the prototype together pretty quick I think.'

Winter was amused enough to write out with a smile 'Sure kid, let's go give this a shot, i'll even buy the parts."'


04/28/2019, 7:00 pm at the The Schnee Home

Ruby and Winter had put together the prototype Knee and ankle braces in her work van before they arrived and carefully put them both into a shopping bag. Ruby felt and intense feeling of anticipation, and winter was even slightly excited as she quietly bounced in her seat a bit.

"Well they look like they'll hold up decently enough, I'm glad Ruby was okay with me adding additional padding to them at least to cut down on the chaffing." Winter thought as she eyed the bag of unattractive looking spare parts and straps that they slapped together.

Moments later the pair marched in to the Schnee home boldly like a pair of superheroes. Ruby had the bag in one hand, and Winter pointed out into the halls and shouted out "Weiss, get your lazy ass out here!".

As the pair waited for Weiss to roll into view from elsewhere in the house Ruby looked around, she was always impressed with just, frankly, how big this place is. The house itself was only a single floor home, but it had in the ballpark of 6 bedrooms with tall vaulted ceilings throughout.

Ruby had seen inside of the kitchen the last time she was here and it looked like it could fit the entirety of her English class in here with a bit of room to spare.

Ruby was gently nudged back into focus by winter as she arrived. Weiss looked at the pair and shook her head in confusion for a split second. "I was just chatting with Blake on AIM... what's up?"

Ruby had managed to read Weiss's lips to see what she said. She was a little confused by Winter's faint blush as she talked about Blake "Well she can wait, we got a thing we need you to try out." Winter then pointed for Ruby and Weiss to go into the rec room "Let's go into the rec room for this one."

Ruby helped Weiss into the Rec room with a playful smirk. Ruby when she saw Weiss asking for it handed Weiss her notepad. Weiss wrote out a quick 'What are you and my sister up to?'

Ruby wrote back in her notepad 'It's a secret" with a Cheshire cat grin on her face. 'Jaune and your sister both helped me out with this though'

Winter came in with her Walker and sat it off to the side "You might need this, for now though let's get your pants off."

Weiss's eyes went wide in confusion "Excuse my french Winter, but the the fuck?"

Ruby had been quietly pulling the prototype Braces out of the bag. Winter smirked and said "We want to try something."

Weiss was not entirely sure of this idea but slid out of the sweat pants with effort and watched as Winter went through the process of strapping on the ankle brace. First it was strapped in and adjusted on leg slightly above her ankle, and the other half strapped in on her foot itself.

Weiss noted aloud "Fits snug, but why does it look like you got made this out of stuff you got at the hardware store?"

"It's a prototype Weiss." Winter commented "If we can make this work, I'll ask dad to hire a machine shop to machine work permanent braces."

Weiss shook her head and asked "Where did you come up with this crazy idea again?"

Winter nudged Ruby who was sitting with the knee brace in her arms waiting quietly. Ruby looked up at the pair and smiled with a wave.

"She came up with this?" Weiss asked perplexed "You signed off on this?"

"Well some guy named Jaune drew out the specs for it, but it seemed solid." Winter said as she took the knee Brace from Weiss and started to fit that on her making the adjustments. "Her idea was to bypass the worst of your damaged legs letting them rest so we can work on making your undamaged muscles strong enough to let you stand on your own. If this works we can actually put more focus on making your legs stronger."

"So this will what, take the weight off my knee and ankle?" Weiss said with an unconvinced tone

"Yes, but we'll still want you to use your legs so they can get stronger. So these custom braces will still force you to use your leg muscles to stand and walk. You just won't be using muscles that still need time to heal" Winter said as she put the walker in front of her. "Ruby get to the other side of her, were going to try and get her standing up, and we won't take no for an answer!"

Weiss's eyes shot wide "Hey wait a second I didn't agree to thi-"| Weiss was rudely interrupted as Ruby and Winter both lifted her up and locked both of her arms to hold her upright and steady. Weiss let out panicked gulps of air at what was happening to her.

Ruby and Winter noticed that while they had to exert effort to keep her standing, it wasn't as much as either expected it to They both exchanged smiles as Weiss kept panic breathing in place.

"Holy fuck... Holy fuck I'm standing... Holy fucking shit I'm standing!" Weiss practically shouted out in pure elation at this sudden realization.

"No one thought you needed the chair for the rest of your life Weiss." Winter said with a bit of pride in her voice. "But I'm going to ease you to the walker and we want you to once your stable enough to do so, take a few steps" Winter leaned down to eye level said to Weiss in a commanding tone "Just five steps, like we always do."

Ruby was the only one to notice Jacques Schnee in the doorway watching this unfold. Seeing him there he gave the older man a polite wave.

Weiss gripped onto the the hand grips of the wheeled walker and with nervous gasps and whimpers put a considerable amount of effort into staying steady. her first step was with her left leg, the Brace doing most of the work for her knee. Weiss groaned a bit as her knee still complained at being forced to do bend after so long of her trying to not let it do anything, and her legs were feeling like they were on fire from going unused for so long.

Step

But she took her first step with Ruby and Winter flanking her to keep her from falling over. Ruby's eyes were already starting to tear up from the fact that this was actually working. Winter meanwhile couldn't hide her grin to save her life. Weiss looked down at her ankle, the weakest part of her legs, the one that raised all manner of hell during her pool exercises.

[You got this Weiss.] Ruby signed out to Weiss as she was struggling to not cry too much to watch Weiss walk.

Weiss took a deep breath raised her right foot and...

Step

Exhaled as she put her foot down to a surprisingly low amount of pain, it still didn't feel great, but she could tell it was by and large use from her legs not being used to be worked this hard. Weiss smiles and teared up as she lifted her left foot again and...

Step

"I can't believe this" Weiss sobbed out. as she quietly took the last two steps before she finally stabilized herself standing gripping her walker. "How... How did you two do this."

Winter smiled as her sister. Everyone but Ruby turned their heads as they heard clapping from Their father in the background. "Well I do say I'm very much wondering that myself now. Winter I always knew you were to good at your job. But this... My god this is incredible..."

Winter hid a blush "Actually while I helped with some consultation here and there. Ruby here was the mastermind behind the custom braces we built here."

Ruby couldn't follow what she winter said she just smiled and waved. Winter wrote a quick note 'Your time to shine kiddo, tell the others how you came up with this.'

Ruby looked around and started writing and handed the note to Winter to read 'Honestly, I may have been thinking of how to do something like this for a while, I'm a bit of a fan of seeing how things work and was up late one night reading up on Weiss's leg braces.' Winter smiles and with a faint giggle in her voice 'I thought I could do better for her is all.'

Jacques rubbed his chin as he spoke. "I'm impressed honestly, I mean that looks like it was made with stuff from the hardware store."

Winter smiled and looked at ruby saying "Hey can I show off the drawing?" to which Ruby nodded and grinned. Winter carefully pulled the picture out of her folder and showed it off "She said she had her boyfriend help with drawing out the design, but this yeah you can see every part that went into this listed here."

Weiss smiled at Ruby "Damn girl, you really should try to make this into a career when your older." Everyone smiled at the fact that Weiss was still standing on her legs.

"Weiss don't over do it, lets sit you down okay? I mean those things are being held together by duct tape in parts." Winter turned to her father. "If we made a copy of the design. do you thing we could hire a machine shop to machine craft a more stable design. it wouldn't cost more than two hundred for both braces."

Weiss looked at her father with wide eyes. The man grinned through his Mustache. "I don't see why not, were hardly hurting for money as it stands."

Winter finished getting Weiss back into her seat. "Well let me drive Ruby back home, and we'll talk more." Winter smiled to her father "However as her physical therapist I can tell you from a professional standpoint that this will only accelerate her recovery by a great deal."

Ruby glanced over at Weiss who signed out a [Thank you!] with sobbing smile.

Ruby smiled and slowly signed back fighting back tears of her own [Your my friend. I'd do anything for you guys.] before Winter lead her out.

Weiss could only smile out loud and said, even though Ruby couldn't here her with her back turn "Your a better friend than I deserve"


Before I go into it, if you want to support the crazy owl person who put the idea of having Ruby flex her mechanical know-how in this story line go look up "Death Would've Been Preferable" by SgtChrysalis. I honestly can not gush at the raw talent that they put on display enough with every single chapter they put out. This should be clear already as they put the idea of working in this very subplot into the story about a month ago, and it clearly stuck to my head.

To respond to Calamk who roped a review last chapter. Yeah I do have solid plans on paper to reincorporate Ren and Nora back into the plot. But yeah the next few chapter's won't pull punches at all. It's only the third day and Jaune is already getting wreaked hard.

But in any rate, Next chapter will be in a few days. I'm going to be ramping up Dust Eater on it's run to chapter 50, and that's going to require me to swap between the two stories almost evenly. I'll make it a point to Also bump Overpowered as well. But that's very much not on the same level of priority as This and Dust Eater. So we'll see.

Until next time thanks again for reading, and I'll see you all next chapter.