(chapter 7) [Ruby pov]
"after my father showed his true personality" Weiss said, her horrifying childhood story still being told to me "I knew I couldn't ever trust my father again" Weiss' words were hitting me hard. Compared to my past, hers was much worse. All I wanted to do was hug her, but I knew nothing would take away this level of pain and betrayal. "shortly after that, my father sent a few specialists to study my tattoo. They discovered the error on the design. It turns out the main component, the Prime as it's called, was incorrectly inked. As a result, nothing else of the tattoo functions correctly" Weiss finished.
That explained almost everything, but it gave me so many questions. I didn't want her to close herself off to me and I wanted this to be our way to grow closer. "Weiss, I don't know what to say" I really didn't. all of the words coming to mind would show how protective I felt for her and I didn't want her to feel like she needed my protection. "thank you for being so open with me. I just-" I was cut off by Weiss "stop. Me telling you my life story is just a thing I did because we're partners. Don't think you have to comfort me or anything. I've grown up, and I don't need you to ride in like my knight in shining armor. I've made plans for my future. my father will no longer be able to control me" she said.
I was silent, Weiss is amazing. Such a strong personality. She had been fighting a battle every day of her life, I didn't feel I could hold a candle to her bright strength of will. "Weiss, if you ever need anything no matter what. Please don't hesitate to ask me. Not just because we're partners, but because we're friends" I said, trying to sound as sincere as possible. Weiss looked away hiding her face behind her hand "th-thanks" she mumbled. I smiled at her shyness. It was something she only showed around me. Weiss acting shy was something I wanted to see more of, it was so cute.
I remembered what we were first talking about, before Weiss told me her childhood story. "so this tattoo you drew, will it fix your problem?" I asked. Both of our eyes looked to the almost forgotten sheet of paper. "it should. It's all a theory, I had to mix together two conflicting sources of magic. Nothing like this has been attempted to my knowledge. I could fail right away, or it could succeed and I would have to learn how to learn a new tattoo power. Or it could-" she mumbled the last part quietly. "or it could what?" I asked, my voice becoming concerned. Weiss didn't look at me, the darkness of the room preventing me from seeing her facial expression fully. "or I could die from it" she said, trying to sound nonchalant about it
It felt as if a cold hand wrapped around my heart from hearing her words. I knew getting any tattoo comes with risk. You're literally imbuing a primal force of power into your body. But even the minute chance of Weiss being harmed bored deep into my soul. It was a pain I only faintly remembered, I couldn't remember the exact reason for feeling this way, but I knew it was a painful memory that wanted to come back to the surface of my mind. I desperately wanted to tell Weiss not to do this tattoo, in my mind the risk was too great. However, after hearing about her past, and all the pain she forced herself to fight through. She was more than deserving of having whatever future she strives for.
"How can I help?" I asked, my smile hiding my uneasiness. She looked at me, we both looked at each other for a long time before she finally spoke "you can show me how good you are at tattooing" she asked, as if coming up with a plan while she talked. "I don't know if I can compare to you. But I'll give it a shot" I said. Weiss slid a thick piece of paper to me, along with a thick pen with a needle thin tip. They were tools to practice tattooing, the paper was similar to human skin in a way. While the pen wrote much like a tattoo gun inks, the only difference was the lack of vibrations that the real tattoo gun gives you.
Weiss watched me copy the picture she first pulled out. Her words only commenting on whether I should write in one direction or the other, and sometimes saying a certain line should be thicker. As I drew, I put together all of the pieces I could, trying to decrypt the meaning to the tattoo. It was mostly a bunch of lettering in a long lost language. But my instincts told me the power behind them but it didn't make any sense. "so is this the fix for your current tattoo?" I asked, trying to fill the silence. She was still focused on my drawing but answered anyway, "no, that is a picture of my back tattoo currently, if you can draw that accurately, I'll feel more confident allowing you to draw the changes. I want you to first understand the original, before you add anything to it" she explained, still not looking up from the paper I was also focused on.
"I thought this was an Heirloom tattoo, normally a family takes its secrets to the grave. Only passing it on to the lounger members of the family?" I asked. "that's true. But I don't really care about the Schnee family tattoo. And it's not like I'm selling it to a tattoo shop. I'm allowing a friend to help me" she said. My hand slipped upon hearing her words, a big line bisected the circle I was drawing in that moment. "Dolt! Focus on what you're doing. If that were my actual back I would have your hands removed!" she chastised me, but it had a subtle joking tone to it. I felt bad for messing up, but her words caught me off guard. I don't know why, we've already established our friendship, but hearing her say it so easily made my heart do a flip. "so-sorry. But other than the ending, how does it look?" I asked, holding up the paper for her final inspection.
Weiss held the paper a long time, inspecting every line with the precision of a master. I felt oddly uncomfortable, like a strict teacher was grading my final exam right in front of me. I wanted to impress Weiss, and that feeling confused me even more 'why does her opinion matter so much to me? Why should it bother me so much if she doesn't like it?' I asked myself as I waited for Weiss to give me her verdict.
"if I pretend the mistake at the end isn't there, I'd say it's a flawless depiction of my tattoo. I think you have remarkable skill" Weiss said, giving me a heart melting smile at the end. I was thrilled at her praise. Sure, I've had plenty of teachers in the past tell me about my skill in drawing. But compared to how much Weiss' words felt. Those past teachers seemed like unimportant strangers. "now try adding these adjustments to it, alter your work so these new lines and letters are able to function correctly" Weiss said, handing me the paper I first saw her drawing on.
They looked like old letters from the books about the great Faunus war. "are these from the old race of Faunus'?" I asked. She seemed to brighten at my question. "you're much more observant then I thought. That's exactly what they are. I found books on Faunus tattoos. They mostly work with nature and natural elements. But during the war, lots of attack and power based tattoos came into the light. This is an adaptation on one that allows a person to control an animal from the forests. It was mostly used for reconnaissance and spying on the human forces. I altered it so I can bind a creature using the necromantic power I already possess" she happily explained. It was a brilliant idea, and I don't think anyone else but Weiss would have ever thought of doing such a thing.
"so with [skindancing] you can seal anything on your body. Then bind it to you so you can summon it whenever you need it. And now with this, you can control that creature and attack enemies without needing to be in the fight yourself?" I asked, putting the pieces together. "that is pretty much it" she answered. "so let's say you find a, I don't know a dragon. Can you seal it and then it would fight on our side?!"(A/N: season three ending foreshadowing) I asked, thinking how cool that would be. "oh, please. Dragons don't exist. And I'm sure it would be too powerful to control with any mortal mind if I could manage to seal it" she waved my idea off.
I sat back and leaned against the pile of parts we were using to camp behind. Weiss plan for a tattoo had me thinking. I wanted to do everything I could to help her, it was all I could do to take my mind off the fact she could die from this tattoo. As the pile of junk shifted I had an idea "can you only seal living creatures?" I asked. She looked puzzled "no, it was said to be used to hold weapons and other such inanimate objects, why?" she asked, still giving me a confused look. "perfect. Because I found something I think has great potential" I said, my excitement causing me to smile brightly. Weiss didn't look as excited, she looked as confused as she was when I first asked. "come with me" I said, hopping up and pulling Weiss to her feet, then dragging her to a door labeled 'Combat Testing-Level 5'
(RWBY dorm room) [Blake pov]
"I'm going to go look for them!" Yang yelled, for the hundredth time tonight. "she doesn't want you too, didn't you read the note she left" I replied for the hundredth time in response to her declaration. Yang had been smoldering for the past two hours. Ruby had left a short note saying she wouldn't be coming to the room tonight. She was referring to how Yang treated her at lunch. "just give her space, she won't get in trouble. Plus, I think seeing her now will only cause more damage, she'll return when she's ready to talk. Don't go looking for her" I said, feeling like I was saying it to a wall. "what did I do!? I was only trying to protect her" Yang said. I've had enough by this point. "let go through it step by step, shall we?" I asked, but continued on without waiting for an answer.
"you started the day by giving Weiss a warning of nightmarish proportions. That was understandable, and if you left it at that, it probably would have cleared up by lunch. However, you decided to take it a step further. You cornered Ruby during lunch, refused to hear what she had to say, and yelled at her for defending Weiss. Are you still confused about why she's angry at you?!" I did my best to say all of this in an attempt to get it passed her bull-hotheadedness. I slumped back into my pillow, the atmosphere in the room was too uncomfortable to read, but I tried anyway.
Yang was silent for a long time, the longest so far tonight. I looked over to her, she was sitting on the floor a pool of depression surrounding her. "I-I didn't-" she started to say something, but I cut her off "I know, and I'm sure Ruby knows too. She only wanted you to apologize. She didn't ask you to be less protective, or stop being her sister. She clearly doesn't want to be treated like a child anymore, so be the bigger person and apologize. You don't have to suddenly become friends with Weiss, but she's going to live with us for the next four years. So it's natural to fight once and a while" I said, being as comforting as I could. I didn't have a lot of experience with such a thing, but I remembered how I used to treat the young children back at home.
'home' I said the word in my mind and it traveled to deep corners of my memory. but I pushed down the rising feelings that word triggered. I was making a new home now. I can't let my past drag me down. "I don't know if I can Blake" Yang's voice broke me out of my downward spiraling thoughts. "do what?" I asked, wondering how many of her words I missed. "I don't know if I can't not treat Ruby like my baby sister. She means so much to me" yang said, almost pleading with herself. I gave her a moment to calm down, she was almost giving herself an anxiety attack. "Yang. It's going to be okay. If you make up tomorrow, you two will be back too being as close as you were" I said to my blond haired teammate
The room was silent. I almost went back to reading, but a heavy object hitting my bed bounced me all over the place. I looked and saw Yang spread out on the remaining space of my small bed "what are you doing?" I asked, my voice coming out much more annoyed then I actually was. "too depressed to climb up to my own bed" was Yang's answer. Ignoring the heat rushing to my face I said "fine, but only this once" taking my acceptance, Yang maneuvered from the bottom of my bed and slid in-between me and the wall.
I tried to focus back on my book. But the blond bombshell all but cuddling me, prevented me from seeing a single word on the page. Realizing the pointlessness of trying to reading, I shifted into a more comfortable position, the warmth of having Yang next to me was calling to my inner self. Without realizing it, I was next to her and borderline cuddling. I tried to shift away, but the strong arms of Yang held me in place. Her eyes were closed so I assumed it was an unconscious action, so I didn't fight it too much. It was really comfortable. "hey Yang? is there some other reason you want to be in my bed?" i asked. in response a hand worked it's way down my body and rested on my thigh. 'i'm not going to get much sleep tonight' i thought before turning around to better face my blond bed companion.
(combat room #5) [Weiss pov]
The inside of this room was virtually empty, all that could be see was a platform directly in the rooms center. "Ruby, what are you trying to show me?" I asked, the uneasiness in my voice telling her that I didn't feel comfortable. "don't worry Weiss, they shut down all the training bots after curfew. We'll be safe" Ruby said, only calming me down a little. We walked to a wall that had only a single door. Yellow caution markings covered the door, "don't open" "Danger" "don't open" those warnings repeated themselves all along the tape covering the door. "Ruby" I said, worried she was going where I think she was going.
Ignoring me, Ruby slid the ten-foot-tall steel door to the side. "TA DA~" Ruby said, singing it like a magic trick was just preformed. I looked inside the dark room. Mounted to the wall was a colossal metal knight. It was fifteen feet tall, it glimmered in the darkness as if it had energy crystals in all its major joints. "wha-what is this?" I asked, to captivated to think through the obviousness. Ruby stood next to me "it's an experimental combat android. It was deemed too dangerous for training and decommissioned. It was made by the Atlas military experimental paladin project" Ruby said, sounding as if she knew that off the top of her head. I turned to look at her, the shock of her sudden knowledge of her distracted me from the robot. I saw her looking at a small plaque mounted to the wall right next to me 'that explains her knowledge' I thought.
"why are you showing me this?" I asked, referring to the robot in the room. "because if I think I understand your future tattoo. This can be your ultimate weapon" she did a 'look how amazing it is' gesture with her arms. I thought about her idea. It didn't sound like a plan doomed to fail, but it had its problems. "how would I control it? Does it have some sort of remote control?" I asked, looking around the room. "that's what makes it special. This robot was made to act on its own. It uses the latest software to analyze and react to a battle situation. But it didn't have the ability to hold back, so when students tried to train with it. Well let's just say it didn't go well" Ruby explained.
"so you think my necro tattoo will enable me to control it more effectively?" I asked, putting the pieces of what she's been saying. "well? Do you think it can?" she asked. I didn't know. the tattoo was designed originally for slain enemy's, I only adjusted it to control living creatures that I bound to me. "only one way to know for certain" I said, confident in the outcome. "awesome! Now we just have to give you your tattoo adjustments, then you can tattoo this behemoth to your skin!" Ruby said, joy and excitement pouring out of her. 'what could possibly go wrong?' I asked myself.
We went back to out "campsite" and started to prepare the equipment. I was nervous. I have always dreaded getting another tattoo from anyone besides myself. but watching the concentration and focused look that Ruby had when drawing, my heart was put at ease. I felt I could trust her to do this, which was a completely new feeling for me. I hadn't felt trust since my father sent me out for my first killing. That moment seemed like a distant memory when I was with Ruby, it was as if being close to her put me at ease. Her closeness caused a ripple of warmth to cascade through me.
I mixed the ink for my tattoo. The original used a special type of Grimm blood. A Grimm said to be long extinct but the Schnee family had the only supply of it. So I couldn't use that to change the tattoo. I instead had to use modern dust and blood combinations and hope the newer generations would have a similar effect. Feeling satisfied I handed the ink over to Ruby. "if you have any questions, or feel any amount of worry. It's okay, I'll be right here to walk you through it. Just say calm and don't stress about it" I said, being as reassuring as possible. I was of course nervous, but I couldn't let her know that. I had to put my future in her hands and hope she could hold up the weight.
Ruby picked up the gun and got to work. it went smoothly, she only spoke when absolutely necessary and even then it was minor. The design hardly looked different, only my father or winter would be able to see the change. But for the most part it was still the Schnee family tattoo. Only now some of the pieces weren't the pale ghostly blue, instead a bright vibrant red took over some of the crucial parts. Before the blue signified the resurrection of a dead being. But my red parts allowed the living to be influenced, not as a mindless slave but as an equal partner in battle.
By the time Ruby completed the last marking. I felt exhausted. It was close to three in the morning, and the day felt extra-long because of the rude awakening I had. As my aura healed the tattoo, I couldn't even manage to pull on my shirt, I just closed my eyes and sleep took me.
[Ruby pov]
Weiss' tattoo was really difficult. The marking that were used, were confusing to look at. It was like they moved away as you looked at them. Eventually my brain split its attention, one part focused on moving my hand, the other made sure I was copying the new design correctly. The old runes and symbols felt as if they were moving away from the tattoo gun, as if resisting any change, I tried to force on them. If I were to think about it, I would probably throw up from the creepiness of it all.
Once I completed all of the new markings, I noticed Weiss' back shift. Where some of the two colors touched, they combined. New symbols formed out of the overlap, these new marks had a faint purple color to them. But as soon as I saw them, they seemed to sink under Weiss' skin. 'that's weird' I thought. I looked at Weiss, she was already asleep. I pulled down her shirt so her back was no longer exposed, and I carefully shifted her over onto the sleeping bag I brought for her. Tucking her in, I went back to clean all of her tattoo equipment. It didn't take long, it was only four by the time I went to bed 'yay, only three hours of sleep' I thought, knowing tomorrow was going to come far too fast.
Morning came like a slap to the face. My scrolls alarm went off and woke Weiss up, I was already falling back asleep when she forced me up. "Wake up you Dolt. Today is the day you make up with your sister" she said. I groaned out my unwillingness to move. Weiss didn't like my sleepiness. "YYEOOWWW!" I yelled and leaped into the air, a sharp stabbing pain coming from my butt. "Weiss!" I yelled at her, she was holding her weapon. "relax, you aren't even bleeding. Now that you're up, let's go" she said, twirling around and walking out, still holding her rapier.
"Soooo, Weiss? Why are you holding your sword as if something is going to attack any moment?" I asked the nervous looking form carefully walking next to me. "because, I'm still unsure if I'm safe from your sister" she said, as if it were obvious. But her words only made me angry again. This is why I was mad at Yang, she created a wall between our team. Yang didn't think what she did was wrong, and she refused to accept her actions as toxic to our team dynamic. But seeing Weiss afraid, that is what made me truly angry. It triggered something deep within me, a feeling of protectiveness that I've never felt before. 'calm down Ruby, you promised to make up' I said to myself, trying to calm myself down enough to face Yang without yelling again.
We made it to our door without incident. Weiss stood behind me, not enough to look like she was hiding, but enough to hid if something comes out to attack. I opened the door without hesitation, wanting to get this over with. Walking inside I saw something I didn't expect. "Yang? Blake? What are you two doing?" I asked the sleeping girls. My voice awoke Yang with a jolt. "-by. Ruby?" Yang said, looking around in a sleepy haze. Yang started to sit up and the blanket covering her began to slip away. For the briefest of moments, I thought I saw Yang topless 'Gross', but Weiss' hands slapped over my eyes. I heard a soft curse from Blake, before a heavy thud hit the floor, followed by hurried footsteps and the sound of the bathroom door being slammed.
Weiss removed her hands. I looked around and didn't see Blake. 'she must have gone into the bathroom' I thought. I looked back at Weiss, she was looking at the floor and her face was almost glowing from redness. "Ruby, where have you been?" the now dressed Yang asked, sounding both nervous and upset. "that's not important right now. I have something to say" I sounded colder than I intended, but I didn't want Yang to think I've forgiven her yet. Yang just nodded and sat down on Blake's bed, Weiss, and sat on the former's. We both sat in silence, Yang and I were both stubborn, chances are neither of us would talk first, wanting the other to speak. Weiss got impatient, I felt her pinch my elbow really hard "Fine, Yang I'm sorry for making you worry. I'm sorry for getting angry at you. But I need you to understand why" I said, I meant it all too.
"I guess it's my turn. Weiss" I felt Weiss shift closer to me at Yang's words. "I'm not exactly sorry for what I did, the warning still stands, but. I am sorry about the way I delivered that warning. Blake talked me through my mistake" Yang said. Weiss was about to say something, but I wanted Yang to keep going, she hadn't gotten to her real apology yet, so I squeezed Weiss' hand and silenced her upcoming words. "Ruby" Yang's voice softened "I've thought about what you said during lunch yesterday. You were right, it was the wrong way to handle that, I fully felt the divide it caused. I'll allowed my anger to cloud my judgment. I'm so sorry sis" Yang said, sincerity being shown in her voice.
I heard what I wanted, so I released Weiss' hand and tackled Yang into a hug on Blake's bed. I felt dampness on my hand as I hugged Yang "Why is Blake's bed wet?" I asked, it was strange and I was confused. Yang's face froze at my question. "Ruby! Let's go get breakfast, your dinner last night wasn't very filling" Weiss said in a hurried, panicked voice. "Okay!" I said, happy about spending more time with Weiss. I raced out of the room ahead of Weiss, but I heard Yang say "Thank you" to Weiss. 'weird, there must be something going on' I thought, but ran to breakfast and took my mind off of it.