I do not own Bleach or RWBY
Byakuya slowly lowered himself to the ground, taking a formal seated position.
"My name is Byakuya Kuchiki. Are you alright?"
The girl restrained her sobs, looking across to him in confusion. "B-Byakuya? What color does that mean?"
Color?
"I suppose… if you must know, 'Byakuya' means 'White Night'." Byakuya explained. "I suppose that counts as a color, doesn't it?"
She half-heartedly giggled. "Kind of a weird color."
He wasn't amused, merely raising an eyebrow.
"I mean, uh… sorry." She whispered, pulling her hood up and looking away from his imposing gaze. Then she hesitantly faced back towards him. "But what is this place? Do you know where we are?"
"I suppose we're in your Inner World." Byakuya shrugged. "Do you know what that means?"
She shook her head no, flickering back and forth at superhuman speeds. Byakuya actually cracked a miniscule smile at the sight. It was certainly a use of Shunpo which he'd never seen before.
"This place is a manifestation of your soul. A sort of dreamscape, if you like to think of it that way." Byakuya explained gently. She went pale.
"W-why am I here?" She whispered. "What happened to me?"
Byakuya looked at her appraisingly, evaluating her. "What do you remember?"
"I remember…" She began. "I went to visit my mother's grave, but then I saw all those Beowolves." She shuddered, taking a moment to compose herself. "And I went to fight them, but then… then… something started moving my body. I couldn't control myself, and I-I started speaking in a language I didn't understand, and flying through the air…"
Oh, damn it all. You fool, Byakuya.
"Like I was… possessed."
Byakuya cringed ever so slightly, but managed to keep a straight face. "What's your name, child?"
She blinked, sweeping the red fringe of her hair out of the way of her silver eyes. "Ruby. Ruby Rose."
"Then… please forgive me, Rose-san." Byakuya bowed down. "It was me who took control of your body."
No response was forthcoming. Byakuya slowly looked up.
She was gone without a trace, save for rose petals on the wind.
Ruby ran, faster than she ever had before, as she pushed her Semblance to it's limits. She blitzed past trees again and again, until she'd practically cleared an entire forest's worth of land-
"Oof!"
She came to a stop as she tripped over a rock, hitting the ground and cracking her nose against the earth.
"Please calm yourself, Rose-san." He called out from behind her. She panicked.
How can he be fast enough to catch up with me!? I'm the quickest person I know!
"Stay away!" She yelled, as she scrambled to her feet and tried to make a run for it.
He appeared in front of her with a nearly-inaudible whoosh, so suddenly it was as if he had teleported.
"You're hurt." He murmured. He extended a hand which began to glow gently with an unfamiliar light. "Please, let me help you heal-"
"I said, STAY AWAY!" She cried, lashing out with her fists. He caught her sloppy blows easily. "Wh-what do you want with me!?"
He looked genuinely sorrowful, but she didn't know what to believe.
"I want to apologize. I was thoughtless in my actions, which is something I cannot forgive myself for."
She stumbled back, fear etched across her face. "Why? What were you doing?"
His face pinched inwards. "I awoke to found myself in your body, and I saw that I was in danger from those creatures. So I acted on instinct, without consideration for what you might think."
She regarded him warily.
"Please forgive me." He said. But she didn't look forgiving.
"What are you?" She whispered. "Are you some kind of Possession Grimm?"
"No." He replied earnestly. "I do not even know what such a thing is."
They were at a virtual impasse.
"How did you get in my body?" She asked, turning slightly green. He shrugged.
"I do not know that either."
"I don't understand." Ruby whispered. "How could you have ended up in my body without knowing how you got here?"
Byakuya shrugged. "Well, I died. It tends to be difficult to recall what comes before and after an event like that."
Her eyes bugged out, practically falling out of their sockets. "You… what!?"
"It's a long story, one which doesn't bear repeating." He shrugged her off. "Especially because we need to move forward. I'm not particularly fond of being stuck in your body, and I don't think you enjoy my presence either. So we need to find a solution."
She stared at him in confusion. "Uh, I'm sorry that you're stuck with me…"
"It's not your fault." Byakuya gently admonished her. "But in the meantime, I know little about the words which you're saying. What are 'possession grimm'? Can you tell me more of this place which I find myself in?"
She opened her mouth to speak, and Byakuya listened.
"You're quite adept at fleeing me, aren't you?" She cackled.
She floated in the air upon her six wings of condensed Reishi, looking down at the creature which was daring to stand against her.
"Even with such a wound… you're a flighty one. However, fleeing me is not an option."
She blinked through the air in the form of pure light, pursuing her quarry. The insect before her drew his swords in response, causing her to laugh.
"I've told you already! Weapons are meaningless to me when I'm in this form!"
The insect laughed to himself.
"I heard you the first time, Lille Barro."
Weiss awoke with a start, drenched in sweat from head to toe. She shivered viciously, swallowing down bile.
"My name is Weiss Schnee. My name is Weiss. My name is Weiss…"
She stumbled through the darkness of her home, into the bathroom, and made a beeline for the toilet, before she heaved, gorging up her lunch and dinner from the day before.
"What in the world is happening to me!?" She whispered into the toilet bowl, before hitting the lever to flush her vomit down. She staggered to her feet, using the towel rack by the toilet as a hand-hold to steady to herself.
"I would like to know that myself."
Weiss whirled about at the deep, unfamiliar man's voice. "Who's there?"
He slowly strode forward out of nothingness, shimmering into existence. His white garb contrasted sharply with his dark skin and the black cross-shaped mark around his eye.
"It's me, Lille Barro." He said slowly. "But, perhaps it would be more apt to say that it's you, Lille Barro."
Weiss shook her head, recognizing the name from her dreams. "No… no! I'm Weiss! I'm not a man! I'm not you!"
He just looked down at her condescendingly.
"You are now."
"I don't suppose you've got any more of that whiskey?"
Taiyang shot Qrow a smoldering glare as the latter chugged through his drink at a lighting-fast pace. Together, the two of them sat at Taiyang's kitchen table, while Qrow's scroll sat in front of them. Awaiting a call.
Taiyang's drink was all but untouched.
"Don't look at me like that! It's not my fault I can hold my liquor."
"Real funny, Qrow." Taiyang outright snarled, slamming his hand against the table. "Tell me what happened. You can't just bring my daughter in through the door, unconscious and covered in Grimm blood, without calling ahead. What happened to her!?"
Qrow's face was drawn and haggard. Even more so than usual, for the edgy and moody man. "Alright then. I saw she was heading out to Summer's grave again-"
Taiyang winced.
"-so I took my crow form and followed her over, just to be sure she would be safe."
"Well, you did a great job, Qrow." Taiyang snarked harshly. Qrow glared.
"Yeah, yeah, tell me off. But listen to me. I saw her fighting off some Beowolves, and I moved in to intervene if I needed to. But that was when she started floating."
Taiyang dropped his drink, splattering amber alcohol across the floor. "No… you're joking. Tell me you're joking."
"I wish I was kidding." Qrow responded gently. "And she manipulated the elements to use against the Beowolves, without Dust. You know what this means."
"But…" Taiyang choked. "All of the Maidens are accounted for. Where did she get a power like this? How can she be a Maiden, I thought she just had silver eyes!?"
"And that's the last problem." Qrow concluded. "I saw her face when she was showing off her abilities. Her eyes weren't silver, they had turned grey."
Taiyang held his hands up to his face, cupping his eyes as if to block out unpleasant truths. "That's impossible."
"I saw it with my own eyes, Tai. They've gone back to silver, now, but it happened. And no, I don't know what that means. That's why I'm waiting for Ozpin to call back."
Taiyang shivered. The eyes were literal windows to the soul, in someone who had an awakened Aura. That was why humanity had such varied eye colors (and hair colors, for that matter) - each unique hue was an outward reflection of the light of the soul, of the light of individuality.
If Ruby's eyes had changed colors… then that meant that her soul had changed as well.
"Oh god. Oh, god, Ruby…"