Chapter 13:

The teams of doctors at the Beacon Medical institution, located on the campus of Beacon Academy, were on edge. They were waiting for the okay from Headmaster Ozpin, to do active studies of the 48 victims of the Darkness Plague. The teams of doctors had been running tests on the patients, but they needed the go ahead from the Headmaster to really start the testing. The doctors wanted to do their parts. Recently the doctors were put on a direct communications channel that would let them be the first and only ones to receive the reports from team RWBY. Their job was to comb through the reports and find what to tell the headmaster and the rest of the school, as well as others. This way the all the doctors could get the information that they needed, and keep panic from spreading.

So far team RWBY had sent 4 reports. The 4th was of great concern to the teams of doctors. A brief passage from the report explained the reason for their distress:

"We regret to inform you that Ruby has been infected with the Darkness Plague. At this moment we don't know how to stop this horrible disease. The only thing that seems to be keeping the pain from consuming Ruby is drug injections. Weiss, who is still giving the drug doses to Ruby, explained what she uses to concoct the mix; (In this part of the report a long and wordy list of scientific chemicals developed by the medical branch of the Schnee dust company is listed) we are sure you will be able to make sense of this. When you have taken the list and found a 'finale' version you need to send Weiss a copy of the new formula so she can keep injecting Ruby."

The list of chemicals was long and appeared meaningless to someone who wasn't in practice of medicine. The chemicals on the list contained a drug only found when working with the X list; which was inside the vastly unexplored realm of dust medicine.

The teams of doctors were unanimous in the decision to separate into two groups to work on the experiments. The first group would work on the 'finale' formula. The second group would conduct the testing on the infected victims, the ones afflicted with the Darkness Plague. Both groups of doctors needed the secrecy that only a go ahead from Headmaster Ozpin would provide.

"Well this sucks. Why doesn't he just approve it already?" Asked a doctor appointed leader of Group 1, a body builder on the slim side.

"I sure as hell don't know." A woman answered sipping a mug of dust stimulant, similar to coffee except the body never built up a tolerance and it wouldn't stain her white lab coat when spilled after an accident. She stood taller than most with dark brown hair pulled mercilessly into a tight bun. Putting down her cup she continued, clearly she was the head doctor, "Based on my professional experience I say we go ahead with both projects. We should keep them secret from anyone and everyone. Except the 48 Darkness Plague victims and us the group of 96 doctors. We need to keep this hidden from the headmaster, or else we could all be fired."

There seemed to be a general agreement among the doctors. There was a unanimous approval to conduct both experiments.

East labs, formula experiment

"Easy. You're going to want to take it easy with those vials of liquid healing dust." The assigned lead doctor called out.

The formula 'finale' was making excellent progress. The list of chemicals in the report was actually a disguised message on how to liquefy healing dust. The process of liquefying dust was unheard of. Apparently the medical branch of the Schnee dust company, only a few months ago, had made a breakthrough and discovered the method to creating LHD*13. The drug wasn't mentioned in team RWBY's report. Weiss had stolen the formula from her family's company, and had been using it to treat Ruby. A second report had been encoded into the fake list of chemicals informing the doctors of this.

The most recent vials of LHD*13 were placed onto the counter. The head doctor walked over inspecting them, a total of 48 vials. All 48 of those vials would have to be sent back to where they were needed most. Due to lack of a better option of transporting the LHD*13 the doctors had hired a mercenary to do the job.

Sebastian Ferrum walked in the door. He eyed the vials, "That is more vials than I expected." Sebastian said picking his words carefully; he was a White Fang mercenary, a Faunus, defiantly not welcome here.

"Just carry out your job and nothing else." Warned the head doctor.

Sebastian sighed. He then walked over to the vials, and began putting them into his backpack. Taking all of the vials, Sebastian then made his way out of Beacon and onto a short rout through forever fall which would lead him to the ancient Faunus ruins where Roman Torchwick was currently holed up. Making Roman tell Sebastian where Ruby was would be no problem. After all Roman had the Grim Sphere, which could direct the user to the precise location of anything and anyone infected with the Darkness Plague. The mercenary would use this method to get the drugs back to the infected person he had been paid to deliver to. Roman was the supposed leader of the White Fan, Sebastian was a member, and things would work in his favor when transporting the vials.

West medical holding rooms, 48 infected test subject run

The tests were performed with small dosages of LHD*13. After said dosage of the drug, infected victims would no longer exhibit signs of the plague externally. One could no longer tell from the outside if the infected victims had actually been afflicted with the Darkness Plague. However the inside was where the most information was gathered, and where the most problems lay waiting. The infection was still working the system; effects didn't show unless the plague had spread to the whole body. This meant that while the pain was temporarily relieved, the victim still had two weeks to live. That was the case unless a cure could be found. The only plausible way for that to happen would be to find the source of the Darkness Plague. Perhaps if one were to find the source they could develop a cure.

The last thing team RWBY said in their 4th report was that their leader Ruby had been infected with the Darkness Plague for 2 days now. During both days Weiss had injected Ruby with the dug without her knowing. The doctors decided to continue their testing/experiments in secret.

The encampment of team RWBY

Weiss watched Ruby with a heavy heart. Ruby was infected with the Darkness Plague and she didn't know it; Weiss hadn't gotten around to telling her. But Weiss had to tell Ruby, so she did. Walking up to Ruby, Weiss said in a sad voice, "Ruby you're infected with the Darkness Plague."

"Oh shit that's bad. That is really bad. When was I infected? And how come I haven't felt any pain?" Ruby asked, clearly surprised and dismayed at the news.

"You were infected two days ago, when the Boarbatusk impaled you. I've been injecting some drugs into your system to stop the pain. I used healing dust and my aura, which created the drug. When using aura to melt the healing dust it limits how much you can create, and drains your aura in about 10 minutes or so. The drug is called Liquid Healing Dust Category Thirteen, or better known as LHD*13." Weiss explained to Ruby. They both went back to the tent and sat cross-legged facing each other. "There is a term used while performing this process. But first let me clarify something. When you melt healing dust it gives you a euphoric rush. The term used to describe when your aura runs out and the euphoric rush suddenly ends; it's called sopped."

"How long do the effects of the drug last?" Ruby asked.

"They last 24 hours. That means you need another dose every afternoon. As long as I have enough healing dust you should be fine, for now. You do still have 12 days left." Weiss said.

"Thank you Weiss. I'm grateful that you took the time to do this. At first, before you told me, I didn't know I was infected. I thought I was having the best time in my life, which I was, finally being able to express my feelings to you and for you to return them was and is beyond belief. Now I know it was all you, you kept the pain at bay, thank you again Weiss." Ruby said a note of gratitude in her voice. "Now then, can we go kill some more super Grims?"

"As many as we need to." Weiss replied. "And as many as you are able to."

…

Thank you for reading Chapter 13. Fell free to leave your honest reviews, telling me what I should/shouldn't change about the story.