Shout out to PiLamdaOd, thanks for your great review. It greatly helped me right this chapter, being a great source of inspiration to make this chapter how I wanted it. I also hope that your wishes and those of the other readers for this story continue to run parallel to my own which seeing your comment leads me to believe. Thanks again for taking the time to write a comment, which does help me, become a better writer.
Ruby
"I-I uh pardon?" Ruby stammered. "I'm am truly very sorry Miss Rose but due to your injury you cannot become a Huntress." Said Professor Ooblek looking very tired and stressed from the present situation. "But… what's stopping me? Why does only having one arm stop me from being a huntress? What can't I do that's hindering me?" Ruby replied worry apparent in her voice. "Miss Rose, would you please present your weapon to me?" The Professor asked. Ruby went to grab Crescent Rose only to realize she was instinctively trying to grab it with her left arm. A tinge of red came to Rubys' cheeks, knowing what the Professor was most likely going to say. After witnessing the awkward display of Rubys' stump ruffling within the sleeve for a few moments then stopping while the girl blushed. "Miss Rose if I do recall your scythe requires the use of both hands to wield it. So unless you can modify your fighting style to only use one arm and still be as effective in battle as you were, then you cannot be a huntress in this academy." Professor Ooblek finished.
I can't use my scythe with one hand; I wouldn't even be able cock it never mind reload it! Maybe if I could get my arm back! Why haven't I thought of this before? A wide grin spread across Rubys' face thoroughly confusing Professor Ooblek who was ready for a tirade of tears, and Weiss who was ready to comfort her when those tears came. "See you Professor!" Ruby yelled as she grabbed Weiss' hand and ran off.
Arriving at the infirmary, Ruby was looking all around the lobby to get someone's attention. Huffing and puffing Weiss said "Ruby, why are we here?" "I'm getting my arm back silly! They can reattach it right?" Ruby replied. A heavy weight pressed on Weiss' heart Ruby didn't understand and Weiss needed to tell her… "Hello! Uh… can you take me too my arm?" Weiss focused on Ruby again to find her talking to one of the nurses. "You see I lost my arm a little while ago and I was wondering if you could, you know, reattach it?" Ruby asked hopefully. The nurse scrunched her eyebrows together and raised her hands to Rubys' left sleeve. "May I?" The nurse asked, nodding her head Ruby lifted her stump towards the nurse. Rolling the sleeve back the nurse exposed the mostly healed end of Rubys' stump. Sighing the nurse lowered her head and then looked up to meet Rubys' eyes, "I'm sorry Miss but you can only reattach anything as small as a toe never mind something as big as an arm after a few hours. It is much too late to put your arm back on. Even if it had been reattached it most likely would have been useless as anything but aesthetics." The nurse explained. Ruby just stared at the nurse her future seeming to collapse around her, darkness creeping in forcing tears out of her like a crushed sponge. Then there was Weiss her shining white light in this torrent of darkness. Weiss had walked up a few tears in her eyes as well and embraced Ruby clutching her close to her chest as she let the little red head come to terms with what her loss meant, on a wave of tears.
"Although, if these records are correct, we still have your arm on ice if you would like to take a look at it?" the nurse said quietly to Ruby. Weiss glared at the nurse but stopped as Ruby halted her sniffling and looked up "Yes, I would like to see it at least one more time before you guys get rid of it or whatever." Drying her eyes she disengaged from Weiss. "Are you sure Ruby I'm don't think.." Weiss started. "Don't worry Weiss it'll be fine, it was a part of me and I know it sounds weird but I gotta say good bye." Looking to the nurse Ruby said, "Let's go."
Arriving at the cold storage area of the hospital, they came up to a wall of what looked to be filing cabinets but judging by the drop in temperature Ruby felt when entering the room she guessed this was where they kept all of the body parts, like her arm.
Stopping by one of the cabinets at waste height, the nurse looked up at Ruby and opened it. Revealing a pale arm flecked with black and green the tip of bone barely visible where the arm had been cut off. Then a smell hit them, coughing lightly at the stench then starting to cough more violently Ruby asked the nurse "Is it really my arm that's making that smell?!" just to double over again and start to hack even more violently. "Yes Miss Rose it is, that is why we could not have realistically reattached it." The nurse said as she closed the cabinet not having winced or coughed in the slightest at the scent of the arm clearly accustomed to things such as that by now. "The arm had been out in an unrefrigerated area for much too long before we could get to you and retrieve it. Also it had not been properly kept clean during that time. What resulted was a large amount of infection and mass die off of cells in your arm, making it deadly to try and reattach." The nurse finished.
"Ok, I think I understand why you couldn't do anything about it, and I uh… I guess good bye then arm, goodbye Beacon..." Ruby said growing quieter as she spoke. "You know you can always get a prosthetic, " The nurse said trying to alleviate the mood in the room at least a little. "We have a few options here although I don't know if any would help you in hunting if I'm correct in guessing, your profession." The nurse said. Scowling Weiss responded with "Don't you worry I have already made sure she will get the best prosthetic she could ever want for." "Wait so these prosthetics things are like mechanical arms?" Ruby asked the two. "Well, yes Miss Rose in the most simple terms you could say that." The nurse replied. Slightly confused by the tone of enthusiasm starting to radiate from the redhead. "Weiss, come on I have an idea! By the way thanks for letting me see my old arm! Bye!" Ruby spun off dragging Weiss with her. Old arm? Does she have a new one already? the nurse wondered.
"Ruby what has gotten into you? Why are you so happy about not having your arm?" Asked a confused Weiss. "Well-ll, I was thinking we could, and I am seriously stressing the we part. Build me a new arm! I mean it shouldn't be that hard, Crescent Rose was difficult but not really all that complicated when you got down to it and with some special parts from you we could totally build me a new arm!" Ruby explained. "Umm, I'm not sure that's how it works Ruby." Weiss said. "You still wouldn't have control of it since you can't connect it to your nerves." She continued. "Wait, couldn't we use that connector thingy dust to connect it to me?" Ruby asked. Thinking about it, Weiss shrugged mentally. "Well, first it's called Aura Connection dust. It allows for someone who is pushing his or her aura through it to at least slightly control a machine being powered by it. So I guess I could see it working which is still no guarantee since you would need to be pushing your aura through it constantly for it to work." Weiss said doubtfully. "It's either that or leave Beacon, and you Weiss. I don't want that and I hope you don't either so I say lets give it shot at least." Ruby said. Feeling happiness at being the loved one of such a resilient and strong girl Weiss just nodded her head in acknowledgement of the task to come.
In the workshop in Beacons basement the pair sat with hundreds of parts spread in front of them ready to be assembled. Having already drawn up plans for the arm, Weiss felt a lot better about this idea working. "So Ruby, how do we do this? It isn't really my specialty." Weiss asked, having had a lot of help with Myrtenaster, she had never gotten any experience with weapons other than using them and the odd maintenance. "Well, lets start with the basic structure, then move on to the mechanics including the power source and the arm bonding mechanisms and finally the skin." Ruby said happily going over the pieces making sure they had everything they needed. "Yes, but how do we do, that." Weiss asked, feeling somewhat sheepish to not really know anything about mechanics. "Okay well I will be doing pretty much everything and will be asking for you to do the odd thing that requires two hands. Sound good?" Ruby responded. "Yeah." Weiss said, glancing around and not seeing anyone else in the workshop, stole a kiss from Ruby. Savoring every second. Breaking off Weiss continued, "Thanks for letting me help you with this Ruby, it means a lot." Blushing, Ruby stuttered her response, "Y-yeah, no problem!" Smiling at Rubys' awkwardness Weiss focused on the plans and got them to work.
After a good five hours of hard work from the White Rose duo they had built Ruby a new arm. It had similar structure to most arms with four fingers and a thumb, with the wrist, hand and elbow based on Rubys' right arm. The major aesthetic difference though was due to Ruby, who against Weiss' consul used her classic red and black pattern. The palm and various other soft areas like the underside of the arm, and prints of the fingers were all red with the rest being of a black design. Using the aura connection dust crystals as a power source and as using Rubys' aura in coordination with it, it linked her stump to the corresponding slot in the prosthetic making it feel and act like any normal arm. Only Ruby had made sure it was more than just a worse replacement arm. Ruby had given it extremely powerful muscles that had strength far beyond what any person could possibly have (except maybe Yang). Not just that but Ruby had modified Crescent Rose to take advantage of the situation. Getting rid of the stock of Crescent Rose, Ruby had given her arm the functionality to open and combine with Crescent Rose at the point of the magazine, essentially making her lower arm the stock of Crescent Rose. This combined with the inhuman 360 degree rotation she gave to her elbow and wrist and the massive robotic muscles, she could now swing Crescent Rose harder, faster and with many more degrees of motion than she could have had before.
Looking with pride at the new arm she had made with the assistance of Weiss, Ruby was about to attach it for the first time when Weiss stopped her, carefully holding Rubys' right arm in one of her hands and the back of Rubys' neck with the other. "Ruby, may I put it on for you?" Weiss asked looking into Rubys' eyes as she did so. "Absolutely Weiss." Ruby replied. Weiss let go of Ruby and took ahold of the new arm and holding Rubys' stump up for the attaching process the heiress gulped truly hoping that this arm would work so that Ruby could have the life she truly wanted. Slipping the arm onto the stump Ruby closed her eyes feeling the dust crystal merging with her aura and as it merged the machine melded with her and became a part of her, similar to the feeling when Ruby had felt Weiss become part of her, when she fell in love with the beautiful heiress. Closing her eyes she felt the missed sensation of her fingertips against her palm although numbed and deadened, there nonetheless. Looking up at the girl in front of her, a few tears escaped her eyes. "Thank you." She whispered as she leaned forward and embraced Weiss with her two arms one flesh and blood, and the other metal and dust.