It felt like only an instant later that Ruby's eyes opened again, and she found herself somewhere different. The bright light overhead was gone, and her body felt like it was in a different position. She tried to sit up, but she felt sluggish, and her torso was too heavy. She couldn't exactly feel the rest of her body, but the only thing that seemed strange was how heavy everything felt. Even her clothes seemed to hold her down.
An itch started to arise on her nose, and she twitched her face to try and get rid of it. After a few seconds, it became clear that she would have to scratch. It was difficult, but she brought her hand to her face.
Her fingers felt strange, and smelled a little odd as well. Not bad, but different than she was used to. Her eyes slowly meandered down to the limb, and she slowly started to realize something. She was using her left hand. The hand that she'd lost.
If her body was capable of picking itself up from the bed, she would have done so in a heartbeat. As it was, however, she could only push herself slightly up.
"H-hello? Yang?"
From somewhere off to the side, she heard voices and quick movement. Before she knew it, a pair of hands were helping her sit up.
"Ruby, you're up! How are you feeling?" Yang's concern was obvious, but cut short as she noticed that Ruby was partially pushing herself up. "Is it working? The arm, I mean. You used it, right?"
Ruby nodded, her head bouncing slightly as muscles failed to do as she wanted. She did her best to move her legs over the side of the bed, and with a little help from Yang, was able to get into a sitting position.
She stared down at the floor, trying to get her thoughts organized. She'd been on the table, she put the mask on…
She shifted her torso slightly, and felt her left hand brush across the sheets. After a few moments of hesitation, she brought the hand in front of her.
It looked like a regular hand. At least, to her it did. Her vision was still somewhat blurry, but she felt confident that it did indeed appear to be a regular hand. She tapped her fingertips together slowly, making sure that she could control even small movements. She missed most of them, but comparing this against her other hand, the two seemed fairly equal.
Yang laughed, and said, "Ruby, you're not going to be good to go right away. Give it some time for the anesthetic to wear off before you start trying to do stuff like that. Can you walk?"
Ruby let her arm fall back down to the bed before starting to push herself off. Yang got a little closer, putting her hands on Ruby's shoulders and saying something she couldn't quite make out. As her weight shifted from the bed to her legs, they promptly crumpled from beneath her.
Yang caught her before she hit the ground, and instead of helping to stand her back up, reached down and picked Ruby up like she was a baby. Under normal circumstances, Ruby might have protested, but she felt too tired.
As Yang turned, Ruby saw Weiss and Blake in the room as well. They looked like they were trying not to laugh. She was too tired to care, though, and let her eyes drift closed again.
Before she could fall asleep a second time, Yang shook her gently, and said, "Hey, hold on. You want to go back to the dorm, right? Ruby, come on, at least answer first."
Ruby groaned, giving another weak nod, feeling her arms go limp again. She was going to fall asleep, she knew it, it wasn't worth fighting. She slipped back into a deep sleep, nuzzling into Yang slightly as she did so.
This time, she dreamed.
She was fighting Grimm. There were countless numbers, and the widest variety she'd ever seen. But in the face of it it all, she stood perfectly still, like a statue, watching them come. Only when they got close did she react, and when she moved, it became clear something was odd.
She could see every Grimm like it was in slow motion as they charged her down, and when they were about to come into contact with her, she danced effortlessly away. Countless blows were parried, dodged, and simply couldn't keep up with her. No matter how hard the monsters tried, and no matter how many there were, none could land a single blow. Ruby didn't understand why, but in the dream, she was calm about it, like it was to be expected.
After what felt like a long time of evading, she started to hit back. Where she got Crescent Rose from, she didn't know, but the Grimm were cut down like animals to the slaughter. Each strike Ruby gave was deftly placed and expertly executed, slicing through flesh and bone like she was cutting through paper.
The Grimm didn't have the slightest prayer of defeating her, but they still poured forth in droves. The more Ruby slaughtered, the more thinned out they became.
After a while, she found herself fighting a huge beowolf, at least three times her height. It was fast, but not fast enough. Every attack it made, Ruby was able to subvert and retaliate, carving deep gashes into its flesh. The beast's hide started to smoke and pop, the more damage Ruby did, and after a particularly vicious strike to its belly, it finally keeled over, cracking the ground with the weight of its corpse.
Ruby jerked upright, eyes darting around wildly.
She was under a blanket, although her waking up threw most of it off of her body. A few beads of sweat rolled down her forehead as her brain worked to find the next of her enemies to slay, before she realized that it had merely been a dream.
She shook her head, turning her attention to her surroundings. She was in her bunk, back at the dorm. It was a little disorienting to keep waking up in different places, but at least this time it was some place familiar. Her body didn't feel the fatigue from before. Whatever Tecwyn had given her, it must've been wearing off.
Again, she brought her left hand in front of her, moving as quickly as she could to confirm her hopes.
It was there, just as she expected it to be. Synthetic skin stretched across the surface of the masterfully crafted prosthesis, disguising the intricate tangle of artificial muscle. Ruby could feel every one of them, and as she began to flex her fingers, she couldn't help but marvel at their complexity. She could feel every muscle pulling and relaxing individually.
She let out a small giggle, bringing her other hand up to compare. Her right hand felt clumsy now by comparison to her left, even more than usual. It felt dull, too, like she was less aware of what was going on inside of it.
She flexed her elbow, putting her arm out straight, balling her fingers into a fist. It felt good. Undeniably, inexpressibly good. She scooted towards the side of the bed, throwing her feet over the side and pushing off towards the ground. Her boots hit the floor with a loud thud, and she teetered forward, dangerously close to planting her face on the floor, hard. She brought her arms forward to catch herself, in a panic.
When her palms hit, her right wrist gave a small protest as the bone and muscle bore the brunt of the impact. The force of the impact traveled up her arm, all the way to her shoulder. Her left wrist, however, didn't seem affected at all. She could feel the carpet on her palm, and even felt the force of the impact move up her arm, but there was no pain. The muscles held strong, and the rest of the hit was absorbed by the metal.
Ruby smiled again, and picked herself up. She moved the fingers of the hand, idly tapping them against each other and tracing shapes on her palms as she looked around the room. The other beds were empty, but she could hear running water in the bathroom. She was glad she hadn't been left alone, at least. The rest of the room looked much the same as it had before the tournament; Blake's books were strewn around on her bed, Yang's covers were bunched up and thrown in a ball at the foot of her bed, and Weiss's area was immaculately kept, as always.
It almost felt strange to be back, but she was glad for it. She preferred this room over the hospital any day. After a few more moments of looking around, she spied an unfamiliar scroll on the end table. She hesitated for a moment, unsure of whether she should touch it, but her curiosity got the better of her.
It wasn't locked, and appeared to have only rudimentary functions, almost useless in any real day to day situation. In spite of this, its memory was almost completely full. Ruby raised an eyebrow, then tapped her finger on one of the countless icons that filled up the screen.
A large headline reading, "Basic Cybernetic Theory" stared back up at her, followed by a huge paper that, as best Ruby could tell, outlined the basics of exactly that. She scrolled back to the top, looking to confirm a suspicion, and nodded to herself when she found it correct. Doctor Tecwyn's name hung just below the title.
Ruby closed out the file, wondering if they were all scientific papers or not. Checking a few more, she found pages of notes, blueprints, codes, system interfaces; a veritable goldmine if she planned to make her own modifications to her arm, which, of course, she did.
She was just about to sit down at the desk when the bathroom door opened, and her sister stepped out. She looked up, and stared at Ruby for a few seconds before registering what was going on.
"Ruby! You're up!" She rushed forwards, wrapping Ruby in a bear hug before putting her hands on her shoulders and staring happily. "How do you feel?"
Ruby held up her left hand, wiggling her fingers for a moment before giving a thumbs up. "It works!"
Yang laughed, but there was more behind it than just humor. Ruby could practically see a weight coming off of her sister's shoulders. She was relieved. Relieved that Ruby was happy? Relieved that her arm worked? Ruby couldn't tell, but she was relieved too.
After she stopped laughing, Yang noticed the scroll in Ruby's hand. "Oh, you found that already. Good, Tecwyn said you wanted it. Lots of stuff on there. We tried to take a look, but it all looks pretty complicated."
Ruby nodded. She was right, but she was also sure that with a little work, she could see it just like she did weapon specs. It wasn't all that different.
Her thoughts were interrupted when her stomach growled loudly. She hadn't eaten all day, there had been too much going on. "Where are Weiss and Blake?"
"They're out getting lunch. Good timing, I guess, right? They should be back some time soon, which is good for you. So how are you feeling? You want to go to class tomorrow?"
Ruby took a moment to think. She was fit enough to train, she was sure, and she couldn't wait to try her new arm in combat, but that wasn't the only important thing she had to worry about. She looked down at the scroll in her hands. There were hundreds of files on the thing, it could take days to get through if she had the interruptions of school. If she took a few days off, however…
She almost felt guilty about it, Ozpin had offered her days off so she could recover. She was sure that she didn't need the time for that. But almost feeling bad wasn't enough to stop Ruby from shaking her head, saying, "I don't think so. I think it'd be a good idea to wait until I know a little more about this thing before I get back to using it."
Yang laughed, and nodded. "Alright, skipping it is. Just make sure you don't have too much fun without us, okay?"
Ruby pulled another one of the files up, quickly scrolling through while saying sarcastically, "I don't know, it's going to be a blast."
For her, it would be, but the others didn't quite share her enthusiasm for these types of things. She sat at the desk, readying herself for what was probably going to be the most intense study session she'd had yet. Yang stretched out on her bed, pulling her own scroll from her pocket and thumbing through its various tabs.
Ruby was quick to bury her face in the text, taking in as much information as she could. All the while, she glanced down at her new arm, checking everything. It wasn't too unlike studying a new weapon. She had it, had a vague idea of what she could do with it, but the reading gave her all the specifics she could want.
After the first half hour, she sat back, taking a moment to process everything. Her arm had access ports, apparently, that opened into the musculature and wiring. After making sure there was no reason not to, Ruby was eager to try opening them.
She rolled up her sleeve, and decided the port on the inside of her wrist, just below the palm, would be the easiest to do. The mechanism to open it was not easy to activate, even purposefully, but after several minutes of trying, a flap several inches long and several more inches wide of the arm's exterior chassis flipped up, taking the synthetic skin with it. Ruby bit her lip, and looked back over to the scroll. That was supposed to happen, right?
She gave a sigh of relief when she read that the skin would connect again seamlessly when the flap was put back down, and peered into the new hole.
Everything inside seemed black and grey, but she couldn't see more than a fourth of an inch before the view was blocked by muscle. She pouted, realizing that any poking around would require some very small tools, maybe even smaller than she had. She started to wiggle her fingers again, watching the bands of muscle move.
After a moment, it sank in exactly what it was she was doing. Without even worrying, she'd opened her body up. If she'd done this with her other arm, she would be screaming in pain, and bleeding profusely.
She leaned back again, keeping her arm on the table. Was she being a little rash about this? She shook the thought off. Of course not. The arm was a machine, even if it was a part of her. And besides, everybody upgraded their bodies, in a way. Yang did all kinds of exercises, Weiss worked relentlessly on her form and technique, and Blake always tried to make herself more agile and flexible.
Ruby jumped in surprise when a knock came from the door, prompting Yang to jump up and say, "I got it!"
When she opened the door, Ruby leaned back to find Jaune standing in the doorway, the rest of his team behind him.
"Hey Yang. How's Ruby-" as he spoke her name, his eyes flicked to the side, and he saw her sitting. "Oh, you're up! How are you feeling?"
Yang stepped to the side, allowing the small group into the room, and Ruby stood from the desk. Team JNPR looked as well as could be expected. None of them had been injured in the chaos of the tournament, at least. Something did seem off about them, though. Mostly about Pyrrha.
Ruby smiled as she talked back, somewhat distracted as she tried to see what was going on with Pyrrha. She seemed distant, and her normally excellent stature was hunched over. Her arms were folded nervously, and she didn't look directly at Ruby. She was also standing towards the back of the group, and didn't seem to have any intention of changing that. It wasn't like her, and Ruby didn't like seeing a friend like this.
All of them seemed to have bags under their eyes. Ruby couldn't say she was surprised, no one had been sleeping well lately. Even Nora had similar bags under her eyes.
Jaune opened his mouth to say something else, but his eyes drifted down to the access panel Ruby had left open. "Woah, I guess they were serious about that, huh?"
Ruby looked down, realizing what she had done and nodding. "Oh, yeah, I didn't know what to think either, honestly. But it works really well, and I think I might be able to make some cool modifications. But enough about me, how are you guys doing?"
Jaune shuffled, looking down at his feet and scratching the back of his head awkwardly. "Oh, you know, holding up. It's been rough since the tournament. Everyone is pretty shaken up over it, but a lot of people are putting a lot more effort than before too. So, you know, we're alright."
Ruby nodded again, saying, "That's good."
There was a moment of pause before Jaune stepped forward and pointed at Ruby's arm.
"Does that hurt? I mean, it looks kind of painful."
She shook her head, holding her arm out for him to examine. "Nope, it feels fine!" Ren and Nora also stepped forward, looking over Jaune's shoulder curiously as Ruby started to wiggle her fingers. "Look, you can see them move! I'm really glad I have it."
Ren's face remained impossible to read, Jaune started to turn a pale shade of green, and Nora's eyes got even wider than they normally were. Yang gave a small chuckle before saying, "Ruby, you might not want to go around showing that kind of thing off. I don't think Jaune likes seeing holes in arms. It is a little weird, to be honest."
Ruby's cheeks burned as she realized showing off the hole in her arm was probably one of the weirder things she'd done over the course of the year. Turning her arm inwards to face her, she pushed the flap down, averting her eyes. As she did this, she caught a glimpse of Pyrrha's face.
Ruby knew the look of horror was from what had happened with Penny. She was probably scared that she would do the same to Ruby, if she wasn't careful. Ruby stepped towards her slowly, saying, "Pyrrha, are you alright? You look kind of... off."
Pyrrha stared at Ruby's arm for a few more seconds before shaking her head and blinking. "What? Oh, i-it's nothing. I'm glad to see you back, Ruby."
She gave a smile, but it was forced and uncomfortable. Ruby took another step towards her, putting a hand out comfortingly, saying, "If there's something the matter, you can tell us. Please, I want to help!"
As soon as her fingers brushed against Pyrrha's arm, the older girl jerked away, her smile disappearing in an instant as she took a step backwards towards the door.
"Ruby, please, I-" she stopped, realizing that everyone was staring at her. Ruby could see tears starting to well in her eyes. With an unsteady yet quick movement, she turned, saying, "I need to go!"
Jaune tried to catch her as she ran from the room, calling for her to wait and following after her, leaving Nora and Ren behind. A somber expression came across Nora's face, and Ren leaned out of the door, watching his teammates go. As he did, he said over his shoulder, "That probably could have gone better."
Nora sighed, turning to Ruby with an apologetic look on her face.
"Sorry about this, she's still not feeling very good. She blames herself for what happened. We've tried to tell her that it wasn't her fault, but she just won't listen."
Ruby continued to look at the doorway, listening to the sounds of Jaune chasing Pyrrha fade away through the building. Her heart fell and she looked back down at her left arm. Of course Pyrrha wouldn't want to see something like that. How could she have been so stupid? As bad as Ruby felt about Penny, Pyrrha must have felt ten times worse.
Yang stepped forwards again, putting a hand on Ruby's shoulder and ushering her back to the desk. "Ruby, don't worry about it. I'm sure Jaune can calm her down. Why don't you just get back to what you were doing? I mean, you've obviously learned something already. Funny how I had to help you make your original blueprint for Crescent Rose, and now you're reading up on stuff I couldn't even begin to wrap my head around.."
Ruby sighed, sliding out the chair and reaching for the scroll again. She wanted to help, but it didn't seem like there was anything she could do. Nora and Ren bid their farewells, telling Ruby that they were glad she was up and happy with her new arm before taking off after Jaune and Pyrrha, hoping to catch up once Pyrrha stopped.
Yang closed the door and turned back to Ruby, silent for a moment, before saying, "Well, that was nice of them."
Ruby could only grunt in reply, putting her chin on the desk and holding the scroll directly in front of her face. It didn't take long for her to get absorbed into her studies again, comparing notes and papers to the piece of machinery grafted onto her body.
It wasn't long after that Weiss and Blake returned with bags of food from town. Yang was quick to jump up and claim the items she wanted, but it took Ruby great concerted effort to look away from her new scroll.
After several minutes, her stomach growled again, and she couldn't ignore it any more. She closed the scroll and turned, only to find Yang tossing a small bag her way. She gave a high pitched yelp as she just barely caught it.
Yang laughed, and Weiss turned to her, saying, "Yang, that's hardly an appropriate thing to do! Ruby had surgery earlier today and you're throwing things at her?"
Yang waved her hand dismissively as Ruby started to dig into the bag, fishing out anything she could wrap her fingers around. "She's fine, look! Besides, using her reactions like that will get her used to it faster than just sitting around. Right Ruby?"
Ruby looked up, half of a sandwich stuffed into her mouth. Her eyes flicked between Weiss and Yang, before she slowly nodded, not sure what she was agreeing to.
An exasperated sigh escaped Weiss's throat as she rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.
Ruby turned her attention back to the scroll, absently continuing to eat as she did so. A conversation started behind her, but she didn't pay it any mind. If she wanted to really learn this stuff, she needed to focus. No distractions.
It didn't take long to sink her attention back into the texts. General systems were first to learn, just like with any weapon. When she thought of it as a weapon, it seemed much easier to understand. The more she read, the more ideas she had. Could she have some sort of dust-powered super punch? Maybe that would make Yang jealous, though. It wouldn't be very useful to her anyways, considering she preferred to keep her distance from her targets. She wondered if her new arm was more stable than its predecessor. Accuracy was something she was always looking to improve.
Maybe there was something else she could do, though. Something easier, maybe, would be better to focus on at first. But what could she do? Keeping her ideas simple was a difficult thing to do, but as she continued to read, she started to hone in on more plausible ideas. An extra compartment for ammunition, or something? She would give it thought, but learning the systems was more important at the moment.
Time seemed to fly by as she buried herself further and further into the text. The shower turned on and off a couple times, but she didn't look to see who it was. A plate of food was placed on the desk next to her, but after the sandwich she had, she wasn't hungry. Finally, Yang started speaking, then after a moment of Ruby failing to respond, her hand came on her sister's shoulder, shaking her back into the real world.
"Ruby, it's almost midnight. Time to start heading to bed." Her sister stated as her eyes started to droop from exhaustion, causing Ruby to wonder what she had been up too.
"Alright, let me just finish this last paper. I'm almost done." Yang nodded before walking over to her bed and planting her face into the soft pillow. After she left Ruby remembered the food next to her and took a bite as she absentmindedly went back to reading.
After a while, Ruby's head started to nod, and her focus blurred. She never looked away from the scroll, though. She had to finish the paper, and when she did, she was still awake enough to get through another. She didn't have to go to class anyways, so what was the harm in staying up a few more minutes? Everyone else was asleep anyways, it wasn't like they were going to tell her no.
The more she read, the more she leaned over, putting her chin on her hand to support her. Maybe she could use a little rest, but she could still finish off the paper. A few more words, at least.
Her eyes drifted shut slowly, and her breathing slowed. There wouldn't be any harm in taking a little break, just for a few seconds.
It seemed like a second later that she was overtaken by the sensation of falling, quickly followed by her head banging against the surface of the desk. With a sharp cry she threw herself back, her eyes shooting open. The feeling of falling didn't subside, and for a brief moment, her arms flailing out at her sides, trying to find anything to grab onto.
The back of her head hit the floor as her chair toppled over, and she came to a rest, staring up at the ceiling. After blinking the spots out of her eyes, she looked around.
Thin lines of early morning sunlight streamed through the window, making the room just bright enough for Ruby to see that the others were still asleep in their beds. She was glad she hadn't woken them up, at least. What time was it? How late had she been up?
Ruby clambered back to her feet, setting the chair back upright as she did so, rubbing her forehead absentmindedly. It probably wasn't the best way to start the day, but at least she was up early. A plate of half-eaten food sat next to the scroll Ruby had been reading off of, and she took a small bite before looking at the scroll. Judging by its battery life, it'd been on all night.
She rubbed her eyes, yawning widely as she staggered over to her bed. Pulling herself to the top bunk would be too hard given how tired she felt, and she doubted Blake would appreciate Ruby sleeping in her bed. With slow, tired movements, she grabbed a charger from beside her bed and plugged it in at the desk, pulling the scroll closer and holding it up to her face.
The light seemed harsh in her eyes now, forcing her to squint to make out any of the letters. It wasn't easy, but she managed to keep going for a few lines before yawning again, and looking back at the others. They were still not awake, and didn't seem to show any sign that they would wake up soon. She glared at the clock, doing her best to make out what it said from across the room. It was about five in the morning, much too early to be awake for Ruby. She groaned again, putting her head down on the desk for a moment before shaking herself awake and resuming her reading. She was too tired to think about mods now, but she could still learn how prostheses like this worked.
After about half an hour, it became clear to her that reading was hopeless as well. She couldn't conjure enough focus to absorb the information. She sat back in her chair, sighing frustratedly. If she couldn't even read, what good was she?
She put her arm out on the desk, peering down at it. Now she knew how it worked. At least, for the most part. She moved the fingers again, paying special attention to how each one felt. Having an arm back was great, but she could practically feel the wasted opportunity for something more. It was the same thing she felt before she reworked Crescent Rose.
Maybe she needed to take the thing apart a little bit. Not much, of course, but just enough to get more ideas as to what she could do. That was the only way she was going to get any ideas.
But to do that, she would need tools. Not just any tools, but extremely specific tools. More than anything she owned. Be that as it was, the forge would have tools like that in abundance. The only issue was that the forge didn't open before class started. She would have to wait hours to get in.
She yawned again, stretching her arms over her head. She could find something to do with the time, she was sure. She lowered her head to rest on the desk, her eyes started to drift closed when she heard movement to her side.
"Oh, Ruby, you're up. Good, you can get started on the homework you missed."
She looked over to see Weiss getting up from her bed, holding a small pile of papers and a notebook. They slammed onto the table next to her face, startling her awake for a moment.
"We have class today, so you'll have to take care of it yourself, but don't worry, I took notes for you." Ruby guessed she was referring to the notebook, while Weiss paused to fix her bed.
"I'll stop by during lunch to check your progress, so don't worry too much if you find something you need a little help with." Pulling a towel from her makeshift dresser, she started walking toward the bathroom for her morning preparations.
"And I expect you to have it finished by the end of the day." She commented before closing the door.
Ruby groaned in annoyance as her forehead slammed into wood surface.
"But I just want to sleep!"
Author's Note:
Another week, another chapter. Eventually I'm going to have to get back to Ancient Secrets...
Until then, leave a review!