Chapter 26-
Winter moved next to Neo and Ruby, quickly checking her nose and mouth alongside her pulse. "Neo, she's alright. She's unconscious." Winter quickly told Neo.
"Really?" Neo said, tears running down her face.
"Yes, look you can see her chest rising and falling." Winter added.
Neo let out a cry of joy as she hugged Ruby tighter while Winter went to get a doctor to check on Ruby and get some systems set up onto her body to monitor her.
When Ruby next woke up she found herself in the familiar surroundings of the hospital section of the academy, a machine putting a steady beeping sound around the room.
Looking over to her side she spotted Neo with her head resting on the side of her bed, sleeping quietly holding her hand, which she saw had an IV drip inside it.
Hearing the door open Ruby turned to face the doorway where she saw a tall woman with short red hair and bright green eyes, atop her head laid two fox ears of a similar shade as her hair, almost hiding away amongst her hair.
"Oh you're awake. I'm Doctor Church." The woman said, introducing herself quietly as she slowly approached the bed.
Ruby was silent as she eyed the woman suspiciously as she seemed to check some of the monitors and something on her scroll.
"Well nutrient levels are slowly building back up, another bag should be enough but your heart rate is levelling out and your Aura is almost back to its staggering levels that's the norm for you." The woman listed off quietly as she checked the different readings.
She turned to face Ruby after she was finished, ignoring Ruby's look towards her as she asked, "How are you feeling?" She asked. "Oh and stop with the look, it only works the first time." She added.
"I feel…tired, weak but better than I have for a little while." Ruby said.
"Good, that's normal. Coming back from the dead twelve hours later isn't a common thing to happen but it's good that you're feeling better." She replied.
"I recognise you from somewhere. But my mind can't think where." Ruby said softly.
"Four years ago, in Atlas at a White Fang base. I was working as a doctor for the White Fang when you attacked. I was the only non-combatant there and you gave me a choice. I chose the out and now I'm working at Beacon as a doctor." The woman explained.
Ruby nodded her head slowly, remembering exactly the event now that the doctor had reminded her. "I remember." Ruby said slowly. Not worried about the woman's knowledge of her identity as she knew the doctor wouldn't say anything.
"Now, have you any questions?" Church asked.
"How long was I out?" Ruby asked.
"Hmm, we put you into the bed about four hours ago, but it took us about half an hour to get everything sorted to move you so four and a half hours." The woman informed Ruby.
"I see. When can I get out of bed? Will I need a wheelchair again?" Ruby asked.
"Well I don't see any problems with that and I believe you shouldn't need one as your Aura is returning back to full strength. Why don't you try now?" Church suggested.
Ruby nodded her head in return, and being careful as to not wake up Neo as she moved across to the side of the bed, using her hands to swing herself around to sit on the edge.
Slowly Ruby moved forward until her feet touched the ground, feeling the courage to go further she put more pressure onto her feet but as she was pushing off the bed to stand on her own she collapsed straight down onto the floor and if only for her fast reflexes she stopped her face from hitting the ground.
"I…I…I can't feel my legs." Ruby exclaimed, surprised as she attempted to move her legs but she couldn't even feel them or more them.
"I can't feel my legs." Ruby repeated, crying out as she realised this.
This was what sparked Neo into waking up, just hearing Ruby crying made her wake up and immediately go to her side, hugging the woman.
"Nea I can't feel my legs. I can't move my legs." Ruby constantly cried out, crying into Neo's shoulder.
Church watched the scene between the breaking down Ruby and her wife, Neo offering her comfort over the fact she had lost any feeling to her legs. Respecting her privacy, she left the room, letting the two women have a moment alone.
Neo understood what this meant to Ruby, she knew that Ruby loved being independent, and the fact that her semblance had to do with her legs made it even worse for her. She knew exactly how important Ruby's semblance was to her, the ability to just run was something that Ruby loved.
She explained it before that she loved the feeling of the wind through her hair, against her face. The ability to see everything quickly, and now without the use of her legs it would break her.
When Ruby had calmed down enough, although still stifling and choking a little on her sobs but she managed to explain what happened during her time in between. Told her what the Goddesses had told her about her birth and life, and she explained what was to come but they couldn't work out how it would happen.
The doctor came in after Neo had gotten Ruby back onto the bed, her IV attached again as it had come loose when she had fallen onto the floor.
"Ok Ruby, I need to run a scan and a couple tests. Is that ok?" She asked gently.
"Of course." Neo answered for Ruby, who had fallen silent except for her breathing.
"Ok." Church said, running her scroll over Ruby's entire body once more, before she started testing Ruby's range of feeling along her body.
As she reached the waistline, Ruby couldn't feel anything below it even after Church had put a lot of pressure on it but Ruby couldn't feel anything at all.
"What's wrong?" Neo asked.
"Nothing's wrong. That's the problem. The scan shows no problems at all, by right everything should be fine and Ruby should be running around everywhere but for some reason she can't feel her legs. I honestly don't have an answer for you." Church said annoyed at no obvious cause.
"So what would you recommend we do?" Neo asked.
"I'll give her one more IV bag to get her nutrient levels up to normal levels and release her. She'll need to be in a wheelchair to move around and will need help in order to move. I highly recommend she avoids anything stressful for the moment and to see a physical therapist." Church informed the two.
"Thank you." Neo said to the doctor but turned to look at Ruby, "Yes…Ok than." She said, "Ruby would like to know if you would be able to do it instead of someone else." Neo asked.
"If that's what Ruby would prefer, it would save time in getting someone else in." Church stated.
"If you don't mind." Neo said.
"It'll be fine, how about I change that bag and I'll see you in two days for the first session?" Church said, smiling at the pair as she retrieved another IV bag to set it up.
Once Ruby had been given the second bag she was released back to her room, Neo wheeling her through the halls into the room but as soon as they returned she refused to see anyone, just sitting on her bed on her scroll constantly.
This went on for a week before the others were getting annoyed at Ruby's attitude, the first was Raven who actually bypassed Neo and the door entirely as she just teleported directly into the room.
"Hello Ruby, how are you doing?" Raven asked gently.
"Fine. I need you to find out what the White Fang are up to. Something big is coming and I need to find out how they're going to do it." Ruby said emotionlessly, not looking up from her scroll.
"Ok I'll do that, but first I want you to actually talk. You can't keep avoiding everyone and I know what's happened. So how are you really?" Raven asked, sitting on the bed next to Ruby's covered legs.
"I'm fine, tired but fine. I need to find out what's going on more than anything." Ruby said.
"What about your legs? I know you can't walk." Raven said.
"It doesn't matter. I'm learning how to walk again, it's slow and I can take a step but otherwise that's it." Ruby said remaining emotionless as she spoke.
Sighing as she knew she wouldn't get very far Raven just replied, "Ok than Little Rose, remember you can always talk to me if something's wrong or bothering you." Raven said as she stood up.
"I know auntie, thank you." Ruby replied back quietly, her voice soft.
Raven was the only one who really spoke to Ruby, as the others just spoke to Neo who said that she didn't want to see anyone, which eventually they respected that.
"I don't know what to do." Neo cried out, as she walked into Winter's room.
"What do you mean Neo?" Winter asked, although she could guess what she meant.
"About Ruby. She's just become detached, always focused on her scroll. I don't know how to help her." Neo cried out once more and Winter moved to hug the woman.
Neo didn't even notice Mizu was in the room sitting on the bed, watching the scene between her daughter and daughter in law.
"There's not a lot you can do without her wanting it to happen. All you can do is be there for her, she'll want to open up at some point we've just got to be patient." Winter replied back, holding the woman.
Neo started to slowly calm down while being directed to sit in the bed opposite Mizu who was waiting quietly.
"I'm sorry about Ruby's reaction to you when she first woke up. She…she was told about something and her only suspect is you." Neo told the older woman.
"What do you mean?" Mizu asked, worried when Neo called her a suspect.
"She discovered something about her birth. She found that she shouldn't have lived past birth, a stillbirth but she lived through it. But after the first year it was discovered she had an Aura disease, the first of its kind." Neo started to explain.
"She was told that it was artificial. Someone created her with this disease and the only person she could think of was you. But the way you've acted since we've met you suggests otherwise." Neo said.
"I would never do that. Maybe there was some error I made or something. I've got all my notes stored in paper form in a safe at my own flat. If I could get those notes and a sample of Ruby's blood maybe I can compare them and see what went wrong." Mizu started rattling off, thinking of everything that she had done.
"The doctors have a sample of her blood, they took it a little while ago but nothing ever happened with it. Maybe you can get them to release it to you." Neo said.
"I can try. I think I better get my real notes." Mizu said, standing up as she pulled Neo into a hug. "Be strong dear, Ruby can be stubborn but you can get through to her. It's a big change for both of you." Mizu whispered.
Leaving the room Mizu went to her own room while Winter and Neo were left inside.
"Why don't we go see my sister? I'm sure she'll want some company." Winter said, smiling as she took Neo's hand and led her out of the room.
Going out of the room they headed too Ruby and Neo's shared room, as they were walking they talked about the festival with Winter telling her that she would be joining WBY as part of the team for the festival and didn't mention anything about Ruby or Neo's plans.
Entering the room, they saw the bed made with no Ruby inside, nor her wheelchair anywhere in the room and upon searching the room more found Ruby's clothes and weapons all missing alongside the woman herself.
"Where is she?" Neo exclaimed loudly, worried over where Ruby had gone.
"She's gone with Naomi, Dr Church and another woman and a team of Atlas special forces to Patch." Aria informed them.
A/N
So I think I'm going on a bi-weekly basics on updating this, because I need the time to work on another story that comes after this.
I've got a couple ideas of stuff I want to do but I'm jumping all over the place currently I'm considering doing a zombie style story featuring a couple characters from Ruby but I'm not sure how exactly I would do that. Another idea is a Warhammer 40K story featuring the cast of RWBY in my own made up Legion, the lost or forgotten Second Legion. That's currently my two ideas to work on after my current one but I'm so up in the air about it.
Oh and also there's a couple smut things I want to maybe write for Trust which I'm going to use as somewhere I can post smut ideas as my original plan with that story won't happen now.
Anyway, thank you for reading this and please review. Oh and any quotes you'd like to post in the reviews would be greatly appreciated as I want to continue putting quotes at the start of chapters.