After Weiss and Ruby walked out of the brunette's home, Ruby decided to take Weiss on a trip. "Come with me, Weiss. I wanna show you something," Ruby said as she grabbed Weiss' hand and dragged her through the city. Weiss could barely contain the squeak that escaped her lips as she felt Ruby pull her away. While she didn't mind Ruby wanting to show her something, she could do without being dragged through the city like a doll. Somehow, she just couldn't bring herself to be upset with Ruby doing that to her since the girl seemed excited about something.
Weiss took the chance to look around at the sights as they passed them by. She had to admit that Ruby was right when she said that the city was beautiful. She became very engrossed in the sight so much that she didn't notice Ruby slow down and come to a stop. When she noticed that the sights weren't changing, she finally looked over to Ruby. She stood in front of the entrance to an old path that looked like it traveled up the mountain. Ruby held her hands behind her back and waited for Weiss to say something.
"Is this what you wanted to show me?" Weiss asked.
"Yeah, w-well not exactly this but, the thing that's at the end of the path," Ruby said, stuttering her words as the flowed out of her mouth. Weiss could tell that she was nervous about something, but for the life of her, she couldn't figure out what it was. "I guess we should make our way up then, huh."
Weiss nodded, took Ruby's hand in her own, and started to guide Ruby up the path. "Yeah, we should start to head up," She said as they began to make their way up. The path was long, but it was fairly lit up by old torches that looked to have been place ages ago. Weiss had to admit that she was curious about how this path looked ancient, yet felt like it was constantly preserved through time, not changing from age to age.
Once they made it to the top, the path opened up to a small clearing, where the only things that stood there, was a few benches for people to rest after their journey, a bridge to cross the river, and a rail along edges of the cliff that ensured that no one fall from this clearly sacred place. Around the two of them, nature stood tall and the beauty of the place was breathtaking.
Weiss had not expected to be as captivated by what she saw, but somehow, the sight before her stole her breath away. Her jaw dropped slightly and her eyes went wide as she was marveled by what she saw. Ruby saw how her friend was amazed by the beauty and she pulled Weiss over to one of the benches so they could sit down.
After they sat down, Weiss turned and saw that they were stopped at the top of the waterfall. She gasped at the news, since she wanted to ask Ruby to bring her here at a later time. "Do you like the view, Weiss?" Ruby asked.
The white haired girl nodded her head as she looked around at the natural beauty around them. "It certainly is breathtaking," Weiss said. She finally turned to look at Ruby. "Ruby, I wanted to thank you, for bringing me up here." That got Ruby to turn her attention to Weiss, wondering why she said that. "In fact, I'm grateful that you brought me along with you on this entire journey."
Weiss stood up and walked over to the edge of the cliff, resting her hands on the railing between her and the very edge. "I know you guys have quite a few questions for me regarding my relationship with my father, but there are some things that I would rather not say, for my own sake. Though," Weiss paused for a moment. "I know that you guys deserve to know of what it is. I just need to wait till I'm ready to say it."
Weiss felt an arm wrap around her back, a hand resting along her waist. She turned to see Ruby gently holding her close, close enough that she could swear she was able to smell roses coming from the girl. Ruby was different than everyone else she met, all of the people her father had brought to test her and experiment with her against the girls will. With Ruby, she felt freedom, joy, love, all of these things that she had never once felt before. She realized that if it hadn't been for Ruby, she would never have been able to experience the beauty around her, the thrill of fighting alongside those she could count on, the care that her friends gave her when she needed it, all thanks to Ruby.
"You don't need to say anything to us about it Weiss. It doesn't matter what happened, what does matter is that you're with us and we care for you. If you would feel better keeping it to yourself, then do that, we won't let it change our opinion of you," Ruby said.
Weiss didn't realize it, but not only had Ruby wrapped her other arm around Weiss, but Weiss had subconsciously wrapped her own arms around Ruby as well. A thought suddenly popped into her mind, something she wanted to talk with Ruby about for a while. "Do you remember that first night we were in Atlas?" She saw Ruby nod before her. "How I came over to your room, and we were standing like this before."
"I remember, I remember well. You know we almost kissed that night," Ruby mentioned.
Weiss nodded, the memory came back to her fairly well, as well as the blush that appeared on her face. "I remember," Weiss whispered as she felt herself move closer to Ruby, the warmth from her breath bringing out a small gasp from Ruby. They both closed their eyes as the distance between them closed. It was like it was before, but this time, there was nothing to stop them but themselves, and neither was interested in that.
With the last speck of closeness between them crossed, their lips finally joined together. Time seemed to slow down for them, as if they were the only two people in existence. Their minds filled with ecstasy as they shared the moment together, and only when they parted did they seem to know what happened. As they stood there though, no one wanted the moment to end, even if they knew that they had other matters to go back to. For them, this was the one moment that they would always remember.
"Wow," Weiss said, breaking the silence between them.
"Yeah, wow," Ruby responded. She pulled Weiss closer and rested her head on the shoulders of the white haired girl, content to let the moment last as long as they could.
Morning came suddenly, and Ruby woke up from her bed. She looked around to see that Yang was making food for everyone, and that Weiss was surprisingly helping her with that. It was either that, or Yang was showing her how to cook in the first place, with Ruby betting it was probably the latter. She rolled over so that she was sitting on the edge of her bed, and she nearly scared herself when she saw Jaune's face right next to her feet.
Ruby thought back on the night before, how she and Weiss kissed up by the waterfall. When they finally decided to return, neither of them wanted to go, but they knew it had to happen. Weiss had asked Ruby not to say anything about it to the others just yet, because she wanted time to understand everything herself, to which Ruby was happy to oblige. Surprised to say, when they returned, they saw that Blake and Yang were embracing each other, it came as a surprise to the two of them, though they were both happy about it.
Their breakfast went well, Yang saying that with a better way of cooking everything, as well as some help from Weiss, she was able to make a meal worthy of their hunger. With full stomachs, and a new goal in mind, Ruby soon led them over to the train that would take them to Haven. She wondered why they would go there when the dragon was still somewhere out there, but Blake and Pyrrha at one point during breakfast had a good point on that. They believed that since Ozpin didn't have anything for them to go off of yet, they should be used for something instead of sitting around waiting for him to find what they were looking for.
Thus is how they came to be on the train at this point. Ruby sat with Weiss talking with her about anything that Weiss asked. Blake was off reading a book, as was Ren. Yang, Nora, Sun, Jaune and Pyrrha were all training for what lay ahead, mostly helping Jaune improve all that he could.
For Weiss, she was very grateful that Ruby was always willing to listen and answer her questions. Her father hadn't taught her much of the outside world and so she had so much to learn from Ruby. She was very eager to learn, and Ruby was glad that she could help Weiss grow as a person.
Unfortunately for Weiss, she felt something vibrate against her leg. 'No not now, why is it always at the worst time?' Weiss thought to herself as she reached to stand up. "Ruby, I have something that I need to take care of. I should be back soon," Weiss said, reaching over to grab her bag and walk to a private area. Before she left though, she felt a hand grasp her wrist.
"Weiss, are you ok?" Ruby asked, her grip on Weiss' wrist strong, yet gentle.
Weiss sighed, she needed to tell Ruby at some point, but right now wasn't the time. "Please, I know it must be scary, but trust me when I say this. I want to tell you, but like some other things, I just can't right now. Do you understand?" Weiss asked as she looked down at Ruby.
A moment passed before Ruby lowered her arm and nodded to Weiss. "Ok, when you're ready to say it, you know where I'll be," Ruby said. She tried to sound positive, but even Weiss could tell that she felt upset by what Weiss had said.
Even if she couldn't do anything then, Weiss knew there would be a time where Ruby would be told of her condition. Walking towards the back of the train car, she took a step out the door and stood on the platform outside.
Taking a few breaths to steel herself, she reached into her bag and pulled out one of it's contents. She looked down at the small syringe, filled with a white crystalline liquid. Pulling the cap off of the syringe, she braced herself against the wall of the train, and then injected herself with the syringe. The contents traveled through her as she felt every last drop pour into her body and course throughout her veins. When the syringe was empty, she pulled it out and reached back into her bag. This time, she pulled out a container that had the same white liquid as the syringe.
Before she could though, a voice spoke up, startling her. "So this is what you've been doing the entire time."
Weiss naturally spun around and readied herself to fight whoever was talking to her. She was surprised to see that it was Blake that was standing there with her. How long she had been standing there though, worried Weiss tremendously.
"What did you see?" Weiss demanded. She gave Blake a look that said she wouldn't take no for an answer, her tone implicating this even further.
"I saw you inject whatever was in that syringe. Clearly you're going to refill it for the next time, so my only question is, what exactly is this?" Blake walked over to where Weiss had left the container, pointing to it when she questioned Weiss about it's contents. When Weiss refused to answer, Blake decided to look at the container herself, lifting it up so she could get a closer look at it. Something about it seemed eerily familiar to her, but for the life of her, she couldn't tell what it was.
"What exactly is this, Weiss?" Blake asked.
Weiss realized that Blake wasn't leaving until she got an answer, one that Weiss had to unfortunately give right then and there.
"Dust."
"What?" Blake asked.
"The contents, it's liquified dust," Weiss responded.
Blake looked at the jar again. "That can't be, there's no such thing as white dust," Blake said when she looked back at Weiss.
"You'd be surprised at what secrets stay out of the public eye," Weiss said. She grabbed the container from out of Blake's hands, and went back to the task of refilling the syringe.
Blake decided that Weiss probably knew more about it than she did, plus it seemed plausible since Weiss was experimented on dust to begin with. "Ok, so that's white liquid dust," Blake didn't even know what to think of what she said. "But that doesn't explain what you were doing injecting yourself with it."
"You say that like I chose to do so," Weiss mumbled. With her task done, she placed the cap back on the syringe and put both the syringe and the dust container back into the bag.
"You choose to not tell us this, so forgive me for being assertive when we have to find out for ourselves why you choose to do this," Blake said.
"What choice?" Weiss shouted out. She was done with trying to explain herself to someone who didn't seem to understand. Now she decided to just say the one thing she was avoiding, the harsh reality of her situation.
"Do you think I choose to do this for power, or for a sense of satisfaction? Let me ask you something, Blake. What kind of choice do you think I have, when if the only other option, is dying of a horribly painful death? Do you want me to choose that over injecting dust into my body for the rest of my life?" Weiss had truly shocked Blake with what she said, and Blake knew that it was the truth, even if she didn't want to think it was that way. "I don't have a choice, Blake, and I hope that you keep quiet about this to the others, especially Ruby. I need them to hear of this from me, not you."
Weiss went to go walk back inside, before she was stopped by Blake speaking again. "You have to tell the others, sooner rather than later."
"I already know that," Weiss responded.
"And, for the record," Blake started. "I'm sorry, about all of this. You know that everyone is willing to help you if you need it right?"
Weiss nodded. "I know, but right now, there's nothing you can do," Weiss said. "Though, I do appreciate the gesture." Weiss walked back into the train car and sat down next to Ruby, who perked up at the white haired girls presence.
"Hey, everything good now?" Ruby asked.
Weiss nodded, deep down she knew that saying something to Blake was good for her. It felt nice to let it out to someone, makes the next time much easier to deal with. "Yeah, things couldn't be better actually."
AN: Ok, didn't anticipate the first half of this chapter being as long as it did, but there ya go. It finally happened so everyone be happy.
More important to the story though is the explanation for why Weiss goes off on her own at times, and this is another one of the brilliant ideas that I had with this story. I can say though, this isn't the last surprise we'll be seeing from Weiss' experimentation, and the best one is yet to come.
Anyway, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this chapter of Burning Rose.