It was the second strange cry that broke Ruby's paralysis. She had no idea where the sound came from or what could have brought it about. From what she saw, it had grabbed the dragon's attention as well, because the monster was now looking of elsewhere. Out of instinct, she turned towards where the dragon was facing so that she could see what had attracted its gaze.
What she saw disturbed her more than the sight of the dragon.
There in front of her, knelt Weiss, only she appeared much different than she did minutes ago. Her body was shaking, and Ruby saw light blue markings all across her body, her arms and face the most noticeable of them all. From Weiss' eyes she saw a pure white glow, overpowering any form of color that was already in place there. The very air and ground around Weiss grew colder, so cold that they slowly started to freeze before Ruby's eyes.
She didn't know what freaked her out more, the presence of the dragon, or what was happening with Weiss.
The dragon started to move towards where Weiss knelt, seemingly intent on destroying her. Ruby was about to run over to Weiss, if she didn't see Weiss stand up and screech. It was worse than the first cry, forcing Ruby to clasp at her ears because of how loud it was. She looked around to see pillars of ice forming all around them, popping out of the ground and tearing through the homes.
The dragon responded by shooting out a column of fire towards Weiss, who blocked it with a wall of ice. From the wall, spikes started to shoot out towards the dragon, only to be stopped by the dragon's fire. As the steam from the two attacks mixing started to fill the sky, Weiss charged forward, drawing a gasp from Ruby. She didn't realize that Weiss seemed much faster than normal, something she finally picked up on when she saw Weiss easily dodge out of the way of the dragon's attacks.
Ruby hated to sit around and watch, but getting involved now would only bring about her death. She could do nothing to help at the moment except wait for it to end. Turning towards the village, she noticed that many of the houses that were nearby the fight were in almost complete ruin, either burned down, impaled with ice, or frozen over. It was exactly what Ruby had hoped to avoid, but even she couldn't foresee this happening, no one could.
She watched as Weiss fought tooth and nail against the dragon, swinging a fist towards it that seemed to extend with ice. The blow knocked the dragon back, causing it to lose balance and fall onto it's side. Though it didn't stop the creature, it gave Weiss the chance to do some damage. She brought huge spears of ice crashing down from the sky towards the dragon. If it wasn't for quick reflexes, the dragon would have been seriously injured. Alas the dragon brought fire towards the object of attack and stopped it from doing much damage.
A small chunk of ice though managed to slip through and pierce through one of the dragon's legs, just by a little bit. Crying out in fury, the dragon unleashed a firestorm on Weiss, forcing her to defend herself. Even Ruby had to turn away from the attack, fearing that the flames would ride over to her. Once the attack was over, Ruby noticed that the dragon was flying away. She felt relief wash over her as she was glad that the beast was leaving.
Unfortunately for her, the danger hadn't passed yet. Weiss was still in a state of distress, something that Ruby didn't know how to fix. What concerned Ruby the most, was that Weiss started to surround herself with pillars of ice. The danger had passed, yet Ruby wondered why Weiss would be doing that. She believed that Weiss would go back to normal after the fight, but it was clear that she wasn't going to be doing so any time soon. Ruby knew she had to do something, but at that moment, she didn't know what to do.
Ruby turned to see that some of the people had stopped running and were returning to look upon the aftermath of the clash that had happened moments ago. They started to peer into the burned out homes, press their hands against the pillars of ice sticking out of the buildings. Many of them had lost their homes and now had nothing left.
Things were bad, and it looked like the people were ready to throw blame on someone. Fortunately for Ruby, the people were held back by Sun and Neptune, giving her the time to try and fix the problem that was presented with Weiss being the way she was. Something about the whole thing didn't seem right, Ruby didn't even know what was going on with Weiss.
She looked over to see the self imposed cage that Weiss created for herself. It was clear that something inside of Weiss was acting in a way that made her act like this, she just needed to break through to her and get the real Weiss out into reality. Thinking of how she was going to go about that, Ruby figured that simply calming Weiss down would be enough to break this spell that had suddenly fallen over her.
Ruby started to slowly approach the icy prison surrounding Weiss. "Weiss? Is everything ok?" She asked softly, hoping it would help break through to the poor woman in distress.
Instead of a normal answer, Ruby was greeted with a thin spike of ice popping up merely a foot in front of her. The sudden pillar startled Ruby, forcing her to jump back a few feet to avoid getting seriously injured. She was surprised that Weiss was acting like this, but at the same time, something about it all just pushed her to help Weiss overcome it, and return to normal.
Ruby continued onward, this time more alert in case another ice spike popped up out of the ground. "Weiss, listen to me," Ruby said softly as she walked over. "I know you don't want to do this, and I know this may be beyond your control right now, but I want to help you. You need to let me in." Ruby made her way closer and closer to the ice structure that surrounded Weiss' current form.
Despite all of the ice spikes that popped up in her path, Ruby managed to stay true to her course and was soon in front of Weiss' prison. She placed a hand on the ice, jerking her hand back as soon as she had made contact with it. The ice was colder than anything she had ever felt before. She looked down at her hand and noticed that the parts that touched the ice were reddened, a very fine layer of frost having formed on her skin.
Ruby shrugged off the cold as best she could, leaning as closely as her body would allow her to the icy prison around Weiss. "Weiss, can you hear me in there?" Ruby asked, knowing fully well that she wouldn't get an answer.
Inside the structure, Weiss fidgeted uncontrollably. Her conscious mind was not her own at the moment, and the near infinite power coursing through her body seemed to have control over her. Deep down, Weiss felt every bit of what was going on, every sound that was made, every cry of fear that the people made. It tormented her, knowing that she caused so much damage.
"Weiss, can you hear me in there?"
The message was barely heard, but Weiss, the true Weiss, managed to hear it. She turned her head towards the direction of the sound, looking through the ice to see Ruby kneeling next to her prison, concern all over her face. Weiss wanted to call out to Ruby, to control herself and return back to what she had before she became this thing, this monster. Unfortunately, she felt herself become overpowered by the dust that coursed through her body, the results of years of torture and experimentation at the hands of her own father destroying any chance of returning to normal anytime soon.
Still, Weiss managed to hear what Ruby had to say to her. "Weiss, I don't know what's going on in there, but I know that whatever it is, you can overcome it and return to who you really are."
Weiss saw Ruby place her hand on the ice, the grimace of pain that shot through Ruby's body at the harsh contact. It destroyed her to see Ruby put herself through pain just for Weiss' sake. She wanted nothing more than to be rid of this accursed form and hold Ruby tightly in her arms, to take away the pain that she felt. Weiss' mind went into a frenzy to undo the damage that was done to herself.
"I don't care if I get hurt while doing this, all that matters to me is that you're back to the Weiss that I know. Weiss, please come back to me," Ruby said.
When she heard that, Weiss felt herself growing stronger, overpowering the dust that was inside of her. She knew deep down that she could control the beast inside of her, make it obey her command and submit to it's will. She started to fight off the dust, allowing her mind to regain control of her body. The pure white light burning through her eyes started to dim, the markings over her body disappearing as well.
The first thing Ruby noticed after she spoke, was that the ice she touched was no longer cold, and that the pain that shot through her hand no longer hurt. Looking down at her own hand, it looked as if nothing was ever wrong with it to begin with. The ice started to melt and disappear away into nothing. Ruby knew instantly that whatever she was doing was working.
"Keep fighting it Weiss, whatever this thing is. I know you can beat it, no matter how hard it may seem. Just keep fighting," Ruby said to Weiss, endeavoring her to succeed.
In Weiss' mind, Ruby's words of encouragement were all that she needed to grow more powerful than the dust that ran through her veins. She finally pushed back it back down and regained control of her own body. With a final cry, the ice around her shattered and rained down onto the ground that surrounded her and Ruby. Weiss felt exhaustion set in, the task of banishing the Dust from controlling her mind draining her of energy.
She started to tip over to the side, only to feel herself be caught in someone's arms. She barely had the energy to look up and see who it was that had a grasp on her. It didn't surprise her when she saw that it was Ruby who had been the one to catch her when she fell. Her clothes were tattered and there were many tears in them that would need to be fixed.
"Ruby, I," Weiss began to say. Before she could go on, Ruby held up a finger to Weiss' lips.
"Don't worry Weiss, you don't need to explain anything to me," Ruby said back.
Weiss shook her head, rejecting Ruby's suggestion. "No, I do need to say this. I'm sorry Ruby, I'm sorry that I caused you so much pain, I'm sorry that I destroyed part of what we were supposed to protect. Most importantly though, I'm sorry that I hid this from you the entire time."
Ruby nodded, she didn't need to hear anything else. In her mind she had already forgiven Weiss for what happened. "It's ok Weiss, you don't need to explain anything more. It doesn't change who you are to me." Ruby hugged Weiss close to her chest. She wanted nothing more than to take Weiss someplace where she would be safe. With Weiss quietly resting in her arms, she felt a strong sense of duty to protect her.
Before she could, she noticed that Sun and Neptune had walked over to her. They saw Weiss wrapped in her arms and silently wondered what had happened. Before they could ask however, Ruby spoke up first. "Neptune, is there any place where we can stay until the village is repaired. I know we couldn't stop the village from becoming damaged, but at least we can help repair the damage."
Neptune sighed, he knew that there was going to be problems, but given what had happened and how complex it was, he had a tough choice to make. "If you want, you can rest at my home. Just be aware that the villagers might not be so kind to Weiss because of her part in the destruction. I'll do what I can to calm the villagers down, but I'm sure they'll be furious at her over what she did, and there's only so much I can do," Neptune said.
Ruby lifted Weiss into her arms, the white-haired girls head resting in her chest. "That's all that I'm asking for, thank you," Ruby said as she followed Neptune to his home, the sleeping form of Weiss in her arms. 'Nothing's going to harm you, Weiss, I promise.'
AN: So big moment just occurred in the story. I do gotta say, this concept is one of the ideas that helped me get this whole entire trilogy started, and so I'm glad that I finally get to do this moment.
If you guys haven't noticed I really haven't been able to write as good for ships like Bumblebee or those aside from White Rose. I'm obviously working more towards that, and I have a few brilliant ideas coming, but for now, I stick with what I know best.
Next, go check out the story Inseparable Souls by TheBrokenBottle, who is a good friend of mine. She has a great story that is a thousand times better than this so go check it out.
Thanks for reading and I hope you enjoyed this chapter.