Ruby could sense the uneasy feeling that hovered over the village. It was a feeling of sorrow, frustration, anger, and most importantly, desperation. She knew that the people were upset over the destruction of part of their village, the lost homes of an already overpopulated area, the lives lost during the utter chaos. The people were looking for an object to take out their frustrations on, and it just so happened that that the object of their frustrations was currently resting in one of the homes.
They wanted to take Weiss' head to satisfy their fury, and Ruby knew that the possibility of them doing something to her was likely.
In fact, most of her companions could feel these same emotions coming from the villagers. They felt the tension rise whenever they walked passed them, mostly the villagers just giving them a cold stare. Only Sun was free of this because of his connection to the villagers, this place being home to him for a long time. Neptune was probably their only friend out here, and they were fortunate that he was willing to actually help them.
Ruby sat by Weiss' side as the white haired girl rested on the bed in Neptune's home. Everyone else was out there working to repair the damage to the village, but there was only so much that they could do. Ruby watched Weiss as she rested, looking peaceful as she slept and gathered her strength back. While Ruby knew Weiss was fine, she had been asleep for the past day and a half. Ruby knew that it must have taken a lot of energy to do what she did back there.
It reminded Ruby of what exactly she saw during that fight with the dragon. She wasn't afraid to admit that she lost her cool during the moment, it was impossible to deny that fact. What startled her more wasn't the dragon, but it was what her friend did that left questions in her mind. She wanted to know what exactly that was that she had done, how she had unleashed all that energy at that particular moment.
She had a feeling it was all connected to the experiments that she had performed on her, but Ruby didn't want to assume that it was all because of that. It would be able to explain it, but something like this needed to be spoken of by Weiss herself, without any assumptions being passed by Ruby.
Before she could ponder any further, she heard a loud bang on the door, the rumblings of a crowd standing right behind the gateway to Neptune's home. Ruby walked over to see what all the commotion was about, and when she saw the look of an angry mob on the other side, she mentally prepared for the worst case scenario.
"Is there anything that I may help you with?" Ruby asked what appeared to be the leader of said mob.
"Where is that monster hiding?" Someone from within the crowd shouted.
"That 'monster' has a name, and you should be respectful and use her name since she's a person like you and me," Ruby responded. She knew it wasn't going to end well, so she decided to simply try to alleviate as much of the problem as she could.
"That thing destroyed part of our village!" Someone else shouted. "Stand out of our way so we can take back what she stole from us."
Ruby reached back for Crescent Rose and prepared herself for a fight, should it arise. "I can't let you bring harm to her," Ruby said. She saw that the crowd started to grow agitated with her. "I know you're frustrated, but if we weren't there to fight off the bandits and the dragon, you would have nothing left of your village. Instead, most of your homes are intact, and we're helping you repair what damage has been done."
"Monsters like that thing don't deserve to walk this world. We're going to wipe it off the face of this world so that it may be a better place, free of this monstrosity that you're trying to protect," The man who appeared to be in charge of the riots said. "Now step out of our way or join her, the choice is yours."
"I will do no such thing, and I advice that you quell your anger, lest you bring the ire of my fellow Huntsman to your homes," Ruby threatened. She could always use her position as a Huntsman as a trump card when she needed to. The look that passed over the villagers seemed to change to increased tension, no one wanted to challenge the huntress that stood before them. "Now please, return to your homes and continue on with your lives before anyone else gets hurt."
"We won't go anywhere, without taking that beast off of this world," The man in charge said. There appeared to be less that were siding with him, but enough to still cause a great deal of trouble.
"Then come and get me."
Ruby turned to see Weiss standing behind her, walking through the doorway and out to face the crowd. What she was doing out of bed all of a sudden, Ruby didn't know. Weiss walked towards the crowd, only to be stopped by the tip of a blade appearing a mere hairs length away from her throat.
"Do you have any idea what kind of damage you have done you infernal beast?" The man in charge said to Weiss, his blade the one pointed at her throat. "You have destroyed a part of our village, all because you are nothing more than a demonic monster. We will not stand by while you go about destroying more of our homes, not while we still draw breath."
Ruby knew that the situation was coming close to a head, but when she saw Weiss stand her ground despite the odds thrown at her, she could only watch and wait. "If it wasn't for me, you would have nothing. The dragon wouldn't have stopped at that small part, he would have continued until you were all nothing but bone and ash," Weiss said. "Yet you call me a monster because of the way I defended each and every single one of you. You would all be dead if we hadn't stepped in to help you. So why don't you all-"
Weiss couldn't finish her sentence when she felt a stone that hit her in the face. Someone from the crowd must have gotten a lucky throw while Weiss wasn't paying attention. Before anyone could say anything, Weiss turned out towards the crowd, a deathly silence hanging over the air. She saw Blake appear out of nowhere behind the person who possibly could have thrown the stone, though Blake probably had a better look than Weiss did. The white haired girl suddenly wanted to fight the men and women who stood there, but something inside of her told her instead to just walk away from all of this.
With her pride bruised, Weiss turned away from the crowd and walked towards the edge of the city. She soon had to run, as many of the people who wanted to harm her decided to make chase and come after her. She wasn't afraid of what they would do to her, she could handle a few bumps and bruises from these people if the worst came to pass. What she was afraid of, was herself, and what she could do to the others.
Passing by a few of her companions, she didn't stop when they called out her name. Fortunately for her, Sun and Neptune stood in the way of the protesters, weapons out and ready to fight. The people were surprised by this and called them out on their actions. Ruby went right by them, jumping over rooftops in the hopes that she could catch up to Weiss.
Not a moment later, Ruby noticed that Yang was waving her over. She dropped down to her, hoping to ask her sister to help search for Weiss. The white haired girl ended up disappearing quickly, and Ruby couldn't find her.
"Ruby, I just saw Weiss running towards the forest," Yang said as soon as Ruby reached her. At least Ruby knew that Yang would be willing to help easily enough. "What the hell is going on?"
Ruby put her arm on Yang's shoulder. "There's no time to explain, we need to chase after Weiss," Ruby said, a bit of desperation etched into her tone. "Which way did you see her run?" When Yang pointed in the direction she saw Weiss run, Ruby immediately took off and ran as hard as she could towards that place. Ruby didn't need to turn back to know that Yang was following her close by.
Soon, they saw Weiss, leaning up against a tree with her arms clutching her sides. Ruby and Yang slowed down and stood a few yards away from Weiss. "Um, Weiss?" Ruby said to catch Weiss' attention and let her know that they were there. "You ok?"
Weiss just shook her head at Ruby, tears in her eyes. She felt ashamed of herself for what she was, the exact thing that the villagers had called her, a monster. "Why did you come for me Ruby?"
"Because," Ruby said as she walked over to Weiss. "We are your friends and want to make sure that you're ok." Ruby reached out to hug Weiss from behind. The touch surprised Weiss, Ruby's head resting on Weiss' shoulder. Somehow, Weiss felt much better in Ruby's embrace.
"Ruby, there's something that I need to tell you, all of you," Weiss said softly.
"I'll let everyone know to meet up. Do you want to stay out here and do it?" Ruby asked.
Weiss nodded, letting Ruby know where to send everyone. Before she sent out the message, Weiss cut in. "Can you ask Blake to grab my bag for me, she should know why." When Ruby nodded, Weiss felt relaxed knowing that at least someone who already knew of part of her secret would be bringing what she needed to bring with her.
I suggest listening to the part in 'Burning the Candle' off the RWBY Vol. 2 Soundtrack where Yang is explaining her past to Blake for this part.
It didn't take long for everyone to arrive, even Neptune showed up. Weiss didn't complain, he had as much right to hear about this since he saw her own destruction first hand. Blake handed her the bag and she then went to begin.
Only she suddenly felt scared, worried that they would react badly to her. She was seated against a tree, everyone else sitting around her waiting for her to speak. Ruby could tell how scared she was, and she walked over to her and held her shoulder. "It's ok Weiss, we're not going to think any differently of you," Ruby reassured. "Now, why don't you tell us what you need to say?" Ruby made sure that she was sincere in her compassion, hoping that Weiss wouldn't react badly to what she said.
Weiss took a deep breath and nodded her head, silently letting Ruby know that she was good to speak. "So, most of you guys know this by now, but for those of you who don't, I was forced into a brutal dust experiment for most of my life. What you guys saw back there, was just a few of the results that came from the experiment." Weiss looked out to see everyone waiting patiently, listening to what she had to say.
"When I was three years old, my father, the head of the Schnee Mining Company, took me to where Ruby had found me for the first time. He was the first to physically inject liquid dust into my body," Weiss recalled every moment of the events in her mind, the screams and cries for help she made that fell on deaf ears. "For some reason, my body allowed for me to channel much dust like an electrical current passing through metal. I became a living conductor of dust."
"I spent every day for years under experimentation of some sort, whether it be how much dust I could pass through me, or what some of the results of the experiment would do on my own personal abilities. I became the first living dust human, but it came with a price." Weiss finally reached into the bag and pulled out the syringe and the container of liquid White Dust. "Every few days, I have to inject this into my body, or else the dust will start to eat away at my aura, and I'll die."
The result, was a wave of shocked gasps and 'oh noes' that were uttered by everyone there. "How many of you actually know what this is though?" Weiss asked. When no one seemed to know, aside from Blake, whom she had told already, Weiss didn't seem surprised. "This," Weiss said as she held the container, "is liquified, White Dust."
Silence fell over everyone as they were once again shocked at what they heard. Finally, Ren broke the silence. "I thought White dust was just a myth, to see it in person..." His sentence faded into nothing as the thoughts drowned out anything that he could think to say.
"Well, when this was first discovered, it was kept hidden by the Schnee Mining Company for reasons of power. Unfortunately, four years after we had discovered White Dust, we opened up a cavern that was where the Black Dragon rested," Weiss said. Jaune suddenly remembered what he had found in the SMC stronghold when they rescued Weiss.
"Me and Pyrrha found a report on that in your father's office. We were shocked at first, but hearing it from you," Jaune said, "I wish that we could have stopped it from happening now. Maybe you wouldn't have had to go through all that torture."
"It doesn't matter, that was over a decade ago, no point in trying to change what you couldn't do," Weiss said. "However, I need to tell you about one last thing. What you saw back there, was one of the more advanced uses of my new abilities. I can basically enhance all the power of my glyphs and the dust that I channel through me at a rate that is ten times stronger than what it was before."
"Wow, that seems really useful actually," Pyrrha mentioned.
Weiss nodded. "The only problem, is that I don't have any control over it at this point. What you guys saw back there was me losing control over my emotions, and that power inside of me coming out subconsciously, leaving me in no control over my own actions."
"So, until you have control over it, then it's useless to you," Yang said. "The way I see it, you gotta work on your control then."
"No," Weiss said. When she saw the confused look of Yang she went on. "I won't risk doing any more damage to anyone. If any of you guys were hurt because of me, I don't know how I would live with myself because of it. So, I won't do any more fighting unless it's absolutely necessary."
Yang looked to speak up, but Ruby cut her off. "If you don't feel comfortable with yourself Weiss, don't worry about it. We won't push you into doing anything you don't feel comfortable with if we can avoid it," Ruby said. "Just remember that we're willing to help you grow if you need to do so." Ruby wrapped Weiss in a hug, allowing the white haired girl to feel comfortable with herself.
"Thank you Ruby," Weiss responded. With everyone of her friends there, all of them keeping the same opinion of her as they had before, Weiss finally felt as if she could trust each and every one of them with her life.
AN: Want to start off by saying that I'm super sorry for making you guys wait as long as you did for this chapter. I had too much work with school and needed to focus on that over writing. Fortunately, that's over and done with and I'll have much more time to work on this stuff. So expect many more updates in the coming few weeks.
So I felt as though I needed to go into a full explanation for Weiss' abilities. If I were to make a comparison, I would say it's almost like the Warlock subclass 'Sunslinger' from Destiny (of which I've been playing a lot of recently). For those of you who know what that does, it's super ability is called radiance, which enhances the power and recharge time of your abilities so that they could be used more often and more efficiently. So that's the gist of Weiss' powers.
Anyway, you guys should check out some of my other fics, because I'll be working on pretty much everything that I can while I'm on break. Thanks for reading this chapter of Burning Rose, and I hope you enjoyed it.