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May contain side effects

Chapter 4:

A sister's doll

"Yang, we're back. You missed dinner, how could you! You never miss dinner! They even had those fried potatoes you like so much!" The energetic voice of a certain team leader echoed through the room.

Blake was able to see a glimpse of red before complete darkness took her sight away. A sudden feeling of motion got her completely disoriented. The only thing she was able see was the underside of a set of fingers. That's when she realized what had happened.

In a desperate attempt to hide Blake from the watchful eyes of their teammates Yang simply closed her hand around the little girl, trapping her inside. Blake stopped struggling and listened what was happening outside, as her heart was beating at a hundred miles an hour. There was no way she was going to get away unseen.

"Oh hey Ruby, did I really miss dinner? That sucks, I was a bit distracted I'm afraid," Yang said sheepishly, rubbing her hand over the back of her neck.

"Don't worry Yang, we were able to grab some sandwiches on the way out, got some chicken for you and tuna for Blake," Ruby said cheerfully patting the back hung around her shoulder.

"D'aww thanks sis! I'm starving!" Yang said, rubbing her free hand through Ruby's hair. The team leader wasn't as appreciative however.

"Yaaaang, you know I hate it when you do that!" Ruby exclaimed, pulling her vulnerable hair out of reach of Yang's murderous claws.

"Is food and hair all you two think about!? Shouldn't we be worried about Blake?" a certain heiress scolded the two sisters. Blake could almost feel the scowl radiating through Yang's warm fingers.

"Yes, of course!" Ruby shouted, pointing her finger in the air like she had a brilliant idea. "How's Blake doing, is she all right?"

"Dunce…" Weis mumbled while shaking her head, although everybody in the room was able to hear her clearly.

"Blake? Yes, she's fine now, just had a big headache, you know? She just had to take a cat nap," Yang said, her voice only quivering slightly. Blake groaned silently at the joke before stopping herself, hoping no one had noticed.

"Then why did you have to stay behind if she was just in need for some rest? Don't tell me you just used your partner as an excuse to skip class?" Weiss asked sternly.

"What? No! I can't believe you would think that of me! I would never use Blakey as an excuse!" Yang exclaimed, only half faking to be hurt.

"I'll just take your word for it," Weiss said with a sigh. She looked past the blonde broad stature and was surprised to find the bed of their raven-haired teammate empty.

Yang took opportunity of the silence that followed to shuffle towards the door. It was almost within her arm's reach and Blake thought they were actually going to get away before her dreams were crushed into the ground as Yang was suddenly stopped by the voice of her little sister. "Yang, where's Blake?"

'Of course my absence would have been noticed, it was too good to be true,' Blake thought mournfully as she visibly deflated.

"She… She is at the infirmary for a checkup, those headaches have been getting worse after all. I'm going there now," Yang said lacking just enough confidence for the R and the W of team RWBY to notice.

"Wow, Yang, I swear to Dust that you are a worse liar than that dolt of a sister of yours," Weiss said, ignoring the "Hey!" the sisters shouted in unison. "We just passed the infirmary and Blake hadn't checked in for a few days."

"Well… Maybe she just sneaked in, we're talking about Blake after all," Yang tried, rubbing her neck sheepishly, earning a face palm from Weiss, Ruby and the little girl in question. The blonde knew she had been found out but she tried convincing them anyway.

Ruby decided it was enough and put on her team leader face. "Yang Xiao Long, are you hiding something? If there is something wrong with our teammate I think we should know. Not just to satisfy our curiosity but for her own safety, if there is something wrong with her, then we should be able to help her too," Ruby reasoned with a stern voice. Moments like these really showed that she was really growing in her role as team leader.

Yang and Blake both knew she was right, they were going to be find out anyway as they all slept in the same room.

The blonde gave the little girl in her hand a little squeeze, as to ask her a question. Blake answered by tapping the inside of one of her fingers in agreement. She felt that weird sense of motion again, knowing Yang was lifting her up.

Angst overtook her once more, part of her was calmer then before because she knew there was no other way out of this situation, but the waiting game in the darkness of Yang's hand was killing her. Heartbeat and breathing acceleration was just one of the many wonderful symptoms of her distress. Shivers ran through her spine even though she was probably in the warmest place in the whole school.

The movement stopped and she braced herself to see the light of day once more. Ruby voice intruded her ears. "Yang? What do you have in your hand?"

Light began to intrude through the fingers as they opened slowly, giving Blake time to shakily stand up, her legs wobbling like jelly as she tried to calm herself down. She didn't dare to look at her two teammates who were probably ogling her up right there and then.

Finally she gathered enough courage to look up. The sight before her would have made her burst out into laughter if she would have been calm.

Ruby's and Weiss' faces looked like they had simply stopped working, but the two pair of eyes shining onto Blake like searchlights said it all. The shock in them would have made a young Jaune being ambushed by a giant Deathstalker a run for his money.

An eerie silence fell over the room as both pairs of team RWBY stared at each other. It almost looked like a Mexican standoff if they wouldn't have shocked and afraid expressions on their face. Blake half expected a tumbleweed rolling past them, but had her hopes crushed as she realized they were standing inside. Let's just say her brain was going to weird places when she was under so much pressure.

As she looked back at Yang, she could see her lilac eyes staring at her sister and the heiress intensively, looking almost challenging. Blake felt a little safer seeing protectiveness linger in those huge globes.

After what felt like hours there was a sudden reaction from the white and red girls. The silence was broken as the bags Weiss was carrying crashed into the ground. Her reaction was rather expected, she simply gasped and put her hands over her mouth out of shock.

Blake didn't really know what she expected of Ruby's reaction, but definitely not what her team leader actually did.

"AAAAAAAAAAH!" Ruby squealed, her serious face breaking into something that looked like the one of a little kid during Christmas. "IT'S SO CUTE! WHERE DID YOU FIND IT? IT LOOKS EXACTLY LIKE HER!" The girl exclaimed happily as she put her fists under her chin like she had just gotten a present.

Angst was replaced with incredibility on Blake's face faster than Ruby's top speed, even with her semblance activated. "What."

The blonde simply palmed her face. "Really sis?"

"IT EVEN TALKS! IT SOUNDS JUST LIKE HER! CAN I HOLD IT?" Ruby asked with her trademark irresistible puppy eyes.

Under normal circumstances Yang would have definitely said no. But as those huge silver eyes began to water a bit, even the unbreakable Yang Xiao Long wasn't strong enough for the cute glare of death. Everybody gets mesmerized by it, Blake swore they were like Ruby's secret semblance or something, no one was able to deny her anything once those eyes had eaten your soul.

The blonde stuttered: "S-sure," before she even realized what she had said.

"Thanks Yang, you're the best!" Ruby said happily before snatching the little girl from her sisters palm. Blake yelped as her midsection was completely squished together by the younger girl's strong grip. Ruby took her in both hands and pushed her thumbs all over Blake's body to see what she felt like. The team leader made little gasps as she observed her new toy with her touch. "So realistic…" she mumbled happily.

Blake was gobsmacked by the escalation of the situation. At first she had been cowering on top of her partner's hand and before she knew, she was being touched by a giant 15 year old.

Well, she could expect anything at this point, couldn't she? Here she was, five inches tall, being fondled roughly by her own team leader. She wouldn't be surprised if aliens attacked or if a 23 year Ruby somehow magically went back in time and stranded in their room at that very moment. Ridiculous right?

She was rudely interrupted from her thoughts as Ruby jabbed particularly hard in her stomach. Air escaped her lungs and she yelped extra loud in pain. That seemed to snap Yang back to the real world.

"RUBY!" She exclaimed angrily as she looked at the girl jabbing her toy.

"What?" Ruby asked confused, she didn't know what she was doing or had done wrong, but her big sister was mad at her, so that meant she must have did something really bad.

"That's Blake you're hurting!" Yang scolded.

"What?" Ruby asked again, her eyebrows raising as she didn't know what her sister was talking about. Looking back down at her hand it soon became clear what she meant.

Her 'toy' was rolling around in it, clutching her stomach with both her arms as she whimpered and tears began to form in her eyes from the pain.

"Ah." Ruby stated plainly.

You could almost see Ruby's mind trying to comprehend the situation like a loading bar. When it reached 100% her eyes almost popped out of their sockets and she began to stammer apologies at a lightning fast to the whimpering girl.

"Oh Blake, are you okay? I'm so sorry, I didn't realize it was you, I thought Yang just found some super cool doll at a shop. I love dolls, I used to play with them all time when I was younger, I had a whole collection like fifteen or so. I wonder where they are right now, maybe somewhere in the attic of our house? Or did my dad gave them away after I left for Signal? Who knows. Anyway you just looked and felt so realistic, I somehow didn't notice it was you for real the whole time, not even when you talked, silly me? I'm sorry for hurting you, you all think I must be thinking I am such a bad team leader, who knows what I could have done to you if Yang didn't shout at me. Maybe Weiss was right after all, I'm no team leader matter, I hurt my own member. I should go to Ozpin…"

Weiss who had been standing frozen with her hands before her mouth and her eyes wide for the last few minutes got out of her dazed state just as Ruby started her streak of apologies, which went from to a simple apology to a memory to self-hate. It was weird to see the change of emotions happen so fast, Weiss swore that Ruby's semblance had unconsciously activated. At that point the heiress decided it was enough and shut the younger girl up by simply putting her hand in the way of her mouth.

While this happened, Blake was able to catch her breath once more as the throbbing pain in her stomach started to ebb away. She got up and said to the girl in the red cloak between her gasps of air, as her breathing was still not up to par: "It's alright Ruby, I'm okay, you didn't hurt me badly."

"That's a relief, but still, I should have thought before I acted, sowwy," Ruby said with a sad pout on her face. Blake realized she couldn't be mad at the sheer innocence Ruby was radiating.

"Hey, no hard feelings Ruby, as long as it doesn't happen again," Blake reassured her as she straightened the wrinkles in her outfit.

"I'll make sure of that, don't worry," Yang said with the traces of anger still lingering on her face.

"You really let me down back there partner," Blake scolded the blonde jokingly.

"Oh come on, no fair, you know even I can't resist that look," Yang pleaded before offering her hand for Blake to jump onto.

"Relax Yang, I was kidding," Blake shushed her before leaping in the inviting looking palm of her partner wholeheartedly, the warmth immediately making her feel completely at ease. Even though Ruby was her team leader, it was true what Blake said before, she only trusted Yang with her life.

It seemed Ruby was getting more and more worried as time went on, Yang's protectiveness of friends seemed to be running in the family. She hung her head over the small Faunus girl who now stood in her sister's hand. "So uh Blake, care to explain exactly why you are only the size of a doll?"

Weiss, who was still shocked by the situation her teammate was currently in, coughed to get everyone's attention. "I think Blake should save for later, we need to go to Ozpin right now. He probably knows more than anybody what to do with Blake."

"Well we were just about to head over there before you two barged in, so let's go!" Blake said, feeling more confident than before. It was strange to take the lead being five inches tall, she couldn't actually move on herself without falling about sixty feet to her death.

"But, but, I'm hungry and there are some delicious looking sandwiches in that bag," Yang pouted, her stomach rumbling extra loudly to get her point across.

"Confound it, Yang, is food all you think about?" Weiss asked, shaking her head, looking more disappointed than anything else.

Glynda Goodwitch was sitting at her desk more relaxed than usual. It had been a long day, a really slow and tiring day that just didn't seem to end.

The day had started well enough with Ozpin's new batch of fresh coffee beans arriving. You could say what you wanted about the man but he sure as hell had a good taste of coffee. Normally she wasn't really a coffee drinker but at the end of a long week Glynda always made an exception, there were days that even she needed one to have enough energy to get through it.

After her surprisingly tasty coffee, the day spiraled down at record speed. First there was that second year student that broke his arm during sparring, then there was another one who broke his sword. During Aura Training a third year fainted after extensive use of his semblance. Finally she had to punish team CRDL for bullying a Faunus student again. And at that point it hadn't even been noon yet.

So your typical Monday, or at least that would have been if it actually was a Monday. It was a Friday and the combined weight of the end of the week and that day itself were weighing down on her dramatically.

Let's just say that she was relieved that the day was as good as over, the cafeteria just closed down and most of the students were in their room and relaxing or making homework. Just a nice and easy stroll to the weekend, where she would get some well-deserved rest.

Her hopes and dreams were shattered the moment team RWBY minus the B walked in. That never was a good thing, those girls were like the heralds of trouble. Not that Glynda didn't like them, it's just that they were such a random bunch of individuals that everything they did ended up in a huge conflict or something. That fact that one of their members was the heiress of the biggest company in the world with a big target painted on her back and that another was a former part of the notorious White Fang didn't really help.

She simply sighed and sat up straighter before asking the team leader: "Is there something I can do for you, miss Rose?"

Before Ruby could even open her mouth, her sister stepped in front of her. Glynda raised an eyebrow as the blonde opened her hand and showed her its contents. Mini Blake seemed to be having the same reaction on everybody when they saw her for the first time and Glynda Goodwitch was no exception, she simply stared in shock.

Yang addressed her with a stern voice. "Could we see professor Ozpin? It's kind of urgent as you may have noticed."

That broke the combat instructor out of her daze and she answered with an unnaturally high voice: "Y-yes, yes you may enter. I don't think he is busy at the moment."

As the group entered the office of the headmaster of Beacon, Glynda could think of only one thing, that that well-deserved rest was going to have to wait.

Professor Ozpin looked as the three girls and the teacher walked into his with gears decorated office.

"Team RBWY, please have a seat," Ozpin said pointing to the seats in front of his desk, taking a sip form his trusty coffee.

The girls sat down while Glynda just stood in the background, still recovering from her initial shock.

"So girls, may I ask you why you are here? What can I do for you?" the headmaster asked the team.

"Well," Yang started. "We kind of have a little situation."

Weiss groaned as Yang dared to make a pun right now, in front of the headmaster.

"Really?" Ozpin asked with his eyebrow raised, ignoring the blonde's antics. "What kind of situation?"

"Well, I think it's better if we just show you." Ruby said as she nodded to Yang. The blonde realized this was her cue so she leaned over and put Blake on top of the desk.

Blake strong will began quivering a bit as the headmaster stared at her with his emotionless brown eyes.

"Hmmm," he started thoughtfully after some time. "I'm guessing you want to know if I know of any similar cases that may have occurred in the past."

The girls were taken aback by his indifference of the situation, instead of panic or be shocked, he was able to keep his composure. It was kind of to be expected, we are talking about professor Ozpin after all.

Weiss just gave a quick nod for an answer, which made Ozpin continue: "I'm afraid there haven't been any, or at least to my knowledge. Nor do I have an idea why miss Belladonna is in this predicament. Please, it would help us a great deal if you would tell us what could have caused this."

Blake began retelling what happened from the attack on the docks until then, Ruby and Weiss listened to the moments she got shrunk attentively as they hadn't heard it yet. Ozpin didn't ask questions during her story and was quiet for a while after Blake had finished.

"Miss Schnee, you gave her that Dust. Do you have any idea what it was?" the headmaster asked the heiress.

Under normal circumstances, Weiss wouldn't have said anything about the Dust or her father. But with Blake in possible great danger, she knew she couldn't lie against professor Ozpin.

"No sir, it was an untested form of Dust they recently found in the mines," she told. "My father send me some, even though he knew it was illegal to do so. He specifically asked me if I could give some to Blake to let her try it out, I guess because he was interested in her semblance." At this Yang's and Blake's eyes widened a bit as they hadn't heard this part before.

"And you still gave her the Dust even though you knew it could be dangerous?" Ozpin asked sternly.

The heiress was quiet for some time, seeming absorbed in thought. When she finally spoke up, you could hear that all the coldness of her voice seemed to have disappeared. Instead she sounded strangely vulnerable. "Well, you have to know that my father is a very powerful and very stubborn man. I rather not go against his orders." Weiss finished her sentence with a whisper only Blake heard: "Not again."

The headmaster rubbed his temples a bit. "I understand. Miss Belladonna, I think that the wisest decision would be to extract the remaining Dust out your body. After that we will just have to hope that your body resolves itself on its own, that's all we can do for now, I'm afraid. It's too early to start pointing fingers," he said to the girl on his desk before addressing Yang.

"Miss Xiao Long, seeing you are her partner I entrust you to take care of miss Belladonna and keep her safe and sound. Miss Rose and miss Schnee, this will also be your main responsibility for the coming weeks. Tell only the people you need to tell for her own safety, the less people who know about this, the better. I will inform the teachers here at Beacon, you will however still need to go to classes these coming weeks, all of you. Make your way over to the infirmary, the doctor who's there right now can be trusted, don't worry."

Yang spoke up before they left: "How are we supposed to keep Blake safe if we need to go to class?"

The headmaster simply sipped from his trusty mug and said: "Be creative, I'm sure you'll find a way."

A/N:

Not quite sure what to think about this chapter, definitely not my best. I'm really tired right now and I just want to upload it.

Anyway, thank you guys so much again for all the support for MCSE. 20 favorites is definitely a milestone for me! YOU GUYS ARE THE BEST!

*coughes a bit to regain my calm*

Now for answers to reviews:

To uberparagon:

We'll see ;-)

To Guest:

Dialogues are definitely not my strong point. I'll probably reread and rewrite the chapters a bit before I continue with chapter 5. Thank you for pointing that out!

To dracohalo117:

Yep, Weiss father certainly isn't Mr. Nice Guy! In very few stories he is after all ;-)!

To SilverCivic:

Don't worry, I am not putting this on hiatus anytime soon (NEVER!). Schoolwork *whispers: and Guild Wars 2* have been taking a lot out of my time, the coming weeks however should be a bit more at ease for me, so I'll try updating more regularly.

If there is anything you would like to see, just ask! (no promises though)

Review, follow and favorite or you'll be next on Ruby's toy list!

DragonSlayer out!