Weiss' fingers wrapped around… something. She couldn't see since her head was firmly buried in the snow, but she was sure she was grabbing onto something— namely by the fact that it was poking into her. Desperate to face anything other than the hungry, vicious tide of blood, she pulled. With all the strength she could muster from a single arm, she pulled and dragged herself out of the snow, grunting in pain as whatever she was holding bit into her skin with what felt like sharp spines. She looked up, hoping that whatever she held wasn't actually worse that what was chasing her.
The rose bush, its blooms vibrant and its leaves vividly verdant. Without allowing herself a moment to admire the bush, she launched herself towards the plant, hopeful for anything. Thorns scraped her face and body, but the plant seemed to begrudgingly offer her some room within the confines of its spiny limbs. She breathed a sigh of relief. Anything was better than whatever was out there, even if it was stabbing her from every direction. Taking advantage of the moment, Weiss took stock of her own body.
Her right arm wasn't bleeding, whether it ever had been or if that was just a figment of her subconscious was unclear, instead it was covered by the tied-off sleeve of her shirt. Her legs were both there, her hair… she patted it. Still short. She sighed, glad that she was subconsciously accepting of her new appearance. What little worry she'd harbored before of appearing here in that old combat skirt with that unwieldy mane of hair melted away.
At least, for the moment, she was safe.
"W-what?" Dr. Ross stuttered, still recovering from the shock of Ruby barging in, vomiting twice on floor, and asking what was wrong with their client. "There's nothing wrong with Weiss."
Ruby stumbled towards Weiss, Dr. Ross had to catch her when she nearly tripped over the cloak she had dropped before she left the room. "Why isn't she awake?" She mumbled, fighting to stay upright with searing pain in her side, back, and head.
Ross pursed their lips, considering whether they should be disclosing what they were doing. Their eyes darted between Weiss and Ruby. They were probably partners, at least in Huntress terms, probably romantic as well judging by that little exchange earlier. Ross hummed, it's not like they signed an NDA. "Weiss is in the middle of visualizing her Aura so she can understand how to extend it to her new limb. Doing this during the calibration stage has been shown to drastically decrease the time it takes to sync with future bionic limbs and is particularly necessary to Huntresses like her."
Ruby nodded numbly. Honestly, barely anything of what they'd said made it past the fog in her brain. "But she's…" Ruby looked around, only seeing Dr. Ross and Blake on her Scroll. "She's panicking! She needs help!"
Ross looked over at Weiss, "I assure you, Miss Schnee is fine. She needs to do this on her own."
Ruby looked up to get some backup from Blake, but all she offered was a shrug.
"Look, I understand that you're worried for your partner, but she is fine. If she were panicking she would simply exit the visualization."
Ruby looked between Blake and Dr. Ross, neither of whom seemed nearly as worried as they should be. Ruby could feel her clinging to her soul! She could feel the fear surging across their bond, though it wasn't quite as desperate as it had been just a minute ago. "No," Ruby panted as she separated herself from the technician. She could feel her Aura healing the injuries to her back and side, but the pain was distracting and she was still having a hard time keeping her balance. "No, Weiss is not okay!" Ruby shouted, wobbling this way and that as pain throbbed behind her eyes. "I. Can. Feel. Her!" She hissed.
Ross tilted their head and Blake approached Ruby, placing one hand on her back to keep her steady. "It's okay, Ruby," she muttered into her ear, "she's going to be alright. What do you mean you can feel her?"
"W-well we… I—" Ruby stammered, unsure how much she should say. She definitely didn't want Yang knowing, and she definitely didn't want this Ross person to go out and tell a bunch of Schnee execs that Weiss' very soul was linked to a peasant like her! "Look, I can… we can feel each other's Auras," Ruby put a hand to her pulsing head. "It's some kind of side effect from the manual Aura transfusion."
Ross' eyebrows shot to their hairline and their mouth hung agape for a moment. "Manual Aura transfusion? You did a manual Aura transfusion on Weiss Schnee?"
"She was dying!" Ruby shouted, wincing as her whole body flared up again. "I had to save her," she whispered, "I did the right thing."
Ross raked their fingers through their lavender hair. "Gods." They chuckled, concern finally showing on their face. "Oh, I am so fu— uuuh, screwed. I am screwed. Really wish you'd told me you gave her a manual Aura transfusion, for Dust's sake."
Ruby straightened up, ignoring the pain in her back. "You didn't ask!"
Ross' pale skin flushed a bright red. "W-well it's kind of important! It's not even on the questio—" Ross looked down at the Scroll and furiously scrolled upwards, their eyes widening. "Aaand fuck me, I skipped it. Shit." Their hand smacked over their face. "I am so fired." They mumbled behind their palm.
Ruby threw up her arms. "Skipped it? How did you skip it? You're a freaking doctor!"
"My Doctorate is in engineering! I'm usually in a lab!" They defended, barely sounding convinced with their own retort. "I don't do client-facing stuff!"
Ruby opened her mouth to unleash verbal hell on Dr. Ross, but Blake imposed herself between them, looking Ruby firmly in the eyes. "Ruby, you said Weiss was in danger. Let's focus on that."
Ruby flushed red, but Blake was right. She needed to focus on her partner. She inhaled deeply, picturing her anger being bottled up and releasing as she exhaled. "Yeah, you're right. There's definitely something wrong with Weiss. She's panicking. Bad."
Ross furrowed their brow. "Okay, okay. Okay. So you guys are—" they tapped their index fingers together, "Connected?"
Ruby nodded. "I can feel her Aura and her emotions, kinda. Her connection is better than mine for some reason."
"Well, that's probably because you filled more of her Aura with your own during the exchange. I imagine she didn't have very much left at the time." They hummed, tapping out some notes on their Scroll. "Is there a conscious aspect to it? Or is it just in the background?"
Ruby wanted to rush them, but tempered herself. They all needed to think this through, and Ross was probably more knowledgeable than she was. "Well, we can kinda… probe it? If we focus on the connection, we can read each other. Well, we can always feel each other's emotions, especially when they're really intense, but if we focus on the connection we can… I don't know how to say it. Tap into it?"
Ross nodded. "That's what you two were doing with all the rose petals earlier?"
Ruby lit up like a Peaceday tree, her face and ears blooming a vibrant red. In an attempt to cover her embarrassment, she gathered her cloak, which was thankfully untouched by her earlier regurgitations, and wrapped it around her, pulling the cowl over her head and as far in front of her face as she could. "Yes." She hissed through gritted teeth.
Blake looked dumbfounded but seemed to figure it out on her own, a smirk slowly dawning on her face before being quashed and replaced with determination. "How can we help her?" She asked both Ross and Ruby.
Ross rubbed their chin then walked over to Weiss' sitting firm. They hummed, giving her a poke, then gently prying open her eyelids. "Hmmm, looks like she's pretty deep in there. Might be some kind of paralysis," they probed Weiss' bicep and took a quick view at the bionic's calibration display then turned to the girls. "Her muscles are still relaxed, so probably. You guys know what sleep paralysis is like, right?"
Blake and Ruby both nodded, the latter pulling her hood back just enough to see her still-red face.
"Well I would guess she's paralyzed in her own visualization. She's supposed to be reconciling her Aura to accept her new limb and protect it like the rest of her body, but a manual transfusion could have affected that. I'm not sure, they're not really well researched." Ross tapped a few notes on their Scroll. "A normal transfusion would simply amplify the Aura, allowing it to restore on its own; a manual one is actually imposing another person's Aura into the recipient."
Ruby slowly approached Weiss' bedside, relying on Blake to keep her balance. "So what can I do?"
Ross hummed. "I'm really not sure. Like I said, these things aren't well researched since the process is so invasive, dangerous, and is often done in the heat of action." They took a long few moments looking at their Scroll before giving Weiss another once-over, then shrugging. "Can you feel anything from her now?"
Ruby focused on their bond. Fear, still, but also contemplation. "She's scared, but not as panicked as before."
Blake lowered Ruby into the bedside chair. "Maybe she's thinking of a way out?" She suggested as Ruby slumped into the seat.
"She needs help." Ruby insisted.
Ross looked between them and hummed. "Maybe you can visualize your bond? You can visualize your Aura, right?"
Ruby perked up, eager to do anything to help her partner. "I can try."
"I could see if professor Zaiden is here today." Blake suggested, retrieving her Scroll from her pocket.
Ruby thrust out her hands, nearly smacking Blake's Scroll out of her hands. "No!"
Blake tilted her head at her leader. "What? This seems like their area of expertise."
Ruby tried to quickly think up an excuse. "Zaiden creeps me out!"
Blake gave Ruby a deadpan look. "I think this is more important than being a little creeped out by professor Zaiden."
Ross spoke up, "Sorry but I don't work here, who's professor Zaiden?"
"They're the professor for the 'Hyperconscious' course." Blake answered. "They teach Aura awareness and visualization, general self-awareness, and cover more subtle Grimm like Nightmares."
"They can connect to a sleeping person and send others into their dream." Ruby added. "That's what they told us, at least."
Ross tapped their chin, "Yeah, I could see how that could be helpful."
Ruby furiously shook her head and motioned for Blake to come closer. "I don't want a bunch of professors to know about the Aura thing, everyone who I tell makes a big deal about it. Plus…" she blushed, pulling Blake closer to whisper in her ear, "please don't tell Yang but I kinda… I, uh… I kind of, uh… mighthaveahugecrushonWeiss."
Blake feigned surprise. "Oh, well we can still—"
"She would kill me if I told a bunch of people!" She shout-whispered. "Plus, she's important! I can let her reputation be ruined!"
Blake recoiled, the self-deprecation hitting her like a smack to the face. "Dust, Ruby, you shouldn't have to worry about that kind of thing."
Ruby crossed her arms. "I know," she hissed, then immediately schooled her tone, "but I do."
As much as she would love to go gayly (ha) frolicking in the meadows arm-in-arm with Weiss, she wasn't an idiot. She'd listened to Weiss vent too many times to be ignorant of the scrutiny her father and Atlas' high society constantly leveled against her partner. She remembered Weiss calling one day during the break just to talk about the things her father had said about Winter and her mother, the way he would prop her up to sing at the ball and berate her behind closed doors, and how much she despised listening to how they all talked about Faunus. She had cried. Ruby figured that was probably the day she decided what she would do to the SDC. Probably when she cut her hair and ditched the skirt, too. She cared too much for Weiss to let her plan be put in jeopardy before it could even start.
Blake sighed, "Fine," she relented, "whatever." Then, more sympathetically, "Just don't get hurt, okay?"
Ruby nodded, Blake's amber gaze seemingly putting another meaning to what she'd said.
Ross cleared their throat, getting the attention of the girls. "Okay, Ruby, right?" They pointed at her. Ruby nodded. "Alright. I imagine you've got some idea of how to connect to her Aura through your own, so go ahead and try visualizing your own Aura while pushing that connection. Does that make sense?"
Ruby squinted. "Uh, maybe? I can try."
Ross nodded. "Good, go ahead."
Ruby looked to her partner. "Should I hold her hand or something?"
"Do you have to?"
Ruby looked down sheepishly. "Can I?"
Ross sighed, then shrugged. "Whatever helps you connect, I guess."
Ruby tried not to look too enthused as she wrapped her fingers around Weiss' left hand. She sighed. Focus on the Aura, focus on the bond.
The blood was advancing again. Tendrils rose out of the slush, forming blades and whipping across the thorny shrub. Weiss tried to back away, but they were all around her, hacking at the rose bush, chucking petals, leaves, and stems into the air. The bush seemed to grow thicker around her, vines growing denser and thorns getting longer, wrapping around her like a cocoon and totally blocking her vision. Inside the dark shell, she could only hear things whipping around, lashing against the vines, and, faintly, a scream. Not her own, this time, something guttural and angry. Something familiar.
The sounds stopped, all except for the cry. Weiss looked around her dark confines, but was only met with inky black. She tried to pry the vines apart, but they resisted, thorns digging into her hand and making her bleed. She hissed.
Light flooded the chamber from the top, where the upper half of her cocoon had been shorn cleanly off. She squinted up to the outside. Something looked down at her. Something tall and red, a humanoid shape made of blood, undulating, bubbling, dripping onto her. It hefted a scythe with a pristine silver blade over its head, ready to plunge it through her skull. It's face shifted and morphed, forming a terrifying scowl and maddened silver eyes. Weiss' breath hitched. "Wait, Ruby, I didn't mean it! I'm sorry!" She held up her hand. "Please!" She shouted.
The Ruby-shaped thing didn't care. The scythe dropped like a guillotine. Weiss scrambled, pressing her back to the edge of the cocoon as the scythe fell— missing her by a hair. The attack had split the cocoon open, allowing Weiss to clamber out of it and get some distance from the creature as it reared back and let an unearthly howl into the air.
Ruby felt their Auras connect, but this wasn't the jolt she was used to, this was a shock, and it fully repulsed her. She recoiled, nearly falling backwards as if she had been struck. "Ah!" She squeaked, "What was that!"
The other two just looked at her and shrugged.
"That's never happened before, it's like I was forced out." Ruby said, her voice growing in concern. The bond was surging again, panic crossing over and making her chest feel tight. "What do I do?"
Ross looked between them. "I have no clue."
Blake was already on her Scroll. "The directory says Zaiden is on a mission with CRDL."
Ruby leaned forward and tried shaking Weiss by the shoulders, only to feel that same shock the moment she touched her. "She needs my help!" Ruby shouted. "Weiss, wake up!"
Weiss ducked under the scythe, the blade producing a terrible sound as it cut through the air. The butt came up out of her vision and struck the side of her head. Weiss stumbled backwards, her ears ringing. "Stop!" She begged.
The monster didn't seem to care. It advanced, blade singing as it swept around it.
Weiss jumped back, holding the side of her throbbing head. She couldn't get any space— it was already on her again, silver blade flashing as it cut the air. She stumbled backwards, the tip catching her shirt and biting into her chest. She cried, but was cut off as the butt— the bladed butt— stabbed into her shoulder and knocked her to the ground with a fresh puncture wound. She hissed, instinctually trying to cover the wound with her nonexistent right hand as she rolled onto her back.
It stood above her, red feet planted on either side of her torso as it raised the scythe above its head. Silver eyes and a furious scowl pinned her, her chest tightened.
The blade flashed brilliantly, and fell.
Weiss gasped, her eyes shooting open and both hands clutching her chest. She looked frantically around the room. Blake in the back, her eyes wide, Ross with a hand on Ruby's shoulder, Ruby, already leaning forward to take Weiss' hands. Silver eyes glinting like a blade in the snow. Weiss felt her heart skip as she involuntarily shied away from her partner. Concern crested her face immediately.
"Weiss!" Ruby almost shouted, making Weiss flinch. "Are you okay?"
Weiss couldn't speak. Her throat and mouth were like a desert, and it felt like a Goliath was on her chest. She tried to breathe, but it came out raspy and uneven.
Ross didn't seem overly concerned as they leaned over and took Weiss' bionic arm, then checked the display. "Your Aura isn't covering it." They met Weiss' eyes. "What happened?"
Weiss looked around, desperate to escape the situation. Blake appeared in the corner of her vision, hand outstretched with a half-empty bottle of water. She snatched it and downed the rest of the bottle in seconds. Finally quenched, she managed a few steady breaths.
"Miss Schnee?" Dr. Ross urged.
"Was that the last thing?" Weiss' words were almost inaudible, but her voice was sharp.
"Sorry?"
"Do I have to do this now, Dr. Rosslyn?" She clarified.
Ross visibly recoiled upon hearing their full name, but checked their Scroll. "Well, no, not right now, but it will make it much easier when your own bionic arrives. Plus, having your Aura shield the prosthetic will keep it from being damaged in battle. As a Huntress, that seems pretty important."
Ruby eyed her curiously, concern churning across their bond, but Weiss couldn't meet her gaze. "I'll figure it out later." Weiss asserted, her voice becoming hard and cold. "If that's everything, I would like to be done."
Ross gave her a quizzical look, "Are you sure?"
Weiss affixed them with a glare. Ross seemed concerned for a moment, then shrugged and opened a page on their Scroll. "If you're sure you want to delay it," they handed Weiss the Scroll, "just sign this form."
Weiss signed it with a finger. "There. Can I go now?"
Ross nodded to her bionic. "I'll just take that off and you'll be good to go."
"Hurry." Weiss hissed, holding the metal arm out.
Ross nodded and tapped on the display a few times. Weiss felt all sense from the arm deaden, then a shock against the end of her stump as it came off. She hissed, gently rubbing the stinging flesh. "You wanted me to hurry." Ross snarked.
Weiss forced herself off of the bed, not bothering to tie off her sleeve before throwing her half-cape back over her shoulder and storming out, leaving Myrtenaster in its frog at her bedside. Ruby looked between Weiss and her weapon, mouth agape, before grabbing the latter and chasing after the former.
Blake and Ross shared a look before the technician shrugged, piled their things into their bag, and left. Blake sighed.
Ruby left all her books behind.
