So, a quick note. This is not a return to your regularly-scheduled fic. The hiatus is still in full effect. There was a time when my writing ability seemed to be returning to me, but that barely lasted long enough to finish this chapter and if that wasn't bad enough, work has ramped up severely since the beginning of this month, so I have less free time and energy to work on this.
I finished this chapter a while ago and wanted to hold onto it until I finished the arc so I could upload it all without any breaks, but that seems to be a ways off, so I figured I might as well let you guys have something.
The Unseen World
Chapter 10: Repression
"Yaaaang! Hurry up!" Ruby cried from atop a small hill overlooking a very familiar path. Down below she could see a head of bright yellow attached to her sister that was taking a painfully slow time to walk.
"I am hurrying!" Her elder sister yelled back though, to Ruby, it seemed as if she slowed down even more just to spite her. "Maybe you should be the one to slow down a little." For her troubles, all the golden-haired girl received was a raspberry blown at her.
Yang Xiao Long was only two years older than Ruby but had always seemed so much more prominent to the scarlet-haired girl. Yang was the opposite of Ruby in almost every way. She was loud while Ruby was quiet, she preferred the outdoors while Ruby liked to stay cooped up inside playing Ultimate Ranger Storm Fighters 3. Even at this young age, the physical differences were becoming apparent; Yang was strong in her upper body and bulky while Ruby was lean and quick on her feet. Despite this, they were as close as sisters could be.
"What's got you so riled up anyway?" Yang asked when she finally made her way to her little sister. "You've been testy all morning." From rushing them out of the house to the playground so they could play around for a bit and now rushing back home. Honestly, she didn't know where she got the energy from.
"It's almost eleven o'clock!" Little Ruby said as if that explained everything.
Of course, it didn't explain anything at all. "And…?" Yang asked, raising an eyebrow.
"Adolescent Deviant Guerrilla Lizards starts in half an hour!" Ruby said, turning around to face her sister, punctuating her statement by stomping her foot on the ground childishly. "And it's a new episode!"
Yang rolled her eyes. "Right of course it's that. And I was having a nice sleep too…" "Ok, ok, jeez!" She swatted the air lazily, giving her sister a one-eyed stare as she began to walk beside her. "We'll get home in time for your show." She said placatingly, trying not to smile at her little sister treating a TV show like a matter of life and death.
"Then let's goooo!" Ruby whined, fidgeting in place, before taking off in a run.
"Ruby!" Yang called, before taking off after her once again. This was not what she had in the cards. "Ah, c'mooon! Slow down!"
"No!" Ruby called back stubbornly, "Bet you, you can't catch me!" she laughed a bit as she ran from her sister, already having forgotten the show she was invested in just a second ago.
A good-natured laugh came from Yang as she sped up her pace, chasing her little sister around while trying to herd her home. The two of them ran through the twisting forests of the island of Patch, Ruby dashing under trees and over roots while her sister followed not far behind.
She smelled the ash before she saw anything.
An intense, ominous feeling crept up to her as the smell of burnt wood invaded her nostrils. Skidding to a stop, she heard Yang slow down behind her. Her older sister said something, but she didn't hear it, she was too busy staring. Staring uncomprehendingly at the sight in front of her.
Where her house should have been, there was a burnt pile of rubble. Wood reduced to cinders and stones glowing hot stared at her. She felt her heart drop and her breath hitched as the sight in front of her threatened to overwhelm her. Her mind felt like it was about to splinter, to shatter into a million pieces. She tried to stop herself, but her eyes wandered higher and higher until-
In the middle of the ruined, burnt wreckage that had once been her home, a single spike of wood was placed. Towering over the wreckage for all to see, the meticulously carved wood was long and thin like a toothpick, a cruel imitation of a hunter's weapon and a grim flag that marked the total annihilation of an enemy base.
Atop the stake, pierced through the chest, was a figure in a white robe. Even at this distance, Ruby could see her mother clear as day. Lifeless, and unmoving, her pristine white robe was stained with blood.
"No…" She whispered, taking a step back. Out of instinct, she reached behind her for Yang, but her hand grabbed nothing but air. Falling onto the ground, Ruby felt the pressure in her head grow more and more as static in her ears increasingly made reality fray more and more.
"No, no, no, nononono." She felt her head would split open and when she felt she couldn't take anymore, she-
LINE BREAK
Ruby snapped awake with a pounding heart. For a moment, she couldn't tell her surroundings in the pitch-blackness, but her eyes slowly adjusted and she realized she was in her tent. Forcing herself to breathe and regain control, Ruby tried futilely to stem the flood of emotions that came with the nightmare. She hated that dream, the reminder of how much she had lost.
Rolling over onto her back, Ruby stared up at the ceiling of her tent. Touching her face, she felt wet stains on her eyes and a sigh escaped her lips. She knew she wouldn't be able to fall back asleep, she never could when she had a dream- no… A nightmare, at least dreams were pleasant- like that. Eventually, after trying anyways, she got up and left her tent.
It was still very late, as evident by the high moon and the blanket of stars in the sky. A low cackle of firewood brought her attention to the little spot in the middle of their makeshift camp. Weiss was sitting on the ground near the small campfire, the dim moonlight and flickering fire making her glow in an ethereal way.
Using the firewood as light, Weiss was absorbed by the book in her hands. Ruby recognized it as her mother's journal, the one she had lent the girl so that she could integrate herself into the world she had found herself in.
She turned the pages with a light, gentle touch, eyes scanning the pages as she absorbed the information. Her brow furrowed at something as she flipped the book to a previous page and re-read a section. Weiss seemed so invested and fixated on the book that Ruby was unwilling to move or say anything, for fear of breaking the trance the vampire was in.
Perhaps it was the lighting, the silvery moonlight mingling with the warm glow of the fire, or the way Weiss concentrated on the book, flicking her hair out of her face occasionally, or maybe she never had the time or inclination to take a good, long look at the white-haired girl without more pressing concerns asserting themselves, but Ruby was struck by the realization that Weiss was beautiful.
No, that didn't do it justice. The way her eyes, eyes that shone with curiosity, devoured the words on the paper, the way she fidgeted in place when sitting still for so long got the better of her, the way her hair, a color of which Ruby had never seen before or at least never appreciated, swayed in the gentle breeze, all of it was like something out of a fairy-tale, a movie. Weiss wasn't pretty, or even beautiful, but enchanting.
Ruby's cheeks turned pink as she realized those thoughts and, more importantly, the fact that she had been staring at Weiss for not a brief time. Shaking her head to regain her bearings, she coughed a bit, more so to snap herself out of her stupor than anything else.
Weiss's head snapped up in an instant, her body tensing at the foreign sound before seeing it was just Ruby and relaxed. A small smile formed as she closed the book and carefully set it to the side. "Your shift isn't for quite a while."
Ruby shrugged as she made her way to the opposite side of Weiss and sat down. "Couldn't sleep."
Weiss nodded and looked up at the sky. The two of them sat in comfortable silence for a while before Weiss asked. "Bad dream?"
Ruby frowned a bit as she rested her head in her own arms, sulking a bit. With the adrenaline that came from the nightmare wearing off, her sleepiness was beginning to return. "Yeah…"
There was a moment of silence that passed between the two of them once again, letting the nightlife of cicadas and crickets placate them for a moment before Weiss turned to directly focus on her friend. "Would you like to talk about it?"
Ruby's eyes briefly glanced Weiss's way before quickly returning to the fire in front of them. She questioned whether or not she should say anything about it, considering that bottling up feelings isn't exactly the most helpful thing to do to yourself. It wasn't like she would be telling Weiss anything she didn't already know. The white-haired heiress already knew Ruby's parents were dead and it couldn't be too hard for her to piece together why.
There was no real reason for her not to tell Weiss. If anything, just talking at all would put her mind at ease or at least help her forget about the nightmarish memory. She had nothing to lose and everything to gain by telling Weiss about it.
"No," Ruby lied, turning her silver eyes up to the shining sky. "I'm ok."
"...If you say so," Weiss replied, clearly unconvinced, before picking the notebook back up and opening it. "I was reading the journal you gave me. Its contents are illuminating, to say the least." She leaned the open pages she had more towards her redheaded partner for her to see. "Apparently, there are these creatures called ice mites that naturally exude a warming aura."
"Oh, yeah," Ruby said, realizing what Weiss was talking about. "I've only seen a handful of them, they like really cold places so you don't see them all that often here. They're harmless, though, small little things that just fly around."
Weiss looked up at Ruby with excitement in her eyes. "Don't you see that this could revolutionize Dust mining?! The Dust mines in Solitas are so dangerous because of the extreme temperatures!" Tapping her finger on her knee rapidly, her face morphed into this sort of focused look as her eyes went from left to right as if she was reading off multiple hand-crafted plans at once. "These mites are the size of horseflies, have a diet of snow and crystal, and an individual mite naturally generates a field of warmth comparable to a campfire!" She got up and started pacing with animated energy, ideas running through her brain. "Forget Dust mining, they could revolutionize how the people of Atlas live! A handful of them in each room could replicate the effects of central heating for a fraction of or even no cost at all!"
Ruby watched her pace around excitedly with bemusement, even though she would admit that she was intrigued by the possibilities. "Ice mites are too rare for that sort of thing," Ruby said sheepishly, a little guilty to be putting down Weiss's ideas like this. "They're hard to find, hard to lure, hard to capture, and probably just too small in number."
Instead of becoming dejected, however, Weiss continued with her excited rambling.
"Well, then we have to figure out how they give off heat like that! Everything in this book-" She held up said book and pointed at it, a smirk playing on her lips. "May run contrary to how the world should work, but it does have an internal logic. Something can't be created from nothing." In the middle of this, Weiss took a small flask that they had purchased in Mistral and took a drink from it.
"For instance," She said, putting the container away. "I need blood to function. Without it, I can't heal my wounds, I become weak and my reflexes suffer. I'm not some perpetual motion machine!"
Ruby stifled a laugh, Weiss getting so worked up over something was pretty rare. Was this just how Schnee's got when they were in business mode? "Ok, ok. I get your point."
Weiss sat back down, though the excitement hadn't left her eyes. "If I could figure out just how they create heat that efficiently and replicate it…" Something like that would revolutionize the world. Mantle alone would be completely changed by a heat source that's compact and powerful. It would make long expeditions into the Anima wilderness easier and safer. The possibilities were endless. "Of course, energy companies wouldn't like the sudden competition, heating companies especially. They'd either monopolize it or eliminate it." She mumbled a few words to herself, hand cupping her chin as she delved deeper and deeper into her thoughts. "Have to placate them, or eliminate them myself. And what about the SDC…?" Her muttering began to pick up speed as her foot tapped to some imaginary beat., "Shareholders wouldn't like something like that, even if it would only eliminate the need to use Dust as a heating source." Her eyes darted to and fro as even more ideas and plots formed in her head. "Could sidestep them entirely, or even the SDC entirely." A small gasp escaped her lips as a metaphorical light bulb went off in her head. "Might have to-"
"Weiss!" Ruby called out, shaking with barely contained laughter. "Calm down, that's, uh, a long way from now."
Weiss snapped back to the present and was swiftly reminded of her situation. She was not in a boardroom in Atlas, she was in the woods of Mistral, far away from realizing her dreams. Her cheeks warmed slightly out of embarrassment and she cleared her throat lightly.
"Right…" She muttered, suddenly solemn. "I got carried away, my apologies."
Ruby frowned just a smidgen, barely noticeable. She hadn't expected Weiss to suddenly seem so sullen. "Did that really mean so much to her? I didn't realize that… Oh…" She thought with an imaginary kick to her rear. Of course, that was how she felt. She wanted to sigh and give herself an actual kick to the butt, but she couldn't focus on that right now. She had a Weiss to fix and make feel better.
Besides, she looked so much better when she was smiling.
"You were really into that, huh?" She asked, hoping to cheer up Weiss.
The girl nodded, looking up at Ruby with her ice-blue eyes. "It's always been my dream to reform my family's company for the better and turn it into something that benefits the people." She says, sighing a little. "Part of it's pride, I can't stand the fact that my name is constantly being dragged through the mud because of my father, but…" She fidgeted a bit, biting her lip nervously, and Ruby got the indication that whatever was coming next was something very personal to Weiss.
"The SDC wasn't always like this…" She started softly, her eyes far away. "My grandfather, Nicholas Schnee, was the one who started it, and… And he was nothing like my father," She said with a hint of pride, her small chest poking out a little as her back straightened out. "He was brave, compassionate. He wanted nothing more than to aid the people of Atlas, and then Remnant." Her fists tightened and her eyes shone with a burning fire that Ruby had never seen in her before. "That's why he started the company. Before him, Dust was hard and dangerous to obtain, but the SDC made it so that everyone could easily afford it."
"And you want to turn it back into something like, right?" Ruby asked, feeling like she understood Weiss Schnee just a bit better now.
"Yes." She nodded, putting her hands together in her lap one over the other. "Ever since I was old enough to understand what my grandfather had done and what my father was doing to his legacy, it was my dream to restore it. To make it something he would be proud of." She tightened her fists, years of anger coming to the forefront, a raging inferno behind her eyes that Ruby had never seen in her before. With the previous week being much of the spark. "And now I'm further away from that goal than ever before…"
Ruby sat back with a thoughtful expression. She tried to imagine what it must feel like, to see a dream you spent your entire life pursuing fade away, farther and farther from reach. She didn't have any big dreams, Ruby Rose was someone who lived in the moment. The closest thing she had to a goal was "Help people" which was vague at best. She couldn't imagine what Weiss was going through.
"For what it's worth, I'm sorry," Ruby said, placing a hand on her shoulder placatingly. It was the only thing she could offer her.
Weiss looked away, a small smile on her face. One that was full of sadness but her eyes told a different story, one that was reflected by the campfire. "Don't be. It's not your fault." She sighed a bit as she shifted gears, steering the conversation away from this unpleasantness. "How far until Haifaron?" She asked.
"Ah, ok, one sec!" Ruby pulled out her Scroll and saw she had no signal. "Urrgggh. Hold on I'll be right back!" Standing up, she returned to her tent for a few moments before coming back with a map that she laid out on her lap. Using the crackling campfire as a light, a pale red line stretched from Mistral City and twisted all around the woods and hills of Anima mapped their progress. Circled on the bottom-left corner, just above the very end of the continent and below the woodlands they were trekking through, was their destination.
"About another week," Ruby mumbled more to herself than anything. "Oh… Well… Erm… Maybe two?" She shrugged, scratching her cheek absentmindedly as she started to take more things into account. "two and a half at the most."
Weiss knocked her head back and moaned pitifully. "That long?! I can't stand it out here!" She whined petulantly. "The grass is making my legs itchy, I haven't had a shower in forever, I can't even get a good signal out here, and don't get me started on the number of times I've had to go out and hunt small animals!" Weiss kicked a leg out, sending dust and dirt flying.
Ruby looked up at her with a raised eyebrow in curiosity. "I thought you still had some of my blood in that flask. Why are you going after animals?" They had filled the flask twice, once when they bought it in Mistral, and once again just a few days ago. It was a careful game, drawing enough to keep Weiss sated and functional without taking too much so Ruby was incapacitated.
Weiss looked away, an inscrutable look on her face. "I'm rationing it…" She said hesitantly, picking at her bottoms.
That wasn't what Ruby had expected. "Why?"
The white-haired heiress didn't answer for a second, her fingers twitching at the group anxiously, "For one thing…" She started. "I may end up in a situation where I desperately need blood or where there are no sources I can safely draw from, so having some in that flask at all times is just a smart idea."
While it was a good idea and something that the red-headed huntress could see the snow-themed woman thinking up, Ruby could sense that there was more. "And what's the other thing?" She asked curiously.
"...It… tastes better…" The vampire mumbled.
That had been the last thing Ruby had been expecting to hear. "I-I'm sorry?" She asked, bewildered.
"I-I think it's the source!" Weiss started quickly. "I noticed it when I drained that Faunus back when I first woke up. Human and Faunus blood is different from animal blood. It's-It's like liquid heaven…" She trailed off hungrily, her eyes dilating and pupils shaking as she relived the bliss and pure rush that had come with the consumption of humanoid blood.
"I…ok…" Ruby said dumbly. It made sense, she guessed, if she thought about it.
"It makes every five-star meal I've ever eaten in my life seem like trash. It's indescribable, more than just taste." Weiss continued, her breaths starting to come out shallow and shaky as she spoke, "It's like lightning coursing through my body. It makes me wonder how I've ever lived without it."
"Uh, Weiss?" Ruby started, a bit worried.
"But the blood of animals is nothing like that. It tastes exactly like how you'd expect blood to taste," The girl continued, apparently heedless of Ruby's presence. "Rotten, disgusting, I have to choke it down because otherwise, I'd starve."
"And that's why I don't want to use up all of my supply of human blood. Because I'm a damn addict!" Weiss suddenly yelled, the very edges of her sclera starting to redden, "Like how alcoholics keep expensive bottles bottled up for years on end, I don't want to ever be without a supply of human blood. So I just take small sips of it, savoring that rush I get from it even when every part of me hates it."
A hand found its way to her shoulder, snapping her from her trance. The red from her sclera vanished, and the minute shaking in her body ceased. She didn't move. Not when Ruby rested her hand on her shoulder, not when Ruby wrapped her arms around her, not when Ruby pulled her close.
"...What happens if I wake up one day and find I can't stand animal blood?" Weiss whispered. That I have to drink human blood? What if I really, truly lose it and kill someone?"
"You won't," Ruby whispered back. "You're stronger than that. I know it."
Weiss just nodded. Maybe it was a lie, something to comfort her. But at that moment, Weiss very much wanted to believe that lie.
At that moment, Ruby was glad that Weiss was being so open about her troubles. The part of her that occupied so much of her mind, the part that lied to herself and the world, would say it was because she could help a friend. But the small part of her tucked away in the back of her mind knew the real reason.
So that she could avoid dealing with her own demons.
What's a vampire fic without some good old-fashioned angst?
As always, I hope you enjoyed reading this and I appreciate any sort of feedback. A big thanks to PhonyManagka
