Ruby Schnee
Frustration. How else could she describe it?
For all her power, for all her mana... for all the magic she didn't know, and for all the magic items and weapons she hadn't made... where did that leave her? Repairing a print is impossible. She knew that from what Weiss had told her, it was further confirmed by her research... and any attempts at experiments had just proven what she already knew. Yang's arm wasn't something anything short of a High Devil or God could fix... and as much as Ruby wanted to see her sister whole again, making a deal with a Devil was a stupid idea. Especially for her.
"Maybe if all the God's weren't dead..."
At least she'd managed to work something else out in the meantime. The knife, like the bolts, could use Rituals as she had guessed. It was simple really, just create it on a paper small enough to fit in the compartment, roll it up to be able to put it inside, and soak it in enough Dust to power it. The limited space meant only certain rituals could be used... but just their luck that the Abaddon Curse used a small enough amount of mana to just work.
"They probably made the bolts and knives specifically to a size that can fit it anyway..."
From Ruby's best guess, that was going to be their main strategy with these new weapons... rendering their opponents Human in order to make battles a landslide. She was already personally cooking up some ways to prevent that, but anything short of an Anti-Aegis was going to have a hard time counteracting multiple of those Curses used on the same person. At least that left Ruby practically immune, but not everyone could use magic items of the same power as her.
"A small broach or pin... it'll have to be Legendary in order to have enough space to store the Shifter Enchantment and an Anti-Abaddon... yeah, that names kinda dumb..." Well, that was why she was in the workshop afterall.
The Abaddon Curse was named poorly, or perhaps it was meant to be confusing. It didn't work as a normal Curse, rather it functioned incredibly similarly to the Curse Breaker, and didn't leave anything behind once it had done its thing. Ruby was sure that she could figure out how to cast the ritual in a day if she focoused her efforts onto it, thanks to already knowing the Curse Breaker... but her attention was elsewhere at the moment. One whole month... Yang had been Human and down an arm for a month... and every second that ticked away without Ruby having come up with some way to help was hell.
A prosthetic was the obvious way to go. There probably wasn't anyone else on Remnant that could make a better one then Ruby... but she had to make it strong enough to match Yangs power... not to mention fit a Shifter Enchantment in there. The raw materials she had to work with were more then sufficient, it was just a matter of practice, and trial and error. But that took time, time Ruby didn't want to spend without having a solution... so she was trying to cheat her way to an answer.
"Intention Based magic..." Something she had a very strong aptitude for, and something Rory had great interest in. Being able to allow mana to work based off a request rather then a set of instructions was quite powerful... but also insanely difficult. If Ruby could find the right ritual... it might be possible for her to ask mana questions directly. Perhaps she could just... ask it for a blueprint for Yangs arm? Or better yet... maybe how to fix a print?
A shake of the head was followed with a sigh. She had to stop thinking that way. It wasn't possible to fix a print... and the sooner Ruby accepted that the easier it would be to pursue other options without constantly thinking of it. Still, that was the ideal solution...
"It's just also an impossible one..."
"What's impossible?"
The sound that came from Ruby wasnt one filled with grace or anything resembling a voice that demanded respect. The Queen Consort practically squealed in surprise as she suddenly turned around and was greeted by her butt of a sister... who was wearing a big toothy grin.
"Sup."
"Yang!" Ruby stood in order to better pout. "Don't scare me like that!"
"Hey, I thought Dragons have great hearing?"
"We do-" Rubys view snapped to Weiss as she spoke, another surge of surprise. "Ruby was just distracted."
"Umm... so, what's up? You guys just here to interrupt?" Ruby crossed her arms, pout still in full force... which Yang may or may not have laughed at.
"Well, in a way yes. Yang's decided that she dosent want to be a Hellhound afterall-"
"As if it wasnt your idea!" The blond snapped her view back to Weiss and the Queen shrugged.
"I don't recall who's idea it was. Anyway, do you still remember the Dragon Formula, Ruby?"
"The Dragon Formula? How could I forget-" She paused, her eyes flicking between them both as her brain caught up with their words. "You... don't mean-"
"Yeah. I gotta keep up with you afterall don't I?" Yang held a big smirk on her face, and Ruby nodded slowly, still a bit in shock.
"Have you... talked to Blake about this?"
"What? Nah, it'll be fine. Trust me."
That didn't fill Ruby with much confidence. "Yang... I think you should-"
"Ruby." Her voice grew serious, but her expression grew softer. "Trust me. This is for the best."
That didn't leave her with many options... sure, Ruby didn't think it was a good idea to do this without telling Blake but... she trusted Yang. Plus... this was something only she could do. Ruby could help Yang!
"I... ok."
"So... how's this work?"
"You stand there and shut up."
"Ok? But umm... why are we doing this in the training room?"
"You automatically transform when it's done."
"And why are you here anyway, Weiss?"
"In case you go crazy."
Ruby chuckled a bit at their conversation. She had just finished putting the final touches on the circle... which meant it was time. "Ok... Weiss, can you put up a barrier?" The Queen nodded, and a small thin barrier formed around just Ruby. Leaving Yang standing in the middle of the circle with Ruby in front of it, and Weiss far off to the side.
"Why the barrier?" Yang seemed nervous... not that Ruby could blame her.
"It keeps sound from escaping. It's so we don't hear the Formula." Luckily Weiss was answering her questions.
"What? You don't trust me with it?"
"I dont know it either. It's dumb to have more then one person at a time know it... this way, no one can just walk in and kill Ruby without risking losing the Formula forever."
"Potentia..." Ruby had memorised every Phrase as she found them... and the whole Formula wasn't something she'd ever forget. "Elementum..." This was only the third time she'd ever spoken it all aloud. Her own ritual had been quite a bit more... well, it wasn't as nice looking. "Spiritus..." But long gone was the ritual-circuit looking mess that had been in her old workshop. The circles she had in her workshop now, and the ones she had practised making on the fly? They were leagues better. "Superbia..."
The air grew thick, and Ruby felt a pull on her soul towards the centre of the circle. It was like a blackhole of mana, trying to draw everything that wasn't sealed inside a container into itself... luckily the Dust she had placed throughout it was more then enough to fuel the whole thing. The circle glowed with a brilliant light, and the room grew quiet as they all watched with awe... until finally, it all coalesced and sprung fully to life with one word.
"Schnee."
A pulse of mana that could be equated to very few things flew through the room, passing over and through the objects and probably giving everyone in the castle a sudden shock as their souls tingled and possibly stinged. Ruby watched with baited breath as Yang fell to her knees, the ritual completely numbing her body to prevent her from passing out from pain or shock. A light passed under her skin and flesh as the magic worked to replace every cell in her body, and a brilliant pulse of magic filled the room again as her soul fully reconnected to her body once more... and a title branded itself onto her very being.
Yangs skin bubbled with what resembled a yellow and orange liquid, the seemingly liquid fire burned hotter then any lava or magma Ruby had ever seen or heard of... but her sister was perfectly fine, not even feeling it as her whole body became covered and probably transformed by the liquid flame... and the mass quickly grew in size. It stood proud over the ritual, resembling a shape similar to the full forms of the Dragons present. The liquid began to seep back into itself, moving underneath yellow scales and revealing the full might and scale of the Dragons form. Ruby wasnt sure what it was... but Dragon's seemed to have a strange habit whenever they transformed for the first time... she herself had done it, Weiss had done it and scared the shit out of her...
And as Yang reared her head back, teeth clenched and a deep breath stored in her lungs... Ruby covered her ears. Having practically seen it confirmed that all Dragon's roared after their first transformation.
Blake Xiao Long
"Why did I get stuck with all the kids..."
In truth she knew why. Ruby and Weiss were both incredibly busy at the moment, and it would be unfair to ask that of Yang at the moment... Blake still blamed herself, but she wasn't sure how not to... For now though, her main focus was looking after the kids. The four troublemakers lived up to the reputation that a group of children often had.
Blake loved her family. She loved Yang, Ruby, Weiss, and all their kids... but taking care of two five year olds and two babies while in a castle...? Suffice to say the twins wanted to go exploring, even though they had numerous times already, and both Jasper and Argus seemed to be enjoying having a screaming match every other hour... thankfully they had both tuckered themselves out so there was no more of-
A sound accompanied by the shaking of some of the less secured furniture was followed by the screaming of the two suddenly awake babies in her care. The roar didn't even get a reaction out of her for a moment, rather she just kept her gaze stuck forward with a deadpanned expression... before she stood, both children in her arms as she moved out of the room.
"That wasn't loud enough to be Ruby, so I'm dumping the Prince back into the Queens care."
Blake was reasonable, but that didn't mean she was just going to let that go.
The walk to the training room - that's the only place she assumed one of them would transform in - was rather boring. The sights in the castle felt... lifeless. It was a very different energy to her own home, one were each painting and frame had a story behind it... each room had been used at least once, and it felt like a home rather than just a building. To Blake, this castle felt like just that... a castle. Sure, it was being used as a home... but baring a handful of rooms, how much of this place did Ruby or Weiss actually use?
Stepping through the threshold of the training room door, Blake started speaking before her senses caught up with her brain. "If you're going to roar like that, try and remember you have a... baby..." She froze. The sight she bore witness to wasn't one she had expected... where there should be a white Dragon... or hell even a red Dragon... instead there stood a yellow Dragon. It's scales a glistening and beautiful colour that almost resembled gold, the membranes of its wings a beautiful orange... and it featured those same wing-claws that Ruby did. She wouldn't hesitate to call this creature bigger then Ruby or Weiss. It's length didn't look any different, but bulk wise it was in a whole new category...
The horns on its head were numerous and a lot shorter then the others she had seen. They were like a collection that ran down the back of its head and some of its neck... almost resembling a mane or even hair... the deep black horns and spikes on different parts of its body seemed to flare with magic, momentarily turning a glowing orange in colour. Blake's eyes flicked to to creatures legs... it only had three, missing the front right one. Her eyes darted back up to the creatures own, which was a deep crimson colour... they seemed to almost glow... though if that was because of their curse being activated or just the nature of being a Dragon... Blake had no clue.
Yes, she knew exaclty who this was... and strangely, that raised so many more questions then it would have had she had no clue who it was.
"H-hey, Blake!" Her eyes flicked down once again, spotting Ruby near the large beast of a creature... honestly she hadn't even noticed that she was in the room until she had spoken. But now that she was looking, she spotted Weiss as well, standing a distance away from the Dragon rather awkwardly...
"H-hi..." Her voice was full of shock. She wasn't sure how to respond to this situation, but Ruby moved over and took Argus from her hold... which was rather helpful. "Y-Yang...? Is that you?" Jasper seemed to recognise his mother before Blake did... or perhaps he just wanted to play with the Dragon... which momentarily made Blake question his survival instincts.
The Dragon's scales lit up in a beautiful light, it was like its very body had turned into liquid flame... and it reminded Blake of looking into the sun for a moment. But, slowly the mass of magic shrunk in size, down to a height just above Blake in size... and slowly melded back into the familiar form of Yang.
"Sup." She held a confident smile, one that confused Blake even further... she was complelty unsure of what to say or how to respond... she wished she could summon any amount of her sons bravery and leap into Yangs hold... but she couldnt. Instead, the blonde woman walked over herself, keeping that smile and gently wrapping her one arm around both Blake and Jasper. "You ok?"
"I'm... shocked. I don't know how I feel yet."
"Are you mad...?" It was a whisper, a rather foreign sound coming from Yang.
"I don't know yet... I'm more... surprised..." Their eyes met momentarily and Blake averted her own quickly. "Can I... can we... talk about this later? Once I've thought about it some more...?"
"Yeah. Take all the time you need." Time... Blake hadn't even thought about that yet. Yang was a Dragon now... that meant that she would live forever... right...?
Blake's own life likely wouldn't see six hundred years... if Yang lived for a thousand... or even thousands of years... wouldn't Blake be just a blip on that...? Wouldn't their kids just be a small dot on her life...? Would Yang move on after Blake was gone...? Would she move on when Blake got old and frail...?
This was too much... their were so many worries and questions burning through her mind... she needed something stable... something strong to lock onto and keep herself grounded-
"By the way, where are the twins?"
"Shit!!" Blake quickly dumped Jasper into Yangs hold and took off back down the hallway, calling out for her now two missing children... who were probably exploring... again.
"They get to sleep ok?" She closed the door behind her and turned to Yang, the blonde sitting on the edge of the bed and awaiting an answer.
"Yes... they were just excited. Their mother is now a 'cool Dragon' as they put it." They shared a soft chuckle, and Blake moved over. "Did Jasper get to sleep ok?"
"Yeah... he was out the second I put him in the crib."
Blake let out a sigh. "Of course he was... honestly, from what Weiss has told me about Argus, it just seems like your family makes naturally amazing parents."
"If that's the case we definitely get that from Dad..." Yang grumbled her words, and Blake sighed gently.
"I'm sorry, i didn't mean-"
"Blake. It was a compliment. Just cause i took it the wrong way dosent mean you're at fault." They shared a gentle smile, and Blake took her seat next to Yang. Both of them were in pajamas already... but it wasn't time for bed yet. They both had something to talk about.
"Why didn't you talk to me about it?"
"I... I guess I was scared."
"About what?"
"Life?" Yang leaned back and looked up at the ceiling. "I don't know if you remember but... Dragons live forever."
"Trust me... I remember." She pulled her feat up, hugging her knees to her chest.
"And... i know that you won't."
"I remember that too..."
"I want to protect you... all of you. I made a decision that would make me strong enough to do that."
"Yang... even as a Dragon... if you were to fight a Harbinger-"
"You're right... but wouldn't you say Carmine and Nora are pretty close to that level?" Yang spoke with a small grin. "And they aren't Dragons... if I put in as much work as them... I can be stronger then they are. And maybe just strong enough."
"At that point we might not be around anymore, Yang..."
"Maybe... but what if Sun, Celica, or Jasper have kids? Who's gonna protect them?"
Blake chuckled. "You're planning on keeping our family safe for generations?"
"Yeah." It scared Blake how seriously Yang spoke. "But... I don't have to do it alone..."
"Yang..." Blake already knew this was coming... and honestly she was afraid of this talk.
"I'm sure Ruby could figure out that Curse... if you... wanted to then... I'm sure she'd let you become-"
"Yang..." Blake tightened her grip, hugging herself tighter. "I don't want to be anything else... I'm a Faunas... and I'm proud of that."
"...What if our kids wanna be Dragon's too?"
"Weiss and Ruby would have to allow that-"
"And what if they did...? What then?"
"Why are we talking about this..."
"Blake... if I live forever... I'll never find anyone else... I'll spend eternity protecting our family alone until I'm not enough... and then I'll meet you again. I'm willing to wait that long... I just... i wanted to know if you would have done it with me." Yang layed down and sighed. "Sorry... I know that's not fair. We haven't even been together that long all things considered."
Blake raised an eyebrow. "Twenty years isn't that long to you?"
"Well... to me personally it is... it felt like ages because of Ruby... but... now that she's a Dragon... it feels like times speeding up again. From the perspective of something with a really long life... whats twenty years..?"
"I don't care about anyone else..." Blake layed down as well, hugging Yang's side. "To me... it's been the best part of my life..."
"You're not even fifty, Blake."
"Neither are you, Young lady." They shared another small laugh, but slowly started holding each other tight. "I suppose you're right... maybe... we just need to talk about this later..."
"How much later is... later?"
"Maybe when the kids are grown up... keep me around till then and I might concede."
"I don't want you to do something you don't want to do Blake."
"And? Yang... maybe I'm wrong about... what I am... maybe what I am dosent matter too much, but... I need time to see if that's right first. If you change your mind... you could become a Hellhound again one day... that's the world we live in now... but..." Her eyes drooped a bit. "If I become a Dragon...? I can never become a Faunas again..."
"You don't know that-"
"You're right... but still... can I have some time...? To think?"
Yang nodded gently, and they slowly moved under the covers... though there wasn't any funny business tonight. "Of course. I can wait as long as you need, Blake... any amount of time will pass by in a blink... so long as I have all of you..."
Blake tightened her hold, if that was even possible. Perhaps her decision was wrong... perhaps it would be better if she wasn't a faunas anymore... but she couldnt just give up that part of herself. Not yet. She wasn't strong enough yet... but one day? Maybe one day she'd be strong enough.
Roman Torchwick
"Ow..." He let out a groan, annoyed by the disturbance of mana that was Cinder's Spatial Magic opening next to him. But, he quickly stopped his complaint, smiling brightly as he saw who stepped through.
"Neo-" His smile wavered as Cinder stepped through first, practically shoving the smaller girl towards Roman and stepping past them both. He caught Neo and held her by the shoulders, glancing at her face and... frowning at her expression. She always looked so dead when she came back from that place...
"Get her back into fighting condition. We have need of the world's strongest two-year old." Cinder chuckled as she moved past, and Romans frown grew... that 'joke' might have been funny if it wasn't true.
"How did it go?" Adam's voice was one Roman usually tried to ignore... and now was no exception. He slowly moved Neo over to a chair, getting her to sit while he checked her over as carefully as he could.
"About as well as expected. We need to call Carmine. Get her to drop this war business... at least for now."
"Why?"
"The Mistress dosent wish to lose our chance at the Formula yet."
"Mistress??" Adam let out laugh... but it didn't last. Roman wasn't watching what happened to him... but his laugh quickly devolved into screams of pain and sounds that he would try and forget...
"Yes. You'll do well to remember that you dont sit at the top just because of your title... especially being a Faunas." Roman could hear the smirk in Cinder's voice... but he didn't hear a retort from Adam... well, besides groans of pain. "For now, we'll have to start our plans earlier then expected... we're going for the child."
"That won't work... the castle is impenetrable now that the Rose Dragon has enchanted it." Mercurys voice... another Roman would soon like to forget.
"Yes... that is, for anyone not keyed into it." Roman turned now, curious about the conversation... and he watched Cinder turn to the last person in the room... the only one who hadn't talked yet. "And we have one of 'Ruby's' closest friends here... don't we, Emerald?"