RWBY: A Thorn in My Heart

Chapter 27: Separation

5 years ago…

At Ruby's house in patch, Weiss eyed the wedding bouquet on the table, her expression completely nonchalant. Despite having caught it, a sign that she would be the next to marry, she didn't feel a flicker of hope for that right now. She was sitting at a large round white table at an outdoor party to celebrate Ruby and Blake's wedding, even though the couple had long left for their honeymoon, Yang insisted on a party in their name. Though this was indeed a happy day, Weiss couldn't help but groan with displeasure as she pondered a sense of loneliness within her.

"Why did it have to be her?" Weiss thought to herself, the image of that beautiful Black haired cat girl running through her mind as bitterness consumed her. She knew her jealousy was inappropriate, but she couldn't help but still feel disappointed Ruby chose Blake over herself, her own partner. Honestly, she was only happy with the fact Blake wasn't here right now to sense her dread, knowing it would start a fight.

Meanwhile, Sun was enjoying his drinks with Neptune, the two actually old enough to drink alcohol and were getting a little rowdy. Weiss couldn't help hear overhear their conversation after hearing Sun bring up Blake. She looked at him longingly, knowing he was in the same boat as her, losing his chance with his own crush.

"Man did you see that dress earlier? That chick Blake was smoking, can't believe Ruby gets to have fun with *hic* her tonight." Neptune drunkenly said.

Weiss's eyes widen in shock as she saw Sun tackle his friend and teammate for that comment. The scene escalated into a straight up fist fight between the two drunken boys. Qrow, having overheard their conversation, kept everyone at the party back to let the two men blow off steam. Weiss, however, didn't care as she noticed Sun and Neptune getting bruises on their eyes and blood dripping from their mouths; things were escalating too far. She ran up to the men as they prepared another round of fighting.

"I'm in a really pissy mood Neptune, don't screw with me right now!" Sun screamed.

"Oooh, upset the red-head gets to screw with your kitty girlfriend instead of you is that it?" Neptune said mockingly, this was the last straw for Sun, he was going to knock all of Neptune's teeth out this time. Just as he raised his fist, Weiss spoke up while raising her saber, preparing to cool them off with ice.

"Okay boys, cool off….AGH" Weiss yelled before Sun's elbow accidently struck her in the eye, knocking her to the ground. Sun turned around, shocked to see his friend on the ground groaning in pain as she covered her left eye. He felt a deep sense of shame arise within him even though he knew it was an accident. His father taught him never to strike a girl; otherwise he wasn't worthy of being called a man. He didn't get much time to ponder his guilt as everything went black as he felt Neptune's fist connect to his jaw.

Sun woke up in Ruby's room, Tai having been kind enough to lend him the room while he recovered, though would later punch him in the gut for making a ruckus to begin with. He clenched his jaw as he stood up from the bed; it ached almost as bad as his heart right now. His discomfort gave way to a chilling and soft sensation that tapped by his eyes. It was Weiss's cloth, covered in a small bit of ice dust.

"Really, why do boys have to be so pig-headed?" she scolded him, her tone he could sense was filled with disappointment. But Sun didn't see an angry glare from the heiress like he was expecting. He saw the black eye of the white haired maiden in tears, something he assumed was his fault.

"Sorry, I didn't mean to hit you its just Neptune…" Sun said as he started apologizing, before cutting himself off. He knew the fight was his own fault, petty jealousy for Ruby and Blake being the cause so he had no one else to truly blame. He especially felt guilty having hit Weiss, even accidently, he wanted to do nothing else right now but say he was sorry. He didn't even get the chance as Weiss playfully punched his face, but her fist was slow with no force behind it.

"Why do you guys get to fight and blow off steam but us girls don't?" She tearfully asked a confused Sun. That's when a realization dawned on him.

"Are you made at Blake?" he asked. He received a nod from Weiss.

"I know its wrong, wanting what they have. It's just… just… AGH! Why couldn't we have them instead!?" Weiss yelled with frustration.

Sun looked down in shame, as he didn't really have an answer that would satisfy the heiress. Were they not worthy? Did they not look attractive? Or was it their personalities?

"I love them too but, yeah… Sometimes I feel like smacking that red-head around." Sun bitterly admitted. He hated himself for this jealousy as much as he hated how Ruby got Blake instead of him. Weiss soon slapped Sun, this time with more force that stung his aching jaw.

"So it's only about you huh? What about me I feel the same way I just want to lock that dumb cat girl in the jaw!" She yelled at him, soon meeting his angry gaze. They both froze in place meeting each other's eyes. Either it was out of empathy or just stress, Weiss soon jumped Sun, pressing her lips to his as he clasped her face. They fell onto the bed as they slowly started to undress Weiss's dress, their motions knocking the wedding bouquet off Ruby's nightstand.

Present

"And that's how it happened." Weiss said as she finished explaining her daughter's conception to a perplexed Blake, who stood silent with her mouth hanging open. She gave no reaction as Sun grabbed his crying daughter off her shoulder and placed her to his, tenderly rubbing her back and making her knot up her white monkey tail.

"After that, I spent a year here to give birth in secret. After all, "The Schnee heiress has a Faunus bastard" you can tell what that would do to me right?" Weiss asked. Blake knew the answer, Weiss's company would come under scrutiny as even now they were struggling to improve Faunus relations and treatment. The president having a faunus child out of wedlock would be a serious scandal. Her cat ears perked up at a sudden thought.

"Sun and I didn't marry. We really don't love each other, it was kind of an accident. We share custody, but it was my turn to watch her, though I thought Sun and her would be staying in mistral during our mission." Weiss said, finishing her explanation why Sun and her were really arguing, and why they were so tense around each other.

"So that's why you didn't want us here?" Blake asked, receiving a shameful nod from Weiss as she closed her eyes and averted her gaze. She couldn't stand seeing Blake look at her right now.

Things went from bad to worse for Weiss as Ruby suddenly entered the room. Weiss couldn't stand the thought of facing her former crush right now, her heart couldn't take it. Before she made for the door, Blake screamed at the top of her lungs, startling her into freezing in that spot.

"Don't you dare run away from this!" Blake roared.

"Whoa Blake! What's wrong? Did you find the…" Ruby said as she was startled by her wifes shouting, before laying eyes on Sun and Nala.

"Who is that?" she asked, but her heart already knew the answer as she noticed the white hair and tail on the girl's body.

"Weiss and Sun had a child because they were jealous of us. That's why Weiss was gone for a year and didn't tell us why." Blake angrily said to a horrified Ruby. She looked at a tearful Weiss, the latters silence serving as proof as she saw the president cover her mouth and cry.

"You're a mother too?" Ruby softly said, though overwhelmed by this sudden revelation she couldn't find the strength to raise her voice. Weiss looked so sad, and she felt sad herself from Blake pointing out Weiss's jealousy, it made Ruby feel a bit awkward at times around her partner.

"Stop yelling at mommy!" Nala suddenly yelled, her eyes red from tears. Everyone was startled by this but Weiss, who simply glared at her daughter.

"Don't yell Nala, we have guests here." Weiss scolded her 4 year old daughter but the latter rustled out of her father's grip and simply ran to her mother's lap, crying into her blue blouse.

"Then you stop yelling mommy! Stop yelling at papa and trying to make him leave!" she yelled tearfully.

Weiss placed her hands on her daughter's shoulders; vainly fighting back sniffles and tears.

"I don't want him to go, or you, but I got a mission and can't watch over you right now." She said with a pained tone.

"Your always too busy with work to play with me or papa!" Nala yelled. Weiss shuddered at this declaration, images of her own mother flooding her mind as she broke away from her daughter and ran out the door. Nala collapsed into a fetal position crying as Sun kneeled down to her to check on his daughter.

"Weiss!" Ruby yelled as she tried to run after her partner, before Blake grabbed her hand and shook her head disapprovingly. The cat Faunus didn't want to see her right now, let alone her wife looking out for a girl who lied to them for years.

Weiss ran outside her manor into the streets, ignoring the heavy rain that was soaking her clothes and hair right now. To her, they were perfect for masking her tears, as she couldn't stand anyone to see her crying right now. Her high heels soon skid as she slipped on a puddle of water and fell face first to the ground. As she stood back up, her body aching with pain, she noticed a frightening image in the puddle; it was of her own mother rather than herself reflecting off the water. Her heart raced as she began hyperventilating, unable to handle the pressure she was feeling right now. She screamed in agony as her eyes pupils disappeared, as white as her hair, as she began losing all sense around her. She didn't even notice the portal appear underneath her feet as she fell straight through, leaving nothing behind but a broken heel from her shoe in the street.

Search and Encounter

"Why didn't you tell us all this time Sun?" Yang asked him as he cradled his young daughter in his arms. She was in just as shock as Blake and Ruby when they found out. He looked away dejected from his friend, who also looked nervous. Not only did they not know what to say to each other, but the air turned awkward as they heard Ruby and Blake arguing right now. Nala clenched her father's shirt as she heard them yelling. It was just like how her mother and him had been fighting lately and it brought her nothing but terror.

"Why aren't we looking for Weiss, she needs us right now?!" Ruby argued.

"Yeah well we don't need a liar with us right now!" Blake yelled, her tone hoarse with rage. She just couldn't stand that Weiss would lie to them for years and just run off. After all the crap they went through in vale when she had run off after revealing she was a Faunus, Blake couldn't stand to see Weiss after she did the same.

Ruby, however, felt they needed to help Weiss immediately, now starting to regret giving her space on the ship instead of pulling off the mask. Her leadership instincts kicked into overdrive and even her wife wasn't going to stop her, she just really wanted her support on this.

"I get your upset, but she was in a delicate position. We all have things in our lives that we don't want others to know, let alone discuss them with strangers." Ruby countered. Blake glared at her with anger at that last comment.

"Strangers!? Were her team, we've known each other for years how could she not tell us at least?" Blake yelled. Sun immediately understood what Ruby meant, and felt he had to speak up to help calm Blake down, or at least direct the anger towards him. After giving Klein his daughter, Sun approach Blake and put a hand on her shoulder, alerting her to his presence.

"The public would condemn her for having a Faunus kid. You of all people know how Atlas feels about our kind." Sun said with a stern, yet empathetic tone. He tried to sound less judgmental to avoid angering her, knowing Atlas caused her mother's death.

"I of all people know how those monsters would react, but were her family! She should have trusted us and talked to us!" Blake roared. But Ruby noticed her wife's gaze draw towards her rather than Sun and knew what she was implying.

Blake was really upset that Ruby wasn't talking to her about her trauma. Ever since she collapsed at school, Blake had always seemed to smother her at times to keep her from mentally shutting down again. While Ruby was appreciative of Blake's care, she at times felt uncomfortable with it, feeling like she was being treated as a baby. She had her own to care for and the attack that put her in that situation wasn't something she ever wanted to talk about, even with those she trusted. Her helplessness that night was what she knew Weiss was feeling everyday when she fought for equal rights for Faunus in Atlas, only to meet opposition from the public as Blake once mentioned to her. Ruby wanted nothing more than to leave right now and save her partner from her torment, but couldn't find the strength in her legs or her heart to leave her wife and look for her, but Blake was clearly adamant on getting some space.

As Ruby realized Blake was bitter with her and wouldn't help search for Weiss no matter what, she began to breath heavily. Her skin chilled as she developed Goosebumps, which later sprouted thorns that rapidly appeared and retreated.

"Ruby?" Yang said as she noticed her sisters reaction, but Ruby drowned out her voice, her mind was racing too much. She reached into her pajama's pockets instinctively, looking for pills to alleviate her pain.

"W-Where, where are they?" She softly said to herself, unaware she had lost her pills days ago. She soon collapsed onto her shins, as it became harder to breath, her eyes became bloodshot.

"Ruby what's wrong!" Yang yelled as she ran towards her sister, alerting Sun and Blake to her condition as they did the same.

"I need my pills, pills please!" Ruby yelled, cold sweat dripping from her forehead.

Sun immediately turned to Klein, who had just placed Nala in her mother's bed.

"Klein grab the limo, take Ruby to the Atlas pharmacy now!" he ordered the Butler, who nodded as he rushed outside.

"This late? shouldn't we take her to a hospital?" Yang asked, it made no sense any business would stay open this late in the night, but Sun assured her the pharmacy was opened 24 hours a day.

Feeling assured by this new information, Yang carried Ruby in her arms like a princess.

"Don't worry Rubes, well get your anti-depressants then well look for Weiss." She said as she gave a stink eye to Blake. Blake let her cat ears down in shame from this look. It was clear Yang blamed her for Ruby's predicament, no… the whole mess with Weiss right now. She may have just broken up their team with her selfishness.

Cinder's castle

Many white fang soldiers pounded on the walls of a small force-field generated by Mercury's new legs. It was one of the many benefits his upgraded cybernetics granted him, but it couldn't cancel out noise to his disdain. He was growing irritated by the constant roars of demands to be let in by the Faunus men and woman who wanted to do things to the president of the SDC, who hung from a cross, still wet and unconcious.

Emerald grunted in disgust as well, for some like the woman simply wanted to beat her up and kill her, while most of the men gave a vulgar look as they noticed her see through clothes from the rainwater. As a woman, Emerald was incredibly offended when she received those perverted looks. She even felt the same for an enemy woman when she was the subject of those looks. Unlike Neo, she wasn't willing to betray her master over this though and looked forward to the torture Cinder was planning for the Schnee.

"You sure have a lot of resentment and lust in your heart brat." Cinder said with a smirk. It was Weiss's turmoil that lured Cinder to her like a moth to a bug zapper and just like one of them, Weiss was going to meet her maker by her own actions. But simply killing her, while tempting, wasn't enough to satisfy the witch, she felt an urge to do something even worse. What came next she thought would certainly satisfy her and serve to calm down the rabble outside the barrier.

"Lets add a new pet to our collection." Cinder said as her Grimm arm glowed red.

Inside her arm, an emaciated Hazel and Salem stood hung by a cross just like Weiss. They groaned as they felt the splints that held their powerless and near lifeless bodies up burned and shocked their nerves again. It happened every time Cinder used her Grimm powers as they fed on them.

"It's, a miracle we survived this long. How many years has it been now?" Hazel asked his wife while gasping for air. It seemed like forever since their daughter absorbed them, but he had lost track ages ago. Salem merely gave off a smirk. This annoyed Hazel as he hated being ignored, especially by her. She had really ignored him ever since they lost Gretchan, only staying with him since they both wanted to avenge her. Really that was the only thing they had in common now. He glanced at her pale white skin, now wrinkly from her powers being absorbed so much, and her red eyes, which were once a beautiful blue color he once admired. He felt bitterness in his heart looking at her, as he blamed himself for not saving their daughter and now realized he didn't really save his wife from herself either. He had lost her that day, now all that stood before him was just a monster worse than a Grimm, mutilated by her own desire for power and destruction.

"How can someone so ugly look so happy now?" he sarcastically asked.

"Because, now one of us will be leaving this hell hole." Salem snickered. Hazel's eyes blew wide open; hope was something he hadn't felt since losing his daughter. Though he knew his wife's deceitful nature, much like Cinder, he couldn't help but be curious about her words. Salem enjoyed his look of hope, as she was looking forward to seeing him change that look to one of despair once she escapes thanks to Cinder.

"Between me and my useless husband, a powerful witch would be more effective than a mere painkiller." She thought as she sensed Cinder's intentions through the pain of her magic.

In that moment, Cinder plunged her shadow hand into Weiss's stomach, but the woman didn't even screech in pain to the former's disappointment. Her mind was blank as she was catatonic, she was basically an empty shell right now. Though this made Cinder's experiment all the more easy for her to complete as black marks enveloped Weiss's skin, her eyes turned yellow and red like a Grimm, and black ooze from Cinder's arm sealed the wound shut as it infected her body.

The white fang's roars grew silent immediately as some even began to vomit in disgust from this scene, to Mercury and Emerald's amusement.

"Guess you don't want to have "fun" with her now huh boys?" Emerald sarcastically asked. The white fang merely stood by shocked and silent, some even running away.

Hazel soon felt a strange sensation as the process began. His body began feeling like it was melting. Salem gritted her teeth as she reacted in horror to this scene.

"What! Why you?!" she screamed, it made no sense Hazel was leaving while she was the more powerful one.

Hazel merely looked confused as he felt his consciousness slip away and his energy enveloped Weiss.

Salem bit her lower lip with rage,

"You rotten little snot!" She screamed.

Cinder smirked, she knew all along her father and mother were alive, but felt her father's semblance had outlived its usefulness. With her mother around she was practically invincible, so no enemy could threaten her with injury. Even if they did, no pain meant there was no real game for her. She might as well keep her more powerful mother and use her father's semblance to power up her new "pet".

At that moment, Weiss's body began growing dust shards from her semblance instinctively that began glowing a purple aura. Weiss screamed as she began to grow black horns from her head, the transformation nearly complete. Deep down in her consciousness, Weiss laid motionless, as she was barely awake. All she could see was Ruby and Blake walking down the isle at their wedding before a black gunk overtook her eyes. This scene repeated as she kept reliving that moment, and each time filling her with pain.

"Why? Why couldn't it be me?" she kept asking herself.

Atlas Pharmacy

Ruby ripped open a plastic bag filled with her medicine with her bare teeth like a wolf. Ever second now felt like her skin and throat were burning. She had to take a pill, but felt intense pressure in her fingers as her hands couldn't force the cap off the bottle. Thankfully though, Yang managed to pry the bottle out of her sister's hands, despite her squirming, and got a pill out of it easily. Her expression grew somber, as she looked at her sister gulp the pill down instantly, then goes into a rasp breathing fit. It was very hard to see how bad Ruby's mental health had declined over the years, to the point she needed drugs to calm herself down. What hurt more was that her own sister didn't feel she could trust Yang enough to talk to her about the problems she was facing. Ruby didn't pay her sister any mind, as she was finally feeling the tension in her mind and chest ease. As she got up, she felt her legs grow wobbly as she had realized they were asleep from kneeling on them for a while getting that bottle opened. She soon lost her footing and fell on an old man in a wheel chair behind her.

"Oh my gosh! I am so sorry sir!" Ruby said as she collected herself, forcing with all her strength the ability to stand despite the sharp sting it brought her legs.

"Hahaha! Tough using your legs huh? Not that I don't have that problem too missy." The old man said as he laughed and patted his crippled legs.

"Sorry about my sister, she's probably light headed from her medicine." Yang somberly said, the thought of those drugs hurting her sister only fueled her dislike for her sisters coping mechanism. If they weren't in public she would seriously consider trying to smack some sense into Ruby right now to get rid of those pills.

"No worries ma'am, just here to get my own, my name is Pietro its nice to meet you... hey miss. You got silver eyes little lady!" The old man said, eyeing Ruby's eyes as he took notice of them.

"Yeah, Professor Ozpin at Beacon told me it was rare." Ruby said awkwardly. She found it flattering, but somewhat uncomfortable an old man was paying her physical features compliments.

"That's all?" Pietro asked, looking confused.

"Yeah, why? Is there something more I should know?" Ruby asked, she was starting to grow more concerned as it felt like Pietro knew something dangerous about her eyes. Certainly she never met another person besides mom with these eyes but she didn't think much about it until now.

"My wife Maria had silver eyes too, and she could do almost magical things with them too." Pietro said.

"Magical?" Ruby and Yang said in unison, raising eyebrows. They were now officially sure this man was crazy, but before they could call him out on it Penny started glowing from her sword.

"Wait… that voice! Daddy!" Penny said as Ruby felt her sword burning with energy and pulled it out. Ruby, Yang, and Pietro's eyes widen in shock, the girls from realzing this man was her father, and Pietro from seeing Penny in the form of a blade. Then he simply sighed as he put his fingers to his eyes disappointingly.

"Oh Penny, don't tell me you broke your body again." He said dejected.

"Hey its not my fault! The ship crashed and wrecked my body, I needed to transfer my AI chip into my sword until I got a new body. I was gonna ask my BF to take me to you tomorrow." Penny explained.

"Well…. I guess that's why I make back-ups, but your new body is still going to take a few days, maybe a week at most before its ready. I still don't know how you managed to dangle up the arms and legs last time I lent it to you for testing." He said annoyed.

"Oh me, Ruby, and Blake were playing on a nice swing set when…" she started explaining before Ruby's face blushed entirely and she waved her hands and cut off the conversation.

"When a Grimm attacked us while pushing Thorn on his set, Penny got knocked around a bit when things got… eh ruff!" Ruby said with panic. She certainly didn't want her friends father to find out about their "Nightly" activities including what "tools" they used for fun.

Yang pondered what Ruby was saying, unsure what Ruby was actually implying, before her face was gushing red as hers upon realizing what Ruby and Penny did.

"Whoa! When did my sister get so mature!" Yang thought, unwilling to say a provocative thing like that out loud from sheer embarrassment.

Outside the pharmacy

Klein had the limo parked outside the store. He turned around to see Blake and Sun sitting in the back, averting their gaze from each other. The awkward atmosphere was almost suffocating for the old man.

"Well, I am just… going to use the restroom inside. Be right back!" he said, making a lame excuse as he planned to be in the store for a while until Yang and Ruby wanted to leave. Klein formed a solemn face. He wanted nothing more than to search for master Weiss right now, but knew she would want him to help her partner first. So he fought that discomfort and made way for the pharmacy doors.

After he left, Sun gave off a big sigh as he finally felt comfortable enough to talk with Blake. Unfortunately, she didn't reciprocate that sentiment as she was averting her eyes from his, clutching Gambrol Shroud sadly.

"I'm a bit scared to ask you how your feeling. You might take my head off if I do huh?" Sun jokingly asked. Blake formed a glare at him so sharp it hurt worse than any sword of hers could.

"How am I feeling!? I may have just split my team up and gotten Weiss hurt and your seriously asking that!" she exclaimed. Sun scratched his neck as he pondered what to respond with. It was obvious Blake needed comfort rather than a joke right now.

"Stupid question I know. I messed that up just like I messed things up for you and Weiss." Sun sadly countered.

Blake ceased her glare and stopped gritting her teeth as she was surprised by his suddenly mature response.

"Me and Weiss were selfish and stupid. We should have been happy for you and Ruby and we definitely should have told you about Nala at least. It wasn't you that split up everyone it was me, I should have been a man and done the right thing but I didn't, I'm sorry." Sun sadly said as he apologized.

Blake let her ears down as she heard his words then reflected on hers towards Ruby and Weiss.

"Well, I sure didn't help by pushing them both away. Lets just agree there was blame all around and try to find her now." Blake asked Sun who gave a sharp smile and nodded. That was right, they had to find Weiss right away before they could feel sorry for themselves.

"We'll settle the rest after we find her." Blake said as she exited the Limo, she was going to first get her wife, then start searching for Weiss. As she stepped out, her heel felt a huge bump on the ground. As she looked down, her heart sank as she recognized the source. It was a broken shoe heel from a really expensive shoe.

"Sun! Everyone! Get over here quick!" Blake yelled, drawing every person mentioned towards her.

"It's a heel from Weiss's shoe, no one but a rich Schnee wears this type of high heel." Blake explained, this caused everyone to gasp in horror at the possibility this meant. If Weiss broke her shoe and just left it laying around, she might be hurt or worse.

"We need to split up and cover more ground, Blake can you summon so clones too!?" Ruby ordered. Blake nodded in compliance, but before she could so much as summon one, a tremor shook the ground, startling everyone.

"How can their be an earthquake!? Were in the sky!" Yang yelled.

"It's not an earthquake! It's a Grimm underground!" Penny yelled as her sensors went nuts beeping.

Suddenly, a portal appeared underground beneath the heroes and summon a dark hand with razor sharp claws that tore through the ground. Out in front of the group, a large shadow arm plunged through the limo, splitting it in two. Out from the split, a beast with white fangs and horns much like the Knuckelavee emerged. It bore black and red wings and an almost tiger like body with white and black stripes. Ruby couldn't make out what type it was. It seemed like a Manticore mixed with a dragon and Beowulf Grimm. It was some sort of Chimera. As everyone drew their weapons, Klein and Pietro retreated into the store for cover, this was not a fight the old men could survive and they knew the heroes needed to focus on fighting the Grimm more than protecting them.

Ruby shot some fire dust into the Grimm, but to her surprise it didn't even notice the shot the went through its stomach. The fire simply evaporated into it's black oozy body. Ruby had become accustomed to Grimm at least shrieking in pain from her attacks, this felt so unnatural. As she was distracted by this confusion, the hound took the chance to lunge at her with its claw that suddenly grew a large white crystal. Ruby winced as she saw this and instantly petal bursted a few feet back, but soon felt a huge freezing sensation near her face as the crystal plunged into the ground and erupted, summoning a pillar of ice in front of her.

"Did this thing just summon Ice Dust?!" she thought to herself. She had never seen a Grimm that could manipulate dust like that. She had only seen such an ability in Weiss before. Soon a terrible thought passed through her mind.

"Did this thing... eat Weiss." she solemnly thought. It was a wild, disgusting theory, but it made as much sense as anything a Grimm absorbing its prey and gaining their abilities. She remembered Jaune chewing her out one time when they fought a Rock Grimm in the woods and it absorbed her fire dust bullets to get stronger.

Soon fear and anguish morphed into rage at the thought passing her mind. If what happened was true then she wanted nothing more right now than to kill this monster. Ruby gripped her scythe's handle and twirled with it, bringing its blade down on the ice and shattering it before jerking her body around to whip up some air and rose petals. She summoned a tornado of rose petals and ice shards that she sent towards the hound, who jabbed its claws into the ground to keep itself in place, ignoring the shards stabbing it. It felt no pain at all for some reason to the maiden's confusion and irritation. she was soon joined by her team and Sun, brandishing their weapons.

But as the group prepared to join the fight against this beast, their resolve was all but shattered, as they never expected to hear this from the monster who eyed Ruby specifically.

"Girl, get the girl!" the chimera said in a feminine and demonic voice.

The group was shocked, they never heard a Grimm speak before and the voice sounded somewhat familiar.

"Is that a… girl?" Sun said in confusion.

Taking advantage of the panic, the Grimm exuded dust crystals of various colors from its body that shot out like missiles. Ruby instantly turned her foot into a thorn and plunged it into the ground, summoning trees and vines around the group to shield them from the lightning, fire, and ice explosions the crystals unleashed. As her plants died, Ruby eyed the Grimm kept its attention on her, soon noticing it breathing rapidly and stomping the ground in frustration. Yang soon charged and placed a grenade in Ember Cecilia, plunging it into the hounds face at its exploded, the fire fueling Yang's aura as she flashed yellow and grinned madly from the rush of energy she felt. The joy was short lived as she felt a backhand to her face flung her back towards the group, narrowly avoiding her skull hitting the pavement as Blake grabbed her with Sun and wobbled, barely keeping their balance from the sudden weight and velocity that hit them. Soon the beast slowly began approaching them, it's jaw rumbling as it awkwardly hung and gave off raspy breaths. It looked down upon Ruby, still gripping scythe in a reverse grip and in battle stance, ready to fight, that was until she heard something else come out of the beasts jagged mouth,

"Why couldn't you… choose me!?" it said angrily.

Ruby was shocked as she remembered those words. They were the words Weiss said to her in the infirmary after the battle of Beacon. She had been so dejected learning of her relationship to Blake and being rejected for that. Ruby grew pale as she uttered these next words.

"Weiss… is that you?" Ruby said as tears stung her eyes. Everyone's jaws dropped at the implication of Ruby's words. They couldn't believe it, but seeing that dust attack made them remember that was Weiss's semblance. This could actually be real, their friend was transformed into a monster.

As their despair grew, the beast became enthralled by their negativity focused on them instead of Ruby and soon lunged at them. Ruby saw her friends frozen with fear and shock and knew they couldn't dodge. She herself felt stuck, like her legs were cemented to the ground. The only strength she could muster was to scream.

"Noooooooo!" she yelled as her eyes began to glow brightly, emitting a shine that caused the Chimera cease its charge and cover its face, which began to burn and it plopped to the ground.

After the shine faded, everyone rubbed their eyes, still burning from the flash before noticing Ruby gasping for air. She was exhausted from that attack, not even thinking how she did that before her mind focused on the beast, who simply staggered as it covered its face. Though its felt no pain, the Grimm felt uneasy from this attack.

As it collected itself, the beast stopped clutching its face and breathed heavily, slowly raising its head to face the heroes, who once more became paralyzed with fear. Their fears were proven true, as the beast's face partially showed Weiss's own face.

Bum Bum Bummmmm Cliffhanger! So Weiss is now a mutant like the hound in canon. Ruby uses her silver eyes and pietro was married to Maria. How will the group save Weiss or can she even be saved. Will this be Team RWBY's last mission? Find out in CH 28: Ugliness on the Outside