Weiss Schnee
"Currently, the kingdom is-"
Things had been going well since they'd made the alarm system. Ruby had been feeling much safer and Weiss had definitely noticed the difference... Ruby was generally happier, she was less stressed around Weiss, and she was having fewer incidents in training. Weiss kept feeling guilty about not realising sooner.
"I believe that the main focus of our preparations should be-"
It had only been two weeks since then. Ruby's dreams had continued, but they weren't consistent. It was only every second or so night that she woke in that state, and Weiss was always there to help. It made her feel good, being able to help Ruby through this.
"Your father called and-"
They'd been talking about the dreams, too. It made Ruby feel better to share the information and Weiss was happy to help... plus, she wanted to know as much as she could about those two... Rory Rose was someone she recognised as very dangerous from what little she knew about his life... and Eirwen Schnee... it was troubling that Weiss couldn't find a record of her from their family tree.
"The festival may still be far off, but early preparations are-"
Apparently in Ruby's dreams Eirwen and Rory and finally gotten together. Her dreams seemed to skip memories, Ruby missed entire months of time between some of them... Glynda's theory was that she was only recalling memories important to Rory. Speaking of which.
Ruby had told her about their first date... apparently she hadn't experienced the actual getting together part. It was interesting to hear about it, a human and Dragon making it work...
But then comes the issue.
"Ruby's experiencing it..."
She was married to the girl! She was soon going to have children with her! Why did she still have to be jealous?!
It was frustrating, and Weiss was smart enough not to bring it up to Ruby... it would probably only make the girl tell her less about the dreams, and Weiss valued Ruby's mental well-being over her own stupid jealousy...
Plus, an added benefit of said jealousy was...
Well, apparently Weiss was the possessive type.
"I really hope no one has noticed the Hickeys..."
"I suggest that we-"
Telling Yang and Blake had gone over smoother than expected. There was some worry, but telling the blonde about a solved issue wasn't as bad as it could have been... though...
"Is the issue really solved...?"
Glynda's theory is that the dreams would stop when Ruby ran out of memories to experience... so, when Rory died, right? But... what if something else happened instead of them just stopping?
Weiss didn't want to fall down that rabbit hole of thought... plus... she should probably pay attention to-
"Your Highness... are you even listening to me?"
She blinked.
Ozpin had set this meeting a day in advance to talk about the preparations for the Vytal festival. Vale was hosting it this year, but the event was still six months away.
They were in her office instead of the gardens for once. Recently, she'd felt it had become more of her and Ruby's place... she didn't want to have meetings there anymore.
The floating arena that was a signature of said festival was already on its way, being escorted by a sizeable convoy from Atlas, the kingdom that had held it the previous decade.
"No."
Ozpin frowned.
"Well, that's quite rude-"
"The main security risks are happening right now. The second it's within our walls, it becomes protected by two Harbingers, and two Dragons. No one, not even the White Fang, or Raven Branwen, would be stupid enough to attack it while it's in Vale. You're also worried about magic traps set on it during transit, so you're suggesting Glynda sweep the structure when it arrives. Personally I agree, but she should bring Ruby, it would be a good practical lesson." Weiss rested her hands on her desk and smiled gently. "Did I miss anything?"
"Your father called-"
"Did I miss anything important?" Weiss rephrased, to which Ozpin chuckled.
"No. No I suppose not."
"If that's all, then-" Weiss stood with a sigh. "I have to join Glynda for Ruby's training. You know how to get to the exit, I'm sure." She held a small smirk as she walked to the door of her office.
"You're improving exceedingly quickly, Your Highness." Ozpin stood and followed her out.
"You ready?"
"Yeah!" Weiss had to fight off a smile at Ruby's yell.
"Alright then." Weiss transformed into her half state and smiled as her wings folded behind her. Ruby nodded quickly and took a deep breath in, closing her eyes and beginning to concentrate... as she did, Weiss focused her Mana to her eyes.
"I'm still not the greatest at this, but..."
It worked. Her vision changed and she could see... It wasn't like she could see more, rather her brain hid less.
Mana... souls... all of it was clear to her now.
She glanced around at the training room. She could see the Mana pipes in the walls, the flowing magic wrapped around the castle as a barrier... the defences... she turned back to Ruby.
It was all so confusing and nearly woozy to experience but... clear. She tried to keep her focus on Ruby... the fewer details she looked at, the easier it would be on her mind.
"I understand what you mean..." Her words involved no movement of her mouth, she spoke to Glynda through her telepathy.
Ruby's soul was bare and clear to see, as opposed to Weiss and Glynda's each. With relative ease one could learn how to conceal the presence of their soul and hide it from the viewing of others, this skill would become second nature to most people that learnt it and be done automatically by their soul after only a short time of using it... Ruby couldn't seem to do this, but for now it worked in their favour.
Weiss watched Ruby's Mana move around her soul, it was trying to reach for something.
"Ruby? Not your soul. You have to push your Mana into your body." She spoke with a calm and soothing voice, it would hopefully be more encouraging than hearing Glynda's.
Ruby nodded and her Mana froze. It began to try and push through the edges of her soul, trying to break through into her body.
"No. Not like that. There's already an opening, you just need to find it."
Another nod and another slow working of the energy. Weiss watched as the 'probe' of Mana Ruby was using to feel around her soul traced its edge, passing over the opening a few times before the Queen told her when it passed over it.
"Are... are you sure...?" Ruby's voice was nervous and strained, she was clearly concentrating a lot.
"Trust me Ruby. I can see it after all." With a sigh, the rose haired girl attempted to push her Mana through the opening.
It... didn't work...? Ruby's face strained with pain as she tried to force it, her Mana refusing to move through the opening before the girl's eyes shot open, and she breathed heavily with exhaustion.
"That feels... way too tiring..." Ruby was holding her knees and leaning over a bit, trying to regain her breath.
Weiss approached and gently laid her hand on Ruby's forehead, pushing her own Mana into the girl's soul.
Glynda could simply cast a spell and force a transformation out of Ruby, but Weiss could actually do something more... intimate.
Their souls could recognise each other after all, it knew Weiss was the opposite of a threat. So it welcomed her Mana.
She could see it moving inside, with a small push, she guided some of Ruby's Mana through the opening into her body and-
Weiss let out a small squeak of surprise as Ruby's wings suddenly shot out, her scales and horns following suit, even her tail!
"Wait, why doesn't my half form have a tail-"
"See what I mean, Your Highness?" Glynda's words interrupted her train of thought and she nodded.
"Yes... I'm not too sure what's going on." A mental block of some kind, perhaps?
Weiss examined Ruby carefully. She wasn't too sure what exactly was causing this... was it the dreams...?
"They didn't start till after the wedding... Ruby couldn't transform before that either..."
Her intense stare was interrupted when Ruby met her lips in a kiss. Her surprise made her pull back, and Ruby giggled as Glynda coughed into her hand.
"You were staring." Ruby had a small smirk in response to the Queen's surprise.
"I was examining your soul."
"Sure you were, honey."
Weiss wasn't too sure how to feel about the way Ruby acted while transformed. Sure it wasn't as bad as it could be... at least when it was directed at her, but Ruby was usually playful... this version of her was-
"So, I'm broken? That's it?" She said it so seriously, too... like it was just a fact.
"Ruby. No. Glynda, I'm sorry, but I think we should focus on control before Ruby learns how to transform on her own."
"I agree."
"What's that supposed to mean?" Ruby crossed her arms and glared at the blonde, Weiss wanted to point out that she had said it first but... it was an uphill battle.
"Ruby..." Weiss let out a sigh and took a step away from her. "You need to calm down."
"I am calm!"
"Ok... Ruby. You're not acting how you normally are-"
"I feel normal!"
Weiss reached over and held both the girls hands in her own.
"I know Ruby. I know. But you can't just look at your behaviour emotionally... do me a favour. Question how you're acting with logic. Compare yourself objectively to how you usually act."
Ruby Schnee
"Objectively...? I mean..."
If that's what Weiss wanted...
She took a deep breath and closed her eyes.
"How I usually act...? I mean... I'm normally pretty scared of Glynda."
Scared probably wasn't the right word, but it's how she'd describe her behaviour looking in from outside. Ruby opened her eyes and looked over the blonde woman again.
Weiss was right.
Ruby was usually so nervous and worried around her teacher... but, she didn't feel any of that right now. She knew she always felt whiplash when exiting her transformation... but this was the first time she'd felt it while being transformed.
"How else am I-"
She'd gotten angry at Glynda. She was annoyed, but... she usually never expressed annoyance as aggression.
Objectively, she knew Glynda was her friend. She knew the woman wouldn't purposefully try to annoy her or make her angry... at least not without a reason.
"Ruby? Sorry to interrupt your train of thought, but... are you ok?" Ruby blinked and focused back on Weiss at her words.
She had kissed Weiss without feeling embarrassed, either. That was new... well, at least in front of people.
"Yeah I'm..." Was she ok? Thinking logically about this was difficult... she felt ok, and applying logic to that showed she shouldn't be ok with how she was acting.
"If I change back... would I be ok with how I'm acting...?"
It was a start. A question she'd have to keep asking herself. "I think I'm ok."
"Good... well, are you up for some magic training?" Weiss tilted her head slightly as she asked the question.
"I-" Ruby paused. She had to think about this first. She was sure she wanted to practice, but what about later?
Her wings settled onto her shoulders and melded into the form of her cloak as she thought. This process was sickening... She felt so sure of herself... feeling unsure was practically impossible right now... yet, logically, she was unsure.
"Like feeling that one plus one should equal three... even though you know it should equal two..."
A strange analogy, but the one she was rolling with for now.
"Magic practice might not be the best idea..." Her hesitance leaked into her voice... even though she wasn't hesitant!? "Honestly, I think all this thinking is gonna give me a headache."
"Do you need to sit down?"
"No. It's just confusing to think about."
That sentence seemed to please Glynda.
"Glynda... Ms Goodwitch... I'm usually not confident enough to call her by her name, so..."
She let out a groan as she put her hands on her face.
This was all too much!
How could she solve this?
She could transform back, but... that would just be giving up!
"How can I-... oh!"
She grinned at her brilliant idea!
Her body burst into an uncountable amount of rose petals that quickly grew in number. They settled back into the form of her full transformation, and she scanned her vision around the room. She crossed her front legs and laid her body down on the floor.
"I've never just... sat in this form."
Her full Dragon form was... well, she'd only been in it three times now. Each experience was intense and involved, or nearly involved, a fight.
She felt much more sure of herself now. But applying what Weiss had told her to that, she knew it was just the stronger version of the effects she felt in her half form.
"I'm confident, but so confident that I know my logic is right about my confidence being wrong?"
It was even more confusing, but that felt ok now. But it being ok wasn't ok, so she wasn't ok.
But-
Ruby groaned.
"My heeeaaad..."
"Are you alright…?"
"Noooo...!" She let out another groan and turned her face to bury it into Weiss. She was currently laying on a bench in the training room, her head in Weiss's lap.
Glynda and Weiss hadn't responded well to Ruby's sudden and unannounced full transformation and asked her to turn back... but the second she did... all that weird logic and all those confusing thoughts flooded into her now much weaker mind.
Weiss let out a gentle sigh. She was stroking Ruby's head gently while applying some healing magic, though it was only really dulling the pain. Ruby would have to ride the actual thought process out before it stopped completely.
"Well, I'd call this progress." If she was in her Dragon form still, she knew she would have told Glynda to shut up at that... or would she? It's not something she'd usually do, so-
She let out another groan as she hugged Weiss's waist tighter.
"It's... something…?" Glynda's optimism hadn't reached Weiss or her voice. "Ruby? Did you at least... feel a little more in control...?"
"I felt confused... I always feel in control while transformed but... that time I felt..." She couldn't describe it. Even trying to think of the feeling again was making her headache worse.
"I've not encountered something like this before."
"You haven't encountered a Dragon before, Glynda." Ruby nearly smiled at Weiss's sass.
"Perhaps there'll be some record of this... there were plenty of Schnee Dragons, after all."
"As if my father or his predecessors would keep records of Dragon's weakness."
"Why am I the only one going through this...?" Ruby suddenly whined, to which Weiss let out a sigh.
"Honestly, it's making me even more glad I had it easy."
Ruby huffed at Weiss's tease.
"You're a butt." She closed her eyes as her headache started to subside. "Comfy one though..."
"Ruby?" Weiss's voice felt so distant. The world felt distant...
"Am I... falling asleep...-?"
"Are you sure about this?" His nerves were getting to him... this would be like walking into the... well... Dragon den.
"Ok yeah, not an analogy... and if it was, it would have been a stupid one."
"They're all assholes, but... they're family." Eirwen's words weren't filling him with much confidence, and he needed every scrap he could get for this.
He hadn't even owned clothes nice enough to visit the castle before today... Eirwen had to buy him some!
This suit was definitely the most expensive thing he owned now... probably not as costly as Eirwen's dress, though.
"I just... surely they wouldn't expect you to come home with a-"
"Rory. I'm sure they approve of Humans more than any other creature. The Queen was a human before she married into the family. You can be turned into a Dragon, after all." Her soft smile made him return an even smaller, awkward one of his own.
"I was actually going to say commoner..."
"Oh.-" Eirwen froze at the door to the castle. "Right. Forgot about that part..."
"Um...-"
She pushed the door open anyway. "Eh, I'm sure it'll be fine."
Rory rolled his eyes.
"Yeah... 'It'll be fine'... just like how it was fine when I met Weiss's parents-"
Rory froze. "... What...?" Who was Weiss?
What was-
"Eirwen?" She had frozen, everything had frozen... what the hell was going on-
"Ruby...?" A voice...? Distant... like she was hearing it from underwater - She?
"I'm a guy-"
Was he? Was... she...?
Reality started to distort. The objects and environment around him melded into colours and stagnant beings. The world danced and melted, forming different shapes and images.
This wasn't right. None of this was right.
He had to get out of here.
She had to wake up.
She had to get back to-!
"-Weiss!" Ruby's head shot up as she woke. Her eyes wide open as she looked around the training room. Her breath was difficult and quick... was she hyperventilating?
Everything looked the same as it had when she'd laid down... it had probably only been a few minutes.
"Ruby?" The girl in question quickly turned, her vision settling on the one that had called her... both just now, and from her sleep.
Ruby threw her arms around Weiss and held her tight.
"Ruby...? Are you alright...?"
"Y-yeah i... I'm..." She shook her head slowly. "No... I'm not fine..."
"Those dreams... I'm not just seeing Rory's perspective... it's like I am Rory..."