This has become my own brain rot.

Also TW for blood and violence. I'm serious.

'What could go wrong?'

Everything. Everything went wrong.

"You like Ruby, don't you?" Weiss nearly changed her form at the sound of Blake's voice.

"Uh, what?" asks Weiss, tightly gripping her tablet for the data upload. Losing her grip when she hears it starts to groan at the pressure.

"You. Like Ruby. Come on, you can't that oblivious." says Blake with an eyebrow quirked. Turning so she can face her, Weiss opens her mouth to say something but snaps it shut when she feels that Cardin is close by. That bastard.

"I have no idea what you are talking about," says Weiss with as much calm as she can muster. Which doesn't feel like a lot right now. Her worries are constantly on her mind, even when she sleeps.

Protect Ruby. Keep her safe from Cardin.

"Really?" Says Blake snapping Weiss out of her thoughts. She doesn't look like she believes her. "Ok then, I'll spell it out for you then."

"I really don't think tha-" Cardin is just around the corner. He can't hear any of this.

But Blake ignores her and keeps going. "When we all left Remnant you kept your distance from all of us. Then it was all of us except for Ruby, you talked to her and you even cheered her up when the rest of us were too busy to notice. Then one day you just stop talking to her, you avoid her like the fucking plague. So I'm going to ask you one time and one time only," Weiss didn't realize how close Blake had gotten, but now she's right in Weiss space. Breathing in each other's breath and Blake is glaring right into Weiss's soul. The intensity scares her more than she'd like to admit. "Do you like Ruby in a romantic way?"

Weiss isn't sure.

Sure she's felt things when talking to her and even just thinking about her, but romance is a very human thing. It's something that Weiss and her kind know very little about. They have mates, but those are closer to life partners to raise young with the best chance to survive and kill others. There's nothing romantic about it. Sure her kind will die if their mate is killed but that's only because of the bond.

Wait. Oh… oh…OH NO.

She's bonding with Ruby. It's not complete yet but…

"Weiss! You still there?" yells Blake, waving a hand in front of her face.

"Uh-huh," wheezed Weiss.

"Yeah, sure. You wanna sit down? You're not looking so good."

"I'm okay," she's not ok, not after a realization like that. And with Cardin still- "CARDIN!"

"What?"

Cardin's gone. He's going after Ruby.

Shit.

Cursing, Weiss shoves her tablet to Blake sprinting out of navigation, and heads to the cafeteria. No one is there. Cursing again, Weiss glances at the clock on the wall.

10:11

Ruby should be in Storage checking the Fuel Engines about now. Then the lights go out. Weiss sprints down the hall connecting Storage and the Cafeteria. Halfway down the hall, she sees Cardin standing behind Ruby. His real mouth is open, disfiguring his human form into an ugly mass of teeth and slava.

Ruby turns around, feeling a warm breath along her back and neck, and screams. What used to look like Cardin opens its mouth impossibly larger, and moves forward to eat her, then a white blur slams into it throwing it to the wall. Weiss whips her head shouting, "GET BACK!"

Ruby managed to get behind some crates to hide, but the crates to nothing to block the sound of fighting,

Cardin spits out his tongue, wrapping it around Weiss's waist and throwing her across the room into a stake of crates. "WHY ARE YOU PROTECTING THAT HUMAN?"

Weiss morphs her body into something smaller, and wiggles out of Cardin's grasp around her. Falling to the floor Weiss changes back to her normal form, and hides under the crates ready to protect herself and Ruby.

"HUMANS ARE BENEATH US! THEY MEAN NOTHING IN THE GRAND SCHEME OF THE UNIVERSE!" Screams Cardin in their natural tongue, as he throws crate to the pile that Weiss is under, causing it to break apart. Weiss needs a plan to defect Cardin; he's bigger and stronger than she is. But he's in a blind rage and Weiss is sure that she is faster, and she is doing her best to stay calm. Ruby is still in the room. Weiss is sure she saw her hide on the other side of the room when Cardin threw her. If she can keep his attention that would give Ruby time to escape.

Taking a breath, Weiss steals her nerves. She grabs a crate denting it in an effort to get a better grip, and throws it as hard as she can at Cardin. It hits him in his disgusting mouth knocking out a tooth. Weiss throws another crate; this one hits his leg. Weiss throws another; Cardin knocks it to the side. It crashes into a far pile of crates, and a short scream is heard.

Ruby.

Cardin reforms his face and grins at Weiss, "There's your Human."

Weiss rushes him. Tackling him as Cardin cackles, opening her real mouth Weiss impales Cardin with her tongue. Pinning him to the floor, Weiss slams her whole hand onto his face. Gripping his face with strength she didn't know she had; her fingers slightly sinking into his skin and cracking bone.

"I won't let you hurt these humans," growls Weiss.

Applying pressure Weiss crushes his skull one-handed and rips out his organs with her tongue simultaneously, causing it to explode all over the floor, walls, and herself. Blood and bits of bone, muscle, and brain matter dripping off of her face and chest. Panting, Weiss spits out blood and organ bits from her real mouth.

"W-what… what the hell are you W-weiss?" whispers Ruby, terrified. Weiss slowly stands up, not wanting to scare Ruby even more than she already has. At least Cardin is dead now.

"Ruby! Are you are okay?!" Yang's voice rings out from the hallway her boots pounding the metal floor like thunder, quieter set following her just a few paces behind her. Blake, Weiss guesses. "We heard crashing… what... What the hell happened here?"

Weiss glances around the bloody storage room. Taking in the scattered and occasional broken crates, their contents somehow contained to the stacks of crates and the walls. And of course, the smashed and torn apart bloody mess of what used to be Cardin.

"Weiss?" called out Blake from somewhere behind her.

I wonder what this mess looks like to them. I'm sure Ruby thinks I'm a monster now.

That thought hurts. She wants to be alone. There's a vent in electrical she can hide in.

"I'm sorry, Ruby," says Weiss.

Then she runs.

10:27

One Imposter remains