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“Weiss? Where are you? Are you ok?”
Nothing, just the eerie silence of the forest as the snow covered it.
Not even animals or the creaking of the trees.
Pure silence.
That wasn’t good.
Still she pushed through, she couldn’t leave her partner alone in the woods, she didn’t care what she said to her earlier…ok she did, it hurt but, that was it, words that didn’t mean anything…except that the girl she loved with all her heart told her to get away from her…
But words, they could be taken back, Weiss was dealing with her dad, something she knew wasn’t an easy thing for…anyone actually. She spent the last several hours thinking if she did anything wrong (let's be real, she probably did), but she wanted to talk things over with Weiss, and either way,someone was in danger, one of her teammates, they had placed their trust in her (trust lately she felt she hadn’t earned lately), she had to make sure Weiss was safe and bring her back home in one piece.
Who knows, maybe they’d patch things up.Talk about it and make out-up, make up with each other.
She had a lot of things to talk about with her team, she owed an explanation, she owed a lot of people an explanation.
Her mind wandered off as her boots sank into the snow with each step she took, finding it hard to focus on despite how important this was. But this had just been the latest in a series of mistakes,she was starting to get labeled as the “crazy one” from her team, she honestly didn’t mind, she was used to being the “odd one” or the “weirdo”, she knew she was different, she had trouble remembering what was the name of the thing she had that the doctor’s diagnosed her with, but it meant she could really focus on the things she liked, even if it meant other things people did normally were a monumental task for her.
What bothered her is that she was afraid they were right and she was losing her mind.
Things had gone missing lately around Beacon, specifically around where she tended to be or hang out, other people’s school supplies, library books checked out in her name, equipment from the workshop or other important bits from people’s weapons or more personal belongings.
And she kept finding them.
She did the right thing at first, returning them to their rightful owners explaining how she came across them, then people got suspicious, and they had a point, if someone kept showing up with her missing stuff saying she found it laying around, it’d be weird, but everyone started keeping an eye on their stuff whenever she was around, it hurt if she was being honest with herself.
Then came the missing appointments, she’d show up somewhere she had agreed to meet her friends only to be stuck around for hours waiting for them only for them to tell her. “Ruby, we never said anything about hanging out today, maybe you got confused.”
She wasn’t, she was sure of that, she tried looking up the texts she swore she saw but they were never there or the call registry on her scroll didn’t show them.
She felt even worse when it turned out they were expecting her and she never showed up, swearing she had never seen the texts or the scroll didn’t ring or the alarm went to snooze.
She remembered Penny’s face when she arrived late to their meetup, she had promised the girl a day of fun at the arcade but…she knew it wasn’t on that day, she was so sure of it only to run into her hours later, Gods she felt like trash that day.
Or when she nearly made her team fail Professor’s Obleck class cos she missed her part of the presentation, she did it, well she was making it but it wasn’t due yet, she checked her planner and she was right…at least she was sure of it until it went missing, and again, her scroll didn’t backed up the data.
Was this part of her condition? Was she gonna lose her mind slowly until she couldn’t remember anything or tell apart what was real or not?
Was that what happened to her mom? Her mind wandered off, taking her along unknowingly into danger, never to be seen again…
No, she had to focus, find Weiss, then probably talk to a doctor about her brain.
She put her cloak up to keep her head away from the falling snow, the sun was starting to go down and the clouds and snowfall was about to make it a lot harder for her to find her partner. She took a deep breath taking out her scroll, covering it with her cape to keep the glow hidden to avoid unwanted attention, finding her sister’s contact and calling her.
It immediately sent her to voicemail.
Again.
She was still mad at her.
“WELL MAYBE YOU SHOULDN’T BE”
She had been the most supportive of her as a leader, or so she thought, but what did Yang know about being a leader? She didn’t understand just how stressful it was,doing her best to be listened to, managing all their schedules to train and do schoolwork as well as renting training rooms and empty classrooms when needed, the constant worry she had whenever they fought Grimm, trying to hide how scared she was that something might happen to them, trying to break up their dumb arguments, whenever something happened it always fell on her shoulders, crying herself to sleep cos she thought Blake and Weiss were dead all because she didn’t looked close enough at the intel they had regarding how many Grimm might be in the area. Nearly puking because of the stress of seeing her teammates being rushed to the infirmary unresponsive…
She sighed and called again, Voice Mail.
“Yang, I’m sorry ok I…I need you guys here, there might be something going on I need help just call me back.”
She hung up, knowing her message was gonna be ignored, whatever, maybe they were right, maybe she wasn’t made to be a leader, why was she in the cold looking for the girl who screamed at her face and called her an idiot? Why was she even bothering?
She sat on a rock, the cold making her shiver, Beacon’s uniform wasn’t made for being in the forest while it was snowing. She had been in such a rush to make everything perfect for when she was gonna tell Weiss how she felt she didn’t even had a chance to change out of her uniform.
What was keeping her from just going back to Vale, picking up the coffee she had ordered and didn’t even get to drink and go back to their dorm to sleep? Ignore them like they’ve been ignoring her…
Someone might be hurt.
That 's what.
Even if that someone was angry at her right now, she couldn’t let someone who might be in danger just suffer or walk away from them.
She took another deep breath, mist coming from her mouth as she let the air out,repeating the process several times to amuse herself, moving her head side to side, a small part of her brain picturing herself as a dragon letting out fire to warm herself,it was silly but it was getting her right into the right mood again. She began to chuckle before silencing herself, remembering she was in the very likely possibly Grimm infested forest.
All the things she could do right now played out in front of her, all the ways they taught her to track down injured people for a rescue or to hunt down a Grimm by whatever clues where in the environment, the place was gigantic for her to find Weiss all alone…at least until the glint of something shiny sitting in the base of a tree caught her eye, she got up quickly, going to it and kneeling to pick it up and examine it.
She felt like someone had punched her in the gut. One of Weiss’ hair pins, a dark red liquid dripping from it.
Her head ran wild with all sorts of horrible scenarios, of the white haired girl, bleeding out from a wound, all because she had wanted to talk to her somewhere private, she already sounded out of breath from their short conversation, and now she was hurt somewhere in these woods, Grimm probably after her.
But something didn’t make sense.
Why wasn’t there any blood around the hairpin…or anywhere else for that matter, also with how much snow was falling, it should have been covered by now…she took a good hard look at her environment, something wasn’t right at all, she covered herself again with her cape, texting Blake this time hoping she’d see it.
Please answer I need someone
She had been spamming the Faunus with texts all night, all of them unread, she…she probably needed a break from her, she was honestly surprised someone like Blake still hung around her and tolerated her, but right now she needed her, or Yang or anyone, she needed her team.
But no one was answering.
She wanted to scream out of the sheer frustration she was feeling right now, why weren’t they answering, she was in the middle of the woods probably walking into a trap, she had no way of knowing if Weiss was ok, sure the pin was suspicious and definitely left there as bait, but for all she knew whoever was doing this had her, she was sure she spoke to her earlier, she could tell there was fear in her voice-
A small rustling came above her, she suppressed her instincts to look up, the snow falling from the branches in big clumps confirmation enough that she was being watched from the tree tops, she was thankful crescent rose was in its case, hiding beneath her cloak as opposed to strapped to her back like always, a compromise to getting it out of the academy, she did her best to take it out as sneakily as possible, seeing the snow fall from the branches as the rustling noises became louder, she was onto whoever, whatever was following her, and she had that as her one advantage right now, do not let them know you know, use the element of surprise they think they have against you.
The rustling stopped.
Her semblance carried her away just in time, something falling right where she had been standing, something heavy.
It was a human, or humanoid at least, way way taller than she was and clad in armor, jet black and shiny, with violet and golden accents and flourishes, its head or helmet smooth save for a row of violet “eyes” gazing at her, and from its back four spider like legs, all tipped with sharp looking stingers protruded.
“Hello R uby.”
The voice, Weiss, at least it was at first before being distorted, like coming out of a broken speaker before settling into a deeper, female sounding voice.
“Who…Who are you?”
“Does the spider introduce itself to the fly?”
The thing in front of her raised one of its stingers bringing it down with force against her, she reacted quickly, parrying it with Crescent Rose, using her semblance to get some distance between her and the…spider…moving upwards towards a sturdy branch above their unplanned battlefield, switching her weapons configuration to shoot bursts of gunfire at her attacker.
The bullets just bounced off the armor.
It lept to the branch, the sound of the wood cracking underneath them came as it landed in front of her.
“Not bad.”
Cold, metallic fingers coiled around her throat, making it hard to breath, the…the woman stared at her, their eyes meeting hers.
“Hmm, quite curious, I still fail to see what makes them so noteworthy.”
Before she could make sense of what that meant she was flung across the air, hitting a massive tree right in front of them, despite her aura shielding her, she still felt the force of the hit, alongside splinters coming from behind her.
It wasn’t over yet, the cold air felt like it was cutting her face as she fell to the ground, clutching Crescent Rose as hard as she could, managing to keep it in her hands as she hit the ground, the snow at the very least softening her fall a bit.
There was no respite however, the sound of her foe landing next to her forcing to stand up quickly, only to be met by the broadside of one of the spider's extra legs, sending her flying again.
“I was hoping you’d be more of a challenge…” An electronic sigh came out from the woman. “...alas, I can still find some amusement with what comes later.”
She was back on the cold snow floor, her Aura proving resilient to take the hits from the woman, good cos she hit like a truck, she laid on the floor, pretending to be worse off than she really was, groaning in pain…that part was real however, facing her head on wasn’t a possibility, it didn’t take a genius to see of the two of them, the spider was the strongest opponent physically.
She started getting up, hoping that her struggling made her seem like easy prey, the woman taking her sweet time going to her side, good, she sunk Crescent Rose in the snow, hiding it from sight as she loaded whatever little dust she bought in town to get her mind off things earlier.
The woman was right in front of her now, slowly reaching for her, savoring it (what a weirdo), but it gave her a golden chance.
Rose petals flew through the air as her semblance moved her past her foe, the gravity dust she had loaded giving an extra kick to her swing with Crescent Rose, sending the armored woman flying into a tree trunk sending snow flying up from the ground and raining down from the branches of the tree.
“See how you like that, huh!”
A brief flash of purple light came from the woman’s hand as she flicked her fingers. Followed by an intense pain in her leg, a strand of something that looked like webbing had hit her skin through a rip in her leggings, a purple stain emerging around the impacted area.
Her leg began to go numb.
“Maybe this was not a waste of my time after all, sadly, I am a very busy person and would appreciate it if we hurried things along dear.”
“I’m sorry…the fly has places to beHNNg”
The numbness in her leg became a brief but horrible pain when she tried moving it, she cut the line with her scythe as fast as she could move her hands, she had been probably poisoned and wanted to cut the supply if that had been the case.
“That won’t be of much help little Ruby, but you’re acting far more clever than I expected you to be.”
“Well, I’m full of surprises!”
She dashed forward with her semblance, a flurry of petals and snow enveloping the woman, it was the best way for her to move now, she moved in circles around her, barely avoiding swipes from the heavy extra limbs her foe had, it was getting harder to see with all the snow in the air, and that’s just what she wanted, it got to the point where there was a wall of snowflakes in the air, sheer whiteness everywhere, and one she used to cover her escape, copying her opponent strategy and using her semblance to hide in the treetops, the dense and snowy foliage hopefully providing some sort of shelter.
Covering the light from her scroll with her cape again she sent a flurry of messages to Blake, this was her last resort, Yang wasn’t gonna answer, Weiss either was in the clutches of this thing or still mad at her getting the same lack of answer from her then.
She typed as fast as she could, sending message after message, each one making less sense, it was hard to type, or to focus on the screen, or to stay balanced on the branch, her Aura, it must have been working overtime to keep the poison from overwhelming her.
Is she going to die? Is this it?
Poisoned in the middle of the forest by someone she hadn’t even seen before?
No, not like this, she still had a lot of things to do.
She promised Blake to work on upgrades for Gambol Shroud, she wasn’t gonna left her hanging like that, she felt left aside by Blake right now but, they were friends, they could talk this over, clear things up, things had been stressful for her and everyone, she needed to clear her head, ok first she needed to return alive.
She loaded the last bit of dust into Crescent Rose, struggling to get higher in the trees, she needed to see where she was, the woods was the midpoint between the city and Beacon, either direction would be good.
The constant sting in her thigh made it feel like every centimeter she climbed was a whole tree on itself. Worse, she was starting to feel lightheaded, she had no idea what she had running in her system, but it was winning against her Aura and her body’s defenses.
She made it to the top, breathing was starting to become harder( then again she just climbed a massive tree) and there it was…Beacon, far away but she could make it…she hoped she could make it…no, she couldn’t think like that, she was gonna make it, she had to see Yang again, talk with her, she didn’t wanted that the last conversation they had was an argument, no, she was gonna set things right with everyone.
“Nickel Iron Cobalt Chrome…”
The woman’s voice came from below.
“I’ll eat your soul…”
She was taunting her, she couldn’t know where she was.
“Turn your spark to stone.”
She remained motionless.
“Nickel Iron Cobalt Chrome…
Run little Ruby…Run away home…”
The voice seemed to come from everywhere around her, but it was a trick, there’s no way she got up that fast, she was trying to bait her into moving, into revealing her hiding spot. It was not gonna be that easy.
She didn’t know how long she was waiting, the last remnants of daylight fading beneath the treetops as the moon rose. She was feeling worse, a constant buzzing all around her ears alongside a general heaviness creeping into her body and her head, gods her head, it felt disconnected from everything around her.
She had to move, the woman was gonna wait her out, but her taunts had gone silent. There was a chance she moved to other parts of the forest to look for her, she had to hope.
Her semblance carried her across the treetops, hoping to have left her pursuer far behind, coming to abrupt stops occasionally to catch her breath, something that was getting harder, but she could see her goal come closer and closer, she wasn’t giving up, not right now, she’d get there, they’d get whatever she had been poisoned with out of her system and-
The tree in front of her collapsed, robbing her of any sort of chance to keep her path, plummeting to the ground and hitting it before she had a chance to think of something to do.
She felt her Aura leaving her, with how fast and how long the fall was no wonder it had been decimated, she figured she must be running out of it, her vision was getting blurry, both her legs feeling the numbness and pangs of pain alternating.
She’d have to crawl if she had to, but she was getting to Beacon.
“I can admire how persistent you are, most have already been reduced to begging for their lives by now.”
The voice, she looked up at its source, the woman was descending gracefully amongst the trees carried by her spider legs, tapping her chin with one of her long sharp claws while she let out a mocking chuckle. Night having fully descended upon them and framing the spider with the broken moon.
“I’m sorry to…disappoint you…but…” Speaking was getting harder.
“Quite the contrary my dear, I hate to admit it but this was quite an amusing hunt, perhaps it could have been a bit longer-”
“It’s not…over yet….” She laid on her back, aiming Crescent Rose at the tip of one of her legs, the gravity dust infused bullets causing the tree trunk to explode, making her pursuer lose her grip and fall, hitting and breaking tree branches along the way.
She stood up, somehow powering through the pain, it was nothing, she kept repeating that, it was nothing, she had to get home, make things right, make…make things…
“GAAAAAAAAH!”
It was merely a moment, but for those brief few seconds she felt one of the worst pains she ever did, she couldn’t even compare it to anything physical, falling to the ground barely able to catch herself before fully going headfirst into the snow.
Patches of red fell from her, fabric from her now torn cloak, and blood,small drops staining the snow a deep red.
Her Aura was fading fast, the poison was probably all over her now and this wasn’t gonna make her situation any easier, but she wasn’t gonna give up.
The woman came into view, she was fast if she managed to recover from that so quickly, more blood fell into the snow, this time from the woman’s claws.
“Don’t worry you won’t bleed out, that’s no fun.”
“I…I’ll give you…you some fun alright…”
She used Crescent Rose to steady herself, preparing her trusty weapon, she was getting back home, she was going home.
“So much spirit for the runt of the litter.”
She steadied herself waiting for the woman to come at her.
“Are…you just gonna talk?”
The woman rushed her,she mustered whatever strength she had left, sidestepping the attack and swinging her scythe right into her abdomen, a shockwave erupting sending both combatants flying back, in her case only stumbling back, in her opponent's? She was sent flying into the air, her own momentum turned against her, she kept going, her semblance closing the gap between them, she striked as hard as she could and as fast as she could, every slash feeling like it drained all her stamina, her heart was racing, the dust managing to give her an edge against the attacker, not only that, everytime she moved Crescent Rose someone popped into her head, Yang, Blake, Weiss, Penny, the list went on, she wasn’t gonna die here, she was gonna see them again, she was-
“ENOUGH!”
She was cut, the woman’s talons slashed at her torso, it wasn’t nearly as deep as the one in her back, but it hurt a million times more, Crescent Rose nearly split in two, it felt like the slightest movement would finish the job and tear it apart, more than the poison, more than all the cuts and bruises, she…no…this couldn’t be it…
“Now…it’s over, finished girl…”
She pointed the barrel of Crescent Rose to the ground, hoping some of it still worked, she put all the remaining dust in it, gravity, fire, lighting, she shouldn’t be mixing those.
“I…I’m sorry…” She grabbed the loose cables hanging from the broken seams and pulled from them, blasting the ground forming a massive shockwave of fire and electricity, the barrel coming apart in a sad display, but it worked, she was sent back rolling down a hill and as far away as she could from her attacker.
She came to a sudden stop, hitting a tree trunk on the way down,she saw small sparkles of red leave her body, her Aura had finally given up…
The woman was nowhere in sight, the only thing in front of her being branches alongside the tattered remains of her cloak that caught on to them,she felt more blood cover her school cardigan,she was running out of time.
She scrambled to find something in her pockets, all of her body felt heavy now, it hurt to breathe, everything was a blur and all of the feeling was going away from her body…but she found her scroll, her tired and broken hands doing what seemed impossible right now, she dialed, no answer again, still she talked, hoping that her words were making sense, hoping that they’d be heard one day, hoping that it would reach them, it was getting darker now and colder, at least things didn’t hurt as bad anymore,maybe she was gonna wake up and these past few days were nothing but a bad dream, she could only hope…
…
“Hey…guys…I…I don’t know if you can all hear me…or if I’m even calling the right person...if I’m not…call Yang…if it’s Yang…hey…hey…”
A small chuckle came from the speakers of her scroll.
“I…I’m not g…I’m not making…making it back to Bea-”
A loud cough interrupted her sister’s voice. She sounded in a lot of pain.
“I tried…I really tried…I wasn’t good….good..engh…”
Another coughing fit interrupted her, she tried hiding it under chuckles but the pain was audible.
“I…I think I was close at least…it…ouch…I…”
Her sister laughed in between coughing fits, all while she was holding her own back tears.
“I…I’m really cold guys…I’m cold…I’m sorry…I wasn’t a good leader…or friend…or sister…I was hoping to make it up to you guys…I was…heh…Yang…take…care of them please…I couldn’t…I’m sorry, Weiss, Blake…I’m really sorry…I am…I tried…I wanted us to be…”
It was over again, there were just minutes of silence afterwards until the recording stopped. She left her scroll on the bed, placing her hands over her face to stop her from crying and screaming, why didn’t she answer?
She picked up her scroll back again almost as soon as she had left it, her thumb hovering over the play button.
“How many times have you listened to it, Yang?”
She could feel Blake’s eyes on her, and the concerned tone on her voice.
“I…”
“It’s not…It’s…you can’t keep listening to that all day Yang….”
“She’s still out there, I know she is…I…maybe if I listen close enough I can hear something or someone…”
“Yang I know you’re worried but-”
“It’s been what, a week? She’s still out there…you heard her she’s cold and she-”
“I know and…we’ll…we’ll find her…”
Her partner sounded tired, her words lacking confidence.
“They…They stopped looking, why the hell are they not looking! It’s only been a week and she needs me, she-”
“Yang…it's…the forest is huge but you…it was snowing and-”
“She’s not dead, she can’t be…”
“Please I…” Her partner was at a loss for words. She couldn’t blame her.
“Blake, I can’t…I can’t…not like this, I screamed at her…I…Gods Blake I made my little sister cry…I…I have to find her she sounds so…so…scared so…”
She couldn’t fight it anymore, she started sobbing.
“Why was she apologizing…I…”
Blake sat next to her on the bed, placing her hand on her back and rubbing it trying to calm her down. She appreciated it but it wasn’t working. She felt like she was rotting from the inside, she wasn’t sure if it was guilt or sadness,anger or what but it felt horrible, she was horrible.
“She needed me and I-”
She screamed, anguished, she was crying like she hadn’t done in years.
Her little sister was gone.