INTERVAL 03: METASTASIS (Part 4)
Dalek Ix
Verified Dalek
Red Ruin
For half of team RWBY, unpacking was pretty simple.
Yang zipped her now-empty duffel bag back up, nodded at the neat stack of clothes in the wardrobe's drawer, closed it, and proclaimed, "Done!"
Blake, who'd been getting her (tragically diminished) collection of literature into the (in her opinion) painfully small bookcase, glanced towards the blonde. "Already?" she asked.
Yang leaned against the wall by the closet and shot her a thumbs up. "Yep," she drawled, "Dad and Uncle Qrow went here back in the day, and one of the things they told me was to pack light; first year rooms are on the small side, and they don't really give you a lot of storage to work with."
"Good thing I didn't bring much either, then," Blake mused. Fighting for the White Fang had taught her the value of keeping one's bag light; the less she needed to carry, the easier and quicker it would be to pack up and leave.
Although, if she was being honest with herself, she'd never really… accumulated much in the way of luxuries or trinkets (besides her books but… well, those were a different story). Even the other members of the Fang had had keepsakes they brought along from one hideout to another. Not her. Or Adam, now that she thought of it, but then again…
Blake shook her head. That part of her life was over.
(She thought.)
(She hoped.)
Seeing her partner return from the luggage pile with another armful of clothes, Blake eyed the wardrobe. It would've been decently sized had the room been for one or maybe two people, but four was pushing things.
Even if one of those four hadn't been Weiss Schnee.
For the other half of team RWBY, it… wasn't.
"Schnee, that wardrobe is for all four of us."
"So are all the shelves you filled, Baetica," Weiss snapped back without bothering to look at her partner, too busy trying to find space for her clothes. "I still need to get all of my textbooks out and sorted and Gods know where we'll put them."
Part of her dearly wanted to… comment on Blake's choice of literature. The rest of her knew that doing so would mean admitting that she recognized some of the titles.
"That sounds like a you problem," Yang drawled, and Weiss only briefly glanced in her direction before looking away, because it turned out that Yang Xiao Long had no problem getting changed in their presence. "Beacon has a library with everything the teachers are ever gonna make us study; you don't need to buy anything."
"I bought McCollum's Advanced Guide to Mechashift Weapons!" Ruby piped up from within… somewhere in the pile of plastic crates she was sifting through. "Well… I had it before I knew it was gonna be part of the class… but I have it!"
"Why am I not surprised," Weiss muttered, recalling Ruby's excitement when seeing Myrtenaster for the first time. Shoving clothing aside to squeeze another combat outfit's hanger into the pole, she raised her voice to fire back at Yang, "Forgive me if I don't put my education at the whims of Beacon Academy's library. When exams come around you won't find a scrap of paper that hasn't been checked out two months in advance."
She threw a drawer open and began to rearrange its contents. "Besides, given how many people would've gotten their hands on those books before we arrived…" She closed it with a huff. "No thanks."
"Why am I not surprised," Blake verbally jabbed at her. "But seriously, how much clothing did you bring?"
Weiss gave Blake a level look, arms crossed. Then, she sighed and began to recite from memory.
"Three sets of combat outfits-"
She paused to let the spluttering from her teammates die down.
"- some civilian outfits for whenever we go to Vale City proper with some seasonal variety, some formal clothes with spares, a dress for the Beacon Ball-"
"There's going to be a ball?!" came Ruby's tiny, terrified voice.
"- plus sleepwear and underwear," Weiss continued, ignoring the interruption. "That's my clothing. Besides that-"
"There's more?" Blake whispered –almost a hiss–, sounding as if she didn't know if she should be impressed, awed, terrified or disgusted.
Weiss gave her a look. "Besides my clothes, I also brought five thousand vials each of Fire, Ice, Lightning, Wind and Gravity Dust for Myrtenaster, some more Dust for any practical work they have us do, plus a storage case, a couple scabbards, maintenance equipment, textbooks for all our classes, toiletries, makeup…" She frowned. "And that's it."
Silence fell upon the team. Blake was staring at her. Yang –who was now wearing the Beacon Academy unform… very well– was doing a poor job of pretending not to stare, and her sister was peering over a stack of bright red toughened plastic crates.
"… What?"
Blake massaged her temples, mumbling something in a tongue Weiss didn't recognize. Ruby slowly slid back down behind the stack she was hiding behind. Yang looked at her other teammates, glanced up at the ceiling, and broke the silence.
"Let's see… Ice Queen…"
Weiss felt herself bristle. "'Ice Queen!?'"
"Yes, Ice Queen," Yang repeated, a hint of mischievousness in her eyes. Uncaring of Weiss's spluttering, she forged ahead, counting off with her fingers. "First, you brought three combat outfits. If that dress-"
"Combat skirt," Weiss and Ruby corrected in chorus, which made the heiress blink. Ruby's face popped over a different stack of boxes to grin at her.
Yang rolled her eyes. "If that combat skirt," she continued, "you were wearing yesterday is anything like what Rubes' got, we're talking armour-weave cloth over dust-alloy steel with padding underneath. You don't walk into a store and just buy that; you either make it yourself-"
"I made mine!" Ruby piped up. "Mostly!"
"-or have an armorer make it for you, and those guys wouldn't know 'cheap' if it smacked them in the face." Yang gestured at the open wardrobe. "Most Huntsmen have one combat outfit. Maybe two. And you brought three."
"… Two are spares," Weiss shot back, arms crossed over her chest, and she blushed at the uncertainty that had crept into her voice. "In case of damage."
Yang hummed. Another finger went up. "Second, uh…" Her eyes went to the Schnee-branded, eggshell-white, hard-shelled suitcases. "… I can't believe I'm asking you this, but why did you bring that much Dust?"
"My Semblance requires Dust to use effectively, and my weapon prefers fine-grain, pure Dust," Weiss found herself explaining. "So, I made sure to bring plenty; barring… incidents, this should be enough to last the semester."
"… and the reason you can't just pop over to an SDC store in Vale to buy more dust every so often is…?" Blake prodded.
A restaurant aflame.
A smear on the sidewalk that was once a person.
A car turned into a blackened husk.
A private aircraft falling from the sky.
Pictures she wishes to unsee.
The flash of cameras. She can barely hold back tears as she stands on the podium.
A cold office. A stern, colder voice. More rules she must follow.
If all possible, do not go outside.
If you must go outside, behave properly. Do not embarrass (him) The Company. Advance (his) The Company's interests, if possible.
Do not, for the love of the Gods, make it a routine. A routine is predictable. A routine is a weakness. A routine invites assassination.
For once, she can almost believe he's being kind.
Behind the stacks of crates, Ruby stiffened and quietly despaired at the ticking timebomb that was her team.
Silence. Rather than answer, Weiss just gave Yang and Blake a level look, ignoring the sudden ache from her scar. To her surprise, the blonde got the non-verbal hint and backed off, raising both hands in apology.
(Blake's own gaze went from Weiss to Yang, brows furrowed in a silent question.)
"Alright," Yang drawled, "Now, third…" Her lips quirked upwards into a brief grin. "I'm not gonna complain about you wanting to look cute when we're going out to town-"
Weiss suddenly found her cheeks feeling incandescent. Somewhere, Ruby groaned.
"-but you also mentioned formal clothes."
"Yes…" Recalling the reason why those had ended up in her luggage, Weiss grasped the annoyance she felt about it with both hands. "Those can stay packed."
Feeling her teammate's inquisitive gazes (Ruby's eyes peered over a third stack of crates), Weiss sighed and began.
"How much do any of you know about the… circumstances around me enrolling here?"
Yang shrugged. "I remember it was in the news for a bit," she told her.
"Atlas high society was in an uproar for three months, SDC stock fell two points, and General Ironwood was dodging interviews like it was his Semblance…" Blake listed out. "Lots of rumours about why, but never anything concrete."
Weiss raised an eyebrow. "You're… remarkably well informed," she noted.
Blake's face flushed with what might've been embarrassment and she refused to say anything further.
Weiss… elected to move on. "… Anyways. What's relevant is that me being here was not part of my Father's plans for me." Her hands, clasped at her waist, squeezed together. "He did not want me to become a Huntress at all, let alone enrol a continent away, but he could not deny me without reason."
"There was a test."
The sword filled her vision.
"I passed." Her scar ached. "And I was allowed to come. But that came with… conditions."
She closed her eyes. "My Father sees a future in which-"
He.
"-the Schnee Dust Company finds opportunity in Vale. When that happens, I must be… presentable."
Yang stared. Then stared some more. She blinked.
"… Papa Schnee wants you to juggle being a Huntswoman-in-training and Spokeswoman of the SDC?" she asked, sounding more incredulous with every word.
Blake laughed. "That's far from the worst thing that man has done," she snarked at Yang.
"Yes," Weiss said, voice carefully, deliberately toneless. "It is."
She opened her eyes again. "Now, if you've finished questioning me on my belongings, may I ask about the Goliath in the room…"
Wordlessly, she gestured at the stacks of red crates their leader had been behind this whole time.
Yang's eyes narrowed.
Ah, crud.
Ruby felt Yang's flame flare and decided to intervene before her sister could get angry on her behalf. "I can explain!" She piped up, having to stand on her tiptoes to peer over the stack she'd been rummaging behind, "So, uh… All my clothes were in by backpack, and I've got that… mmmmmostly done with. The rest, uh…"
She popped back down. Where is it, where is it… Doctor Wade I am going to yell at you on Friday- aha!
Grabbing the slightly different red crate, Ruby popped back over the stack with it raised over her head. "This," she began, wobbling a little as she took one step to the side to clear the stack, "and that other crate I put over there has all the stuff I use for Crescent Rose. So, uh… tools, spare blade segments, spare barrels, extra propellant tanks, magazines, oils, grease, bearings, a couple maybe-upgrades I'm tinkering with, spare scopes, yada-yada-yada. Stuff." A pause. "Uh, Yang, could you…?"
"Sure thing." Yang came over and took the box off of her hands. She balanced it on just one of her own, casually bouncing it as if it weighed nothing.
Ruby stuck her tongue at her.
"Bleh. Anyways, the rest of this-" She gestured at the rest of the crates. "- is medication."
Her entire team, except for Yang, stared. In fact, they'd started giving her a strange sort of look when she'd listed out her weapon-related supplies –she quietly decided against showing off her little field kit–, but now they were…
Their forms briefly flickered into Something Else, and Ruby bravely resisted the urge to duck behind the crates.
Why did I get the scary teammates?!
"… Medication," Blake repeated numbly, eyes roaming the little cityscape of crates. Thankfully, Weiss was just as distracted as the hidden faunus, otherwise she might've noticed that the bow atop Blake's head was twitching.
Ruby felt the thought of her being sickly rise in Weiss's mind and, with a flash of annoyance, decided to snip it in the bud. "This is way more than I need," she told them, putting as much firmness as she could into her voice, "There's-"
Anti-depressants, mood stabilizers, anti-psychotics, the sleeping tablets, the actual telepathic inhibitors, some more to try and deal with the side effects…
"- a few I have to take every day, and a couple more-"
Different concentrations and varieties of an emotional suppressant based off of old Mantle research from before the Great War, and those go from "strong enough to get me through Vale City without all the walls starting to bleed" to "strong enough I need a whole week to start feeling normal again". Also, sedatives.
"-which I only really need to use in case of emergencies," she explained, unable to let an annoyed huff escape. "Most of this," she gestured at the crates, movements sharp and snappish, "is just… extras, and spares, and emergency supplies, and things I honestly don't think I need!"
"… Then," Weiss prodded gingerly, "why-?"
Why did you bring that much if you don't need it?
"Because Harlan Wade," Ruby sighed, ducking back down to try and sort through the incomprehensible organization system the old man had used so she could find all her 'daily' meds, opening each crate and rifling through the contents.
Feeling the question in her team's minds, she added, "He's… he's an old family friend and literally the only expert on my condition there is."
Finally finding the correct crate, she lifted it over her head and carried it out of the stacks.
"He's also a mean, tyrannical old bastard with a paranoid streak about a mile wide," Yang added, while Ruby set the crate down on her bed and rummaged in her backpack for a marker to start labelling the crates, "He mostly means well, and doesn't do things without some sort of reason, though." A wave of amusement. "For example, how many times have you lost your meds, Rubes?"
Ruby scrawled "DAILY" with big, blocky letters on the side… and then the other sides and the top for good measure. "One time…" she growled, studiously ignoring her older sister's cackling. "It happened one time…"
And then she sensed it. There was just enough time between the thought being formed in Weiss's mind and it being spoken for Ruby to feel the pit of dread drop in her stomach.
"You know," the heiress began, arms crossed over her chest, "this is the second time I've heard about this… condition of yours, Ruby." Her tone was mild, but Ruby could feel the suspicion whir inside Weiss's mind, imagining one possible scenario after another, "Mind telling your teammates what that is, given that you need to take some vague amount of medication regularly, and that the sole expert on it felt the need to give you-" She gestured at the remaining crates. "- all of this, 'just in case'?"
Yang's flame flared. "Alright, Ice Queen," she growled, "If you want us to respect your limits-"
"Yang."
The flame sputtered, and then brightened in alarm. Ruby –still crouched over the box of medication– raised her head to look at her sister in the eye.
For all that Yang liked to present the image of an invincible juggernaut who only got stronger when struck, Ruby knew better. She'd seen her sister struggle, and more than that she'd felt the things Yang kept hidden; the bone-deep fears and worries she'd never admit to having, no matter how much they fed the flame.
"It's okay," Ruby told her, rising to her feet, and trying to put as much reassurance as she could into her words, "We can trust them."
Yang pushed back. With everything?
Ruby closed her eyes. Blake and Weiss's stares bore into her –Weiss's icy blade focused into a razor-sharp point, barely holding back the instinctive fear of that which she didn't know, while Blake's own usually flowing shadows were suddenly stock-still, quivering with anticipation, as if preparing to fight or flee at a moment's notice.
"With everything," Ruby told her. She opened her eyes again. "We're meant to be a team and-" Blake twitched toward the door. "It's fine to have secrets between ourselves," she quickly added, "especially since we've really only just met one another; it's… okay. To have things you're not willing to tell each other."
Just yet.
"But in this case, I…"Her hands gripped her cloak. "… I… ah…"
Breathe in, breathe out.
"I think you all deserve to know. You all need to know."
She closed her eyes again.
"It began when I was a child, after… mom died. I was… disturbed. I started having terrible nightmares until I just didn't want to sleep anymore. And when I was awake, I'd see… hallucinations. Monsters, where people ought to be. The world twisted into something it isn't. Whispers in my head telling me t-… horrible things, about everyone."
Breathe.
"It took a while, but… It was Harlan Wade who finally told us what was wrong, and that I'd… never had the chance to be normal. I'm a telepath, attuned to the negative emotions of everyone around me."
"Prove it, then," Weiss spoke, not quite a demand, her gaze boring into Ruby's eyes.
Do you think I'm this naïve?! she seethed inwardly.
Bracing herself, Ruby looked at Weiss, pretending not to feel how the Icy Blade made her skin crawl as she imagined needles.
"Arma Gigas," She whispered, "The 'Test' your dad your dad made you do so you could be here was to kill an Arma Gigas by yourself."
Weiss froze, eyes wide and pupils shrunk to pinpricks. Blake blinked once, twice, and then turned to look at Weiss, her mind processing this new information.
"You passed," Ruby continued, "But it left you with that scar. Sometimes it aches."
Weiss's lips had parted slightly.
That… that doesn't prove anything! She must've gotten that information from somewhere- but who? Not Klein, not Winter, certainlynot mother-
"It wasn't from any of them."
Weiss blinked.
"… What are you talking about?"
Surely not…
Ruby gave her a smile and pointed at her own head. Weiss's lips pursed.
… That's impossible.
"I wish it was," Ruby sighed.
I've seen your Semblance!
"It's not part of my Semblance," she told her, her fists clenching at the folds of her cloak, "it's… something else."
"A curse," Yang whispered, bitterly. The flame rose, but there was nothing she could burn.
"A Conditon," Ruby countered, though she knew her sister was closer to the truth.
Whatever. Weiss huffed. You must be… predicting me, or… or using body language…
"I can do it with my eyes closed if you want," Ruby offered, "and from a different room."
Weiss stared. Stiffly, she marched towards her bed and sat down on it.
The Icy Blade trembled with fear.
… Please get out of my head.
"I, uh…" Ruby began, sheepishly, "F-for starters, I'm not really in your head-"
GET OUT OF MY HEAD!!
Ruby flinched away from the sudden mass of sharp, pointy ice that flashed into view where Weiss was sat. "I can't!" She shot back, "It doesn't work that way! I'm… Hearing what you're thinking. I Hear what everyone thinks! All the time! I can't not Hear!"
Her fingers hurt from how tightly she was grasping the fabric of her cloak. "And –as if that wasn't bad enough– I'm attuned to negative emotions," She spat out the words, eyes blazing as years and years of frustrations boiled up, if only for a moment. "I can't not See the worst parts of everyone around me!"
Weiss recoiled at Ruby's outburst, the twisted strands of paranoia briefly melting away as she registered what she was hearing --not just the words at that. Blake, on the other hand, was looking at Ruby with wide eyes, her mind going back to that conversation they had the night before Initiation.
What did you see in me? she couldn't help but wonder.
Yang... just looked away. The pain coming from her sister was old and familiar, and Ruby hated it all the more for it.
She took a few calming breaths, wrapping herself in her cloak and trying to focus on the familiar warmth it brought. "My meds help make it… bearable," she explained, her voice softer, "but the dose I'd need to make it stop would kill me. All I can really do is… Ignore it or pretend I'm not Hearing or Seeing anything."
"…Oh," Weiss said, numbly. Embarrassment flowed through her, and some part of the heiress wanted to apologize… but the rest wouldn't ever let her.
Ruby accepted it anyways. "It's fine," she reassured her, "everyone who knows about this part of me got really uncomfortable when they realize I can hear everything they think."
Yang scoffed. "Not me."
Ruby rolled her eyes, remembering the brief period where her sister tried learning meditation. "Suuuure you didn't, Yang," She snarked. Turning back to Weiss, she kept going. "If it helps,I learned a long time ago to keep whatever I find to myself."
"You're talking as if I have much of a choice about trusting you," Weiss sourly noted.
"This is a Huntsman academy," Yang piped up, "from what our folks told us, there's gonna be in at least one life-threatening situation before the semester ends; we're all gonna have to learn to trust one another, whether we like it or not."
(Blake flinched, and her shadows curled inwards. Ruby expertly pretended not to see it.)
Weiss sat straight. Her hands subtly grasped the sheets of her bed.
"… Fine," she said at last. "I'll… try."
If you betray the trust I'm giving you, I'll **never **forgive you.
"I understand," Ruby told her.
"I'll also note," Weiss continued, her gaze falling upon her partner, "that you don't seem very surprised by this."
"I knew some of it," Blake answered, her voice cool despite the stress building up inside, "A… friend of mine told me how to tell if someone has a telepathic Semblance, so I thought Ruby had one. Then came Initiation…"
"I see…" Weiss said, in the tone of someone not convinced in the slightest.
"There's one thing I want to ask," Blake spoke up, "something I've been wondering about since Initiation…" She paused, pursing her lips. "There's more to your telepathy than just… reading people, is there?"
"… The Nevermore," Weiss whispered, eyes widening in realization, "You weren't scouting ahead; you were doing something to get that beast to leave us alone, and then…"
She paused.
"And then…"
A gasp. Weiss's mind skipped, and she swayed before catching herself. Slowly, her hands reached up to grab her head.
"…I can't remember." She mumbled. "Why can't I remember?"
Ruby whimpered.
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