Chapter 1
Weiss's partner was absolutely insufferable. That bumbling idiot was shackled to her for the next four years? She was sure to fail at this rate. Surely there had been some mistake. Even after her chat with Professor Port she returned to the dorm feeling worse than she had before, feeling undervalued, and most of all just so angry. Why had Ruby been assigned as her team leader? As her partner?? She'd be better off with a mindless robot. Something that would follow Weiss's command unquestioningly. Maybe she could condition Ruby to do that. Bribe her with cookies or something. That seemed to be the only way she'd ever make any progress. The younger girl having agency certainly wasn't an option. Some people just didn't deserve to be in control, and this petulant child she was shackled to was certainly one of them. For now she'd play the part of the perfect partner, doing all she can to help her so called leader succeed.
Ruby had great potential after all, and had proven herself in combat, but her squirrely nature and wholly unserious attitude Weiss could do without. Maybe she could start small. Tell her to do small things, like lighten up on the perfume. Weiss enjoyed the scent of roses and strawberries, but certainly didn't want it to be ever present. That was decided then. Tomorrow she'd begin her work on making Ruby obedient, an unquestioning servant. She closed her eyes, and pulled the covers up to her chin, determined to succeed at Beacon, in spite of her unfortunate partnership.
Weiss woke, a screaming headache in her head. She blinked tears from her eyes, watching them drip into the sand beneath her. They were so shiny. Ever since the Fall of Beacon her tears had grown more and more iridescent. She didn't know what to make of it. Didn't really have the time or energy to care at that point. Her primary focus had been getting out of Atlas and back to Ruby. She'd started to realize then that she wanted more than friendship, more than partnership with that obnoxious crimson blur.
She should get up, take in her surroundings. Instead, she laid there, replaying that dream. She had wanted a mindless servant initially. Somewhere along the line that changed. Was it after the first semester? During the Vytal Festival? Maybe when she was taken back to Atlas, wishing praying that Ruby would come save her.
She thought of how she had wanted that scent to lessen, but upon reuniting with Ruby in Mistral, upon sharing that first warm hug, she sorely missed it. She'd asked of course why Ruby stopped using that particular scent, but Ruby denied there being any change at all. Yang said she hadn't noticed a difference, but having spent so long with Ruby she never really noticed it actively to begin with. Blake agreed that there was nothing amiss, that things were still as they had been. Why couldn't she smell it? It had only caused more tears, more stars to fall.
Vicissitude.
She rose to her feet taking in the beach around her. Walking to the water's edge she looked at her reflection. There was a thick pearlescent film over her eyes. She blinked hard. It had gotten even worse. They had seemed... cloudy last time she had taken in her own appearance. Lacking their usual luster, but nothing so severe as this. Tears welled in her now changed eyes, glittering with almost blinding radiance as the stars poured forth once more.
She thought to the last time she had spoken with her partner. She hadn't been able to hear a word she said, just a hazy murmuring struggling to reach her ears. Blake and Yang both assured her their teammate sounded perfectly normal, but Weiss found that hard to believe. Her ears worked fine. They had to. Nothing was wrong with her. Her team had gone through too much, her partner had gone through too much lately. She needed to be strong, needed to be whole. For them.
Vicissitude.
She left the waves behind, trekking inland to find her team. Blake. Yang. Her partner. She searched for hours. The sun beating down wore on her stamina, wore on her resolve. She wanted to collapse. To give up then and there, and accept her fate. What point was there in continuing if she had nothing left? Her home, her people, her team, Salem had taken them all from her in a single day. Her mind left the task at hand. Not like she was making progress anyway.
Atlas. Mantle. The bridge to Vacuo. She'd fended off Cinder as long as she could, needing to make time for them to escape. She was still struggling to wrap her mind around the events that had transpired. Penny's death had of course hit her hard. She knew her partner would be more affected had she been present. That's right. Her partner. Weiss hadn't seen where she'd gone. Why wasn't she there during that climactic battle? If she had been, maybe things would have turned out differently. Maybe Penny would be alive, maybe she wouldn't be trapped in this hell, wherever this was. She assumed her partner was here with her. She had to be. There simply wasn't another option. Her partner was here because Weiss needed her to be. Tears pricked her eyes once more. She blinked hard and winced as pain shredded her eyelids. The pearlescent film had grown jagged, the stars in her tears solidifying like a salt deposit on her eyes.
Vicissitude.
She couldn't keep going. Not with her eyes like this. She needed to find or make shelter. Maybe Blake and Yang would find her. If she started a fire they could follow the smoke. At least they were likely in better shape, likely not in agony with every blink. Maybe her partner would show up too. Maybe then she'd remember what she looked like. What her voice sounded like. What her scent had been. What her name was.
She felt like she had known only this morning, dreamed of her when waking on the beach. How could she have forgotten? This vague silhouette had been there for her since their time at Beacon. Weiss knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that she had JUST been in her dreams, but all traces of her seemed to be dissipating like the morning fog in the warmth of the suns rays.
She soon had no need for a fire. The light radiating from her tears was more than sufficient. She fell to her knees. She must be the worst partner ever. It hadn't even been a day and she couldn't remember the things that felt so important. What her partner's laugh had sounded like. What she liked to eat. What she said when they reunited. The weapon she used, the color she wore. Weiss couldn't even remember if she like her, if they got along at all. Worse than all that, Weiss couldn't remember the girls eyes, only that she loved them.
Minutes passed with no progress. She grabbed Myrtenaster from its place at her waist. She needed to do something, make some sort of progress. Plunging it into the ground she called upon her Semblance, intending to summon her Gigas to help with the heavy lifting, to build her a shelter for the night. It felt off. Wrong. As if she was being steered towards another option. She didn't have the strength to resist the pull.
She looked up at the shimmering blue figure before her. Even through the haze of tears she could tell it wasn't something she had summoned before. It was smaller than most of her summons. And... not a Grimm. It was a girl. She wiped her cheeks, rising to her feet. It didn't stop the tears or even slow them, a gesture of instinct, of habit more than practicality. She stepped toward the summon. The girl was an inch or two shorter. Hair messy and short. A long billowing cape flowed behind her. A combat skirt adorned her hips.
Her eyes. Her eyes were a bright silver, alive, and vibrant. A stark contrast to the almost ethereal glow of the rest of the summon. Weiss recognized them instantly of course. How could she not? She'd spent so long staring into them, wishing they held the same love for her that she felt for them.
Why? Why was it always vicissitude? Why was it that even now she was being punished with a ghost of her partner? What had she done that was so deserving of cruel fate after cruel fate? She hated the feeling of entitlement that came with it. Hated feeling like she was owed something good. That was how her father thought, and she was decidedly not him. But this? How could she accept this? It just wasn't fair, wasn't right. No one deserved this. Maybe she could understand why Salem had turned out this way after all. Forced to endure a shadow of her love for all eternity, anyone would break. Weiss couldn't handle it in just this one lifetime.
"Ruby..." Weiss choked, a sob tearing from her throat.
Of course it was Ruby. Her partner. The woman she loved. How could she have forgotten? She loved Ruby so much, so why had she disappeared from memory? And where had she ended up after the battle in Atlas? Why hadn't Weiss been able to see her there? Too many questions, far too many unknowns.
Even if it was a mindless puppet she needed to say something to Ruby. She wished desperately that this Ruby had autonomy. That it could think, feel, understand what she had to say. This automaton wasn't the girl she loved, and it couldn't respond in kind, but those words could not remain unsaid. Weiss fell to her knees. How many times that had happened today she couldn't tell.
"Ruby Rose, I love you. I have since our second semester at Beacon at least, if not longer. You were so focused on saving the world, on being a Huntress, I could never confess. It just... it didn't feel right. I didn't want to distract you from your dream. I wish I would have told you while I had you. You were everything to me. My reason to wake in the morning. My reason to abandon my family, my reason to flee Atlas, my reason to go back. I miss your silver eyes. The way you smelled of roses and strawberries. The way you laughed, the way you smiled, the way you fought. The way you made the darkness less dark, the way you made my weakness less weak. If I could, I would throw it all away for another chance with you. Not that I have anything left to give. I know I don't deserve it, don't deserve you, not after I forgot you. I just love you so much Ruby. I love you more than life itself."
Weiss sobbed, clutching the hem of the summon's skirt. She felt the stinging lack of warmth, the lack of a soul in the being before her. Her tears fell without ceasing, the jagged stars scraping across her skin as they littered the sand below her. The pain meant nothing. The slow decay of her sight meant nothing. She didn't want to see if she couldn't see Ruby anyway. None of it mattered without her. She let herself fall apart. For the first time she emptied herself of every emotion she'd been bottling. She cried, she screamed, she raged against the cruelty of the world for depriving her of the one thing that made her happy, the one person who truly cared for and understood her. She screamed until she could scream no longer, her voice giving out with a final choked sob, the stars scattered beneath her blindingly bright as the last of her tears escaped its vessel.
Then Weiss felt a warmth. A familiar warmth. One that wrapped itself around her shoulders. She didn't tense, didn't panic. She simply melted into the touch. She inhaled deeply, the scent of roses and strawberries rushing into her nose. A small smile danced on her lips. Relief and comfort filled her heart. She felt breath on the back of her neck. And then she heard it. The voice she had been longing for. The voice she had lost. It spoke in a whisper. A quiet reserved voice, meant only for her ear and no other. No one else would hear these words. They were made for her and her alone. No sweeter sound was there to the ear of the heiress than the words the voice spoke.
"I love you too, Weiss."