#ewwau

“Ruby?!, Ruby where did you go?!”

Weiss escapes the city of Mistral but has lost Ruby in the crash.

The only thing more annoying than challengers in Vacuo is the weather, crazy sandstorms can pick Weiss up like a feather sometimes.

“…what do you know,” Yang murmured. “You’re still here.”

Ruby looked up, the pale glow of her skin outlining her reassuring smile.

“I know, I know, just…” The blonde glanced away. “I was at your funeral, Ruby. I saw… it’s a little hard. I mean, I always hoped, but… I’m still not sure that you’re you, that you aren’t just Weiss’s hallucination given form by her semblance.” Yang chuckled dryly. “Some big sister I am. I see you right there and I still can’t believe it…”

Silver eyes looked down at a shimmering hand, observing it as it turned. The hand reached out slowly, gripping the shoulder of the blonde.

“…Pen and paper. Or something, I… If you can answer the eighth birthday question, I’ll believe it’s you.” Yang glanced over at Weiss’s sleeping form and sighed. “Gods. Did she really go a year without sleeping once?”

Ruby nodded, her expression falling.

“…you knew, didn’t you? You knew she was… you know how aura works. You knew she was…” Yang swallowed. “…that she was poisoning herself, weakening herself just… because she wasn’t sure.”

The shimmering hands clung tightly to the sleeping form.

“…I’m sorry, I just…. I’m mad at her, of course. For, you know, running. We had a damned wizard right there, if anyone could have figured out what was going on with you…” She gestured at the girl. “But, at the same time I can see she put herself through so much pointless pain and… I’m mad at her, but it wouldn’t help, would it? She needs help, more than I need… catharsis. It’s just frustrating, I suppose, feeling both sympathetic and angry.”

For a moment, the train car was silent.

“…Why Vacuo, though? What could she hope to find here?”

Ruby opened her mouth to explain, and was a few words through her speech when she remembered she couldn’t talk. She crossed her arms grumpily, eliciting a faint smile from the blonde.

“You know, that sounds like wind chimes. When you try to speak. It’s… kind of pretty, really.”

Ruby rolled her eyes. After a moment, though, she nudged Yang’s arm.

“Hmm?”

Two spectral hands outlined triangles above the head.

“…Blake?” At Ruby’s nod, Yang managed a small smile. “Blake’s doing fine. Better than fine, really, she… she’s the new headmaster of Haven, if you can believe that. I mean she’s super young and a lot of people are sure she’s going to mess everything up but… well, she’s working hard. Cleaning out the last vestiges of the old Fang, training the students as hard as she can… Frankly, she’s a better headmaster than Ozpin ever was.”

Ruby gave her an offended look.

“No, really! Even Ozpin himself agrees! I… just wish she wasn’t so busy all the time.”

The summons gave her a sympathetic look. After a moment, she pulled  a flower from her basket.

“…Um… I’m not sure what you’re trying to say?”

Ruby rolled her eyes, jabbed a thumb at the sleeping Weiss, and mimed a guitar.

“…Jaune–oh! Oh, team JNPR? Well…” Yang managed a small laugh. “It’s been a year, you know, so… so some things have developed… Ah, Nora is, let’s see, three months pregnant now?”

Ruby leaned back, eyes wide as her spectral hands covering her smile.

“I know, that was about my reaction too. I mean sure they were dating, but to go that far–Ren of course is handling everything, the housing, the groceries, keeping Nora out of trouble, and Nora has that ‘I’m pregnant not invalid’ mindset which, you know, isn’t entirely wrong, but… I mean she’s going around beating up thugs.”

Ruby pointed at herself and then Yang.

“Well, yes, but we weren’t pregnant. And Nora’s… I think she just wants to feel like she’s got a hand in what’s going on. After what happened to Jaune–”

She cut herself off.

Ruby looked at her curiously.

“…Emerald saw… what happened with you,” Yang explained slowly. “And when I came up out of the vault–see, Raven apparently turned on Cinder, and then… well, I came up alone. But Emerald has a fixation on Cinder… she ran of course, at first, but some time ago, she… found Jaune.”

Her eyes went to her hand. “…Jaune has the ability to enhance other people’s aura, their semblance. Emerald’s semblance is to… make other people hallucinate. Somehow she got it into her head that if she could… that if Jaune helped her, she could bring Cinder back. Or something. So… we still don’t know how she pulled it off.”

Ruby grabbed her forearm gently.

“…You know those old cartoons, where there’s a grimm on one shoulder, and the king of Vale on the other, and they’re advising the guy to be good or evil? And nobody else can see them? That’s Jaune now, except it’s Cinder and… Pyrrha. I think he might know they’re hallucinations, but he can’t help but treat them like they were real, actually there, and they’re always there for him–Emerald is pissed, of course, she wanted the real Cinder and now Jaune is 'keeping’ her from her and…” Yang sighed. “It’s a mess.”

Ruby frowned quietly, her eyes falling on the slumbering Weiss.

“…I don’t… know if we should tell her right away,” Yang said quietly. “I don’t know if…. I mean, she’s in a bad place, right? Let’s be honest, she’s in a bad place. And… telling her about this might make it worse. Maybe we should wait until she asks… or until she’s ready.”

A faint nod. Then Ruby sat up straight, and gave Yang a curious tap.

“What?”

She pointed between herself and Yang.

“…Us? What about us? I mean, you’re my sister–”

Ruby nodded firmly, pointing to Weiss.

“Weiss’s…? Oh.” Yang crossed her arms. “Winter.”

Ruby blinked.

“She… arrived a few days after the battle of Haven. Wouldn’t believe a word about Salem. Saw Menagerie’s forces everywhere… She thought the White Fang conquered Mistral. Went back to Atlas, and now the country’s more turtled up than before. All the SDC branches outside went dead, the borders are patrolled by airships and boats… no word, in or out, in the past six months. Nobody knows what’s going on up there.”

Ruby clung to Weiss quietly.

“I… I’m sorry…” Yang put her head in her hands. “I’m sorry, Ruby, it’s just… everything went wrong. And I don’t have any idea how to make it right.”

Cold!Ruby has the same thoughts, same memories, as Ruby, the same personality, she even looked the same for the first few months. Along with an unhealing wound like a permanent reminder to Weiss that she did that.

In Vacuo, she wouldn’t cut her hair and it actually grew and she even got taller, all small things that collectively made Weiss think Ruby was real, or well real enough. Weiss was too scared to leave Ruby alone just in case she would just up and disappear like any summon would.