Persistent (Rosewick)

Night Will Always Lead to Dawn

Ruby's POV

As Weiss and I ran towards the infirmary with Roman and Neo in tow, Blake rushed ahead of us to warn the doctors and nurses while Yang ran towards Ozpin's tower. I looked down again at Roman's battered body and wiped away the tears that blurred my vision. Just as we got in, both Roman and Neo were taken from us and rushed to the ICU. The two of us slumped to the ground. "Who could've done this?" I leaned my head against my knees and sobbed.

"Ruby!" Yang rushed up to me, Ozpin and Professor Goodwitch behind her. I leaned into her arms as she stroked my hair gently. "Shh it'll be okay, they can help Roman and Neo," she whispered. "Miss Xiao Long has informed me of the situation," Ozpin kneeled down in front of me,"My only question is how you and Miss Schnee came to know them." Weiss and I hesitated, but we both showed him our soulmate marks. Professor Goodwitch furrowed her eyebrows, but Ozpin merely gave a knowing smile,"I thought as much. Do not worry, they will remain under my protection until they are healthy to decide what they want to do."

The ICU doors suddenly opened, and Neo was wheeled out. She was still unconscious, but the blood was gone and she had been bandaged up. We rushed over as they settled her into one of the beds in the main infirmary. "Dr. Zaffre, how is she?" Weiss said shakily. The doctor looked up from the clipboard and shook his head,"She will be fine, but she's been through a lot. The other one's condition is much worse; whoever did that to him was powerful indeed. He will have to fight to be able to make it." Weiss sat down next to Neo and held her hand, tears still making tracks down her face.

Strangely, as the two held hands, their soulmarks and bodies began to glow gently. Color returned to Neo's face, and as her eyes fluttered open, she sat up with a gasp. "Neo!" Weiss gave her a hug that was returned. "She's awake already?" one of the nurses looked surprised. "What did I just do?" Weiss was baffled before clutching her head,"Ugh!" Ozpin came next to us,"Have you ever heard of Aura transferring?" We all shook our heads and he continued,"Aura transferring is basically what it sounds like. You use your own Aura to accelerate and boost the Aura of the other individual, speeding up healing of injuries. It is easiest to do with soulmates because of the connection you share, but it is possible to do with other people as well. Miss Schnee, because this was your first time and you were not mentally prepared, you may experience headaches for a while, however it should not last long." Neo hugged Weiss despite the fact that she was still connected to a few machines.

"Where is Roman though?" I resisted the urge to let my mouth hang open at the sound of her voice, and instead replied,"He's still in the ICU.....they don't know if he'll make it or not....." "This is all my fault," she whispered. "No, it isn't," Weiss squeezed her hand lightly. "It is!" she cried out,"The boss was going to punish Roman, but she wasn't going to kill him! I tried to protect him but it just resulted in both of us getting hurt worse!" The doors opened again, and I could barely recognize Roman as he was wheeled out. He had bandages virtually all over his body, and I ran over as they wheeled him into a separate room, and began hooking up different machines to his body. I only recognized the IV drip and cardiac monitor, the rest were most likely antibiotics and such.

"Can I come in?" I called out tentatively. One of the nurses waved me in as they finished what they needed to do. "He has extensive deep dermal and third degree burns covering virtually all of his body. He's currently comatose, and it'll take all of him to recover from this," the nurse looked at the unconscious man with pity,"Whoever did this to him might as well have dropped him in lava..." I swallowed the bile that rose up and approached him, dragging over a chair with me. Thinking back to Weiss and Neo, I gently took his hand in mine and thought about aura transfer. Instead of our bodies and marks glowing though, I felt an immense power surge up from me, making my vision and the whole room go white.

"Ruby!" I heard Yang faintly call out before I felt arms catch me. My vision slowly cleared, and I found myself in my sister's arms, my hand still firmly latched onto Roman's hand. "Wha....what happened?" I sat up groggily. Ozpin kneeled next to me and lightly put a hand on my shoulder,"We'll discuss this more tomorrow. But it seems that Mr. Torchwick is significantly better already." Doctors and nurses rushed in soon after, and pushed us all out of the room as a table full of medical supplies went in. "What was that?!" Neo exclaimed when she saw me in Yang's arms. "I don't know," I groaned. My head ached something awful. The last thing I remember was Yang laying me down on the infirmary bed.

Time Skip

I woke up the next morning feeling a little more refreshed, and saw that my team was still here with me. Neo was already awake, and she smiled softly as I gave her a little wave. "How are you feeling?" I asked her. "I feel like I should be asking you that," she chuckled,"But I'm feeling much better, thank you for asking." I hesitated before going ahead with my next question,"Sorry if this comes out rude, but why didn't you talk the first time we met?" She laughed at that, a high tinkling melodic laugh that was beautiful to listen to,"Well, look at me. I barely reach your sister's shoulders in height, and I'm themed like neopolitan ice cream. In the criminal underworld, most people don't even take me seriously based on appearance. Not to mention this voice isn't threatening in the slightest. So I had decided that being mute was a better option. After all, who wouldn't want an assassin who couldn't talk? People also tend to get much more terrified when the last thing they see is a smile before they die."

"Makes sense," I looked to the rest of my team who were starting to wake up. "Hello Ruby, how are you feeling?" To our surprise, Professor Ozpin walked into the infirmary, coffee mug in hand. "I'm much better," I replied. "Good," he took a sip,"Now I'm sure you have questions about what happened yesterday," he looked at me expectantly. I nodded,"What did I do? How did I do that?" "Ruby, do you remember the first thing I said to you when we first met?" "I-I...I don't know...I think it was something about-" "Silver eyes," Ozpin said,"That's an extremely rare trait. Back before Huntsmen, before Kingdoms, it was said that those born with silver eyes were destined to lead the life of a warrior. But not only were they predestined to become warriors, but they were also born with an immense power. What you did yesterday was only a small glimpse of that power."

"So....how is Roman now?" Ozpin chuckled,"You should ask the doctors for a proper diagnosis, but I believe he will be just fine." I climbed out of bed and shuffled over to Roman's room. Upon opening the door, I was shocked to see that many of the bandages had come off, and there wasn't any scarring on his skin. "How.....?" "Like I said before, the power you have is immense. You were able to heal him so much because it combined with your soulmate connection to him." I sighed in relief and sat next to his bedside. "He should wake up within the week," one of the nurses told me smiling. She took some notes before hurrying back out.

I left Roman's room and went back to where the rest of my team and Neo was sitting. Ozpin left quietly as the five of us started talking. "So what now? Ozpin has given both you and Roman asylum, and judging by what your boss did to you, you don't exactly want to go back." "I don't," she hissed venomously,"That woman had Roman on a leash. If he didn't obey her, she would kill him, but not before killing me and everyone else he's ever cared for." The four of us winced before Weiss held Neo's hand,"Don't worry, you're safe now. She can't hurt you or Roman here in Beacon." Neo looked around before turning to the four of us,"Uh...where's my bag?" The four of us looked at each other,"I think it's still on the ship," Blake hurried off to check.

"Why do you need your bag?" Weiss asked her. "Roman and I had been gathering evidence against our boss in case something like this could happen. She thinks that we're just pawns on a chessboard, but neither of us are stupid. I also grabbed all of Roman's files from his apartments before we had returned to the warehouse last night. He has a lot of dirt on a lot of people." Blake returned just then, clutching a small backpack. "Is this it?" Neo nodded and began rummaging through it, pulling out a laptop and a scroll. "There's something else Roman managed to pickpocket too," she murmured,"Our boss' Black Queen Virus."

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New update cuz I wanted to get this out before I hit writer's block. School starts up again today (it's currently 1:15am) so I may not be able to update for the next two weeks or so until I settle back into my school schedule and out of my summer break laziness. I will update one more chapter in my RWBY OC story, but after that I'm taking a small break. High school is hard......

Shoutout to rwby_fankid, thanks for following!

~Nonnie

Final version published September 19, 2016 at 1:28pm ET.