72

Chapter 72 Notes:

(See the end of the chapter for notes.)

Chapter Text

"Weiss! Weiss, are you okay!? I'm so so so sorry I didn't get here sooner I thought your area was safe!" 

The first thing Weiss heard upon waking up on the cold, hard, dirt and grass ground in the Emerald Forest was… the voice of one Ruby Rose, with the black and red Huntress looming over her and shaking her gently as she groaned awake to a pounding headache, blinding sunlight, a sore body, and the lingering feeling that she'd been wrapped in vines and thoroughly violated in the Aura department.

Considering that the last thing she'd seen before waking up now was a grimm lunging at her with a bunch of thorny vine tentacles and a baleful red eye, and that Professor Ozpin had brought on one Shion Zaiden, traveling Nightmare Hunter and nonbinary fashion icon known the world over (if you actually kept track of the more famous Huntsmen and Huntresses at least) to help deal with an infestation of the tentacle-y grimm under the title of "Assistant Professor"…

Well.

She could guess what happened.

"Ugh…. I have a splitting headache right about now… and my hair is full of dirt… and I feel like something chewed me up and spat me out, but… I think I'm fine… just… very sore and tired…" Weiss muttered, wincing as she tried to call up her Aura to get rid of some of the damage… only to find it startlingly low and guttering out at just shy of empty. "Nngh… and my Aura is almost out…"

"I know, you got hit by a Nightmare- you almost got fully possessed by a really big one! Professor Zaiden said that if it weren't for me you'd have had to fight it all alone in your mindscape and they would barely have been able to send us in after… I think I'm lucky that we didn't have to go through all of that, but…" Ruby shook her head, gently helping Weiss up into a sitting position, carefully minding her teammate's head as she held a bottle of water up to Weiss' lips while the heiress observed their surroundings… which looked like they'd been savaged by a rampaging Tyrannex . Uprooted trees, scorch marks, massive furrows in the ground, shattered rocks, smashed bushes… it seemed as though the clearing they were in was artificially made, which certainly explained why there was more dirt than grass everywhere, even though Weiss was lying in a sizable patch of untouched grass. 

"... Ruby?"

"... Yes Weiss?" Ruby asked, immediately sheepish in response to the flat, suspicious glare that Weiss sent her way- knowing instantly that Weiss had either figured out what had happened in response to her going down, or had a very good idea of it. 

"Did you rip a new clearing into the forest just because I went down to a Nightmare?" Weiss sighed, rubbing her temples as the headache began to slowly abate, Team JNPR finally making it into the clearing alongside Yang and Blake, who seemed rather out of breath. Professor Zaiden was there as well, brandishing their dreamcatcher-like weapon and looking around suspiciously for a few moments before straightening up and adjusting their hat- no other grimm having come close in the time they'd taken to get the others. Penny brought up the rear, looking completely flawless despite everyone else seeming somewhat disheveled from spending a few hours in the forest.

"... Maybe…?" Ruby murmured, tapping her fingers together and clearing her throat. "I mean like after you went down I got an alert on my scroll and I panicked cuz everyone else was way too far and I was the only one close enough and Professor Zaiden was nearby but their method for taking out a Nightmare needs a stable location and at least a couple hours and it wasn't feasible to try and move you too much through the forest while there were so many grimm and while I was panicking I turned into a Sea Feilong and kinda rampaged around until I couldn't sense anymore grimm in the area and maybe it got a little out of hand… B-but after I got rid of all of the other Nightmares in the area I fixed you up really quick! Professor Zaiden was like, so it's like, super impossible for more than one Nightmare to infest a body at a time and the stronger Nightmare always kicks out the weaker one when they fight so I was in there and I turned into a Nightmare and possessed you and fought the other Nightmare in your mindscape while it was trying to pick away at your insecurities and it tried to get out and turn back into its seed form so it could hide and get lost in the foliage but then I caught it while it was running out of your body and I ate it and I knew like you were already having weird dreams cuz it was trying to feed off of your insecurities and negative emotions and I'm really sorry that I pried a little but I wanted to make sure you had some okay dreams while you were waking up so I tried to make sure you were fine but I'm not super great with dreamweaving yet so I might have slipped up a little with what I helped you dream of and- and-"

"... Is that why I was dreaming of giant corgi shaped cookies covered in chocolate syrup and whipped cream?" Weiss grumbled, poking Ruby a few times to drive her off and looked around again, scratching her head slightly as she felt her Aura slowly return and trickle into restoring her depleted stamina and fixing the pounding headache. "Also, please stop talking so loud. I still have a headache you dolt… Ugh… at least dreaming of cookies and pastries for… how long was I out again?"

"About five minutes," Professor Zaiden stated, kneeling down beside Weiss and running a critical eye over her form, the white haired Hunter poking a few spots with Dream Catcher before nodding. "You're free of infestation, not that I'm surprised. Extremely low on stamina thanks to being possessed by two Nightmares in short succession but thanks to Miss Rose here mitigating the damage, you'll be fine. Eat an extra few portions tonight, and take a rest for the next week- no combat drills, no excessive studying. Honestly, I'd actually recommend you stick to bed rest entirely and let your team take notes for you."

"... I'll have Penny do that, then…" Weiss sighed, nodding slightly in response to Professor Zaiden's words. "Thank you, Professor."

"Please don't call me that, I don't actually have a teaching license," Professor- Shion stated dryly, chuckling as they stood up and allowed the rest of the group to approach. "Call me Shion or Zaiden. Or Hunter, if you're actually invested in titles. Actually don't, Hunter Zaiden sounds like a terrible name."

"... Thank you, Shion," Weiss cleared her throat, then turned back to Ruby with a slightly peeved expression as she continued her previous line of thought. "As I was saying. At least dreaming of cookies and pastries was less distressing than starting to go through an entire dream sequence where I was dressed in some kind of military uniform and Blake was in a combination of her outfit and that Adam ruffian's clothes- ugh. Some of the insecurities in my mind make no sense, I swear…"

"... You thought about me wearing-?" Blake paused, staring down at Weiss with a raised eyebrow, not entirely sure what to think of what Weiss had said as the heiress slowly climbed to her feet and stood rather unsteadily- with Ruby quick to hook an arm around Weiss' shoulders and support her because Blake and Yang were both just barely too tall to do it comfortably.

Even if Yang looked like she wanted to carry Weiss bridal style.

"Look, just because I'm trying very hard to remove all of my biases regarding the faunus and the White Fang, doesn't mean that I don't still have some weird hangups in my mind! And he tried to kill us not long ago!" Weiss sputtered, grumping a bit as she tried very hard to retain any semblance of dignity while she leaned on Ruby… up until the point that Ruby looked between Yang and Blake, then bodily picked up Weiss and dumped her into Yang's waiting arms. "Wh- hey! Ruby Rose don't just manhandle me like that! And how dare you hold me like this, Yang!"

"I could put you down if you want," Yang shrugged, not at all bothered by Weiss suddenly hitting her in the chest with a delicate little bap that did about as much damage as being struck by a wad of tissue paper. "Someone's feisty, eh Blake?"

"It wouldn't be our Ice Queen if she wasn't a little worked up all the time," Blake nodded, snorting as she rolled her neck and re-sheathed Gambol Shroud, everyone in the clearing relaxing and getting ready to head back to the Bullhead that had brought them out to the forest, with Shion shaking their head and looking around the ruined clearing one last time before following along.

"Penny!" Ruby cried out as she jumped into her waiting girlfriend's arms with a squeal of joy, now completely invested in paying a hundred percent of her attention to the orange haired girl and nuzzling against her with a little giggle of glee. "Didja see me out there!? I was like bam! Whoosh! Pow! Slice! Hiyah! Kablammo! And that Dust mix you told me about! With the homing bullets and the split shots! It worked perfectly! Oh you're an angel, Penny, you really really are! I haven't had this much fun firing new trick bullets since I made that anti-Megoliath mix!"

"I am always happy to help, my precious jewel! I noticed that your combat efficacy has been at an all time high since we started, and that you have become faster using your Semblance as well!" Penny gushed, freely returning Ruby's cuddles and pulsing with warmth as her systems flushed at the close proximity to her girlfriend. "You were very impressive! I only wish that I could have kept better track of you while we fought, instead of being assigned to separate grid coordinates."

"Me too, I'm sure you were super cool out there- I could feel your emotions, but I couldn't really get a bead on you and I didn't wanna send out any drones to you in case that messed with your targeting sensors," Ruby sighed, bonking her head against Penny's with a slightly rueful sigh. "Oh well… maybe next time!"

"Maybe next time indeed!"

Notes:

Y'all remember Ice Queendom? That sure was a thing.