AN: Named after a fitting Pink Floyd song. Prepare for a trip. And as always, enjoy and review!

Thanks to Spartacus400 on the RWBY Wikia for beta reading.

Disclaimer: RWBY is a product of Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC. All characters are owned by Rooster Teeth Productions, LLC.

Chapter 11: Brain Damage

It was cold. Everything was cold. Her head felt like she had survived a car crash. Her body was drained. Opening her eyes, all her blurry vision could depict was her hand on the metal floor and the underside of a bunk. The emergency lights flashed themselves in sync with an alarm. The room faded between darkness and a dim red, just bright enough for a normal human to see.

She pulled at her muscles, using whatever energy she obtained to sit up. She blinked a number of times at the sight she saw before her, hoping it was a mirage. Her partner was not in her bunk, but was replaced by a pool of crimson. It leaked off the red-soaked cot onto the white floor. A thick trail of blood lead to the extended ladder in front of her, then left another puddle.

Something in the back of her head told her to keep going; to not worry about the blood on the cabin interior. Her hand reached out for one of the rungs of the ladder and strained her weak form to pull herself up. She wavered, but was steady, nonetheless. The palm of her hand felt unusually warm to be holding onto a cold piece of metal. Fearfully peering down at her digits, she turned over the appendage, revealing a new dark red coating. Unwanted memories triggering in its sight, but she had to ignore them. She had to push on.

Looking up into the tube above her, her eyes shimmered. The channel, like the room she stood in, was covered in splatters and streaks of crimson. She flinched as a red drop fell onto her cheek. She wiped the blood off her face, though that only spread it thinly across her skin. Every fiber of her being told her not to scale the grim scene. But her partner was missing. And her presumed blood plastered against the walls. She grabbed the ladder and moved on. Like she always does.

She held her breath and kept her eyes forward as she ascended. Her jaw tightened every time she felt blood contact her skin. Memories clouded her vision with tears. All the blood she saw, all of it that was on her, all of it that flooded the floor. The spacecraft seemed to be oozing red from between its plates and panels. The ladder was almost too slippery to climb, her hands and feet drenched in the liquid life source. She tilted her head up, seeing only a few more feet to go, as well as the menacing turquoise tank.

Her nails scratched the floor of the fuel tank modules. Her muscles burned as she pulled herself up out of the tube and onto the grid wire catwalk. Once her feet were planted, she realized the tank had changed. It was covered in fuel gauges top to bottom, all reading that the tank was empty to its last drop. Her body felt weak, yet also enraged, as she looked the tank up and down. She raised a hard fist, ready to assault the fuel container.

"Happy birthday...to you…" A twisted voice broadcasted through the intercom, causing the woman to stop in her tracks, "Happy birthday...to you…"

She turned to look at the entrance of the command capsule; dropping her fist. Her soles were quiet against the metal walk. The crimson trail had reappeared in the dim light, trailing from the tube she came from, to the door controls, and then under the door itself. Reaching her index finger out and to the button, she tapped it and quickly retracted. The door slid open, revealing nothing but the continuation of the trail into the tunnel.

"Happy birthday to the monster...Happy birthday...to you…" The demonic song played on repeat.

Her body rattled as she approached the final door. Her heart beating out of her chest. Fear wrapping itself around her frame. She triggered the door controls, the door was pulled right. Inside the command capsule was nothing. Nothing. The blood path ended there.

She stepped inside, checking her peripherals before pressing on. A hand was set on her aviator chair as she leaned forward, examining the dashboard. Extending out a pair of loose digits, she flipped a few switches, stopping the alarm, though the power decided to not come online. She tried the switch again. And again. Until something dropped onto her cheek. She felt its warmth.

Her spine locked up and held her breath once again. She turned and craned her head up. And screamed. There was her partner, severed into bloody pieces, pinned to the ceiling by knives. She stared at the blade between the woman's dead blue eyes. The twinkle in her azure iris replaced with fright and death.

"Weiss!" She cried out.

"Happy birthday...to you...Happy birthday...to you…" The intercom sang.

The engineer's butchered, pale form was spotted with dirt and gravel. Barely any blood spilled out of the open wounds, completely drained. The only thing dripping off of the mutilated corpse was a thin, clear liquid. More and more of the fluid seemed to fall off. The room filled with a new smell, an aroma that she recognized very easily; gasoline. At the exact second she discovered what the liquid was, her partner burst into flames, scorching the ceiling of the capsule.

"Blakey...Blakey...Blakey...you thought you could run from me?" A deep voice threatened.

Looking down from the grim, fiery scene, she saw another terrifying spectacle. Standing in the doorway, stood her father. Her living, oxygen breathing father. He wore a simple, clean flannel shirt and a clean pair of blue jeans, the same outfit he wore when Blake had done the deadly deed. He stepped forward toward his daughter, whom took a step back in return.

Her amber eyes wide in fear and disbelief, "No, you're dead! I-I burned your body!"

"You were always so sure of things, Blake." An evil grin strewed across his face.

"You did this to her!" She shouted, glancing up at her burning friend, "You did this, you monster!"

He chuckled, "Did I, Blake?" He tilted his head, raising his brow, "I have no blood on me…," He leaned in to accent his next point, "I'm not the one holding the red knife…"

She peered down, seeing the blood staining her jumpsuit. Her crimson painted hands shook in an adrenaline rush. Her digits wrapped around the handle of a bloody knife, the same blade she had used on her father. The weapon was dropped with a gasp, it clinked against the flooring.

"No... No!" She screamed

"Yes! Yes!" Her father chanted back

"No! No!

"NO!" Blake sprung forth from her bed, shouting at the top of her lungs until she was reduced to a pant. Weiss was immediately awoken from her slumber by her loud partner. She darted across the cabin, standing over her bunk.

"Blake," She got the panicking woman's attention quickly, "A-Are you ok?"

Blake spun her head around and as soon as those azure eyes, with a twinkle in their iris, she sunk into Weiss' arms; sobbing. A sad sigh came from the engineer's lips before she gently wrapped one arm around the frightened woman. Her free hand did its best to comfort the faunus, stroking her hair and scratching behind the feline ears. She bit her lip and glanced out the resting quarter's viewport; maybe this mission was beginning to take its toll. The terrified aviator just hugged her partner ever so tighter, leaving very little room to breath. But Weiss didn't dare complain or move a muscle, letting the other's emotions ride themselves out in the form of tears soaking the cobalt uniform.

"I-I...I-I...Y-You...B-Blood…" Blake muttered from her stuttering jaw.

Weiss looked down at her partner, still caressing her scalp, "I know, I know...it's ok now, I've got you…"

"I...saw...y-you...I saw...h-him…" Blake stared down at the metal floor, the clean, white metal floor, "H-He told me...He told me…"

"That you can't run from me." A different voice.

Instantly within a blink, Weiss' jumpsuit turned to an old pair of blue jeans; the hand scratching her head felt much bigger and rougher. Blake was immobile, petrified like a scared animal.

"And I wasn't lying, my dear daughter."

Blake repelled backwards, plastering her spine to the wall. Wide amber eyes were shaky at the sudden presence of her father. Signals in her brain told her to jump and run, and she did. Nearly tripping over herself as she dashed for the module door. She had to get to a place where he couldn't get to her.

Her fingertips frantically pressed the green button on the door's panel. Glancing over her shoulder only revealed her father slowly stepping through the habitation unit, whistling like it was a peaceful walk in the park. Beads of sweat trickled down her forehead; her breathing became uncontrollable as the door's mechanism decided not to unlock. As her father's whistling grew louder behind her, the faster and harder she smashed the door controls. Until finally the mechanism accepted her input, sliding right and allowing access. She sprinted through the life support module, past the wall of containers and the chessboard atop the familiar white booth. Her soles skidded herself to a halt at the end of cabin, ready to enter the next room.

"Blake?" Weiss' voice. Her sweet voice.

Blake whipped around, eager to meet Weiss' soothing eyes, but almost went into cardiac arrest. Instead of having twinkling blue orbs stare back at her, a pair of frightened, worried eyes did. A knife was driven into Weiss' chest, dark spots of red stained the engineer's jumpsuit, blood still pouring from the wound.

"Why are you doing this?" Weiss asked.

A blink and her father returned, "You can't run from me."

"You can't run from this," The figment flickered between two ghosts.

The faunus used every amount of control she had to keep herself from breaking. She blindly punched at the controls rapidly again and again until she heard the door swish open. Running into the lab, her eyes immediately locked with her salvation; the airlock. The airlock door had already been opened suspiciously enough, though Blake gave it no thought, she had to get safe. When she stepped inside the airlock automatically closed on her. She didn't care, she was safe. Her abdomen convulsed as she let out silent, insane laughter.

Turning back to the way she came, she didn't see her father or the impaled ghost of her co-pilot. The only sight that made itself known was the unharmed woman with her digit placed on the jettison switch, crying trails of tears.

Blake's laughter faded, her emotions twisting back into fright and desperation. She banged her fist on the door's glass, "Weiss! No! Open this door!"

Weiss bit her lower lip, trying to keep herself from sobbing anymore, "I-I'm sorry...Blake…"

"No! Weiss! Don't!" Her fist pounded into the door.

"I'm sorry…" Weiss pushed in the button.

"No, W-!" The door shot open into silence. Words were choked from her throat. She tumbled out into the abyss, feeling its freezing temperature as her vision quickly faded.

"WEISS!" Blake shouted, sitting up in her bed once more. She looked down at her shaking hands. She broke down to tears, hugging herself as tight as possible.

"Blake?" A concerned voice spoke up.

The aviator whipped around to Weiss' voice. Blake scurried back away from the other woman.

"Stay back!" Blake ordered, absolutely terrified.

Weiss took a step forward, hands up in peace, "Blake...It's ok, you're awake…"

Blake pressed her back to the wall, "I said stay back!" Her last command was followed by a hard slap to the face.

"Snap out of it!" Weiss grabbed the faunus by the shoulders, "What happened?"

"So…" Weiss glanced over to the fidgety woman across the table from her, "You dreamed you saw your father, then me chopped up, pinned to the ceiling, on fire?" Blake nodded, confirming her summary, "Then you 'woke up' to me, but then I was replaced with your dad and switched between him and I as we chased you around the ship and to the airlock. Then, normal me showed up, apologized, thenjettisoned you?" The faunus bobbed her head yes.

"Am I going insane…?" Blake looked out the window.

Weiss shook her head, "I don't know...maybe...probably not. It was most likely just a nightmare. Just a very bad one."

Blake took a deep breath and turned to Weiss, "Would you...do it?"

"Huh?" Weiss' white brow furrowed.

"The airlock…" Blake blinked, "Would you…"

Weiss pinched her nail and hung her head, "No…"

"But I thought you said-"

"-I know, what I said." The engineer cut off, flitting her eyes around the cabin, "I just... can't lose you."

Blake leaned on the tabletop, "What about all that stuff you said about 'doing what needs to be done?'"

"That was before I almost lost you!" Weiss snapped her focus back to Blake, sniveling with a swallow.

"When I was watching you float out into oblivion…" Azure iris fell back to the table, "The only thing I could think about was that you were going to die. That I was going to lose you. That I wasn't going to be able to save you. And that it was somehow my fault," She tightened her fist under the table, "It was then I realized how important it was that we stay together. It was then I realized how much I needed you...and how much you needed me, that we were the only things keeping each other going." She looked out the viewport," It was then I realized I could sacrifice myself for you." Azure and amber locked with intense seriousness, "It was then I realized how much I cared about you, because you were the one and only being to understand, because I couldn't let you die like that, Blake. Not without finishing the fight…"

"...Not ever."

CAN YOU FEEL THE SHIPPING?!

Love,

~Vox