AN: And here's the end to that cliffhanger I left you with last week, sorry-not-sorry. Also music lesson for those of you who do not know this song; please listen to Space Oddity by David enjoy and Review!

EDIT: Ok, I've done some thinking and some reading of some other old Space!AU RWBY FanFictions. And I noticed a couple things that set this one apart from the others. So, I'm adding another AU title to this story. Cruel Space!AU. This is because of the factor of Mental Stability I am implementing.

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 9: Major Tom to Ground Control

Weiss watched as her co-pilot spiralled head over heels, away from her and the spacecraft, out into the blackness. Holding on to the ladder as her friend and the only person within twenty light years floated towards the other stars. From this distance, she was able to depict Blake's spinning body as immobile.

"Blake! Come in, Blake!" She got no response. In another desperate attempt, she relayed the message again, still no response. The faunus' radio silence could only mean three things, she's petrified or in shock, she's unconscious, or the unthinkable; she was dead. Weiss shook her head; she couldn't be dead, it wasn't her time. Another try with radio contact failed, causing her to curse out and punch the aluminum ship beneath her.

Looking up, she spotted Blake's tether effortlessly drifting in the vacuum. The piece of equipment caused some anger to arise within her calm form. But the reminder of her friend allowed for her to recall her own tether. Her hands fumbled with the space rope hooked to her waist until she claimed a firm grasp of it. Like a game of tug of war, Weiss pulled against the ship's weight to bring her closer to the airlock.

Her comm link opened again, "Blake. Stay with me. I can't lose you, not now! Don't you dare do it!" She shouted as yanked the tether.

She had gained a considerable amount of momentum from her tugging, resulting in her frame being violently halted by the inside wall of the airlock. As her right shoulder and spine impacted the wall, she screamed in pain, gritting her teeth. Her vision was clouded by the moisture in her eyes. The brunt of the impact stung; she could already feel the bruises from her popped blood vessels already beginning to bring agony. She pushed aside her pain and reached for the green button on the other side of the tiny room with her damaged arm.

The tip of her fingers grazed the button, but it was just enough to trigger its functions. The airlock door slammed shut and followed its procedure to pressurize itself with oxygen. Weiss steadied herself inside, both hands pressed to both sides of the capsule, again having to ignore the stinging pain reverberating from her vertebrae. Her anxiety grew with each passing second and the airlock seemed to take years to pressurize. Finally the mechanism beeped and the interior door slid open.

Another signal was transmitted to her possibly dead co-pilot as she pulled and pushed her way through the insides of the spacecraft. Hastily examining the laboratory she floated in with shaky eyes. She found the two Manned Maneuvering Units strapped down to the wall across from her and made an effort to drift over to it. Her feet pressed down on the floor, pushing her toward her goal. An extended hand grabbed one of the arms of the MMU and used it to pulled her into its grasp.

Once her back flattened to it, it automatically started connecting itself to her suit. As the MMU drilled into her suit, she stared across the modules, glaring at the airlock door. Her friend was out there, getting farther and farther away as she sat waiting for her technology to catch up to her pace. She felt her heart beating faster than escape velocity along with her long heavy breath. She growled and disconnected the MMU from the wall. Another shove with the soles of her feet launched her to the airlock door, which slid away with the touch of a button.

Her anger grew as the airlock performed its procedure. Rage coursed through her veins, intensifying the more she blamed this on herself. Thoughts racing, yelling at her that she could've done something different, that she was at fault for letting Blake attempt the repair. They convinced she could have changed the outcome, done whatever to make sure this result wouldn't have existed; even the choice of taking Blake's place.

The airlock finished and the door opened. Her left and right hand cooperating with the control of the MMU to maneuver herself outside the ship. Flaring azure eyes searched the nothingness for her floating partner. A strobing light marked her spot against the other stars, her flashlight was still on. Estimating her course, she lined up with Blake and punched it. The MMU carrying her quickly away from the Beacon spacecraft and towards her co-pilot. The danger of this scenario was immense; Blake could be dead, Weiss could run out of fuel, the ship may run out of power, the clock was ticking.

Following her emotions of rage came fear, as she realized she too was now in deep space, separated from her mothership. Spying the Beacon drifting just out of her peripherals. She snapped her head forward and focus on her goal. Centering her thought on Blake and her controls, pushing away any other brainwaves.

Blake. Speed. Blake. Speed. Blake. Blake. Speed. Blake. Blake. Blake.

Her head angling down as she focused completely on her growing target. Enlarging from a strobe light to a faint form of a human being. Just then Weiss rubberbanded out of her mental state when she realized she was approaching her target too fast. She desperately burned her reverse thrusters, attempting to match their speed and stop her from crashing into Blake.

To her relief, the thrusters were powerful enough to slow her velocity down a dozen meters away from Blake. So close to her goal, Weiss carefully nudged the control to gain her one meter per second, then back to two feet, then back to one foot, then back to a few inches. The immobile body of Blake floated gently into Weiss' arms. Her jaw quivered as she saw Blake's face, gulping to hold back tears. Blots of crimson drifted inside her helmet.

"Blake. Blake…" She whispered, "It'll be alright. It'll be ok. It'll be ok. It'll be….okay…" She shed a single tear.

She strained to open her eyes. The light above her was oh so bright, obtaining a luminosity beyond more stars. Her palm was raised to block the intense rays of light from her hurt retinas. The light leaking from the cracks in her fingers were still too radiant for the visual organ to withstand. Was she dead? The last thing she remembered was trying to open the reverse power coupling panel. No, she couldn't be dead. This all felt too real, or is that what death is like?

Eventually her pupils dilated themselves to intensity of the light, revealing where she was. Resting her hand allowed her to see she was staring at the ceiling of the resting quarters. She turned her head to the right, blinking a few times to moisten her eyes. On her flat, tiny plastic excuse for a nightstand sat a book, a silver pouched beverage, and a food ration. Her body ached; she gently reached out to grab the drink standing on the white plastic. Holding it close to her view, she read its contents, relieved to see it was just water. She eagerly sipped from its specially designed straw, taking the H₂O like it was sweet nectar.

In the distance, she heard a slow tune from the other module. Which was strange, since neither had brought music with them. And neither enjoyed classic rock much.

Her elbow propped her torso up as she listened.

'This is Major Tom to Ground Control. I'm stepping through the door. And I'm floating in a most peculiar way. And the stars look very different today'

She tilted her head as the song continued, believing for a moment that maybe she had died.

'For here...Am I sitting in a tin can. Far above the world. This planet is blue. And there's nothing I can do.'

Feline ears pointed to the direction of the music, improving its quality, and picking up approaching footsteps.

'Though I'm past one hundred thousand miles. I'm feeling very still. And I think my spaceship knows which way to go. Tell my wife I love her very much, she knows'

Following at the end of the line, a stressed Weiss stepped into the resting quarters, her thumb and index finger rubbing her forehead. She sighed and dropped her hand to her thigh, freezing when she saw her co-pilot awake. A gasp preceded a light smile, which exploded into Weiss lunging at her injured friend. Her arms wrapped around Blake, bringing her close. A small laugh mixed with some tears were released by Weiss.

"Don't ever do that again, Blake." She ordered and let go of the faunus, "How are you feeling?"

Blake set her palm on her forehead, causing her to flinch to sharp pain, "I-I'm fine...just my head…"

"Oh, here," Weiss took Blake's hand, placing a cold pack into her digits, "If you need it."

"Thank you…" Blake lightly pressed the pack to her pain, "Weiss...What happened?"

Weiss looked up at Blake's patch that wrapped itself around her head. She sighed and sat down by the faunus' feet.

"You were flung out into space when you opened the panel." Her eyes stared at the ground, "You became unresponsive. And I rushed to get inside" She put a hand on her injured shoulder, wincing, causing Blake's ears to stiffen. "I got the MMU and went after you, completely leaving everything behind. When I got to you," She turned to face Blake, "You were bleeding very badly; you almost drowned in your own blood before I got you here. I had to leave you floating while I went out and fixed the coupling."

For a second time on this mission, Weiss had done something very, very few would do for her. Blake had to save herself before, she had no help. Something was different here, their relationship something wasn't quite the same to others. Weiss would do things without asking for anything in return, not even using her good deeds as leverage afterwards. Perhaps it was their sad situation or maybe it was something else, she didn't know. But it was there, just in the air.

Weiss' gaze drifted off as she continued her explanation, "I had to stop your bleeding before I initiated the artificial gravity or else you might've lost too much blood. Do you know how difficult it is to treat a wound microgravity, Blake?" She joked, "I just finished cleaning all your blood off the floor...and the ceiling...and the walls…" She remembered dropping into the modules to see crimson splattered along the interior from when she spun the ship up, "And...you…" Her cheeks flushed somewhat, as well did Blake's. An awkwardness between them making itself known. The music faded out.

"I don't remember bringing music…" Blake decided to change the subject

"I guess ASA wasn't all that cruel when they sent us here forever," Weiss concluded, "I found a stashed drive with a whole music library on it, but then again it is mostly classic rock. At least it's something to listen to…" She looked down at her feet, "I also found something else stashed away if you think you're well enough to have some fun with it."

Blake sat up and nodded, giving a small one-sided smile.

"Checkmate." Blake announced finishing her move, a Weiss sitting across from her with her mouth agape. "Is that the third chess match in a row I've won?" She smirked

The defeated woman looked up from the chessboard, "Well. Now we definitely know your mind is certainly intact," She crossed her arms with a wince.

"You ok, Weiss?" Blake raised her brow, watching her rubbed her shoulder.

"I'm fine...just some bruises…" Weiss let her hand fall off her shoulder, "Another match?"

The champion accepted the challenge with a nod. Lifting and placing her black game pieces to their destined squares on the board. She spied her challenger from across the table, still prodding her shoulder. Plopping her king onto the black square, she watched it rattle and quickly fixed itself upright. She looked up from board and up the ceiling, examining her metal chariot.

That song from when she woke up had been playing again, 'Ground Control to Major Tom, Your circuit's dead, there's something wrong. Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom? Can you hear me, Major Tom?'

Her head bobbed once with a, "Hmm…" as she thought about the lyrics of the piece. Whoever Major Tom was, he seemed to be in a similar position as them. Stuck far from the planet, in his tin can of a capsule. Though he seems content with his position, that he's accepted his end or that he believes being stuck out there was for the best. Or maybe he wanted it to happen, seeing as before whatever happened to him he wished his wife love. He just wanted an end, a peaceful end, to everything.

It made her think of what she wanted out of this, what Weiss wanted out of this. They were doing it for them, weren't they? Was this the reason they were so comfortable with their placement; because they knew they weren't coming back? That they would never see their home again, that they'd die on another planet. Did that thought make them angrier or calmer?

Blake gazed blankly at Weiss, not directly focusing on her as she thought. She watched as Weiss' mouth moved, though she only realized what the woman had been saying after she snapped her fingers in front of her face.

"Blake? Blake? CDR to Blake?" Weiss attempted to pull the aviator from the dream state.

Blake shook her head into reality, "W-What? What is it?"

"It's your turn, Blake."

"Huh?" She looked down to see a white pawn now a pace ahead of a white knight, "Oh…" Blake moved her black pawn in front of her king two spaces. "Weiss?"

"Hmm…" The engineer placed her left knight on the black square to her right, "Yes?"

"Do you think…" Blake slid her queen diagonally to the C column, in the line of her enemy's exposed knight, "We're better off like this?"

Weiss tilted her head, "What do you mean?"

"I mean, do you think it's better that we'll never return to Remnant?" Blake glanced at her partner.

"I don't know...possibly," A white knight took the only black pawn on the frontlines, "This might be life's cruel way of telling us to move on."

"I'm an astronaut, Weiss." Blake watched her hand move her queen with the hole in Weiss' defense, "I don't believe in coincidences, but…" Her amber eyes blinked and connected with her friends azure ones, "Two women, who both had trouble with their fathers, did something that impacted their family, and wanted to be astronauts end up on the same flight that gets abandoned? If I didn't know any better, I'd say life definitely put us together to help one another move on." She shrugged.

Weiss rolled her captured pawn in one hand, "That's your theory?" She used one finger to push her rook one space right, blocking the black queen.

"Well, Major Tom seemed to have had his mind made before he left for his mission, but we didn't, Weiss." The faunus' ear twitched slightly as she let out a sigh, "And maybe that's why there's two of us, instead of one Major Tom. There's two of us because we need to help each other make up our minds…"

"Hmm.." Weiss contemplated her co-pilot's words while she waited for a black piece to move.

"And also…" Blake continued

Weiss leaned in gradually, "What?"

"Checkmate." The aviator pushed her queen to capture the rook, and lock in the white king, "Again."

Weiss stared at the board as her friend basked in her victory. Her head fell onto the table with a bang, scattering the chess pieces.

Blake laughed, "Or maybe life brought us together so I could teach you how to play chess."

Here am I floating

'round my tin can

Far above the Moon

This planet is blue

And there's nothing I can do

Love,

~Vox