Weeks Gone By

One Week after the Fall of Beacon

Sun looked out the window of the room from the top bunk, and to the ocean, expanding far beyond the horizon. He laid on his front, chin resting on his hands, and tail giving the occasional lazy motion. He had been in the room for hours at this point, and normally by now he would be bouncing off the walls, wanting to get out of the small room and run around the ship. To climb things and cause and get into trouble, but after the previous week all that excitement was no longer there.

"This is bullshit," came a rough voice from the other side of the room. Sun looked over to the bottom bed of the other bunk bed, to where Sage lay, arms behind his head, looking straight up at the top bunk. "We shouldn't be here, we shouldn't be going home back to Mistral," he said, agitation growing with every word. "We should have stayed in Beacon, help out clear it out, to find out who did this and-"

"And do what?" said Scarlet, from above him, sounding just tired. He shifted in his bed and sat with his legs crossed. "Beacon is done for, there are just too many Grimm for us to clear out. You were there, every time we killed one, two more that were even stronger would take its place, it was hopeless. There was no way he could have done more than."

"And no one to help either," came Neptune's voice, dejected. "No one's at Beacon anyway, not anymore, they're all gone. Jaune, Nora and Ren left for Jaune's home I think after..." He hesitated in saying the next few words before not saying anything. Sun regretted that he never really took the time to know her better. "Ruby was still in a coma before her uncle took her and Yang back to their father's, while Weiss' own took her back to Atlas, and Blake's just gone."

Sun remembered the last time he saw Blake, standing outside the hospital, staring at the remains of the school, and he had tried to talk to her, only to receive nothing in return. When he tried to touch her shoulder, his hand simply phased through the shadow she had left behind, and she was gone.

"There had to be something we could have done!" Sage argued. "I don't care what, but we could have-"

"Done what?" Scarlet answers back. "None of us were in any shape to do anything else, at that point we would have been more in the way than anything." He mumbled the next set of words. "Not like we could have helped in anyway."

"You think everyone's okay?" Neptune asks.

"No," Sage says, flatly.

"Maybe we shouldn't be going back home," Neptune continues. "We should at least check up on everyone, and I know that the CTT is out, but maybe we can-"

"Everyone shut up," Sun says aloud, and no one said a word. "We can't do anything else, and we're going home. That's it, that's all we can do at this point." Sun would be the first to admit that maybe his leadership skills were a bit lacking, but his boys knew when he was being serious, and he was just too drained of any energy to really do settle any arguments. "Nothing we say can change things."

The rest of the trip home was very quiet.

Two Weeks after the Fall of Beacon

Weiss smoothed out the sheets and blankets of her bed, making certain that everything was in its place and in proper order, spending more time on it than she thought she should have. She then turned around to the rest of her room, large and white, with high vaulted ceilings, and a door that lead to a large balcony with a beautiful view of the gardens and lake. There was sixty-inch tv mounted on the wall next to the walk-in closet filled enough clothes for her to wear something brand new every day of the year, and a dresser filled with jewelry that possibly had a collective worth of hundreds of thousands. It was a luxury suite that most people would spend their entire life savings on, and she had been lucky enough to be born into it.

She hated it, she hated this big empty room. What she wanted was her dorm back, which was too small for four people even with the haphazardly-built bunk beds, and how untidy it could be at times since neither Ruby or Yang seemed to understand how cleaning went. She missed that it could be loud enough to stop her from doing her homework, and how sometimes she found her personal space invaded with the room was suddenly filled with an additional eight people. Those rooms were not made to hold twelve people, all of who were making as much noise as they possibly could! If she could, she would happily trade this room for that room, because that one felt more like home that this one, which was more like a prison.

Many people were confused and furious for what happened at the tournament, with the last footage being Atlas military androids and White Fang members attacking civilizations. Father had told her to remain in the castle, since it would be safe from the people who blamed Atlas Academy or the SDC for their part in the attacks. It was a PR nightmare, and with the CTT down, chances are that the truth would not be heard for a long time. She hadn't even been able to contact Winter, who must certainly be worried sick. Did she even know that she was back with her father? She wanted to go to Beacon because she wanted to put as much space between her father and company as she could, to make something of herself, independently from anyone or anything else, but now she was back to where she started, square one.

Turning where she stood, Weiss found herself looking into the full-length mirror, and suddenly the size of the room seemed so much larger then before, all while making her feel too small. She missed her friends, all of them, the first people in her life, outside her sister, that she felt genuinely happy around. If she needed them there for her, then they would be there, and she knew she would do the same if it was ever asked of her, without a single moment hesitation. But now they were not here, it was just her, all by herself.

She was all alone again, and now after having spent so much time with friends that she loved and appreciated, that loneliness hurt more than ever.

Three Weeks after the Fall of Beacon

Blake sat down in the chair after she had pulled it close to the fireplace, warming herself by the dust-birthed fire. It was getting colder out, day by day, the seasons were changing and soon winter would be on her. She was thankful that she had managed to find this house, mostly undamaged by the attacks, though there had been looting, much like most of the abandoned sections of the city. She doubted that the homeowners would be back any time soon, due to the high amount of Grimm still present, but she was confident she would be safe here. She then looked outside the window, and in the distance she could see Beacon Tower, or what was left of it, and the giant Grimm clinging to the side of of it, unmoving like it had been for the last few weeks. She still didn't know who Cinder was, or what she had wanted to gain from this, all she knew was the White Fang took part in this invasion.

She had wanted to be wrong, even after the docks, even after Mountain Glenn, that there was something missing, something that she was just not understanding, but it was harder and harder to deny the truth. The White Fang as it was now was nothing like it was when she was younger, back then they never would have done anything like this, but every time she saw one of them, attacking people, she didn't see one ounce of regret on any of their faces, all of them enjoying what they were doing. Adam was really willing to go that far, to destroy an entire city. Lowering a hand, she traced along her stomach, pressing her fingers on the light scar on her skin.

Adam had taunted her, calling her a coward, that she always would run, and she wanted to prove him wrong, she had done nothing but run from her problems before, but she wanted to show him that she was tired of running, that for once in her life she would stand her ground and face her problems head-on. Looking back, she should have run, be the coward she knew she was, and then so much pain could have been prevented. Yang had tried to save her life, but Adam cut her down, his strength had always been a frightening thing, slicing her arm off like it was nothing. Even now it could almost turn her stomach, thinking back to the severed stump, to the blood that poured out of it with every step she had taken to get her out of there.

She had wanted to build a life of her own, to leave the old one behind and start fresh, but now she realized that would simply not be possible. Her past would always haunt her, and it would cost her friends their future; Yang lost a limb, Weiss would be butchered because of her name, and she knew that Ruby, if she ever woke up, would have lost a great deal of the innocence that she once had. It wasn't fair that this had to happen, after all the work she put into this life, she didn't even know what she was supposed to do now. Everyday she'd go out and take out as much Grimm as she possibly could, coming back to this empty house, tired and bruised, only to repeat everything tomorrow, but beyond that she didn't know what she was going to do.

Track down the White Fang was something she had thought of, but she didn't know what to do with that. Say she did managed to find out where they were, then what, take them all on by herself, face Adam by herself? She wouldn't do that, she knows, because he was right about her, everything he said was was entirely true. She kept telling herself that she could keep her friends safe by putting as much distance between them and herself, but she knew that she could much better protect them if she had been near them, to watch over them herself, but she knows that's a lie.

Blake didn't want to face them because she was afraid of what they would say, about how they would blame her, especially Yang. Her friend had tried to take on someone many times stronger than her, and it resulted in the amputation of her right arm, and her thanks for this was to just leave her behind without so much as a goodbye, while she laid in a bed, in pain, while she sister was unconscious in the next one over. If they all hated her, she didn't blame them, it was entirely deserved.

Adam had been right in everything he had said, she was nothing more than a coward.

Four Weeks after the Fall of Beacon

When Jaune had thought of coming home, he had thought it would have been with him accomplishing his goal of being a student at Beacon, that he belonged there, bringing home stories of his time at school and of his team, that he was the leader of. He had even thought to bring along his team, his friends along with him. Well, he was back home for certain, it's not like he had anywhere else to go, and Nora and Ren came along too since they had no home to go back too, but there were no happy times to be had, no stories of triumph. He didn't think they could ever feel anything remotely close to triumph again. In the end, he had been unable to do anything, him and Nora and Ren, none of them were even there for her.

He had managed to come run make his way to where everyone had been evacuated too, hoping that Ruby and Weiss had been able to save her, but instead was he saw was Ruby laying down on a gurney, unconscious. Then he saw Weiss, looking so broken, standing before Nora and Ren, and Nora was loudly sobbing into Ren's chest, while it seemed like he was barely holding himself together.

"Jaune! It's Pyrrha! She's-she's-" Nora couldn't finish what she had tried to say, hardly able to speak between the chocked sobs. It was the most numbing and painful moment he had ever experienced in his life, realizing what she meant.

He's grateful for his parents and sisters, who had been so kind and understanding, but he knows that it only so much. Ren is much more quiet than usual, going through the house, constantly trying to help out with any given chore, no matter how small, while Nora spends her days outside, training, with a level of aggravation that he had never seen. Meanwhile he can only sit in his room, thinking "What if I did this..." and "What if I did that...", running a hundred different scenarios through his head trying to figure out what could have been done to save her, but in the end, he knows it doesn't matter. He knew that no matter what he did, he just wasn't someone who could make a meaningful difference.

He didn't even know why any of this happened in the first place. She knew something, but she never got to tell him. All he knew was that Ozpin had a machine that had a woman who seemed to be in a coma, and something about a transfer. He had no idea what any of that was and there was no one alive who could give him any answers.

He had spent the last hour looking at a figure he had, a hunter from a show he used to watch as a kid. Once he had thought it was cool, and how he would want to be like that as he got older, but now it just made his stomach feel heavy just by looking at it. It ended up being thrown against the wall, shattering into pieces, damaging the poster of the world map he had taped up, creating a tear across Vale, leading up to a small island just to the west of it. He stared at the island, and the name next to it.

Grabbing his gear, Jaune stormed down to the kitchen, to were Nora and Ren were, slowing eating a stew he had made.

"Get your stuff, we're leaving," he said sharply, slamming his sword down on the table.

"Leaving?" Nora asked, poking at her meal with a spoon. "Where?"

"Patch."

"Patch? Isn't that were Ruby and Yang live?" Ren asked, slightly turning his head towards Jaune.

"It is."

"Then why-"

"Because we need answers," Jaune said, trying his best to keep up a confident voice. "Ruby was there when everything stopped, she was there when-" He stopped, almost choking on the words, and he could see both of them tense up. "When she was killed," he said with a great deal of difficultly. "The next thing anyone knows, Cinder is nowhere to be seen, and that giant dragon is just frozen."

"Do you think Ruby will know anything? Or that she's even awake to begin with?" Nora asked, pushing the stew away from her.

"I don't know." Jaune's arms slumped, and his voice dropped. "But I can't just sit here anymore, there has to be something we can do. If you two don't want to come, I get it, I'll just-"

"How could you say that Jaune?" Nora jumped to her feet, hurt in her voice. "We're still a team, no matter how broken we are! If it means getting getting justice for her, then we'll do whatever we can."

Ren then stood up. "She's right. We stick together, no matter what, no more getting separated from each other, not any more."

For the first time in weeks, Jaune felt a bit more happy

Five Weeks after the Fall of Beacon

It really shouldn't surprise her, in fact it's something she almost expected, but what did surprise her was that she didn't feel as hurt as she thought she would. Everything is just numbing to her, except for the phantom pain marking where her right arm used to be, which constantly burned and itched. She watched as her sister left, walking down the long road into the forest, with Jaune, Nora and Ren by her side, she really didn't know what for, maybe Ruby had told her at some point, but she likely didn't care enough to listen. Ruby had left her, and she was not surprised at all that this had happened, only that it had not happened sooner. Why would she stay in this house, with her? She didn't even want that. There her sister was, going out, doing stuff, maybe to save the world, but all Yang could do was lay down and give up, and why shouldn't she?

It wasn't fair that this happened to her, when she had only done what she knew was the right thing. Seeing Blake, on the ground, with a man holding a sword in her gut, she had been furious, then jumped at him, and the next thing she knew she was in a hospital bed, with an unconscious Ruby in the bed next to her. That was when the doctor told what had happened to her, and it had been the most terrifying moment of her life. She could still feel her lost limb, even now, even though there was nothing there, a clean cut all the way through.

Then Blake ran, she ran. Yang lost her arm, and all Blake could do was run? Despite all that talk about how she wouldn't anymore? She just left without saying a word, without even saying goodbye? That was the thanks she got for losing her arm? Now Ruby was gone, taking Jaune, Nora and Ren with her, because Pyrrha was dead, not even leaving behind a body, while Weiss was taken back to Atlas without even a word of warning. Qrow was gone too, doing whatever mission, who-knows where, without knowing when he'd get back, maybe tomorrow, maybe next week or next month, maybe never. Raven left before she could even walk, and Qrow made it clear she had never cared, and Summer was dead too.

Dad was still here, so was Zwei, but she couldn't help but wonder how much longer. Zwie was getting old, and it was only a matter of time before something happened and Dad left her too. Fine, let them all leave if they wanted, it wasn't like they were leaving anything behind that was worth anything. She didn't care.

Yang adjusted herself in her bed, pushing herself down until she was under the covers, but keeping her eyes on the window. She tried hard to not cry, she really did.

Six Weeks after the Fall of Beacon

The smell of salt water and the brisk air were strong today, Ruby thought, sitting on the crate, feet dangling over the side while she waited for the boat to be ready for boarding. She was nervous, that she was really doing this, going all the way to Mistral when she had never even left the kingdom of Vale before. There were talks, years before, about once taking a vacation there with Dad and Yang, but nothing ever came of it, but now she was going, just not with her family this time. Looking a bit further down the dock, she saw Jaune, Nora and Ren, talking with each other, and laughing.

When she had met them downtown in Patch last week, she had been surprised to see them there, bumping into them in the farmer's market, she actually didn't know if she would ever get to see them ever again. It had been awkward though, for obvious reasons, but what worried Ruby was that they all tried to brush over the subject. They had wanted to find out why the attack on Beacon happened and who was responsible for it, and hoped that Ruby knew something, anything that could help. Haven, she had said, that's what her uncle told her, that the trail led back to Haven. So then they planned on what they would do next, and here they were. She didn't tell anyone, she knew that if her father knew he'd try to stop her, and Yang had been painfully apathetic towards her as she made her way out, hugging as tightly as she possibly could, telling her she loved her.

Now she had a new team, Team RNJR she had thought of, but didn't feel right, now matter how much she liked how it sounded, because it wasn't a new team, it was two teams with missing members to them. Honestly she sometimes felt like a stranger with them, like she didn't belong with them, because she knew that there was someone else who was meant to be here instead, while she was meant to have three other people with her as well. Pyrrha was a subject that they weren't willing to talk about, Jaune in particular seemed to avoid the subject, trying to talk around it whenever she tried to bring it up, and she could tell that Nora and Ren had their own reservations as well. During the course of the week, things only seemed to get worst, and they all seemed to withdraw into themselves more, and she knew its her causing this, because she's the wrong redhead, the wrong person. This continued until it reached a point where no one was talking unless it was important, and Ruby hated that, because it wasn't right at all, that this was what things had come too. That's why, last night, she took a risk.

It was at a cheap motel, in the safe zone of the city, and with all the refugees from the evacuated sections they were lucky to find the dingy and small, two-bed room, she was with Jaune in one bed, while Nora and Ren shared the other. She had been staring up at the ceiling, ignoring the sounds of police sirens in the distance, while Jaune was to her left, with his back to her, while on the other bed, Nora was laying curled up into Ren's back. Ruby didn't know if any of them were asleep, but she had trouble sleeping, too many nightmares.

"Remember that time we had a food fight?" she asked aloud, hoping someone was listening. "Like it all started with Nora throwing a pie at Weiss?" Beside her, Jaune shifted slightly. "And we all used whatever we could find because we didn't have weapon? Yang just shoved her fists into a couple of turkeys, and Weiss had a big dumb sword fish, and you guys had a watermelon on a stick and some leeks? Then we all just fought each other with condiments?"

No one said anything, she got no replies, even though she is desperate for one, she didn't want to continue this on by herself, but no one does. As she gave up, and drew her sleeping mask over her eyes, she heard a giggle from the other bed.

"I think Ren got an upskirt of Yang," came a delighted reply from Nora.

"I did not," was Ren's calm, but quick reply.

"Eh, either way, I got to blast her out through the ceiling. Literally." There was then the sounds of shifting on the other bed.

"I never knew bread could hit that hard," Ruby said, pulling her mask back up and looking over to the pair to see both of them turn around to face her. "I think it might have been stale." Jaune shifted again, and Ruby took a breath, hoping for the best. "What about when Pyrrha threw like a thousand soda cans at us?" The air became tense for a moment, and no one said anything, leaving Ruby to dread if she crossed a line.

"I just remember it being sticky," said Jaune, and the tension instantly vanished. He turned around onto his other side, and faced them. "Also, it was hard to clean up, so I'm basically done with soda for the rest of of my life."

Ruby rolled her eyes. "It wasn't that bad!"

"Yeah right, everyone with long hair kept complaining about how sticky it was, Yang almost blew a gasket and Pyrrha was afraid of getting ants everywhere."

"Ants!" Ruby laughed in response, and from there they go on, they keep telling stories about their days at Beacon, about the things that were no longer there, and they're having fun doing so. There's laughing, which is what Ruby wants, and she's laughing too, laughing so hard and long until she no longer finds herself laughing, but crying instead. Reminiscing in the good memories leads her to remembering the bad ones, and how bad things went, and unfair everything is.

Penny didn't deserve to be ripped to pieces like that, she just wanted to have fun in the tournament and make friends. Pyrrha didn't deserved to be reduced to cinders when she was trying to do what she knew was the right thing. Even though he probably deserved it, she has nightmares of Roman Torchwich's death, which happened so suddenly, alive one second and dead the next. It wasn't fair that she didn't know if she would ever see Weiss again, or that she didn't know where Blake went, or if Yang was ever going to be back to the person she used to be. None of this was fair, it wasn't right, and all she can do is cry.

A heavy hand was then placed on her shoulder, and after rubbing the tears from her eyes she saw that it had been Jaune. It's a small gesture, but it meant the world to her, that despite all that went wrong, there were still people for her, and for each other.

The sudden blaring of the ship horn popped her out of her memories, and she almost fell off the crate she was sitting on.

"Hey, Ruby, come on." Recomposing herself she looked up and saw Jaune. "They're starting to load up passengers onto the boat, so we have to get going."

"Right," Ruby said, shaking her head slightly. "I'll be be there in a minute or two, okay?"

Jaune stared at her for a moment, looking her over, before he nodded his head and turned around, walking to the ship to meet with Nora and Ren. She jumped down from the crate and dusted off her skirt, and gave one last look to city behind her, setting her sights on the barely visible Beacon, where in its ruins was a giant dragon, frozen atop the tower.

Silver eyes, that's was Qrow had said, a fairy tale that was actually real, and she had them. There was something special about her, and she was meant to do something great with it, but she didn't know what, or even how to really use them in the first place. The more she thought about it, the more it scared her, because she was going into the unknown, throwing herself into dangers that she didn't even know, and she knows that she might not make it back. When Mom died, she didn't really understand what that meant, but now she knows, to have someone close to you die, and she gets what Roman Torchwick was talking about, how the world was cruel and didn't care about spirit. Sometimes, no matter what you do, bad things just happen.

But, that's why she's here. Even though she knows what she's putting at risk, she knows what she's always wanted to do and how she wanted to live her life. When she first met him, she remembered that the first thing Ozpin had said to her was that she had silver eyes, but she also remembered him asking why she wanted to go to his school: She wanted to make the world better, and she still does.

The horn of the ship blew once more, and Ruby turned to dock it. She didn't know what she was going to see or do on this journey, but she was ready for it.

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