It was a month since Ruby had left her home in Patch as winter sprinkled the earth with snow. Sitting around a fire on fallen logs of wood, eating the food they had packed from the last small town they visited, using what little money they had left. Looking up from a dry, cold bun, she saw Ren and Nora staring into the flames of the fire pit across from her, they were sitting next to each other sharing a blanket as it draped over both sets of shoulders.
With another sigh, she looked over to the third log next to hers to find it empty of their fourth member, Jaune Arc. Shifting in her seat, she looked around to try and find him, only for Ren to speak up quietly, like he always does. "He said he was going to use the bathroom" He said gently. "But that was half an hour ago" Ruby nodded slightly as she set her scraps of food down and stood up, her backside numb from sitting on a hard, frozen surface for so long.
"I'll go find him, it's still dangerous on the mainland. He should stay near the fire" Ren nodded slightly as Nora reached behind her and grabbed another log to keep the warm flames going. They had made camp inside the large forested area in the middle of Vale, in some forest that no one had visited anymore. They needed to cross from one side of the continent to the other to get to a airship port that could carry them to Mistral.
With the largest airdock being completely overrun by Grimm, this was their only option that didn't attract Nevermores or Griffons to attack the Airbuses. Instead, they're trekking across the land on foot and fighting every Beowolf and Ursa on their way. Walking away from the fire, the glow from the flames were being overtaken by the light of the shattered moon the further she moved, Ruby heard Jaune before she actually saw him sitting on the ground with his back to a trunk of a large tree. Quiet sobs and sniffling echoing though the night air.
"Jaune?" Ruby asked gently as she peeked around the tree.
Jaune looked up with a start and quickly began to rub the wrist of his glove against his nose and eyes, trying to hide the tears and snot he had been shedding just seconds before. "Oh! Ruby" He stammered out, his voice horse. "Sorry, I didn't hear you come up" He cleared his throat and took a couple of deep breaths to get the frog out of his throat.
Ruby looked down at the blond knight softly as he tried to cover the fact that he had been crying alone again. Silently, Ruby walked around him and wrapped her cloak around her body so she could sit down without snow going up her skirt. She looked over at him gently and saw how much he hurt from Pyrrha's death, they all hurt from that, Jaune more than anyone.
He had told them about her final moments with him, how she kissed him and pushed him into the rocket locker and sent him to safety so she could fight Cinder alone. She had told them that she arrived too late to help, guilt ate at her over that fact but everyone reassured that it wasn't her fault, but that didn't change the fact that she was too slow to help. That she, Ruby Rose, of all people, was too slow to save someone.
She could see his features on the soft silver glow of the moon. He had missed a few trails his tears had taken, making his face shine lightly. His blue eyes met her silver and she could see the sorrow in them, tired and bloodshot. They sat there in silence looking at each other for a few moments before Ruby realised what she was doing. Heat rushed to her face and she looked up at the moon to try and avoid embarrassment.
She knew she had a not so small crush on him, who wouldn't? He was tall, handsome and a bit of a goof, he was the first friend she made at Beacon since her own sister ditched her as soon as they landed, she blew Weiss up and Blake simply walked off after that scene. She spent the next hour or so simply walking and talking with him, it was one of her favourite moments from her time at that school. The only reason she didn't share the fact that she liked Jaune like that was because she was only fifteen, pushed ahead two years and felt like she didn't belong. Plus he was always trying to ask Weiss out, so that didn't help.
The second is that Yang would have either laughed at her face, or killed him. Ruby didn't want to experience either of those options.
Lastly was Pyrrha, she couldn't just steal him out from under her like that, what kind of friend would she be if she did that. After all, how could she compete with the Mistrali champion for his affection, she was his partner, and she was just a fifteen year old girl.
"You found a nice place to look up at the moon" Ruby said gently as she stared up at the shattered moon of Remnant. The trees around them thinned out just enough so that they had a clear view to the night sky and to the moon.
She saw Jaune nod lightly and looked back up to the moon with her. The two of them were silent for a few more minutes until Jaune broke it with a haggard whisper. "I miss her, Ruby" From the way he spoke, she could tell that he was holding back another wave of tears. "I miss her so much..."
Ruby leaned over slightly so their shoulders were touching so he knew she was right there. "I know, Jaune. We all do" She spoke softly as she felt his shoulders move up and down in silent sobs. Gently, she reached out and placed her hand on his arm and gently squeezed. "But you've got Nora and Ren and me. We'll always be here for you" Jaune nodded lightly as he placed his hand over hers and squeezed back slightly. His bare fingertips touching her skin sent shocks and tingles through her hand, her sorrow leaden heart fluttered slightly and her breath hitched in her throat, heat rushed to her face as she looked over and saw Jaune staring into her eyes.
"Thanks, Ruby" He said gently with a deep, shaky breath to try and calm himself down. "I know, Its just, hard sometimes" He offered her a gentle, albeit forced smile to try and reassure her. "I'll be okay though, eventually" Ruby nodded lightly and let out a heavy sigh. Just sitting with him, staring out at the moon, filled her with bittersweet joy. She was sitting with the boy she had been crushing on for almost a year, their hands on top of each other in content silence, but at the cost of a friend losing her life.
She would give him all the time in the world, as much as he needed, and she would be always there, waiting with open arms and an open heart for him. Their quiet little moment was ruined when he took his hand off of hers, leaving her feeling a little colder than before as he gently began to get up. "We should get back to the others before they start to worry"
With a nod, Ruby followed his lead and got to her feet, brushing off the snow and frozen dirt and twigs off her cloak as they made their way back to the orange glow of the fire. Reaching the small camp they made, Nora had her head on Ren's shoulder. Eyes closed and mouth wide open with wheezing snores as a small trail of drool made its way down the corner of her mouth and onto Ren, but if cared, he did not show it.
He simply offered them a small smile as he reached down and tossed a small ration bag at Jaune, his dinner for the night. He caught it with ease and took his seat on the frozen log. Opening the pack, he pulled out the bread disc and gave it an odd look before tapping it on the log he was sitting on, earning a loud frozen tap noise. "Yeah, I think I'll pass on that" He said with a small smile as he began to eat the other, just as unappetising as the disc of bread. Earning a small smile from the red cloaked woman.
The rest of the night passed quietly, Ren eventually carrying his sleeping partner to their shared tent. Ruby and Jaune both looking at each other and decided that Ruby would take first watch, then Jaune, Nora and Ren finally. The night passed with a restless sleep, the cold stopping anyone from getting any kind of actual rest. She heard the soft footsteps of Ren walking around the fire as he began the act of packing up the camp.
With a sigh, Ruby wrapped her cloak around her body and got out of the tent to see the green clad Lie Ren preparing morning coffee. "Morning" Ren said lightly as he extended a blue tin cup filled with the steaming liquid, Ruby mumbled out a morning greeting as she accepted the warm liquid. She usually took her coffee with cream and sugar, but with nothing like that out here, she had to deal with it. As the warm caffeine hit her system, she noticed a fresh layer of frost covering everything around them, her own breath visible in the cold.
Next to wake up was Jaune, coming out of his tent with a wide yawn and a stretch, earning a very audible pop as his body realigned. He accepted a cup of coffee from Ren as Nora walked back from the tree line, arms filled with enough small wood to make another camp when they reached the end of the day. With a meagre breakfast, they packed up their campsite, stamped out the flames and continued on their way.
Like every time they travelled down the road, the four of them were silent, still weighed down by the spirit of their friend. They followed the dirt path into a hilly area, maybe another week and a half before reaching the coastal city to get to Mistral, if they were following the map correctly. Before she could continue on that thought, the sounds of growling and branches snapping caught everyone's attention.
Quickly looking up the hill, the four of them saw a pack of Beowolves began to cautiously approach them, using the trees to support their weight as they began to spread out to try and surround them. Quickly, weapons were brought out of their holders and packs were thrown to the ground. Nora acted first with a pink grenade being fired from Magnhild into the trees, signalling the beginning of the fight.
The Grimm charged out from their trees and spread out as a pink explosion consumed three of the creatures and several trees in the area. Spreading out, the four of them took on their share of Beowolves, Ruby was secretly pleased at the interruption, something to distract from the depressing silence of walking. Leaping through the trees, she used Crescent Rose to rocket herself into a pack and made quick work of them while using her speed to her advantage to keep herself safe.
Dodging back with each swipe of their claws and charging forward to take advantage of their dropped defence, deftly swinging her weapon, limbs were sliced off and heads were separated from shoulders, filling the air with the oily decaying scent of dissipating Grimm. Looking over, she checked to see if everyone else was doing okay.
Ren was busy leaping through the air and concentrating his aura to block swings as he filled them with Dust infused bullets from Storm Flower, quickly moving from one dying Grimm to the next. When they got too close to him, he would spin his weapons around and slice ribbons off their thick hide as he flipped past them. Ducking under a larger Grimm, he sprinted past it with his blades, slicing his thighs open and bringing it to its knees.
With a flourishing spin, he sliced open its arm making it useless to defend from the final blow int he form of Ren shoving the tips of his bladed pistols into its mouth and separating its top half of its head from the bottom. In the same motion, Ren outreached his arms to the sides and fired into two more Grimm who thought he left himself wide open.
Past Ren, Nora Valkyrie was swinging her hammer with reckless abandon as she smashed Grimm into trees and the ground. Where Ren was quiet and efficient, Nora was loud and excessive, perfectly matching both their personalities. Ruby watched as she used the momentum from her weapon to carry her through the air, with a loud bang and a louder 'whoop', Nora charged up the hill to meet the nightmare creatures head on.
Another explosion from her hammer sent her into a front flip that brought her hammer down with a heavy slam and crushed a Grimm into a pancake. Black, greasy blood seeping into the snowy ground as she continued to charge off up the hill. Ren also saw the recklessness of his childhood friend and quickly sprinted after her to help out any way he could. Ruby quickly scanned the snowy hillside for the blond knight, only to see him get knocked to the ground by an Ursa that wasn't part of the pack before.
Ruby quickly swung her weapon over so it was pointed behind her, she fired off a round to jump start her semblance and rushed to Jaune's aid. He was being pinned down by the weight of the beast on his shield. It roared out a terrifying howl as its paw reached up to slash across his face. Just as Ruby leapt into the air, a Beowolf came from her blind spot and hit her leg, knocking her into a spin in the air.
She hit the Ursa with full force, knocking it off of Jaune, but its legs got tangled in the straps of Jaune's pack that he forgot to take off before the battle and the three of them began to tumble down the hill. Pained cries between the three of them were overwhelmed by the sound of snapping trees and shifting earth. She didn't know how far they tumbled, but in just a few seconds, she was weightless.
Looking around, she saw the hill suddenly end and a drop that ended twenty feet down below them. She saw Crescent Rose flying away from her towards the forest floor, Jaune managed to push his sword into the Ursa's chest as they fell hard to the ground. The fall lasted a couple of seconds, she was too distracted by the fall to scream out as she plummeted to the ground. He closed her eyes and gritted her teeth as she tensed up to take the hit, and felt the wind get knocked out of her lungs. She felt the ground hit her hard, a loud snap of a tree breaking under her echoed through the air as she continued to roll until she skidded to a stop when the hill levelled out finally.
Ruby felt light headed and nauseous from the spinning and her head colliding with the tree as she landed. With a loud groan, she looked around and saw Jaune under the dissipating Ursa, groaning as he pushed the beast off of him and gently getting to his feet. Ruby went to get up when a shot of pain raced up her leg. Looking down, she saw a horrible sight.
Lodged through her right calf was a large shard of wood, soaked with blood. At the sight of this, the pain crashed into her all at once. Her leg was on fire, pain blossomed through her chest as she tried to breath. She gripped her leg with her hands and let out a terrible, painful scream.
