A small flickering flame fell into view as Ruby rustled about. She balled up her fists to rub her eyes from the lingering effects of unconsciousness. Instantly she was jolted, remembering she had just been in the middle of a fight before... Before Ren took a devastating shot. "Ren, Nora... Jaune." Ruby squeaked out softly. She attempted to gather her baring and thoughts. If her friends were in danger she had to come to their help. Yet Ruby did not find herself in the middle of a battle. She could only see a couple figures resting around the small flame, exchanging dialog in a barely audible volume.

"She is awake." The voice came from one of the figures around the fire. The dim light revealed a well equipped woman wearing glasses.

A second figure quickly stood up and approached Ruby. "Oh Ruby! I'm so glad you're okay. Daddy is here now, you're safe." He embraced Ruby without consent, startling her until she quickly recognized him as Taiyang.

"Dad, what's going on? Why are you here? Is everyone okay?" Ruby ended the embrace with her questions. Taiyang gently pulled her, as a suggestion to take a place by the fire.

"Come on sit, warm up by the fire. Everything is fine now." Taiyang sat back down, allowing Ruby to join him close by.

Now by the fire Ruby could see Glynda Goodwitch clearly who sat one leg over the other. She appeared to be serious as usual. Ruby questioned once more about the well being of her friends and how the fight turned out.

Glynda spoke. "Ren is wounded and his Aura is yet to return. We gave him medical treatment, yet he needs to get back to Vale soon."

"As we all should." Taiyang interjected.

Ruby noticed a glance from Glynda to her father, as if to stop him from continuing on what he was saying. "He will be okay, right?" Ruby's voice was soft with concern.

"We gave first aid, he will be fine. Although Nora hasn't taken any physical wounds, she is in no better of a state." Glynda paused. "Something is wrong, she is pale and her Aura isn't returning either. Both of them will be taken to Vale." She finished with another quick glance at Tiayang.

Ruby's heart sunk at the thought of her friends injured. They detailed the events that transpired. Qrow had recovered after Taiyang and the others came in to push back the Haven attackers. Jaune was exhausted, although in relatively good condition, he rested a distance away from the group. In the middle of the conversation Oobleck had joined the others, he waited his turn before addressing Ruby.

"Ah, miss Rose I'm glad to find you awake and well." The green haired man sipped form his thermos. "Glynda, we must be off. Port and I did what we could, but they need additional medical attention at Vale."

"Alright, Let's get them back then." Glynda agreed while standing up from her resting position.

Taiyang quickly added, clearly pushing his agenda. "Yeah, we all should be going back to Vale."

Oobleck and Glynda exchanged looks, each knew how this would turn out. Oobleck was the first to respond. "I do believe our mission is to ensure their safety and escort them to Haven. Dangerous yes, but this is the nature of these missions."

"Missions? What mission, this is just one of Ozpin's crap plans, he isn't even here. Why endanger them for the plan of someone who isn't even going to bother showing up? And hell they already have that damn key, so we failed already." Taiyang said.

"You are implying he is able yet unwilling to join us." A rough voice spoke away from the campfire. Qrow slowly came into the light. "It was my mistake to even consider you to tag along, but with Ruby involved. I figured you'd find a way into this either way." Taiyang attempted to speak but was interrupted by Qrow before he could even start. "Just get on back to Vale, we'll let you know how the mission turns out." He pointed off in the distant, not necessarily towards Vale.

"This ends here, no way will I let you take Ruby off again." Taiyang now standing sized himself up to Qrow.

Qrow cocked his head back and to the side, looking down at Taiyang while meeting his hostile gesture. "We've seen what she has done at Beacon. This is what Ozpin was looking for..." He paused, clearly having a difficult time fishing the rest. "Looking for in her." He finished with a softer tone than the previous raised voice.

"You know he threw her into danger, yet he never cared for her safety. Only those damn silver eyes." Taiyang heatedly responded.

"We didn't even want you to come. If Summer didn't vouched for you, she'd still be here." He pointed to the ground between them, the name Summer gave Qrow a difficult time. "You were always the weakest. We were damned from the moment Raven locked eyes with you in the forest. She always had a soft spot for the runts of the litter."

"Uncle what are you-, please stop this." Ruby's sweet innocent voice was drowned out in the heated discussion. She forced back tears, still unsure what they were talking about. Yet the two most important men in her world were at each others throats. That was enough, Ruby didn't want them to be bickering, it tore her up from the inside. "Please..."

Taiyang responded in kind. "There was a reason we stopped those missions from Ozpin! We couldn't take it anymore and you know it."

"Whoa, sorry. I just thought we were Huntsmen back then." Qrow sarcastically waved his hands around in front of Taiyang. "We all sacrificed, I guess not all of us were fortunate to say fuck it and play house."

"Stop it!" Ruby was standing now, asserting herself in the argument. She was tearing, obviously having a difficult time attempting to keep her composure. "I don't know what you are all saying, but just stop this."

The pair broke their fixation on each other. Qrow almost seemed as if he didn't realize Ruby was spectating their fight. He pulled back from Taiyang, keeping his gaze away from locking with Ruby's.

"Well, gentlemen." Glynda spoke through the silence. "We have casualties to attend to. Oobleck, and I will be taking them back to Vale. I'm sure You and Port will be able to finish the mission. And I do think you should let Ruby decide for herself." She glared at Tai before turning off to gather the wounded with Oobleck.

Jaune had aroused from his sleep due to the raised voices. He and Port had moved towards the fire during the argument, ready to assist in any way possible. Both were relieved when Ruby was the one to break up the argument.

Jaune hesitantly reignited the conversation. "I am with Ruby where ever she goes, but how is she able to make a decision on what to do? I mean we don't even know what this plan is of Ozpin's or the details of what we are fighting." Jaune had been playing close attention to every detail and bits of information the assumed informed ones had been discussing. Yet he was unable to discover anything more than what he had been thinking this was about.

"I think it is about time." Qrow finally said. "Ruby, what do you know about the four maidens?" Taiyang shifted his posture, clearly not supportive including her with the information. Not that he thought the information was a danger to her, just the information may cause her to make decisions that could be dangerous.

Ruby recognized the title of maiden from what little Jaune had told her during their travels and old stories from childhood. She knew Pyrrha was going to receive a maiden's Aura and that Cinder had interrupted that plan, yet she had no idea what that meant. That was the extent of her knowledge, both her and Jaune were still in the dark about details.

Qrow took the look of intense focus as a sign to explain. He motioned to Jaune to come closer next to Ruby, indicating he expected him to be part of this as well. "What I'm about to tell you both." He looked towards Jaune, reading that he too wasn't well informed from Pyrrha about the maidens. "Is a story, regarded as just fairy tales from the people of Remnant."

Qrow finished explaining the details of how maidens were gifted the powers from a wise old wizard long ago. That each maiden was expected to go about and bring the same good will unto others that the wizard received from them with the help of his gift. Qrow finished with bringing them both up to current events of the transferal of maiden powers and how Cinder gained the power she has now. Qrow, Taiyang, Port, Ruby and Jaune were the only ones left sitting around the camp fire. Captivated by the story, even the ones who knew the events pondered it over. By the time Qrow had finished, Glynda and Oobleck had left in the night for Vale with the wounded in tow.

Jaune ran this information through his head. Pyrrha was dead because she was caught up in Ozpin's plan, and he left them for dead after the failure of the transferal. He gripped his sword hand, digging his nails into his palm. He looked towards Taiyang who sat staring into the flickering flame. Is this what he was talking about? Summer being disposable just like Pyrrha was, just another pawn in his chess game, over the maidens?

"So Cinder is after this power, and there are three other maidens left? Why is she going to Haven and why did we get attacked by their operatives that wanted Ozpin's cane, and Ruby's eyes of all things?" Jaune interrogated Qrow. "And the Dragon! What was with that thing, I mean come on."

Qrow sipped from his flask, shifting his seated body posture to appear open and welcome his questions. "As you might of noticed, the dragon was released from the mountain during the attack on Beacon. Three other dragons were buried around Remnant, the Huntsman academies were built around them to keep a close watch, ready to dispatch them if they were ever to arise again." Qrow let the information sink into both of them before continuing once more. "As you might of guessed, we believe the White Fang with Cinder are attempting to awaken the dragons to draw out the maidens, and to tear apart the Kingdoms."

"As for the cane..." Qrow did not leave the pair time to form any more questions. "Each Kingdom at one point in time took their own maidens. Imagine the Kingdoms each having the power to assault anyone from anywhere with the power of the weather. The Kingdoms with their own maidens would bring about the destruction of Remnant as we know it."

"To solve the issue before anything could develop, they had the idea to lock them away in vaults under their respective academies. The Kingdoms agreed to allow the Huntsman academies to be in charge of their maidens. The academies created vaults to hold them, along with securing the maiden. They were also tasked with making sure the maiden's power would fall into a young women within their Kingdom, who would then be locked away like the previous maiden."

Ruby could only imagine a life of confinement. How horrible it would be to be alive, just to be locked away. She made no efforts to conceal her disagreement with what Qrow was telling her.

"Annually, each maiden is released from their vault to make a pilgrimage. They go separately to the alleged site of the wizard's cottage. It was there Amber was ambushed by Cinder and her companions before I was able to stop them.

The only key to the vaults is the very cane the Haven operatives just stole. It was decided that the headmaster of Beacon would guard the key. Now Haven has the key and will unlock their maiden for both moral and nefarious reasons. Although this will fall right into the plans of Cinder who wants their maiden loose to gain her power, and destroy Mistral. We can not let any Kingdom fall and we can't let Cinder take any more maiden's powers. This is where your silver eyes come into play, Ruby."

Ruby would of payed closer attention at the mentioning of her name, except she was already fully enthralled with what Qrow was saying.

"So uh, the silver eyes are the key to killing the dragons? Is that why you need Ruby specifically?" Jaune seemingly questioned for Ruby, as she sat next to him in her own mind trying to fit puzzle pieces together.

Qrow briefly told Jaune the same story he told Ruby not too long ago about the silver eyed warriors. He flowed into the answer to Jaune question. "But the dragon did not seem to, die, on top of the tower. More like frozen, which is more than enough to stop the dragons from destroying a Kingdom. I doubt Huntsmen would be able to take a beast down without sustaining massive casualties to themselves and collateral damage." Qrow turned to Ruby. "Unless we can use the eyes."

Taiyang stood up, speaking his mind. "You can't just guilt trip Ruby into coming along head first into danger!"

"Dad," Ruby's sweet voice hit Taiyang, turning his head from Qrow. His features shifted from conflict to concern. "I don't think I would be able to live with myself if there was something I could of done to save people, and I didn't do it. It hurts to see people fighting, you and uncle, I don't want to see that. I don't want us to fight each other, we are all here on Remnant together. I want to go to Mistral and help save those people."

"They just attacked you. They could of killed you!" Tai pleaded, he kept his voice soft opposed to how he was speaking to Qrow. "They don't want our help."

"But they need our help." Ruby placed her hand on Taiyang's shoulder. "We can show them that we can help each other and not fight."

"You're going aren't you." Tai reluctantly said. The thought of Ruby selflessly stepping into danger to aid others filled him with pride. He was so very proud of Ruby, silently comparing her actions to that of Summer's. Yet it pained him for the same reason.

"Yup." She cocked her head to the side and smiled. "I'd like it if you would come too."

Peter Port who had been silent yet vigilant during the conversations jumped to his feet. "A jolly good show there miss Rose!" A loud chuckle startled the members around the fire. Port's big meaty hand slapped Ruby's back, sending her stumbling away. "You are truly a Huntress to be admired!"

Qrow stood, speaking to everyone around the dim flame. "Now that that's settled. We leave at sunrise. Let's get some rest, we will arrive at Ctary before noon tomorrow."

With a consensus met, the remaining Huntsmen picked a first watch, which Ruby hastily volunteered herself. This was it, finally they were going to meet Cinder at Haven and stop her. Ruby filled her thoughts of Pyrrha during the night, and how she would let her rest easy after stopping Cinder. It was finally Ruby's turn to sleep. As fatigue overtook, one last thought betrayed her desire to protect and help others. Will there be hesitation to do what might need to be done to stop her?