RWBYond War
AN: Jeez I've been blowing up Team THRY with all the stuff from the volume premiere. Too bad that this story is going to end in just two more weeks. This, I believe is the last chapter to not have action in it. So, you know what that means.
Chapter 12: Reunion
Weiss composed herself in her mirror. She had been having an eventful week. Now with the reports coming in from the Isle of Storms, things were getting more frantic. She needed to do what she could to help but… She shook the thought from her head. She was Weiss Schnee, one of the most powerful dust mages in all of Remnant. She knew more about the substance than anyone alive. She had near limitless resources. She had powerful friends and influence. She could take down these thugs with nothing more than a wave of her hand and a few phone calls.
Rubrum was with her, taking a break from slaving away at Penny's operating table. Penny was well on her way to recovering, but these things took time. By Rubrum's estimation it would be another month before she was combat ready.
When the airship landed in Beacon, Weiss felt the wind leave her body. She nearly fell over was all the emotions, fears, anxieties, doubts, that feeling of powerlessness. But she firmly grabbed the edges of the sink as she pressed down on it. This was not the time to fall. She was Weiss Schnee, Ruby Rose's best friend and partner. She had to do this. She had to be strong.
"Weiss!" Ruby cheered as Weiss exited the ship. The two women embraced each other. Weiss almost lost it again there. Ruby was always so happy to see her. Not even Flynt was this enthused when she would meet with him. Then again, nights with Flynt happened so much more often than nights with Ruby.
"I'm glad you're okay." Weiss said, running her hair through Ruby's hair. Ruby broke the hug.
"Did you hear what happened to Cinder?" Ruby asked.
"Yes I did. I'm more concerned with the fact that Adam and Tobi are now running free." Weiss said.
"Hey Ruby." Rubrum slipped out from behind Weiss.
"While I live and breathe." Ruby said. "Rubrum Snappes." She walked to the side of his hover chair and wrapped her arms around his head. "How's Penny?"
"She'll be alright." Rubrum laughed nervously. "It's not as bad as it was the first time, as far as I know. I wasn't around that time so I only have her father's depressing journal to go from. It is a bit worse than last time though."
"Last time?" Ruby raised an eyebrow.
"Oh um…" Rubrum nervously laughed as he scratched the back of his head. "Training accident."
"Oh that must have been terrible." Ruby said.
"Oh yeah, the kid freaked out. Then Flynt decided to mess with him and make him think he had actually killed his instructor."
"Which was a serious dick move." Weiss cut in.
"Anyway, I'll leave you girls be." He started leaving. "I'm going to the CCT, see if I can get these files Briggs was looking for."
"Take care." Weiss said.
"It was good seeing you again." Ruby said. "Come with me." She grabbed Weiss' hand and dragged her into their own room. Weiss lost her balance as she looked at it, just the way she remembered. "Yang and I fixed it up."
"Ruby I…" Weiss felt a tear in her eye.
"This Vile guy is really strong. He took on Nora and Ren by himself. He has people, people like Akagi. We watched the footage, Uncle Qrow said they were going to be students but vanished in the same ship Helios and Eos were on."
"I can't." Weiss said.
"You can't what?"
"I can't help you, not like I used to."
"Out of practice? Jaune feels the same way. But I have enough faith in him to defend our daughter. With help from my dad of course."
"No it's not that, not exactly." Weiss lamented. "I am out of practice, but I'm still skilled enough to take on one of them." She said.
"Then what is it?" Ruby said. "Oh don't tell me you're scared because that Phos lady beat you."
"I'm not scared. Not of her anyway."
"Then tell me. Weiss, I really need you on this. If you can't, whatever it is you can't, I need to know so that I can plan accordingly."
"You…plan?" Weiss dodged the question.
"I have a plan. I have a semblance of a plan but I need your help. So unless you're dead or dying…oh my God are you…"
"Ruby I'm pregnant." Weiss sunk onto her bunk.
"Oh thank God. For a second there I thought you were going to say you had cancer or something. Wait what?"
"I'm pregnant." Weiss said.
"Oh." Ruby looked down and crossed her arms behind her back as she brushed her foot around the ground. "Congratulations." She sighed. "How long?"
"One month." Weiss bit her lip. Ruby's eyes scanned her. Why did she have to look so innocent? Why did Weiss always have to tell her everything?
"One month." Ruby repeated. "So." He voice was barely below a whisper. "Who's the father?"
"I…I don't know." Weiss felt a tear in her eye. She felt so stupid right now. How, how could she not know? Why did she even go back to Neptune? All it did was cloud her mind and nearly ruin her chance at getting back with Flynt. Why did she have to bring herself more loathing and pain than anyone? And why the hell was Ruby just standing there?
"Does Flynt know?" Ruby said.
"He knows I'm pregnant. He knows that there's only a slim chance he's the father. He says he doesn't care. That if we're together then it's his kid for all intents and purposes. But…he wants the child to take my name. Which is fine, it would probably happen anyway."
"That's good to hear." Ruby said.
"But Ruby, I'm not ready for this." Weiss said. "I have no idea what it means to be a mother. I barely knew my mother when she died. I'm always so busy as it is. I'm…Ruby I'm so scared I'm going to turn into my father. I'm so scared I'm not ready for this and the child is going to end up hating me for it."
"Weiss." Ruby wrapped her arms around Weiss head, forcing her face into the younger girl's chest. "You, big dummy. You're not your father. You're you. That's truer than true. The fact that you're so concerned means you're ready to fight like hell to prove yourself wrong. That's how it's always been. When you thought, you weren't ready to be a hero, you helped win countless battles. When you thought, you weren't ready for the SDC, you lead it into a new golden age. You think you're not ready to be a good mother, I can't wait for you to prove yourself wrong."
"Ruby." Weiss wrapped her arms around Ruby's waist. With less than a hundred words Ruby shattered every demon Weiss had inside of her. "Thank you for everything." Weiss started crying. "Look at me, I must look pathetic. Stupid hormones going off the fritz."
"I think you look beautiful." Ruby readjusted to sit next to Weiss. "Dang, you and Nora both within a few months of each other. I always wanted to be a good leader but this is getting ridiculous. Next someone will tell me Blake is pregnant."
"No, not right now." Blake said from the doorway.
"Gah, how long have you been there.
"We're not interrupting anything, are we?" Yang said as she wrapped an arm around Blake.
"How long were you standing there?" Weiss asked.
"When you went face first into my sister's boobs." Yang smirked. "Settle a bet will you, whose are softer?"
"Now is not the time." Weiss said as she scooted to the right away from Ruby.
"It's okay to say Yang's right now." Ruby said. "I do have a one month old who drinks a lot of milk after all."
"Wait, do you breastfeed?" Blake said.
"Only when we're around the house. I am too embarrassed to do something like that in public."
"Embarrassed?" Blake asked.
"I don't even like wearing a bathing suit." Ruby admitted. "Too many eyes on me."
"And that skin is for Jaune's eyes only, right?" Yang tried making her sister blush.
"As a matter of fact yes." Ruby said as she stood up. "Don't be jealous just because you have to put in actual work for it." Ruby's hand covered her mouth as soon as she said it. Not in the 'I shouldn't have done that' way but in a 'what has gotten into me' sort of way.
"Oh, I have been waiting for this day." Yang smiled and clenched her fist. "You really want to go? Fine, lets com…" Blake pulled her back.
"So what is going on with you Weiss?" Blake said.
"Mother f…" Yang started but was stopped by Blake flicking her mouth.
"Weiss?" Blake asked as she took a seat. Blake and Yang didn't have as much to say about it as Ruby had. Not that Weiss needed any more.
"So are you hoping for a boy or a girl?" Yang asked.
"Boy, name him Eiess, after my grandfather." Weiss said.
"For someone not ready you sure thought about this." Ruby joked.
"I literally, cannot think of any other name right now." Weiss admitted.
"That's fine." Ruby said. "Anyway, we should really think of what we're going to do about Cipher."
"Well, he knows you're here in Vale waiting." Blake said.
"Uncle Qrow just approved a curfew for civilians to be in doors until this ends." Yang said.
"We should expect Grimm." Ruby said.
"We'll need most of our forces protecting the border of the city." Weiss said.
"Of course." Ruby nodded.
"My mom is keeping an eye out for Redstone activity." Yang said. "So we shouldn't have to worry about Grimm spawning in the middle of the city."
"If Adam is free he'll be coming for me." Blake said.
"We should hold that off for as long as we can without him hurting anybody." Yang said.
"I'll stay here." Weiss said. "I can make use of the facilities to provide support to all of you."
"Any word from Rubrum?" Ruby asked.
"All I heard was him saying something about there being no way Allister Briggs is better than him." Yang said.
"We didn't stick around long when we heard you were here." Blake said.
"How about the rest of the investigations?" Ruby asked.
"Flynt hasn't found anything of note." Weiss said.
"My mom found some more stuff on Avis Bran." Yang said. "But there's nothing linking him to Vile. M.O.s are totally different."
"Sun found a reference to something called Seerlivey, in reference to some Cipher prophecy." Blake said. "Nothing concrete though and again, nothing that matches what Vile is doing."
"It seems Cipher is just too old and too big to find something that way." Ruby said. "Any leads on Briggs?"
"It's looking more and more like he jumped kingdom." Blake said.
"If he's on Sanus we'll find him." Yang said. "If he's anywhere else, August or Kraken will find him."
"We know his semblance and can adjust accordingly." Blake said.
"Good." Ruby stood up. "I want you two to patrol the city. I'd rather you stick together though. I'll watch the city from the clock tower in Central Plaza."
"Alone?" Yang said. "Ruby you're not…"
"I'm not the one who's going to be looking for him. If he attacks me, I'll let you know. If he attacks you, I NEED to know."
"Fine." Yang bit her lip. Knowing what was going on made Weiss feel less stressed but more helpless. All she could conceivably do is the same kind of thing Rubrum could do, just both working together make things smoother.
"Anyway." Weiss said. "I think I'm going to lay down for a bit."
"I'll get out of your hair." Ruby said. "I'm going to go to the training deck."
"I'll join you." Blake said. "I could use some practice fighting fast opponents."
"I'll join you in a bit." Yang said.
Weiss laid down and turned away from Yang, who sat down at the foot of her bed and laid a hand onto the heiress' thigh. Weiss knew what she was going to say. She didn't want to hear it though. She had enough of self-pity, she didn't need other people's pity.
"What do you want?" Weiss asked, knowing the answer.
"You've heard all about Ruby's mom, right?"
"Of course I have."
"I…I think you should tell Neptune that it could be his."
"I don't want him part of my life in that way." Weiss said. "I don't want him in my child's life unless it is his. Even so, I don't care. I'm not even going to get tests for it. It's my child. His or her dad is whoever puts in the time, which no matter what, is going to be Flynt."
"That's not the responsible…"
"And what would you know of responsible?" Weiss shot out.
"You're right." Yang choked up. "I'm sorry I hurt you Weiss. I'm sorry…but it's not my fault Neptune broke your heart. You dumped him on your own accord. I just happened to be around to get drinks with him after you dumped him for the second time."
"Was that before or after you slept with me?" Weiss said. Yang stayed silent. "Just go away. Wait, hold on I have something to say." She turned towards Yang. "I'm not mad at you or him. I don't regret what we did. It is a bit embarrassing though. I'm just not that kind of person. I hate myself for believing I could make myself happy. But I can't, it's other people who make me happy. I'm happy with Flynt. That's all you should care about."
"I…I'm not with Neptune anymore, if that's any consolation."
"It's not." Weiss said. "It would be easier if you were actually. He's a good guy Yang. I just don't have the time he needs. That's why I love Flynt. We can go weeks without seeing each other but when we do it's like the whole world stops and there's nothing but us and whoever we are with."
"I'm glad." Yang said.
"You on the other hand…you are so afraid of meaningful relationships like that. You haven't had a boyfriend or girlfriend for more than a week before you move on."
"I don't move on." Yang said. "Arbiters aren't like huntsmen. We don't get the luxury of romantic lives."
"Don't feed me that. If Sun were to, God forbid, die, you would stop everything to be there for Blake. You might even end up sleeping with her. Answer me this, would it end up any different than with me?"
"I hope I never have to find out." Yang said. "And what makes you think I'd sleep with her?"
"I know how you work. You go after all sorts of people, but don't know how to get them from casual acquaintances to meaningful relationships. It's how it would go."
"When you say it out loud…" Yang trailed off. "Anyway, have a good nap." Yang leaned down and kissed her on the cheek. "I love you, not in the same way Ruby loves Jaune, but at least in the same way I love Blake."
"So long as it's different than how you love Ruby because that would be weird." Weiss said.
"Ew gross." Yang cringed.
"Funny, something actually made you cringe."
"Even I have my limits." Yang wondered to the door. "Sleep tight."
"I'll try."
AN: Lots of revelations here but I don't think any of them are that important for this story. The whole Yang and Weiss thing was actually, an idea I got from the reviews of RWBYond Happily Ever After. The Yang and Neptune thing was actually, legitimately planned though, as was the whole Neptune/Yang/Weiss/Flynt/ thing was planned. You'll see why in a later story. Next Time: Evening the Odds. Review, Follow, Favorite.
