Chapter 26: A Place Where Everyone Knows
"Ruby, at some point you're going to have to tell me where we're going," Weiss said.
"You'll see!" Ruby said with a giggle.
Weiss and Ruby were hiking down a trail that cut through the lightly wooded wilderness surrounding Atlas, and Weiss was growing more perplexed with each passing step. Technically, she and Ruby were still within the city's borders, but Weiss doubted that anyone came this way very often. She wasn't even sure how Ruby had known about the trail in the first place.
Weiss had woken up late that morning to three things: a headache, some embarrassing memories of her drunken antics the night before, and an extremely energetic Ruby who was babbling on about something that the two of them were going to do today. Weiss had not been thrilled, but she supposed she should count her blessings. Her headache hadn't been nearly as bad as she imagined it could have been, and her memories of yesterday night were too hazy to be truly mortifying.
After a quick breakfast, a shower, and a call to Rosalie to clear Weiss's schedule for the day; Ruby had practically demanded that Weiss summon a car. Ruby had told the driver to take her and Weiss to a grocery store of all places. There they'd purchased everything on a shopping list that Ruby had mysteriously produced on her scroll. The list had included several vegetables, an excessive number of spices, and other odds and ends.
At first, Weiss had assumed that Ruby was planning on cooking something up for her, but Ruby had eventually admitted that she didn't have the first clue how to do anything more complicated than boil water. When Weiss had pressed her for details as to why then they were buying groceries, the only answer she'd gotten was a laugh and a smile.
Once Ruby and Weiss had finished at the grocery store, Ruby had insisted that Weiss's poor, bewildered driver drop them off at the edge of the city. It was there that Ruby had found the trail, and she'd been leading Weiss down it for well over an hour now.
It was fortunate that Ruby had at least informed Weiss that they were going to be outside today. Weiss had dressed appropriately. She had a light-blue waistcoat meant for outdoor activities on over her white blouse, and her dark slacks were tucked into a rugged pair of calf-high boots. She also had her dagger in a sheath that was clipped to her belt. She wasn't expecting trouble, but trouble had developed the unnerving habit of finding her as of late.
Ruby was walking just ahead of Weiss. She'd elected to wear her usual work outfit today, including her flats. She didn't seem to be bothered by the fact that her shoes weren't suited for hiking at all, but Weiss was still certain that they would need to be replaced after today. At least the trail wasn't muddy.
Ruby had her scroll in one hand and a cooler with all the food that she and Weiss had bought in the other. She's been following directions on her scroll, although Weiss didn't have the faintest idea where she'd gotten them from. She wanted to question Ruby about them, but by this point she knew that she wasn't going to get a satisfactory answer.
Weiss glanced up at the sky. It was a clear day out, and the afternoon weather was especially pleasant. However, between her late start that morning, the shopping, the driving, and the hiking, the sun had already sunk down low enough to touch the treetops. Weiss asked, "Are we almost there, Ruby? It's going to be dark in an hour or two."
"Almost!" Ruby said.
Weiss wasn't sure she liked the game that Ruby was playing, although she had to admit that the mystery had distracted her from the awful truths that she'd learned yesterday. Unfortunately, ignoring them wouldn't make them go away. Sooner or later, she'd be forced to confront them.
The trail opened up into a clearing ahead. As soon as Ruby and Weiss had reached it, Ruby put her scroll away. "We're here!" she announced.
Weiss looked around the tiny meadow that she found herself in, expecting something to happen. When nothing did, she asked, "And where is here?"
"It's…here!" Ruby said. "We just have to wait for a bit. It shouldn't be long."
"Ruby," Weiss said, exasperation filling her voice. "I appreciate that you're trying to make me feel better, but—"
"Shh!" Ruby said to Weiss. "Do you hear that?"
Weiss listened for a moment. There was indeed a noise rising up off in the distance. It almost sounded like loose bits of metal clanking together.
"I bet that's them!" Ruby said.
"Them?" Weiss asked, but by the time she had, Ruby had already run off. The cooler bounced in Ruby's hand as she dashed over to the far side of the meadow, toward where the noise was coming from.
Weiss jogged after Ruby. She caught up with her where she'd stopped in front of a leafy shrub. The shrub was obscuring a second trail that led out of the meadow in the opposite direction that she and Ruby had entered it from.
The clinking sound was growing louder, and now Weiss could hear a voice talking over it. "…think this is it up ahead."
"Ruby, who's that?" Weiss asked. She thought the voice sounded familiar, but she couldn't place it.
Ruby's only response was to smile as excitement danced in her eyes.
A second voice joined the first. "You still haven't explained where we're going," it said.
There was a noticeable pause in the conversation. When the first voice spoke again it sounded like it was coming from much closer. "So remember how you said you trust me?"
The second voice said, "How couldn't I? You've only reminded me of that a dozen times today."
Suddenly, some of the shrub's leaves were pushed aside, and a pair of women emerged out from behind it. They stopped in their tracks when they saw Weiss and Ruby standing there.
One of the women had a long braid of blonde hair. She was carrying a cast-iron pot that had various cooking implements shoved into it along with a stack of bowls. They must have been what had been making all the noise. The other woman was a faunus with cat ears on her head, a sword tucked into her belt, and scars covering one half of her face.
The faunus woman's jaw fell open like she'd gotten the shock of her life. The blonde woman, however, just grinned. "Hiya! Fancy meeting you here," she said. Hers had been the first voice that Weiss had heard.
"And who are—?" Weiss started to ask, but she cut herself off. The faunus woman's scars had distracted her for a second, but now she realized that a scant few feet in front of her were the assassins who had attacked her at the gala. The faunus wasn't wearing a mask this time, but everything else about her was exactly the same.
"You!" Weiss shouted. She scrambled backward in a panic. Her hand fumbled for her dagger, eventually managing to draw it from its sheath.
"Whoa! Whoa!" Ruby said. She stepped in front of Weiss, holding her free hand up in a calming gesture. "It's okay, Weiss!"
"Okay?! Ruby! They tried to kill us!" Weiss shouted.
"No they didn't!" Ruby said.
"Yes they did!" Weiss said.
The blonde woman interjected, "No we didn't. We were just trying to kidnap you."
"Like that's so much better!" Weiss said.
"It's okay, Weiss!" Ruby repeated. She pointed at the blonde woman. "This is Yang. She's my sister! I promise she's not going to try to hurt us. Uh…again anyway."
"You don't have a sister!" Weiss said.
"Yeah I do!" Ruby said.
"No you don't!" Weiss insisted. "You specifically told me, and I quote, 'I've always wanted a sister.'"
"Well I guess Yang here is proof that sometimes dreams really do come true," Ruby said.
Suddenly, the faunus woman said, "Everybody. Stop talking." Her tone was ostensively calm, but there was a decided edge to it.
The meadow got quiet all of a sudden. Weiss looked at the faunus woman, as did Ruby and Yang. The woman's hand was gripping the hilt of her sword, although she hadn't drawn it yet. She looked alarmed, bewildered, and infuriated all at the same time. She turned to her companion and said with a strained voice, "Yang. What is going on here?"
Yang tapped her foot in a nervous manner. "You did say you trusted me," she mumbled.
"That doesn't answer my question!" the woman said, her composure finally breaking.
"Uh…" Ruby said, "Maybe we should introduce everyone to each other."
"Yeah! Good idea!" Yang quickly agreed, undoubtedly eager to escape her conversation with the faunus woman.
"Weiss," Ruby said. "This is Yang Branwen, my long-lost sister, and that's Blake…uh…."
"Belladonna," Yang supplied.
Blake shouted, "Don't tell them my name!"
Ruby ignored Blake and finished her introduction. "Blake Belladonna."
"And Blake," Yang said. "This is Ruby Rose, who I told you about, and…I guess you already know who Weiss is."
Blake scowled at Yang. But then she turned to look at Weiss. The two of them warily eyed one another. Weiss kept expecting Blake to draw her sword at any moment, but she didn't. Based on what she'd said, it sounded like she'd been caught just as unaware by this meeting as Weiss had been. Nevertheless, Weiss kept a firm grip on her dagger.
After a full minute of incredibly tense silence, Weiss cautiously lowered her dagger. When Blake lifted her hand off of her sword's hilt, Weiss reluctantly returned her weapon to its sheath. "Ruby," she said. "Why are they here? Why are we even here? What's the point of all of this?!"
Blake said, "That's a very good question."
"Well," Ruby said to Weiss. "You told me you couldn't fix the whole faunus problem because you don't know what it's like to be a faunus. Blake's a faunus. I bet she could tell you all about it!"
Yang looked at Blake. "And you told me that the faunus don't have any money or influence they can use to make things better for themselves. I'm pretty sure Weiss has those," she said. She held up her cooking pot. "So Ruby and I thought we'd all talk about it over dinner! You get the ingredients I told you to bring, Sis?"
"Sure did!" Ruby said with a smile, proudly presenting her cooler.
Weiss stared in complete disbelief. She said, "This is utterly ridiculous."
At almost the same time, Blake said, "You have got to be kidding me."
Yang grinned. "See!" she said. "You two agree on something already!"
Weiss scoffed and Blake rolled her eyes. They both pretended not to notice each other's similar reaction.
The afternoon soon gave way to evening, and the last of the sun's rays were vanishing behind the horizon. Light from a campfire was dancing across Blake's face. She was sitting on one of a pair of logs that Ruby had helpfully rolled into place, creating a little campsite in the meadow. Before the daylight had faded, Yang had made everyone go out and gather wood for the fire while she'd prepared the ingredients for dinner, a vegetable stew if Blake wasn't mistaken.
Blake thought that this hastily-planned get-together with Weiss Schnee was the most audacious stunt she'd ever seen Yang try to pull, and that was not a claim that she would make lightly. She was still trying to decide precisely how angry she should be with Yang. Here Weiss was, practically served up on a silver platter only after Blake had decided that she couldn't go through with the kidnapping. Blake had no idea what Yang was hoping to accomplish with this ridiculous farce of hers, but she was just curious enough to stay and let things play out.
Yang was busy stirring her stew in the big, cast-iron pot that was sitting on top of the campfire. The pot and all of the other cooking utensils were the fruits of an exhaustive search of the kitchenette in the cabin Yang and Blake were using. Yang had been especially excited about the pot. If Blake had been in a better mood, she might have laughed as she recalled the moment. Yang had danced about like she'd discovered buried treasure.
Ruby was leaning over Yang, watching her sister cook with wide-eyed amazement. Looking at Ruby now, Blake hardly recognized the fierce huntress that she'd briefly fought against at the gala. There was an aura of innocence surrounding her that Blake hadn't believed existed in the world anymore. She saw now why Yang had instantly accepted her role as Ruby's big sister. It was just a shame who Ruby worked for.
Blake's gaze shifted. Weiss was sitting on the other log, opposite the campfire from Blake. She was staring directly at Blake and not even bothering to hide the fact. Blake's eyes locked with hers, and neither one of them seemed to be in a hurry to look away.
Blake had thought that she'd understood Weiss, but she was having difficulty reconciling her preconceived notions with the woman she was looking at now. Weiss Schnee, the avatar of the Schnee Dust Company, was an easy concept to grasp. Weiss the individual was decidedly not.
Blake had gotten her first taste of having to think of Weiss as a real and complex person at the gala. She hadn't cared for it then, and she certainly didn't care for it now. The world was complicated enough without her being forced to humanize her demons. Unfortunately, she knew that she couldn't afford to think in simple absolutes. That was the road that Adam had walked down, and in the end, it had destroyed him.
Blake and Weiss continued to stare at each other. After a few minutes, Weiss's face scrunched up into a look of consternation. It mirrored how Blake felt. It seemed that Weiss was having just as much trouble figuring out Blake as Blake was her.
Weiss finally looked away. She impatiently asked, "Is dinner ready yet?"
"Don't get yourself all worked up, Princess," Yang said. "It'll be done soon."
"Excuse me, but I skipped lunch today," Weiss said. "And don't call me that! I'm not a princess."
"Oh. Well I am," Yang said.
Ruby looked delighted. "Really?" she asked.
"Yup!" Yang said. "My mom is Raven, Bandit Queen of the Branwen Tribe. And I'm first in line to take her place someday."
Weiss said, "Being the heiress of some outlaw doesn't make you royalty."
"You're just jealous that I'm a princess and you're not," Yang said.
"Hardly," Weiss scoffed.
Blake shook her head. Sometimes she really envied Yang. It hadn't been that long since Yang had endured what must have been an emotionally painful encounter with her mother, but she was already able to make jokes about it like it was no big deal.
Ruby asked, "If you're a princess then how'd you learn to cook? Shouldn't you have had, like, servants to do that for you?"
Yang chuckled. "We didn't exactly live in a castle, Ruby. Although I guess our camp did have cooks. Too bad they were terrible. Mom always hated it when I made dinner for everyone. I don't think she thought it was very princessly of me. But it was the only way I could ever get a decent meal!"
Weiss said, "As fascinating as that is—"
"Hold that thought," Yang said, lifting her hand to call for silence.
Weiss looked indignant, but she stopped talking.
Yang scooped up some of the stew into her stirring spoon and gave it a taste. "Dinner's ready!" she said.
Ruby helped Yang serve up four bowls of piping-hot vegetable stew. As soon as everyone was seated with their food, Ruby started wolfing down her dinner like she hadn't had a bite to eat in days. Yang and Blake started eating as well. Only after everyone else was several spoonfuls into their stew did Weiss finally taste hers.
The meal passed quietly at first, with the sound of spoons clinking against bowls taking the place of conversation. But eventually, Weiss of all people broke the silence. "This is…good," she admitted. It sounded like she'd been expecting otherwise.
"You know it!" Yang said with a smug look on her face.
Blake's ears pressed sideways against her head. She noisily set her spoon down in her bowl to get Yang's attention and asked, "But the question is, why didn't I know it?"
Yang turned to Blake. Her smug expression faded a little when she saw the look of displeasure on Blake's face. "I guess it never came up," she said. "You're not mad, are you?"
"You drag me away without telling me where we're going," Blake started. "You blurt out my name. You expect me to have dinner with a Schnee. And now I find out that all this time we've been together we could've had real food in our bellies instead of eating out of cans and boxes?"
Yang laughed nervously. "I don't cook for just anyone you know," she said, trying to smooth things over.
Blake gave Yang her best glare.
"Okay, okay!" Yang said. "If it makes you feel better, I'll cook for you whenever you want."
Blake tried to resist, but a smile worked its way onto her face. The stew Yang had made was easily the best thing that Blake had eaten in a long time. The prospect of getting more meals from Yang was making it difficult for Blake to stay angry.
Yang let out a sigh of relief. She smiled back at Blake. Then, before Blake realized what was happening, Yang leaned in and gave her a quick kiss on the lips.
Ruby gasped excitedly. "Are you two officially girlfriends now?!" she asked.
Blake slowly turned to look at Ruby, trying to hold back her apprehension. It was true that she'd never told Yang to keep their relationship a secret, but she'd thought it had gone without saying. Suddenly, all she could think about was what would happen if Sienna somehow found out. Logically she knew there was little chance that the news could travel from Ruby to Sienna, but she'd seen stranger things happen.
Yang grinned, oblivious to Blake's discomfort. "You bet we're girlfriends!" she said.
Weiss asked, "You two are…dating?"
Ruby said, "It's not that surprising, is it? I mean you and I are—"
Weiss's hand clamped over Ruby's mouth almost faster than Blake could blink. "Ruby!" she hissed.
Yang laughed. "Sorry. I already know you're dating my sister," she said.
Weiss's hand fell away from Ruby's mouth, and her jaw dropped. She turned to Ruby and shouted, "You told her!"
"Well…yeah?" Ruby said. "Yang's my sister."
"What part of 'no one can find out' didn't you understand?!" Weiss bellowed.
"Hey!" Yang said sharply. "Relax! It's not like we're going to tell anyone, right Blake?"
Blake was silent on the issue until Yang nudged her with her elbow. "Right," she said. She considered asking Weiss to extend her the same courtesy of secrecy, but she decided it would be safer not to call attention to the fact that her relationship with Yang needed to be kept secret. She almost couldn't believe that there was a burden that she and Weiss had in common.
"See?" Yang said to Weiss. "Your secret's safe with us. Princess's honor!"
"Ugh," Weiss said, rolling her eyes. She turned back to her dinner.
Everyone continued eating. Ruby was the first to finish her stew. She set her bowl down on the ground and let out a satisfied sound. She looked around the group. Whatever she saw must have displeased her because she frowned. But then an idea flashed in her eyes. "I know!" she said. "Let's share stories!"
Blake asked, "Stories?"
"Yeah!" Ruby said. "I mean, we're a huntress, a rebel, an heiress, and a princess, right? There's got to be all kinds of interesting things we can talk about!"
Weiss muttered, "Please don't encourage your sister."
Yang said, "Oh, I've got a doozy of a story. It's about this huntress I fought once in a mansion."
"Ooo!" Ruby cooed excitedly. But then she said, "Hey, wait. This isn't about me, is it?"
"Maybe," Yang said in a playful tone. "It's not every day that someone throws their shoes at me."
"She threw her shoes?" Blake asked.
It was well and truly night by the time that the last of the stew had been eaten. The campfire was burning down low. Much to Blake's surprise, Ruby's suggestion that they swap stories had done wonders to put everyone at relative ease. Ruby had even managed to convince Weiss to open up a little. She was presently taking a turn at telling a tale.
Weiss said, "And that's when she tackled me right out of my chair."
Yang said, "No way!"
Ruby mumbled, "Why have most of these been about me?"
Blake asked, "You still hired her after that?"
Weiss said, "It wasn't an easy decision, believe me. But if there's one thing that Ruby's good at, it's making an impression."
Ruby crossed her arms. "I'm good at more than that," she said. An impish smile suddenly crossed her lips. "For example, I'm a pretty good kisser. Right Weiss?"
Weiss immediately turned beet red. "Ruby!" she said.
Ruby nuzzled up to Weiss's side. "That doesn't sound like you're saying no," she teased.
Weiss's face got even redder, if that was possible, but she didn't resist when Ruby took her hand.
"So…" Yang said. "Anyone else got a good Ruby story?"
"Okay," Ruby said. "I think that's enough stories."
"Then maybe we should talk about the goliath in the room," Yang said.
The conversation abruptly died.
Yang looked at Blake and Ruby looked at Weiss. However, neither one of them seemed able to entice their respective girlfriend to talk. Blake, for her part, had no idea where to even begin. Good food and surprisingly tolerable company aside, sitting across from her was a woman who had spent years poisoning the public's minds and denying her company's atrocities. Up until yesterday, Blake wouldn't have even questioned which one of them was in the right; yet she had been the one who had almost unwittingly dragged Weiss away to be tortured and murdered. Blake had seen the evils of the cycle of revenge firsthand. She knew that it did nothing but harm both parties. She'd worked very hard to resist perpetuating it, but she had still ended up being a slave to its design.
"I'm—" Blake started to say to Weiss.
Simultaneously, Weiss said, "You—"
Both Blake and Weiss got quiet again, waiting for the other to speak.
Yang chuckled. "Okay," she said. "Blake. You first."
It took Blake a moment. The words she wanted to say to Weiss didn't come easily to her. But eventually, she forced out, "I'm sorry."
Weiss looked shocked. "You're…sorry?" she asked.
"I thought we were kidnapping you so that…. I don't know what I thought," Blake said. "All of a sudden people I've worked with for years are proving themselves to not be who I thought they were."
"I know what you mean," Weiss muttered. She took a deep breath and said, "I haven't forgotten our conversation at the gala. And…you were right."
It was Blake's turn to be shocked. "I never thought I'd hear a Schnee admit to being wrong," she said.
"You weren't incorrect in thinking that," Weiss said. "But I've seen now what my family and what my company are guilty of with my own eyes."
"So what are you going to do about it?" Blake asked.
"I don't know," Weiss said.
"You could always quit and walk away," Blake said, although she wasn't sure if she was speaking more to Weiss or to herself.
"No," Weiss said resolutely. "I'm not going to step down."
"Even knowing what you do?" Blake asked.
"Someone will take my place if I leave," Weiss said. "I at least might be able to mitigate some of the damage."
"Are you so sure about that?" Blake asked. "Your job is to spread the Company's lies."
"If I leave the Company, nothing happens to help the faunus," Weiss said. "If I stay…maybe nothing still happens."
"Very convenient that you choose the nothing that lets you keep your money and power," Blake said.
"What do you expect from me?" Weiss asked, sounding frustrated. "And what about you? Are you going to leave the White Fang?"
"I…" Blake hesitated. Then she said, "No."
"Do you know what they're guilty of?" Weiss asked, anger seeping into her voice. "Do you even want to?"
"I know what the White Fang has done," Blake said.
"Do you though?" Weiss asked. "When I was a little girl, my parents had to explain to me, more than once, how friends of our family had been murdered by the White Fang! I had to stand by their graves and pretend to be brave! Can you imagine what that does to a child?!"
Ruby squeezed Weiss's hand. "Weiss," she said imploringly.
Weiss's jaw clenched. Blake could actually hear her teeth grinding together. But eventually, Weiss let out a long breath and said, "Neither one of us is innocent. And as much as you might believe otherwise, I can't change the world any more than you can."
Blake didn't respond. As loathed as she was to admit it, Weiss might have had a point.
Yang spoke up. "So maybe neither one of you can change the world. But what about both of you?"
Weiss asked, "What do you mean?"
"Maybe the reason no one's ever fixed the world is because they haven't been working the problem from both sides," Yang said.
Ruby said, "Yeah! And don't forget about me and Yang either! Think what we could do if we all worked together!"
"What are you two suggesting?" Weiss asked. "That we form some kind of…team?"
"Exactly!" Yang said.
Blake said, "That's…. Would that even work?"
Ruby said, "It couldn't hurt to try."
Weiss asked, "What would we, as this supposed team, even do?"
Yang shrugged. "I don't know," she said. "I usually just make stuff up as I go."
"And how is that working for you?" Weiss asked, obviously intending the question to be biting.
"It's working great!" Yang said. She pointed at Blake. "Have you seen my awesome girlfriend?"
Weiss shook her head with a heavy sigh. "Look," she said. "You can't just start a…a revolution on a whim."
Suddenly, Blake interjected, "Weiss. Do you actually care about the faunus?"
"What do you mean by that?" Weiss asked.
"It's a simple question," Blake said. "After everything that's happened in your life, after what the faunus have done to you, shouldn't you hate us?"
"The faunus haven't done anything to me," Weiss said. "I told you at the gala, I understand the distinction between the White Fang and the faunus as a whole."
"You'd be amazed how rare that is," Blake said.
"Perhaps not," Weiss said.
"Then here's another question," Blake said. "Do you want to make this right? Really think about it. You have your family, your company, your reputation, and your career to consider. When you take all of that into account, is the suffering of the faunus really that important to you?"
Weiss glanced at Ruby. She gently set Ruby's hand aside. Then she stood and said, "Yes. Once, many years ago, I considered becoming a huntress. I didn't because I thought that I could do more good by utilizing my company's power and wealth. And I did, or so I thought. Charity events. Fundraisers. Donations of Dust to settlements that vitally needed it. But none of that matters. All of my good deeds are meaningless if they're predicated on the suffering of the faunus."
Blake stood as well. She said, "You don't know this, but I'm a lieutenant for the High Leader of the White Fang herself."
Weiss looked a little fearful. "You mean Sienna Khan?" she asked.
"Yes," Blake said. "By all rights, you and I should want to kill each other."
Blake reached for Wilt. She pulled it out from her belt, still in its sheath, and set it down on the ground. Then she stepped forward, walking past the campfire and right up to Weiss. She said, "Maybe what needs to happen before anything else, is that you and I agree that we can work together to make the world a better place."
Blake extended her hand toward Weiss.
Ruby said, "Uh…Weiss doesn't really—"
Ruby cut herself off when Weiss firmly took Blake's hand and shook it.
"Agreed," Weiss said.
"Oh…" Ruby said. "Wow."
Yang was grinning from ear to ear. She said, "Alright team!"
"Team…" Ruby mused. Then she exclaimed, "Team name!"
Weiss asked, "Excuse me?"
"It's a thing they do at the academies!" Ruby said. "They give the teams names made up from the teammates' initials. We need to have one!"
"I don't really think…" Weiss started to say, but it was too late. Ruby had already picked up a stick and was using it to scratch out different combinations of the letters "R", "Y", "W", and "B" in the dirt.
Yang stood and strolled up to Blake and Weiss. She hooked her arms around both of their shoulders and said, "Now that wasn't so hard, was it?"
Weiss reflexively stiffened up. She wriggled out from under Yang's arm. "I agreed to work with Blake," she said. "You I'm not so sure about."
Blake pulled away from Yang as well. "And I'm still mad at you," she said.
"Well that's one more thing you two agree on!" Yang said.
All of a sudden, Ruby shouted, "I got it! I got it! We're Team RWBY!"
Blake, Yang, and Weiss all glanced down. The firelight dimly illuminated the final combination of letters that Ruby had tried: "RWBY".
Yang said, "Huh. That's…."
Blake said, "That's suspiciously convenient."
Weiss said, "That's not how 'Ruby' is spelled."
"Pff," Ruby said, waving her hand dismissively. "You always have to get a little creative with the spelling. Otherwise It'd never work."
"Welp, I'm convinced," Yang said. "We're Team RWBY!"
Weiss groaned. She said, "If we must be, I suppose."
Everyone looked at Blake. She felt silly, but she halfheartedly said, "Go Team RWBY."
A while later, the campfire was out, and everyone had packed up. Blake was watching from a short distance away as Yang and Ruby were saying their goodbyes.
Ruby waved to Yang. "We'll be in touch," she said.
Yang said, "You've got my number. Good luck out there, Sis. I'm proud of you."
Ruby walked up to Weiss. "Are you ready to go?" she asked.
"Hmph," Weiss said. Her arms were crossed.
"What's wrong?" Ruby asked. "You sound angry."
"That's because I am," Weiss said.
"About what?" Ruby asked.
"Any number of things," Weiss said. "But mostly for you telling your sister about our relationship."
"Yeah, but…!" Ruby started to say. Then she hung her head. "Okay, yeah. I'm sorry. But wasn't it nice not to have to pretend in front of Yang and Blake?"
"I suppose that was a bit refreshing," Weiss admitted.
"So do you forgive me?" Ruby asked.
"Don't think you're getting off that easily," Weiss said. She turned in the direction of the trail that she and Ruby had hiked in on. "How are we supposed to find our way back now that it's night?"
Ruby puffed out her chest. "As your bodyguard, I am always prepared," she said proudly. She produced a small flashlight from her pocket and turned it on. "Just stick close to me."
"Do I have a choice?" Weiss asked.
"Nope!" Ruby said. She took Weiss's hand.
Weiss visibly forced herself not to smile. She said, "I guess that's…acceptable."
Blake watched as Weiss and Ruby walked away, stumbling around in the dark like humans always did. The glow from Ruby's flashlight began to fade away. The last bit of her and Weiss's conversation that Blake caught was Ruby saying, "I didn't know you'd thought about becoming a huntress."
Blake sighed. She'd gained a lot of perspective tonight, but it was causing her no end of grief. Her future had already been in question, and now it was more uncertain than ever before. In the course of two days, she'd gotten into an official relationship with a human, lost her faith in the White Fang's High Leader, and had now literally broken bread with the enemy. She'd foolishly thought that there might have been a way for her to continue her association with the White Fang while still being Yang's girlfriend, but it was clear now that she'd been deluding herself.
Blake had literally grown up in the White Fang. The prospect of losing what was in a way her family scared her more than she was willing to admit. She had no idea how she was going to survive. Even being on this "Team RWBY" didn't reassure her much. It remained to be seen if it was anything more than a hollow gesture on Weiss's part.
Suddenly, Blake's ears twitched. A sound pulled her out of her morose thoughts. For just a moment she thought she could hear footsteps that were distinct from Weiss and Ruby's. She turned in the direction the sound had come from, but she didn't see anything out of the ordinary among the bushes and trees.
Blake strained her ears, but then Yang came walking up, carrying her cooking pot. All of the utensils were back inside of it, clanking loudly against one another. The ruckus drowned out anything else that Blake might have been able to hear.
Yang said, "I still don't know about my sister dating Weiss, but they are cute together."
Blake turned to Yang, the strange sound momentarily forgotten. In a very real sense, many of the things that had happened to her recently were Yang's fault. Blake wanted to be furious with her, but she couldn't find it in herself. Yang might have been the catalyst that had sparked all of these sudden and overwhelming changes in her life, but Yang was also the only person she could count on right now.
"Blake?" Yang asked. "Are you alright?"
Blake walked up to Yang and threw her arms around her. Yang let go of her cooking pot in surprise. It crashed to the ground with a mighty clatter. Yang hugged Blake back, and suddenly everything in Blake's world was a bit less frightening.
Yang and Blake stood there like that for several minutes. Eventually, Yang asked, "Are you still mad?"
"A little," Blake admitted.
"Okay. So maybe this was a bit of a gamble," Yang said. "But it all worked out."
"How did you know I wouldn't just attack Weiss on sight?" Blake asked.
"Because you're better than that," Yang said. "I love you, Blake."
"I love you too," Blake said. She sighed and stepped out of Yang's arms. "Let's go. I'm ready to get home."
Yang grinned. "I guess I'm not the only one who thinks of the cabin as home then," she said.
Blake's train of thought paused. Yang was right. She had called the cabin home. She hadn't even consciously thought about it. "I guess it's home because you're there," she said. The words sounded incredibly sappy to her ears now that she'd said them out loud, but they were true.
"Aww," Yang said. "You're so sweet."
"Let's…just go," Blake said.
Yang bent down and picked up her cooking pot. "Right behind you," she said. "You're my eyes out here, girlfriend."
Blake took one last glance over her shoulder in an effort to spot whatever it was that she'd heard a moment ago, but she still didn't see anything amiss. Maybe it had just been some animal out for its nightly hunt.
"This way," Blake said. She started leading Yang down the path for home.
Author's Note: Oy, what a chapter. It might have been as difficult to write as the fight at the gala, and that's saying something! Well, it's done, and it's posted. I hope you all enjoyed it.
So that's why Weiss decided not to become a huntress in this alternative universe. I honestly had no idea. I find it interesting that the changes in Yang and Ruby's lives in this story are due to external forces, whereas the changes in Blake and Weiss's lives are because of decisions they made. That's one more way they're more alike than they realize. I'd like to take credit for planning that, but I really can't.
As always, I welcome constructive criticism. Please feel free to leave a review. And if you like what you've read, taking the time to favorite and/or follow really helps me out. You can also find me on tumblr (electronicyarn) if you want to send me a message or be notified of updates.