Chapter 65

Morning light crept into the room from the smallest of cracks in the curtains. It hit her eyes with a warm band of light that invaded her senses. She tried to squint away the light, but it was too blinding to run from. The sunlight sucked. It had travelled one hundred and forty-nine million kilometres just to rest annoyingly against her eyelids. She opened them, only to shut them immediately as the sunlight tried to fry her retinas. She made a noise into her pillow, trying to roll away. Except she couldn't. Something was stopping her from rolling forward.

"What th-"

A glance downward gave way to the culprit. The cool and metallic fingers of Yang's arm were hooked around her ribs, pinned between her torso and the sheets. She tried to get it off by wiggling her torso around on the mattress to no avail, the arm stayed latched to her. Like it was refusing to let go. Ruby huffed, blowing a few strands of her bangs out of her eyes.

"Yang, let go of me. You're pinching my-"

SNORRRRE

Ruby paused, confused. The loud noise hadn't come from right over her shoulder, where said sister's head should have been. In fact, there was no feeling of breasts pushing into her back, and there was no feeling of a muscular and boyish leg draped over her hip. That was the usual way Yang invaded her bed, anyways, opting for the full snuggle. This felt vastly different this morning. She rolled onto her back, calling out for her sister.

"Yang?"

The bed behind her was empty, but not without evidence of her cot-intruder. The metal arm was all by it's lonesome, disconnected from its owner at the mid-bicep, and still holding on for dear life around her ribs. The more Ruby moved, the more she realized the strong robotic fingers were actually pinching her quite badly. Now where on Remnant could the blond no-longer-cyborg be?

"Sis?"

The bed sheets were quite askew, bundled up like they had been run through with an auger. Ruby sat up. The quiet snoring continued from off the right side of the bed. She leaned over slightly, trying to peer over the edge. A large, tangled mess of yellow-blond hair was clearly visible, protruding up and out of a bundle of comforter that had been dragged off the edge of the mattress. Ruby sighed down at her sibling, who snored loudly back up at her. Any louder and she's wake herself, it seemed.

"Ya-ang!"

The bundle of blankets stirred, ceasing the snoring. The fabric inflated and deflated quite deeply, before rolling over. A messy and dirty face stared up at her from the floor. Ruby couldn't not smile as the face tried to open its eyes and mouth.

"Wuby?"

"Good morning, Yang."

Without any sort of cognizant ability, Yang tried to move on the floor. It was a little like watching a newborn calf try and walk for the first time, as Yang seemed to not have the muscular strength in her body to support her own weight. The more she struggled, the more it made Ruby giggle.

"Whazzhappen..."

"It's the morning, Yang. We wake up in the morning."

The still-mostly-asleep baby calf on the floor mulled this over for a moment before reaching a decision.

"No, we don't."

She tried to roll back over and fall asleep again, but her face impacted the side of the bedframe. Ruby chuckled again. With a swing of her hips, she moved herself into a seated position at the side of the bed and hung her legs down over the edge, resting the palms of her feet on the rump of her sister's hip. Yang tried to swat her away with her right hand, still not realizing it wasn't attached anymore. Realizing the comedy potential, Ruby started to unhook the metal fingers that were clamped around her one by one, each one coming loose with a grind of servo gears.

"Yes we do, Yang. Especially when it's-"

She checked the little digital clock on the bedside.

"-seven-fifteen in the morning. You said we had to get up early today."

The bundle of blankets pouted.

"Don'wanna."

"Too bad."

With a light shove, she kicked Yang back onto her back on the floor, and kicked the stolen comforter off of her. Her sister shivered, now that her body was exposed to the air of the room. Yang's eyes opened, her irises flashing a dark red. Normally a sign of anger, Ruby simply gave the angry woman a bemused smile. Yang's pyjama shirt had ridden up all the way to her neck, exposing the SDC branded pocketed utility bra she probably hadn't taken off in a week at least, and a bunch of scrapes on her chest and stomach she had gotten when she had tripped over her bootlaces the previous night while stacking wood in the furnace room. Ruby reached over with her toes and grabbed the fabric of her sister's shirt, pulling it back down over her stomach.

"There you go! Nice and warm again!"

Yang sighed, closing her eyes and draping her arm over her face. Her mouth, previously curled into a mighty frown, relaxed and fell into a toothy grin.

"Hand me my glasses, will ya'?"

Ruby mused, finally pulling her sister's arm off of her torso. She really did have an iron grip. Well, titanium-alloy grip, actually.

"You don't wear glasses, Yang."

She stuck her toes back up under Yang's shirt and tried to tickle her sides. The blond giggled, writhing in mock agony.

"Oh yeah, right."

Reaching up with her left hand, she grabbed the bedspread next to Ruby and pulled herself into a seated position. Swinging her legs around, she brought herself onto her knees. Ruby watched with baited breath. She hadn't noticed yet, but it was coming. She gingerly hid the metal arm out of view, under the pillow closest to her. Yang went to use her right hand to push herself upright.

"Guess you aren't offended by my underwe- ACK!"

Without any arm below the shoulder to support her, Yang fell face-first onto the bed, bouncing harmlessly off and back onto the floor again. She brought her remaining hand up to her face, rubbing her nose. Ruby burst out into actual laughter, clutching her sides as it actually hurt. Yang seemed less angry and more confused. Ruby had to wipe away a few tears that had come to her eyes as she reached under the pillow and pulled out the arm. She held it upright in front of herself.

"Need a hand?"

She continued to giggle at her own joke as Yang sat in a puddle of pained confusion on the floor.

"What...? How...?"

Ruby paused in the middle of her desperate gasping for breath. She tossed the metal limb into Yang's lap, who looked at with even more confusion.

"I woke up and it was fondling me. It's a cheeky little bugger when it's not attached to you."

Yang's face went red.

"I- I- I'm so sorry, I have no control when it's not- Oh my god, Ruby, I-"

Ruby laughed, flicking her hair back.

"Holy cow, your face. I'm joking, Yang. It was wrapped around me here."

She pulled up her t-shirt a little, showing off the five little red finger-shaped bruises on her ribs.

"Still has a hell of a grip. Need me to tune it up so it doesn't cause another bedroom incident?"

Yang went even redder. She fumbled around one handed, trying to re-attach the errant limb. She seemed to be having difficulty getting her arm back on, as it was refusing to stay attached.

"Thought we weren't gonna talk about that, Ruby."

"That one's on you. You did that to yourself."

Yang turned away, trying to hide inside herself. The 'incident' she referred to was one Yang insisted they not talk about. It had happened a few years ago when her arm had... 'malfunctioned.' Yang had been so embarrassed that she had demanded that they both sign a contract saying that Ruby would never talk about what she had seen that day, and Yang would never misuse her prosthesis again.

"Shut up. I will hurt you, Ru."

"I'd like to see you try with only fifty-percent of your arms still attached."

"Give me a moment."

Yang seemed to still be struggling to get her arm on. It wasn't clicking into place like it usually did. She fiddled with it a little longer. She huffed, giving up.

"Shit. I wore out another one. Poopy. Hang on, Rube, I gotta grab my straps."

Yang stood, exiting the room with a purposed walk. It was a little strange to hear Yang using bad language. She was normally against using such profanities. Something about how using what she called 'blue language' too often ruined their meanings. Made them...worthless. In case of emergency, no one would be able to decipher the urgency if curses were used to often. This was what their dad had taught them anyways, and Ruby had tried her best to follow this advice. Even if she did use curses herself, occasionally. It was still strange to hear Yang use them, though.

"Alrighty, lets get ready for the day."

Yang re-entered the tiny room, her arm attached once again using the faded leather straps that wrapped around her shoulder and torso. The first of her many prosthetic arms had come with these straps. At the time, it was the best way they could have attached the forty-pound steel arm to her shoulder. The straps had always irritated her, digging in to her skin and leaving ugly red marks in their place. Nowadays she had kept the straps around for the instances when the new lightweight arm needed either extra support of the suction-brace system failed to latch on to the remainder of real arm. This seemed to be the case today.

"Wait, why are you in my room, yours is over there."

Yang paused, halfway through tightening the strap that cut from under her arm to her opposite shoulder. She blinked a few times, frowning.

"I meant get you ready for the day, Ru-ster. It takes me like ten seconds to get ready. You always take far too long, so I'm gonna change that."

"I'm not a little kid, I can dress myself."

"True, but you still can't choose outfits very well. You always pick the boringest stuff. C'mon, I'll get you somethin' from my wardrobe."

Ruby frowned. Yang didn't normally give away her clothes so freely, save for when she didn't want them anymore and just handed them over. She treated her clothes almost with the same sort of possessive nature as her hair.

"But...my clothes are fine?"

"Ru, you went and grew up an' filled out in Atlas. This is all kid stuff. It ain't gonna fit."

With a purposeful grip, Yang grabbed her and guided her out of the room. Her bare feet provided limited traction on the unwaxed hardwood floor compared to Yang's rubber soled slippers, making her resistance a fruitless endeavour. She caved, and allowed the taller and tougher woman to lead her across the hallway and into her bedroom. With a twirl, she found herself pushed into a seated position on her sister's bed.

"Right!"

Yang clapped her hands and turned to her dresser, pulling open the top drawer. A light purple something came flying at her head, tossed with robotic accuracy. She caught the thick cotton object in her fingers, flinching from the force.

"You'll need one of these, to start, hun."

Ruby looked down at the object she had almost been hit by.

"No! I'm not gonna wear this!"

She flung it aside, mildly grossed out. Her fingers felt dirty all of a sudden. Yang wasn't stopped, however.

"Hey, It'll fit you better than the kiddie ones in your dresser. Besides, you need pockets to hold extra tools an' stuff."

Ruby relented, scooting away from the purple bra.

"That's not the point, Yang, I'm not wearing your underwear! That's just nasty!"

"Look, I'm not asking you to wear my- you know what, forget it. Wear your own uncomfortable bras if you're so offended. You're acting like I don't wash my boobs or anything. I'm not a dirty person."

Ruby looked back down at the purple utility bra, its many pockets and zippered hiding pouches staring back. She hadn't meant to offend.

"Alright, fine. But only because there's no real pockets on any of my pants. Or yours, for that matter."

Yang laughed as she continued to rummage through her closet.

"Who said anything about pants?"

/.../

The kitchen was much too bright this morning. The sun beat in at a very low angle, making all the chrome appliances much too shiny. Ruby had to squint at everything just to find her way around the kitchen.

"Good morning, sweetheart."

"Hey dad."

Her dad sat quietly at the table, newspaper unfolded in many pieces out in front of him, and a very delicious smelling peanut-butter coated bagel half eaten on a plate. Ruby moved into the kitchen. She was going to have one too, she figured.

"Where's your sister?"

Ruby stepped over the sleeping mass of fur that was Zwei, who awoke for just a moment to look up at her before resting his chin back on his paws and falling back asleep. She resisted the urge to aww loudly at the little corgi.

"In her room, brushing her hair."

He seemed content with this answer, not having looked up yet from his newspaper. Taiyang was usually an observant man, but today he seemed more interested in his news story than her outfit. She grabbed the plastic bag of bagels out of the breadbox, grabbing one of the doughy circles out. With a sigh, she grabbed the closest knife in the knife block and cut it in half. She pulled the toaster away from the wall. It was still plugged in, she noticed.

"So what are we doing today?"

Tai took a sip of his tea, continuing to read. From her vantage point, she could only make out the headline, reading Two Moose Loose in Goose Sanctuary across the top of the page. She smiled, amused by the clever word choice.

"Well, today is harvest day, so you an' your sister are going to be working the fields today. I think you should take- goodness, don't you look beautiful today, sweetheart."

Ruby giggled, a warm and happy feeling coming to her face. So he had noticed.

"Yeah, Yang made me wear this."

"Well she does have impeccable taste. But why did she think you needed such a lovely dress? The two of you are going to be in the harvesters all day long. I-I mean, you look lovely, but for what reason?"

Ruby shrugged. She hadn't actually been given a good reason why she was in the flowery summer dress. It was a nice dress, sure, modest cut neckline, thick straps, and hemmed just above the knees so as to reveal only a socially acceptable amount of leg. Yang had found it in the back of her closet, a relic from when she had attended Signal Academy. On Yang, it was too slutty as the taller woman had significantly longer legs and wider hips, but on Ruby it was almost a perfect fit. She had already decided to keep the rose-covered dress for herself.

"Eh, I dunno. I think she said were were going out later or something. After dinner I think."

"That's fine, I guess. You guys are just a few hours early with your outfits, eh?"

Ruby chuckled at her dad.

"I guess so."

"Well, whatever the case, you look lovely. Ah, Yang, glad you could join us!"

At that moment, Yang bounded from down the hallway, a huge grin on her face. Ruby's jaw dropped. She had been betrayed again.

"But... you said..."

Yang had put on a pair of navy designer jeans, the only designer thing she owned if they were all honest, a ridiculous pair of polished brown leather cowboy boots, and her favourite, and at this point signature red plaid button-up. Ruby grimaced at her with a malicious intent.

"You said you were gonna wear a dress too!"

"No, I didn't!"

Ruby pouted.

"Yeah, you picked it out and lay it on the bed! The denim one!"

Yang bounced over, resting her arms around her shoulders and dropping another one of her sisterly smooches into her hair. Ruby wasn't having it, wiggling away and frowning.

"I said I would only wear this if you wore one too! You lied to me!"

Yang shrugged.

"Yeah I thought about it, but then I decided against it. Too bad for you-hoo!"

"You LIED to me! To my precious face!"

"Girls, please-"

"I can't believe you'd betray your only sister like that! I trusted you!"

"You shouldn't have trusted what you couldn't see, baby sis!"

"Girls-"

"You know I hate dresses as a general rule! I don't like the way they look on me and-"

"It's too late, Ruby-kin. I have the high ground!"

"I hate you!"

"GIRLS!"

They both stopped. Yang teetered on the chair she had stood on, and they both looked over at him, wooden spoons in hand ready to battle. This was the usual conclusion to their arguments, an occurrence frequent enough at Beacon that they had been banished from the communal kitchens in the dorm. Their dad looked ready to do that right about now as well.

"You two need to stop. Yang, if you promise something to your sister, what do you do?"

Yang got off the chair, holding the spoon at her side like a scorned child.

"Follow through with it. But-"

"Ah ah, no buts. Ruby, what do we not do when someone upsets us?"

Oh. She hadn't expected to be questioned. Ruby looked down at her feet, very embarrassed.

"Start wars with kitchen equipment."

"Good. Now, Yang, explain to your sister why you didn't follow through and apologize."

"Because the shoulders of that dress are too tight to wear over this arm."

Ruby turned, amused. Yang's temporary brace had indeed bulged the right shoulder of her shirt out a little. Normally it wouldn't be noticeable under a regular jacket or hoodie, but it was thick enough with the heavy leather straps that it would not have fit into the tight sleeves of the blue denim cargo dress.

"Oh. W-well... Actually that's fair. You know, I was gonna have you go change but that seems like it's a reasonable excuse. Ruby, your retort?"

"I still want to hit her with a spoon, but I'll hold off."

Tai laughed, leaning back in his chair.

"Oh, you girls will be the death of me some day."

He stood from his chair, the legs squawking loudly against the floor as he did. He strolled over with purpose, wrapping his arms around them both.

"It's a good thing I love you two or else that might be a problem."

With a practised bend of her back, Yang managed to slip out of the hug, leaving Ruby alone to be squeezed. Ruby frowned and stuck her tongue out at her.

"Thanks, dad. We're always here to be your problem!"

He sighed with a chuckle, releasing his grasp.

"You two would never be a problem."

Ruby beamed. It felt so good to feel valuable, even if it was just to her dad. For the first time in quite a very long time, she actually felt needed. Someone valued just her being around. It felt great. She couldn't keep the silly smile from her face. Tai clapped his hands together to regain their attention.

"Right! It's harvest day, girls. We have quite a lot of work to do. Ruby, still know how to drive a combine?"

"I think so."

"Alright, you can take the twelve-meter out to fields seven and eight, Yang you take the nine-metre out to three and four."

Yang, as usual, took the opportunity to whine.

"But da-aad. Why does Ruby get the far fields? I was gonna do them!"

Ruby laughed at her sister.

"Maybe if you had put on the dress he'd have been more lenient."

"I won't hesitate to hit you with the spoon, you field-stealing demon!"

Tai seemed to have had enough. With a dramatic sigh, he turned and marched out of the room, leaving the two sisters to argue. The moment he was out of earshot, Ruby laughed again, making her sister burst out as well. They stayed like this for a little while, basking in their own joke for a minute. It was nice. Yang broke the silence first.

"I guess we gotta go. Got some hours to put in, eh?"

She clapped her hand down on her shoulder, giving her shorter frame a short shake. Ruby nodded, conceding.

"Yeah, I guess."

"Right, you get out there, I have to fuel up the old girl. Radio me if you need anything out there."

"Of course."

/.../

The big harvester crawled slowly forward, held back by its massive brakes. She didn't want to screw the hookup up. The huge header alone was something to the effect of eighty thousand lien, she literally couldn't afford to crash into it. She fiddled with the brightly lit touchscreen under her right hand, dropping the hydraulic rams down just an inch more. Lining up to the header was hard, even in the newer, computerized harvester. Only the top-of-the-line Greene Series tractors had the auto-hookup feature in them, but a premium had to be paid as it was still an option. Even this two-year-old harvester, considered brand new in terms of farm equipment, though it was equipped with the latest tech and features, was still lacking compared to the ludicrously expensive DXR and FXR tractors made in Atlas.

"Come on..."

She tried to keep the tractor going steady. The rear-wheel steering was hard to get to grips with again after this many years of not having to drive a harvester. She had tried to engage the complicated electric four-wheel-steering that it was equipped with, but she had nearly run into the barn after the first twenty feet. Rear-steer only was hard enough.

BING

The light came on on the touch display. The mounting sensors had detected that they thought she was close enough to the header. With a few more pokes on the touch screen, the little hydraulic claws on the conveyor assembly slowly closed down, clamping the header firmly to the front of the harvester. The air-sprung cab barely shook as the nearly five-tonne implement shook as it was lifted.

"Ah. Perfect."

Reaching down next to her air seat, she grabbed her coffee thermos from the floor-mounted cup holder and brought it up to drink. The sweet taste of cream and five sugars warmed her body. Yang always knew what to make without even asking. It tasted like the finest medium-quality ground coffee from that one place in town that also sold mediocre strawberry rhubarb pie. She tapped the touch screen again, synchronizing the PTO drive coupler to the header. After a few more seconds, the text box popped up, indicating that the hydraulic coupling unit had affixed itself and was powered. She grinned. It was nice having the more expensive of the two combines. It meant she didn't have to get out and manually lock the header in place and hook up the drive shafts by hand. She would certainly have gotten grease on her dress, and probably gotten mud in her boots. Neither of which was a good time.

With a hiss of air pressure, the huge machine clicked into gear again. She slid her fingers slowly down the touch screen, watching the header through the huge panoramic glass windscreen as it lowered to the ground. The massive cutting head spun slowly to life, and the huge twin engines spun up to operating speed. They were quiet inside the cabin, but she new the noise this massive machine made was enough to wake the neighbours for miles. The twin-engine setup was a total waste in her opinion, but it did allow for her to use the widest cutting header on the market, of course.

She sighed, finally leaning back in her seat. The comfortable leather captain's chair encompassed her like the arms of one of those large teddy bears she saw for sale at the drugstore on Valentine's Day. She reached for the wheel. It was not within reach. A tiny smirk came to her face. She had driven out to the field sitting all the way forward, completely worried that she was going to crash the header into every fence and tree stump. Now she was comfortable and the header was mounted, the wheel was too far away. With a fiddle on the touch screen, the whole steering column glided soundlessly closer to her, bringing the button-covered wheel within her grasp.

"Okay... which one of these buttons is the..."

She prodded one of the many vaguely-labelled buttons on the front of the wheel. All of the tractor's massive projector high-beams turned on, illuminating the dirt at the edge of the field.

"Okay, nope."

She tried another one. The tractor's discharge chute folded outward, filling the right-side mirror with the huge red tube. She took a quick glance over her shoulder through the huge side window. The chute extended a good twenty-eight feet out from the side of the harvester.

"Huh. Useful to know."

She turned back, pushing another button on the left side of the wheel with a little speaker symbol on it.

"...and welcome to the hour of power. The time of rhyme. This is... Blues Battalion. I'm your host, Rory Grün."

"Oh hell no."

The radio continued.

"First up, I'm gonna spin this sweet record from my homegirl, Janet Jackson. It's called Rhythm Nation. Here we go..."

Ruby panicked.

"Oh please, no. Please!"

She frantically tried tapping the buttons on the wheel again. All it did was make the horrible auto-tuned sounds louder.

"No no no nononono!"

She hated channel six radio and their awful mid-morning show. She hated Rory Grün and his miserable music taste and hairstyle. She hated having to share a building with those radio amateurs. But most of all, she hated R&B.

"Five, four, three, two, one / Yeah yeah yeah yeah, yeah yeah yeah / Bass bass, bass, bass!"

"Ahhhh how do I change it?! Why is this happening?!"

"With music by our side /To break the color lines / Let's work together!"

The button mashing continued. The station changed rapidly, flipping up higher into the end of the frequency range. When she let go of the button, the radio had settled on the oldies station, and the soft and calming sounds of Antonio Vivaldi came pouring out.

"Oh goodness me. Stupid expensive luxury combine."

Having figured out the complicated steering wheel, she flipped it back to her own station, settling back into her huge chair. She smiled. It was time for her morning show.

"Hey, goooood morning Atlas and welcome to Ruby Radio! Your home for all music from the 70's, 80's, and 90's! Hosted by everyone's favourite dork, me! Ruby Rose!"

"Okay, I need to dial that intro back like sooo many steps."

"On today's show, we're gonna be talking about a favourite of mine. A band from The Friendly Town, Norwood, North Vale."

She smiled, finally releasing the harvester from its brakes and moving forward, into the edge of the tall wheat. The huge machine seemed to relax as it crawled forward, effortlessly starting the husking process. The little touch display changed to a tiny animated picture of the harvester, complete with a percentage diagram on how full the hopper was. With a few taps of the only logical button on the steering wheel, Ruby settled in as the cruise control pulled her along at a steady seventeen and a half kilometres-per-hour.

"As I'm sure you're fully aware, this little band had its start as a little indie group made of high school students Adam Gontier, Neil Sanderson, and Brad Walst. In nineteen-ninety-two, the group, under the name of Groundswell, released a full-length album titled 'Wave of Popular Feeling' to almost zero acclaim. Few recordings remain of this album, but, because I'm a nerd, I did my homework. Here is the title track off that album."

The song started to play, and she tapped the button she had figured out was the volume button, raising the volume a few clicks. She remembered the unreasonable amount of time she spent on the internet, trying her hardest to find this very recording. The one time her studio mate Flynt had been invited to her house had been that weekend in April when she needed help in her research. It turned out a fresh, unplayed copy of the record was in a private collection of the son of a member of the Atlas Royal Court. Some fancy rich kid, she remembered. Flynt had flexed his corporate muscles, promising a few important favours in return for the still-sealed vinyl. She remembered him saying it was going to be a present for some girl his father had said he might like. She scoffed.

"Geez, who lets their dad find them girlfriends? What a moron."

In his defense, the moron had been kinda cute, she figured. From the northern city of Winterschlaf, if she remembered correctly. The drive up had been fun, getting to spend the day in Flynt's stylish Klasse-3 Kompressor sedan, talking about cars and women, mostly. He was a good man. He had offered to drive her to see a boy she had never met and make a probably million-lien deal for her so she could have two hours of stuff to talk about on her show. Their boss, Mister Bulsara, had been perfectly accommodating as well, giving them the two days off needed to make the long twelve hour drive. She remembered being allowed to drive the car, and Flynt encouraging her to use the car's tightly-wound supercharger to its fullest on the open autobahn.

The aging sedan, while still in fairly good condition for its year, had felt like the Atlesian equivalent to her first car. It was a little worn in, the cloth seats were well-bolstered, and the power of the car's small boosted four cylinder was enough to make her smile without being dangerous. It was also red, just like her little RRS. Pulling up to the house of the Duke of Winterschlaf in the tired coupe had been a little awkward, however.

"Can you believe that our man, Adam Gontier, was only seventeen at the time of that recording? I dunno, I feel like he has a whole 'Pear Jam' vibe going on with his voice in the early days. Really channelled his inner Eddie Vedder, you know? Ah, maybe I'm just sentimental. By the middle of ninty-five, the band had broken up, and their only legacy was this one lonely studio album. Here's the closing song off that album, Greedy Room."

She smiled. She actually liked this song. She once had tried to play it on Yang's guitar without realizing it was actually a lap steel and therefore not actually something she could play chords on. What kind of self-respecting farm girl didn't own a guitar, even one of those Vacuan-made Hunter ones? A real shame, it was. The sweet sounds of alternative rock pounded quietly from the harvester's powerful surround sound system.

She gave the huge side mirrors a quick check to make sure she was still going straight. The tractor's automatic cruise control featured a GPS-driven AutoHarvest mode that would ensure that it kept its heading, but she had decided to keep it off. She didn't trust the computers. She had been trained to keep herself straight without fancy automatic systems. The line of crops in her mirror showed exactly this, as the line between harvested soil and wheat still standing was dead straight. She smiled.

"Still got it."

The song on the radio ended with the fade out she would always do with the mixing panel that sat on her desk. It wasn't hard to hear the microphone click back on. The old mic always made that little pop as it powered up between songs, no matter how much frequency cancelling she put into the signal output. There wasn't anything she could do about it, really. She didn't have control over new equipment purchases.

"Ah, the end of a band, right there. The end of an era. And it hurts, you know? It's like... you get so attached to something that's good, then you make a bond with it and let it become part of your life. And just like that -poof- it's gone. Makes you sad. Makes you want to cry. It comes from the heart. Because you miss it."

Ruby frowned. This was an earlier one of her shows, so she didn't have the script memorized. This was one of the few shows that she didn't have an actual script at all, favouring a more ad-libbed story. She didn't remember this one to it's fullest.

"Sometimes I feel like that. Sometimes I feel like my hardest accomplishments, my strongest bonds, that they're all gone. That I'm alone. MY band has broken up. Our legacy is over. Ugh, look at me. Getting all nostalgic from school. What a silly problem. No, my band isn't really broken up, we just moved away. Except for my best friend. We live in the same town, so we hang out all the time."

Ruby's heart leapt into her throat.

No, please no.

"In fact, this little band became the favourite of my best friend here in Atlas. She adores them now. Her personal recording studio is set up the same way the Long View Farm studio is built. She even owns the actual guitar that the old lead guitarist, Phil Crowe used to play on stage. It's a pretty sweet set up, if I do say so myself."

Her head pounded. This wasn't good.

"It helps that she likes me enough to let me play with her guitars and equipment..."

No. This was not okay. She didn't want to think about her right now. Or anyone. Ruby was very nearly in full panic mode. The sound of her head pulsing was getting to an unreasonable level.

"Eh, she doesn't even listen to this silly show anyways. But, on the off chance she is, here's her favourite song, from early on in the band's rebound career under a new name."

The hyperventilating was going to make her pass out. There was nothing for her to grab on to, and nowhere for her to curl up more into. She couldn't even escape herself.

"So here's Three Days Grace; Pain."

Her body convulsed. Moved on its own. Her hand shot up to the ceiling-mounted switch panel, smashing into the giant red STOP button. All at once, everything stopped. Both of the tractor's huge engines halted, all of the brakes locked up, and the header stopped spinning and dropped into the dirt as hydraulic pressure was lost. It was a violent action, stopping like this. The massive lugs on the tires dug into the soft mud, almost stopping the harvester instantaneously with a few violent hops. Thanks to the padded lap-belt she was held in her seat, saved from being tossed through the panoramic windscreen.

You left her.

She closed her eyes.

She loved you.

Her teeth started to hurt from the strain.

You walked out on your friend.

Her hands came up to her ears to block out the sound. It was a frivolous gesture.

She loved you! She was trying to help you!

"Stop..."

What kind of person are you?

Weak?

Yes. Weak.

"No..."

Oh, really? You walked out on the one person who wanted to help you.

The one person who could.

The one person who you needed.

And you walked away.

Ruby's head pounded. She wanted to scream. Now there was nowhere to go.

Pitiful.

No, actually, not pitiful. No one's going to pity you. What's there to pity?

You're just weak.

"I..."

What's the matter? Shame got your tongue?

As usual.

Why don't you just run away?

You're good at that, right?

"Stop...it..."

No.

You know what you did. You DESERVE-

"SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP SHUT UP!"

Her foot found the door, kicking it open. She pulled the seatbelt off with force, pulling the belt right out of the seat frame and tossing it out if the cab. The tilting steering column retracted back against the glass windshield, giving her leg room enough to step out. Ruby, of course, didn't step out. She jumped from the cab.

"AAAARRGH!"

The dirt was soft enough to suck in her boots, and she sunk down to her knees. The white noise in her head was deafening. It needed to stop. Her hands came up to her coat, fiddling with the bronzed buttons. They came free without breaking out of the suede fabric. Something drastic needed to happen, and it was going to happen now. She reached her hand under her right armpit. Her fingers wrapped tightly to the polymer grip, pulling it free of the leather holster. Her eyes fixed to the wood fence at the edge of the field.

You couldn't do it if you tried.

She wanted to explode. If only to prove herself right. She raised the Seven-Five, her right hand supporting under the grip. The sights were far from helpful as her hands were shaking. Her stance was all wrong. Her blood pressure and heart rate were too high. Her breathing was too hard. She lined up.

"Fuck this."

The precision trigger was like a feather under her finger. The lightweight gun exploded in her hand, each round supposedly directed at the fence that sat forty or so feet away. It took no more than seven seconds to empty the twenty-round magazine into the target. Even after the last round had left the magazine and the small pile of brass casings had collected on the soft ground, she continued to pull the trigger a few times. The tiny cut created by the underside of the slide on her thumb stung a little. Her breath hurt in her lungs from the force. She lowered the weapon. There were no holes in the fence. She had missed each shot.

...

...

...

She waited. She wasn't quite sure what she was waiting for, however. Maybe she was waiting for the voice again. The voice was silent for now. Almost as if it was scared into silence. The usually unpleasant and scurrilous personality had gone silent, unwilling to pitch in. Ruby was okay with this for a moment. The silence was nice.

"Ruby?"

She didn't look.

"No! Shut up!"

The voice wasn't allowed back. She wasn't going to let it.

"Ruby? Are you there?"

She smirked. Of course she was. And she was going to win. She slid the gun back into the holster under her arm and did her jacket back up. The air was going to remain quiet. She shook her head, the fluffy brown mop of hair bouncing around.

"Ruby, come in. Ruby!"

She turned back. The voice changed. It wasn't her usual condescension and abjection. It sounded more... urgent. And like her dad.

"Ruby, pick up please!"

Oh. The tractor's CB radio was still on, as it was powered separately from the rest of the vehicle as a safety feature. The little green light was flashing. She deflated into herself. It was a little embarrassing. With a sigh, she turned around fully and trudged back over to the harvester. The soft dirt grabbed at her rubber boots, as if it was trying to pull them free of her feet. She stumbled, nearly at the huge machine, falling to one knee and putting an unbecoming brown spot on the hem of her borrowed dress. She frowned down at it as she pulled herself back up the ladder over the huge front tires and back into the cab. She dropped back into the leather seat and grabbed the little black mic off of its hanger.

"Go ahead for Ruby."

Her dad came back over the radio.

"Ruby, my gosh, are you okay? My desk alarm went off and I got an alert that your machine went into full shut down, and then I heard gunshots, and I-"

"Dad, don't worry about it, I'm fine. There was a small Grimm, and I dealt with it, it's all good."

"A Grimm? But none of the proximity alarms went off."

She winced. Lying to her dad sucked.

"Y-yeah, it was just a little Creep. Small enough to slip through the fence I guess."

There was a pause. Maybe he could see through the lie. He was her dad. The guilt filled her. It wasn't a good feeling in the slightest.

"Well, if you're okay, hurry back after those two fields. And make sure you have extra ammunition on you in that case. Hope you don't mind waiting. It takes twenty minutes to reprime the engines on that tractor."

"It's okay, I came prepared. Sorry if I overreacted to one little Grimm."

"Don't worry sweetheart. It's okay. Just come back safe."

"Okay dad."

With that, she hung the receiver back up on its hanger with a frown.

She needed to have a talk with Yang later.

Because, unfortunately, the voice in her head was right. She had left Weiss. And she didn't know what to do about it. Her sister would be able to help. She had already promised to help her with any problem she had.

She knew she had messed up. And messed up big time. Right at the end. Right when it mattered most. Weiss had been there for her. She had said she wanted to help. She had said they were a team. Ruby wiped her face on her sleeve.

But you can't function with your team.

"Shut up!"

With a twist of her wrist, she grabbed the door and yanked it shut. The glass vibrated.

"I don't want to hear it!"

But your friends. They weren't there to help you when you needed it, were they?

Not for the incident. But after Pyrrha? Weiss had been there! She was going to help! What was it she had said, though? Ruby wracked her brain, trying to place the quote.

'We're teammates, I'm here to help you' sound familiar?

It did sound familiar. Just like the face of the woman she had run away from. Scared. Alone. Desperate. She had damaged her friend. It was completely unfair to Weiss. The tears welled up in her eyes. Losing Pyrrha had hit like a hammer in her chest. She hadn't known what to do, so she reacted on impulse. She had run away.

"...and the only person...who even cared..."

You left them, didn't you?

She sobbed.

"I did."

What are you going to do about it?

"I don't know."

Shame. Weak as always.

It was unfair Pyrrha had died. It was unfair that her mother had died It was unfair that she had run away. It was unfair that she had been mistreated by someone she thought she loved. Everything was just so fucking unfair. And she felt trapped, in her own skin.

She couldn't do this to Weiss. She actually did love her, she just felt like she couldn't. It was, at the risk of repeating herself, unfair on all accounts. She wanted to shout and scream, to get it all out. But to whom? She couldn't afford her therapist anymore, and she couldn't talk to any of her other friends about the majority of her problems. But her sister?

Perhaps she could talk to Yang when they went out.

Yeah, that seemed like a good idea.

With a heavy, depressed sigh, Ruby hit the key on the tractor.