With four horses and nine people, it was decided that eight of them would be mounted while one would shoulder the unenviable role of point man. That person happened to be Jaune who, apparently fueled by his apparent chivalric code of honor, held the Empress's hand while Ruby squeezed onto the saddle that she would be sharing with Pyrrha.

Sky surrendered his mount to Ren and Nora then took his place in front of Dove. Cardin, on the other hand, ordered Russel to sit behind him else he would forcefully shave off his mohawk with his own weapon.

"These are light horses," Jaune bellowed. "That means that we can't push them to full gallop unless absolutely necessary."

"Can you keep up with them?" Cardin raised. "It'd suck to leave you behind."

"I'll try. Look, right now, we have to get moving before the Royal Army or anyone else would show up." The blond paused to yawn. "Hopefully we can pitch camp far enough away from here and get some shut-eye."

"Mistral's a day's away on horse," Nora said.

"It's a day away when on full gallop," Pyrrha corrected. "Then again, best to exercise caution than risk losing our mounts."

"There should be an abandoned gas station further up the road north of here," Sky highlighted. "It's not on any official maps but it showed up on some older versions. Other than that, the nearest farm is miles away."

"Better than sleeping under the stars," grunted Russel who had to grip the edges of the saddle to keep from slipping off. There was only so much space on the back of a horse. Especially one that was bred for light cavalry and currently unhappy with its two riders.

Jaune fastened his scroll on the topmost front pouch of the bandolier slung over his shoulder with the light beaming from it illuminating a wide view of the highway ahead. "No one forgot anything?"

"We're good," reported Mister Winchester. "Don't get us lost."

"Eh, I'd blame the map if we do. Besides, we'll be following a national highway. It'll lead us straight to Mistral."

"And what will happen to you when you get to Mistral?" Ruby asked. She felt Pyrrha stiffen behind her with her warm breathes brushing against her hair while she tied the reins around her wrists as a precaution in case the horse would rear hard.

Both teams fell silent.

"Don't you worry about us, Ruby," Jaune assured her, ignoring the surprise coming from team CRDL for addressing their sovereign so informally. "What matters is getting you to safety."

"Won't you be safe?"

He sighed. "We'll cross that bridge when we get there."

"What about your friends? The other teams who were with you?"

Team CRDL fidgeted in their places. Mister Arc eyed Mister Winchester who, after a few seconds of glaring at anything and anyone other than his liege, finally caved in. "CFVY and ABRN were retrieved by the Royal Army. Well, 'retrieved' by the Royal Knights and 'escorted' back to Lionheart."

"Ah, shit," Jaune hissed. "Where were they—"

"I don't know the details. None of us know. We just got this information from your chasseurs."

"We're going to have be extra careful," Dove parroted.

"And fast," added Sky.

"Look, let's just get to that gas station, okay? Then we'll figure out what to do from there." With that said, the blond team leader started walking. The rest followed immediately, inching their train step by step on the highway winding north to Mistral.

True enough, there was an abandoned gas station on the side of the highway, half-buried in foliage and upturned soil. A quick check revealed no threats in the immediate area for now. The horses whinnied in relief when they tethered to the derelict gas pumps while the group took shelter inside the convenience store. Ransacked and graffitied, there was nothing they found salvageable.

They then set up rotating shifts with one person keeping watch every hour until dawn. It would be less than eight hours until the sun would rise again so it was fair for everyone to pitch in for their own protection. As for their beddings, the arrangement was straightforward. They pushed up all the shelves and whatever furniture or junk to cover breaches in the walls and block most of the open windows. That gave them enough breathing room in the middle of the store where they all formed a circle around the Empress.

Ruby found it flattering and showed her amusement by pointing out how their sleeping bags formed a sort of flower with her in the middle. She was sitting up on her own sleeping bag, courtesy of team CRDL...or rather the Royal Army scouts that team CRDL robbed on the way to Oniyuri.

Everyone else chuckled with her until they gave in to their exhaustion. A moment later, the only people left awake were the Empress, Jaune, Pyrrha, and Cardin, who had volunteered to take the first watch and had pulled up a folding chair close to the door with his mace on his lap.

"Your Majesty?"

"Yes, Mister Arc?"

"How are you feeling?"

Ruby smiled at him. "Better. Thank you for asking. How about you?"

Jaune scratched the back of his head. "Tired. But I don't feel sleepy yet. Must be all the walking, huh."

"What about you, Miss Nikos?"

Pyrrha beamed back with the polity of a noblewoman in her bedchamber. "Similar, Your Majesty. I am drowsy though."

"Mister Winchester?"

Cardin choked on a yawn, almost dropped his mace, and nearly fell off his chair. He still saluted her. "Ave! On alert, Your Majesty."

The Empress chuckled behind her palm. "No need for the formality. Please, you're not in the army."

Mister Winchester relaxed though he still remained rigid. "Understood, Your Majesty. It's just, uh...you know how it is. With regards to—"

"Royalty," Ruby sighed. The reverence was admirable yet grating with how much of it she kept getting back home. "I know. But...I'd like it if you and your team would address me...normally. I'd like to be surrounded by friends, not robots."

The other three exchanged looks.

"Um, okay then." Their sentry awkwardly scratched the back of his head. "I'll keep that in mind. And, uh, I'm doing quite well. Thank you for asking, Your Majesty."

"That's good," the Empress nodded somberly. "That's good."

"Hey, uh, Ruby?"

"Jaune!" Cardin barked. "Dude, have some respect—"

"No, it's fine, Mi—Cardin. It's fine."

Mister Winchester appeared conflicted for a moment. For a Valean, it was understandable that addressing a royal so informally regardless of their place in society was a grave breach of proper conduct and in some parts of the Empire was a punishable offense. Then again, with the advent of people like Yang Xiao-Long and her wild antics, it seemed some of the traditional ways were being shelved for the sake of a more engaging relationship between the royals and the masses.

"Right," he sighed, turning his attention back to the wilderness outside.

Ruby turned to Jaune. "So what is it?"

"I want you to know that...what you did back there. That was...amazing."

She stared at him while her brain processed his words. It was not a hollow compliment. Rather, it was genuine appreciation. And the way he regarded her...was pure adoration. With her cheeks warming up and a stutter in her voice, she answered, "Why th-thank you, Jaune."

He surprised her by a few sudden gestures that mimicked some of her swings. "No, really. You pulled some really solid moves there. You used your Semblance and crippled an Elder Grimm with a broken weapon! It's like...it's as if you...uh, I mean, it's just that—"

Pyrrha cleared her throat. "What Jaune's trying to say is that you executed an uncommon textbook Huntsman tactic."

"Yeah, that's it!" the blond chirped. He dropped his voice to a whisper though after Nora groaned and stirred in her sleeping bag. "I mean, that's exactly what it was. You were amazing. Even I wouldn't think of that."

Miss Nikos giggled softly. "Jaune's academic scores are among the highest in Haven. He may not be the most stellar fighter in our class but he rivals even our seniors in terms of planning and strategy."

A blushing, deflective wave. "Aww, Pyr. I'm not that good."

A flustered, teasing retort. "Oh, shut up and accept some praise every now and then."

Ruby shrunk underneath her cloak. Her chest was feeling so warm. As warm as her cheeks which were burning right now. "Wow, I...I didn't know it was that textbook... That was, I mean, uh...I really appreciate the compliment."

Jaune yawned and laid back down. "I mean it, Ruby. If you weren't royalty, I'd say you would've been an amazing student at any one of the Huntsman academies." He chuckled halfway through to dreamland. "I mean...you would've made for a fine Huntress."

The Empress felt her heart skip a beat.

When she regained herself minutes later, Jaune was fast asleep and Pyrrha was tucking in her crimson mane as she lay her head down.

"I've always wanted to be a Huntress," Ruby croaked.

Pyrrha shuffled in her beddings. Green orbs flashed wide up at her from the darkness.

"It just...was never meant to be."

Miss Nikos sat back up. "Your Majesty?"

The young sovereign continued plodding at the broken tiles on the floor, occasionally stealing glances at Jaune and the others snoozing around her. "You're all so lucky that you could train and harness your skills...and go out into the world on adventures...and more exciting stuff." Ruby felt something bubble up inside her and tried desperately to push it down. "I envy you all so much."

Pyrrha inched closer, her green pupils piercing through the dark. "Ruby?"

The Empress sniffled. "Sorry...I'm just tired and...it's been an exhausting day and..."

"You don't like being Empress?"

She shook her head. She was too sleepy hide her personal opinions. "It wasn't by choice. I was born into it, I know but...I wanted to be normal. To be treated like everyone else...to actually go out into Vale and visit the stores, have a picnic, read comic books and watch movies. Heh, maybe even go to a combat school, land a spot at Beacon...be a Huntress."

Miss Nikos shuffled beside her. "But because you were to inherit the throne..."

"I wasn't supposed to at first. It was Yang. But Ozma passed her birthright to me for...reasons. So she gets to go out and party and have fun and be who she wants to be...while I'm locked up in the palace. Always abiding by the rules. Not allowed to see anyone, not allowed to say certain things, not allowed to behave like Yang or any her friends...not even allowed to have my own friends. Only the 'proper' ones."

Pyrrha eased back. Her eyes were wide with surprise and her jaw hung open with disbelief. "I...I didn't know."

"It's okay," the Empress snorted. "You're not supposed to know this stuff about me."

"So...why are you telling me this?"

'Trust goes both ways.'

Ruby slipped her legs into her sleeping bag and laid down to stare at the blackened ceiling. "Because I'm tired of hiding behind curtains. I want to be who I am. I want to be a leader...like my mother, my father. I want to make my own rules, to command my own troops, to lead my own country the way I want to. Not the way Oz..."

She clamped her mouth shut. Even out here, far away from home, she found it hard to be harsh to her godparents. There was something about her that made it near impossible to lash her tongue at them. Perhaps it was how she was raised or the ethics of royalty hammered into her by Salem.

"If you were not Empress," Pyrrha started. "What would you have wanted to be?"

Ruby turned her head to see those green orbs staring back at her from across the floor. On their backs in a dark and abandoned gas station in the middle of Mistral's wild lands. "A Huntress...like you."

Silence.

Green eyes flickered like lights on a launch pad.

Then a shaky voice echoed back. "Oh."

"Jaune's lucky to have someone like you," the Empress continued. "Someone famous, skilled, and beautiful. And a team of friends who always have each others' backs. Going on wild, crazy adventures...saving people, hunting things...kind of like a family business at that point."

"Your Maj—Ruby," Pyrrha said. "I'm flattered, I'm honored even!"

Ruby caught the tightness in the curve of her lips. Uncertainty. Discomfort. She was not the best at reading people but Pyrrha Nikos was as tellable as a diamond on a bust. "Tell me. Do you like the fame?"

The champion glanced away, biting her lip in the dark.

"It's okay," cooed the Empress. "You don't have to answer."

"No."

"Come again?"

Miss Nikos sighed. "No. I don't like the fame. In fact, I don't even like being put on a pedestal for people to aspire to, to admire, to gawk at like a piece of overpriced meat. I don't...ugh. I just want..."

"You want to be normal, too, huh."

Pyrrha nodded. "Yes."

Ruby smirked. "You and I both then."

"To be honest, I'm surprised at how much we have in common."

"I'm surprised I've found another one just like me."

"Another one?"

"You know Weiss Schnee? Heiress to the Schnee Dust Company? Firma Schnee Stäuben? Die prominente aus Atlas?"

It took the champion a moment to respond. "I've heard of her. Huh. I guess I shouldn't be surprised that such a socialite would know royalty."

"You'd be surprised by what she's hiding underneath all that pomp and make-up."

The champion cracked a minute grin. "A completely different person?"

"A girl caged by her birthright," nodded the Empress. "Oh, the nasty things she says when the cameras are off."

Miss Nikos winced. "Is she...?"

The young sovereign gave her a flat look. "Completely unlike her father. In fact, she hates him. Hence why she publicly hangs out with Blake just to stick it to his face."

"Blake?"

"Blake Belladonna, daughter of Prime Minister Ghira Belladonna. Of Menagerie. She's a cat faunus."

"Oh. Friend?"

"Close friends. Me, Yang, Weiss, and Blake. If we weren't royalty or high status, we could've been our own Huntsman team. Even came up with the name, too. R-W-B-Y, pronounced exactly how you would say it when you read it."

The champion stared at her, awed and amused. The Empress stared back, smug and smirking. They burst into soft giggles.

"Pyrrha?"

"Yes, Ruby?"

"Thank you for being a friend. And for your help against the Grimm. And for saving me, basically. Um, thank you."

"You're welcome. I would thank you as well for...trusting me—trusting us with your secrets."

"After what I've been through, it wouldn't be proper to be so closed towards you." The Empress felt the edges of sleep dredging at her. She yawned. "Goodnight, Pyrrha."

"Goodnight, Ruby."

She cleared her throat. "Goodnight, Cardin."

Cardin jumped in his seat with a stiff salute. "Ave!" He eased up a bit when he saw his liege staring amusedly back at him. "Oh. Um, right. Of course, uh...goodnight, Your—um, Ruby."

Crickets.

"I meant Ruby. Um, still getting used to that."

Ruby replied with a soft chuckle before slipping into dreamland.

Voices. Screaming. Crying.

Ruby lets out a silent scream when the appendage tears through her father's breastplate, shatters his Aura, and rips open his stomach. He buckles back and lands a blazing retaliatory fist at the Imperial Guardsman—a faunus—who had brazenly dared to harm his own charge.

"Ruby! Get out of here, now!" Taiyang yells, blood seeping through his hand pressed against the gash in his abdomen.

Ruby runs. She runs into Yang who drags her behind the curtains. Together, they hide whilst the cacophony of boots resonate against the walls of the Imperial Palace.

"Traitors!" screams the Dragon Emperor. "What are you doing!?"

Among the noise, a single voice—slow, gravelly, and haunting—echoes back. "An assisted regime change, Your Majesty."

Then a laugh.

A maniacal laugh that bounces from the pillars and the plaster.

A laugh that dies out when the Dragon Emperor is surrounded by the rest of his own bodyguards. And Ruby witnesses the shadows that would forever replay in her mind in her dreams for years to come. Yet, this time, she screams. She cries loudly, wailing against the arms of her sister.

She raises her voice to beg them to stop. Only then does she see purple eyes crane towards her, marking a face that could only fit the offspring of wickedness and insanity. That face laughs again as it stretches out like a coiled snake and lunges at her with its fangs, claws, and stinger bared.

Then darkness. And in that darkness were voices. Screaming. Crying.

Ruby opened her eyes to sunlight beaming brightly through the shattered windows. She stretched her hands and glanced around. Team CRDL were already up given the absence of their bedrolls. Two empty sleeping bags flanked her while Nora snored blissfully across from her with her limbs sprawled haphazardly about. As for Ren, he probably woke up an hour earlier, saw half his partner on top of him, sighed to himself, then went back to sleep.

Jaune and Pyrrha, however, were pressed up to the windows with team CRDL. They were all looking outside. The Empress crawled out of her beddings to see what was going on. She could hear them talking. Rather animatedly. Were they having an argument?

She rubbed her eyes and shuffled over to them.

"Good morning, everyone—"

Jaune whirled on his heels faster than she could register his hands gripping her arms with such intensity that it shocked her awake. "Ruby! Good, you're awake."

"Hey, man! Don't grab her like that!" Sky shrieked. He immediately pried the blond's grip from the sovereign.

Ruby was too stunned to form words even as Jaune hastily apologized and reasoned that he was still on edge over the sudden appearance of a small airship hovering towards the gas station.

Wait, what?

Cardin stomped over to the remaining half of team JNPR. "Hey, lovebirds, get up!"

Ren and Nora stirred. The latter was about to wave him off when they were suddenly forced up to stand, squeaking and hissing in surprise at having been thrown out of their bags and partially contorted into uncomfortable poses. Ren growled at being nearly suspended by his metallic armbands while Nora nearly screamed from the tightness of her own belt buckle squeezing against her midsection.

"Sorry," Pyrrha sang. She had an open palm stretched over towards her two teammates. Ruby narrowed her eyes and, despite her half-attentive state, heard a faint humming coming from her fingers. Was Miss Nikos channeling Aura through her hands or...was it her Semblance? So far, the champion had been very vague, if not mum, about what her Semblance was.

Said champion flicked her fingers and her two teammates slumped where they stood. As though they had been dropped from whatever invisible cocoon had held them in place.

"Pyrrha! What gives!?" Nora shrieked.

"Get your gear," Jaune ordered, tying his rolled up sleeping bag to the top of his field pack before slipping it over his shoulders. "Pack up now!"

"What's going on?" Ren demanded.

"We've got company," Cardin said.

That was enough to get them all riled up. Ruby dashed across the floor, rolling up bag and slipping on her boots, she had while Pyrrha assisted Ren and Nora in gathering their belongings. Team CRDL, suited up with their field kits jingling over their backs, spread across the front side of the store with their weapons drawn.

What followed was a distant whizzing. Followed by a loud whirring. Outside, the horses whinnied, neighed, and reared against the straps keeping them tight to the derelict gas pumps while turbine engines buzzed overhead.

The rays of sunlight beaming into the store were blocked by small Mistralian bullhead hovering a few feet off the ground, directly in front of the gas station. The bay doors slid open, revealing a man suited in a leather jumpsuit closely resembling those issued to Royal Army pilots.

Ruby froze in her step.

Did the Royal Army find them?

If that would have been the case, then the bullhead itself would not be so nondescript. There were no markings, no stripes of paint labeling the colors of Mistral, no Royal Army squadron jumping out to arrest them. In fact, the pilot himself did not seem to carry the veneer of the Mistralian Royal Army. On the contrary, his jumpsuit was dirty and stained while a curly, unkempt beard hung off his chin.

Before the Empress could ask any questions, she was pulled by the arm and hurried outside along with the rest of their group.

"You have five minutes!" the man hollered. "Get in now or I'll leave you all behind!"

Ruby squawked along the way to the bullhead's open cabin. She stumbled before one of the turbines which blew down her hood, exposing her face. The pilot, she assumed, was taken aback.

"Par le dieux!" he gasped, pointing a shaky finger at her. "Y-you're the Empress of Sanus! Th-the one who was t-taken and—"

"And you'll keep that to yourself!" Jaune hollered.

"C'est fou, c'est fou! This is insane!"

"Tell me about it," Cardin wheezed, jumping aboard and having his team surround the man. He pressed a solid finger at his chest. "You keep your mouth shut about this. Got it?"

"Don't make us hurt you, alright?" Russel added. "Look, we'll even pay you. We'll pay double!"

The pilot nodded shakily. "Oui, oui, d'accord! Absolutely! Hey, I don't even know you people anyway."

Ruby stiffened in her boots when she caught him staring at her. It lasted for a few seconds but her fear immediately subsided in place of curiosity when she spotted something creeping up from the nape of his neck out of the collar of his jumpsuit: a spider tattoo.

"What about the horses?" Nora hollered. She had yet to get on board, instead holding the reins to the still tethered steeds despite Ren literally pushing against her to get inside.

"Non, non, non! I am not bringing them aboard!" screeched the pilot who had begun climbing into the cockpit.

"We can't just leave them out there!"

"For crying out loud, Valkyrie!" Dove growled. "Forget the horses and get in!"

"But—"

"Nora," Ren pleaded, finally managing to shove his partner onto the deck. "We have to leave them."

Pyrrha grabbed her and dragged to sit on one of the benches. "Nora, don't worry. The Royal Army will be here soon, anyway. They'll take care of them."

"It's their horses, after all," Jaune concluded with a finality in his voice that demanded no further arguments. "Since CRDL left the original riders unharmed, more or less, I'm sure they would be happy to have their mounts back."

For once, Nora did not protest. She simply sat in her seat, pouting with her arms crossed, while Pyrrha clicked the seatbelt into place. "That's if the Army gets to them before the Grimm do."

"Are we all in here?" the pilot asked from the cockpit.

A round of affirmatives echoed back at him. The bay doors then slid shut and a minute later and they were airborne and cruising smoothly towards Mistral.

Ruby turned to the person seated next to her. "Jaune, what's going on?"

He did not answer. Instead, he stared intensely at the person—a very uncomfortable, very wary Cardin Winchester—directly across from him while gripping the straps of his seatbelt.

"Jaune!" She shook him. "Jaune, answer me!"

He swiveled his head towards her. Blue orbs wide as saucers and a face paling by the second.

Oh. Snap.

Mister Winchester spoke slowly. "Hold it in, man. Hold it in—"

Jaune jerked his head away. Ruby squealed. Cardin screamed. Everyone else groaned. In the cockpit, the pilot took one look over his shoulder before shaking his head and muttering a string of curses in native Mistralian. On the bright side, as soon as they had attained cruising altitude and they were allowed out of their seat belts, Ren volunteered to clean up the nasty little puddle dripping onto the floor from a very irate, very filthy Cardin Winchester.

At least no one else got hit by the splash, not even the Empress who was rubbing circles on Jaune's back while Pyrrha wiped his mouth clean with a rag.

ORIGINALLY DRAFTED: December 10, 2019

LAST EDITED: December 18, 2019

INITIALLY UPLOADED: December 18, 2019

NOTE: I feel like I missed something. If I did, do let me know.