Ch. 23: Plans and Tribulations

There was a clock on the wall that seemed to watch Ruby as she sat in her uncomfortable wood chair, and its incessant ticking had played metronome to the dire conversation she had listened through. Maybe why it had captured her attention was for its striking resemblance to one she had seen in her youth, on the back of a trades-man's cart in her home village. Though maybe her memory was blurring the similarities with time. It wasn't a particularly large clock, maybe slightly larger than a dinner plate, though square in its construct. It had a furling lip at the top, two crests joining together in the middle, with the visage of a Malfestio head above the clock face. The hands were spinally wires shaped like raptor claws, each one trembling with the tick of the second hand as it twitched by. When she had entered the room, the clock had read half way through the seventeenth hour, that was three hours ago.

She squirmed in her seat and felt Weiss's hand on her back, the smooth touch soothing her slightly in the middle of the silence that had stretched through the room. Surrounding them was the council of the New World, each person in attendance of some importance to its machinations. The Commander Ozpin sat at the front of the circular table, and it was clearly the front because he was the most venerable in attendance, his hands steepled as he peered over a large map held down by weights at its corners. Beside him was General Ironwood, who leaned back in exhaustion, his usual stoic demeanor worn away by the stretched proceedings. To Ozpin's left was Kali, Blake's mom, whom Ruby had met only yesterday, the wyverian drumming her fingers against the table, though their rhythm did not make a sound.

Seated around them were the various fleet admirals, those that were still alive, as well as heads of research, masters of the stock yards, and lead engineers and smiths. Onyx was on Ruby's opposite side, his arms bulging out and nearly touching Ruby's head, the muscles formed in a tight cross folded in front of his chest. He had hardly said a word during the exchange, only his grim lips twitching in intervals throughout.

While all sat, one stood. Blake, with Yang and Sun beside her, the wyverian's hands pressed in support against the table, a fresh 'X' in the center of the map which marked the Elder's Recess. The researcher had just explained the happenings of the last two weeks, a lecture interrupted with beggings of details, elaborations and questions unending. However, as her story had closed, when she described the horde of horrors in the recess, the beggings stopped, the occupants listened and the silence drifted down over them like a black sheet.

Ozpin spoke first, as was his duty, "This is troubling information you've brought us."

"But all true, seen with my own eyes. The others in the village can attest to similar sights. We had known the source of the blight to be the Recess, but we were not aware of its severity." Sun said, his leg bandaged and propped in a sling, beside him his elder meditated, the coral mask not moving since it had sat there at the beginning of the meeting.

Someone spoke, "We do not doubt the validity of these claims Mul'for Sun. We only feel the weight of its implications." Oobleck, the head researcher of Astera chittered past his veil, his own face nothing more than an opaque sheet with wyverian runes painted across it. He shifted and rose tall over those beside him, "This is unprecedented, not for hundreds of years have so many monsters gathered in one centralized location, and with such clear malevolent intentions."

"Unprecedented may be a stretch doctor." The sixth fleet admiral cut in, a woman named Amber, "Kamura, for example has experienced such calamities in the past. Is this not an example?"

"The rampage phenomenon, while similar, differs in cause I think." Kali smoothed her robes with her hands before leaning back across the table. "It's the cause of elder dragon's mental attacks on a population. While the ferocity and drive mirror one another, the addition of the mutations of flesh points more towards disease. I'm sure you've seen as much from my daughter's initial findings."

"Indeed." Ozpin motioned with his hand behind him, his assistant handing him a thick scroll which her unfurled. "And I'm afraid it gets worse. In my hands is the most recent report for the northwestern watch station just shy of the Coral Highlands. They have sighted the horde and estimate it'll reach their station within the day." There were murmurs of alarm through out the room, Ruby shifting nervously again and casting a look towards her sister. Yang met her eyes but switched back to the commander as he talked.

"However, the letter is dated for yesterday, and I did not receive this until half an hour ago. One of my scouts personally ran it here, citing that all of their wing drakes had been killed as they attempted to flee… The context that Ms. Belladonna has provided confirms that the horde is real and it is close. We estimate that we have two days before they arrive here." He leaned back into his seat, and the table exploded into sound.

"Order!" Ironwood roared, banging his fist into the table, it muted a few but not all.

"We need to hasten the fortifications! Round up more volunteers-"

"- this is exactly why we needed to triple the scouting-"

"- What news of Seliana? They have been silent for four days-"

"My friends! Shouting will do nothing in our current situation save for muddy the details." Ozpin stood with his hands behind his back. "Tomorrow morning we shall hasten the fortifications to the eastern and northern walls, and recruit any and all who may build trenches. I will leave these tasks to Onyx and Peter." He nodded towards the two before moving his attention to the General.

"James, if you may, please situate your ships just off this coast, establish a kill zone in front of the gates, and man it as efficiently as you can. We may need more people on the shore if things take a dire turn." The man pointed to an area just shy off the coast on the map.

"And what if they do?" The steeled man said in a sharp bark, "If things turn dire you are leaving yourself nearly stranded in Astera. If we take these positions, especially with a skeleton crew, they won't be able to harbor in time for us to load enough people to escape." He stood himself, a head and a half high over the white curls of the Commander. The General continued.

"And I won't allow that. I say we grab what we can with as many people as we can, and set sail for Atlas." The room dropped back into silence for a moment, only for Amber to break it.

"Your ships, as impressive as they are, cannot fit the entirety of Astera in them, along with your army General." Her voice was clipped, and Ruby furrowed at the tone in it, unsure exactly what the woman was upset about.

"I know, which is why if we leave now we can ferry most everyone to Seliana, as a staging ground. From there we sail to Atlas, provision ourselves appropriately and sail back for the rest." He narrowed his brows at the woman.

"That's too long to gamble the lives of these people! Besides we don't even know if Seliana still stands! From the reports I've seen they've had just as much activity in the hoarfrost as we have!"

"Which is why we must act now!" He did not raise his voice, but from where Ruby sat it felt like a trumpet in her ear, making her flinch at the authoritarian tone.

Kali rebutted next, "And leave everything we have worked for? Throw away decades of research and blood? There have been too many who have died for it!" Blake shuffled in her seat but kept quiet.

"Do not equate such a fallacy to the lives of those here now. We are already with our backs against a wall, and we are letting our only chance of survival slip past us!"

Kali stood, "Then slink away General! We don't need cowards in our ranks for the coming war."

"Please." Ozpin held his hands up and out towards the two. "Simmer down. Kali, that was most uncalled for. All should know that there is no cowardice in retreat, for the will to survive another day, and fight for a better outcome." He turned to Ironwood next.

"James, while your points stands I must say it seems a bit defeatist. Have we not, in all our years in this land, faced great threats before? Did Astera fall to the march of Zora Magdaros? Did it lie still during the winters of Velkhana? Did it falter against the horrors of the Shara Ishvalda? Did it break against the threat of Safi'jiva and its hell-spawn before it? This is a gathering of the most noble, experienced and steadfast warriors in the world, and I trust that we can succeed here in much the same manner that we have in the past."

He paused before sitting heavily back into his seat, Kali and James did the same.

"But we do not rule absolutely, and I see this council not as a group of advisors, but for what it is, a council. And so I will call a vote on the matter. All those in favor of protecting Astera?"

There was silence, and nary a movement of hand or head. Ruby felt her arms freeze against her side, glancing to Weiss to see the girl equally stunned. It was easy she thought, to have no say in the matter, to pretend like those around her were grand in judgement and wise beyond her, and they were, in their ways. However the people she saw now were but a single malaise of fear and hesitation, of doubt and uncertainty. Clearly all that had been discussed weighed heavily on them, and the fate of Astera now rested in a single moment of distilled democracy. To Ruby there seemed only one clear answer, to stay and fight and protect everything she had come to find dear. So why was it so hard to say yes? Why did the lump in her throat prevent her from speaking? Who weighed her arms down with steel? And how could it be fair to accuse those who called for retreat cowards when she couldn't even speak for herself.

"If I may speak for a moment before the vote is called." Blake said, her voice muted by the silence. The Commander nodded his head at her.

"I and my companions have been the first of the victims to this unfortunate catastrophe. We have fought and bled and spent countless nights trying to understand the gravitas of it all, and now that we have come to understand… Well, I wouldn't be the first to say that the situation is bleak. It's an oppressive and suffocating feeling to chance a battle we have no guarantee to win, and even more insidious to decide who stays and who goes if we don't fight it. I cannot pretend to know which is the right choice, because either ends with a body count I can't begin to fathom."

She took a breath.

"But is it too much to ask for hope? To rely on our strength? Our friends?" Her eyes peered around the room as she addressed them all. "Even when we narrowly escaped the recess, even when we fled in our ship, there was never a moment I didn't think that we couldn't win. I kept thinking, if only we can make it to Astera, if only we could unite, then we could beat these things. The Grimmblight are horrors that haven't existed for thousands of years, that balk at any grasp of understanding, and destroy without fatigue. But they can be beaten. I've done it, my friends and those brave enough to rise to the hunt have done it. So why can't we all? Isn't it as the Commander has said? The Research Commission has faced many monstrosities that seemed unstoppable, and yet here we still are. So I vote to stay in Astera, and to fight. I chose to trust my hope, and to trust my friends."

There was a pause in the room, only for the Commander to break it himself.

"All those in favor of staying?" Ozpin held his hand up, eyes glancing about.

This time they rose or called out, hands coming up in tandem with the confirmation. Where once the vote had been silent it was now unanimous. Ruby's hesitation had been whisked away, and she held her hand up proudly, watching as Onyx and Weiss followed. Sun leaned in towards his elder, rapid fire wyverian being whispered before he joined Blake and Yang's hands in the air.

"The Ish'Vola clan stands with the Research Commission." He said, a small grin on his face.

"Very well. The council has decided. We stay, and we fight." Ozpin rapt his cane against the ground and it echoed deep into the night.

—

The next morning and the day after, Ruby never stopped moving.

Astera, in its previous fervor, paled in comparison to the maelstrom of work that engulfed it now. There were swarms of people, tradesmen carrying loads of munitions, hunters and soldiers digging trenches, engineers and smiths preparing defenses and officials directing them all. It was insane, and Ruby struggled to wrap her head around the logistics of moving so many people at once. The forest edge which had crept up to kiss the gates were now cut back several hundred feet, its proud trees honed into rows of sharpened spikes nestled in and around trenches. There was a corridor being built leading to the front gates, with several layers of walls perpendicular to its edges, interceded with ballistas along the way. Ruby was currently in the process of rigging the firing mechanism on top of one such ballista, her blisters wearing into calluses that bust apart time and again.

With a grunt she slid the clutch into place, yanking with all her might to properly hook it into its groove. Hopping around from where she was sitting she manned the machine at its controls, swiveling the aiming irons about at imaginary foes. With a yank of her fingers she activated the firing mechanism, and rapid 'thunks' rocketed from the wooden tracks, and she could feel the power beat against her chest. She released her hand and the machine stopped, it was really going to do some damage once it got the proper ammunition. Ruby looked around, further on the temporary battlements were more stations holding their own ballistas or cannons. The wall behind her, the one right before the towering gates, she saw several men and women working on a machine cannon, its revolving barrels currently being lowered in place by her Master Onyx, who handled the heavy metal contraption like it was a bundle of sticks.

"Rose! Update on the ballista?!" A man shouted to her.

Ruby leapt from the battlement, grabbing onto a rope pulley and swinging down to the ground behind the wall. There was a stiff looking official waiting for her, a notebook clutched tightly in his hand with a pen perched at the ready.

"All done! Yeah, the clutch pen wasn't installed correctly. I just went ahead and replaced the driving shaft as well, it seemed a little frayed." She kicked her boots at the dirt, sending tufts of dust in the air. The man frowned down at the stray dirt and its invasion of his polished shoes. He jotted on his notebook after Ruby gave him an apologetic look.

"Noted. Your speed is impeccable." He glanced up at the sky and his frown deepened. "Rose, take a break for a meal. Afterwords report to the cannon heads behind the gate for the rest of the night. You are dismissed." He briskly walked away, heading down the line of the wall and shouting to the groups as he went. Ruby let out a breath and pulled her arm behind her back, stretching her shoulder as she made her way back. A brief scurry through the gates followed by a worming through the hazardous crowds, she popped into the canteen and swiped a cold cut sandwich.

It was pretty crowded, all things considered, but not by its usual patrons. Instead the usual culinary army of Felynes were supplemented with Atlesian cooks. The pairs combining to form an assembly line of rations for the battle ahead. Ruby tried to catch Jaune's eye, but the man was too busy, and so instead she decided to find a spot of relative quiet to enjoy her break. She settled on nowhere specific, just a railway that bridged over a waterfall that cut through the top of the settlement and rested in the sea below its decks. Ruby sat and dangled her legs over the side, resting her arms on the middle beam of the railing. The misting of the falls behind her tickled her calves, and she felt a measure of exhaustion leak from her body. She sighed and took a bite from her sandwich, crumbs and limp leaves tumbling below. She watched them for a bit before settling her sight on the dipping sun as it raced towards the waves.

She wondered what Weiss was doing. Last she had heard from the girl was the morning after the council meeting, when the two had awoken and set off to their assigned duties. Ruby vaguely remembered that Weiss was assisting the officials with inventory duties. That was yesterday, and Ruby had elected to stay at her old room instead of sleeping over with Weiss again. She had wanted to, truly, but they agreed that her and Yang should have some time after being separated for so long.

Should she be scared? She was tired, she knew that. Maybe it was good that she was too tired to care. Otherwise she would be dwelling on the impending blood bath. She was aware that there was a tremor in her left hand, small and twitchy near her ring and pinky fingers, that seemed to calm down once they were tasked with something. And there was a quiet pain in her chest that wormed itself up and down throughout the day, but it wasn't anything she couldn't handle. She had dealt with those feelings her whole life, and while she had had her ups and downs they always went away. But this time, it was a constant. Sometimes low and dull aches, which would crescendo to sharp pains up into her chest. This was something different, and she didn't know how to deal with it all. She tried her practiced breaths, focussing her mind, but none of it was helping, and that pain bounced around her chest in glee. She had to be brave, all of them did didn't they? Otherwise something might fail in a critical moment, a line would break, a machine might jam, or her own arm could falter. There wasn't room for anything else besides being brave.

Why couldn't she have said more during the meeting? She was trying to be brave now but she had quivered in front of everyone for damn near three hours in that meeting room. If she was brave why didn't she raise her hand? Show everyone that she believed that they would survive no matter what, that she was willing to place her life down to protect her home. And yet still she returned to that small moment, that silent table and asked herself why it felt herculean. None of the others raised their hands at first right? So that meant they also had second thoughts or reservations about the plan. Ruby couldn't stop but ask if there was a better way, one that guaranteed Astera and a safe flight if things got bad. But amongst those deemed wisest she was little more than a butt to fill a chair.

It was frustrating. She had to be brave! She needed to be the best smith she could be and fix everything! She even made deadly new weapons for everyone, she poured her heart into them. So why did it feel like it wasn't enough? Why was she so terrified of not doing more?

This weakness in her heart cowed her deeply, and throughout the day she couldn't shake the funk she had fallen into. All manners of neurotic thoughts and pains flashing inside her skull as she worked through the day. None of this was fair, and how could it be? She just wanted to build and craft, not tear things down, not watch others get torn down in front of her or maybe because of her. There had to be more that she could do than hide from her feelings of inadequacy.

"Hey." A familiar voice, a loving voice, and Yang's curls drifted into her vision.

"Yang." Ruby looked up to see her sister peering down at her, leaning her arms against the railing above Ruby's head.

"You okay?"

Ruby took another bite and chewed, hoping to find the answer in the slimy meats and staling bread. When she swallowed she had come up with nothing.

"I don't know. It just all doesn't seem real." She nodded her head outwards.

"The invasion of monsters? Or just life in general?" Yang teased.

"All of it. I mean, everything that lead us here to this point. I feel like Im in a weird dream, you know the ones that are not quite nightmares, but aren't pleasant either? The ones that last way too long and leave you unsettled. And I wake up cold in the night sweating, but not scared, and I don't want to go back to sleep because it's all so… disorienting." She gave a look up into lilac and they blinked softly, her sister playing with her hair as Ruby talked.

"Right. The calm before the storm or something. This feels like the start and yet we have no idea what will happen. Some of the veterans think this will shake out like previous defenses, they say that a single ballista can shred through three monsters before it empties its load, but I'm not so sure when it comes to the Grimmblight. Those things are so insane they can literally handle anything. Every time I think I've thrown a killing blow, they just stand back up and look at you… With those awful eyes." Ruby shuddered, and rubbed at her arms as she answered.

"We have so much fire power here, and extra reinforcements from the General. I think this is the best chance we're going to get. So… It has to work right?" There was a pleading in Ruby's eyes that was hidden in her voice.

"Right." Yang sat down now, her thigh brushing against her sister's. Ruby wrapped her right into the other girls left and squeezed her hand. It was reciprocated by the glove like calluses of Yang's, and the two sat silently together as the sun blinked out of existence. Sconces and brazers were beginning to light below them, illuminating into the ocean like strange fire engulfed sea creatures.

"Im scared." Ruby said, it was a quiet and girlish declaration. One that rocketed her to a memory years in the past of Yang holding her in bed on a night their farther had left for a major hunt. In those small pleas of the past, Ruby would receive the warm embrace of her sister, and a bit of the worry would drift off into the night, and she would find herself asleep before she knew it.

Yang gripped her hand and shuffled closer, swinging an arm around Ruby's back and pulling her close. Ruby's head rested on her shoulder, so large and taught in muscle, yet surprisingly comfortable, a sigh that had been trapped inside her released and she closed her eyes for a moment. There was a bit of serenity in that moment, against her sister who had slain beasts like it was a hobby, with the cool night air whispering between them, and the peaceful crash of the waterfall behind them. It let Ruby clear her mind and subdued that pesky worming sensation in her gut.

"Well, don't mean to freak you out or anything but I'm pretty spooked too. One of those bastards is a lot but… the horde is something else. We just have to trust that those who know what they are doing will get us through it all. Are you stationed on the gates?"

Ruby nodded. "I think I'll be helping load cannons and potentially fix anything that goes wrong or gets busted."

"That doesn't sound too bad. They want me down in the kill box, to man a ballista on the fourth row. I think we will take the defenses in small shifts and then rest before going back out there."

"Will you be taking your weapon?" Ruby asked, a tone of pleading wafting towards her sister.

"Of course! That last beast you made me is diabolical. You should've seen me carving them up these last few weeks." Yang squeezed her again, causing Ruby to make an indiscriminate noice.

"Well at least you'll be ready. If you fall off will you have to fight on foot?"

"Yup." And she popped the 'P' at the end. "But don't worry, we got all these people here, I'll probably be spending my time dashing through bullets before I can even think about the monsters" She chuckled.

"Mmmph." Ruby opened her eyes and looked up at her sister.

"What's it mean to be brave? To be a huntress?" She asked. Yang considered the question for a moment before answering.

"Those are two different kinds of things don't you think? A huntress by definition wields a weapon and scores money and fame through hunting monsters. That's about all I can say for that, because I think there are way too many different kinds of hunters out there for it to be a single definition." She shuffled and ran a hand through her hair.

"Being brave? Dad once told me that being brave is a three way combination. First, most brave people are stupid, because naturally if they are required to be brave in a dangerous situation it means they're about to do something incredibly stupid. Second, being brave is about living with fear. Fear can help guide the brave, because if the brave listen to it, it'll help them achieve the last stipulation: Hope. There has to be a current of hope for something, someone, or someplace that's worth being brave about. Otherwise you would just be a frightened fool in a bad situation. But when you put it all together it becomes more right? To be brave you must have hope, and to survive that hope in one piece you must face your fear, and then finally you have to do the stupid thing, which usually results in some daring rescue mission, a suicide attack or just simply charging forward into a battle you can't know you'll win. That's what I think brave is. I know a lot of brave people now that I think about it." Yang sighed and took a drink from a canteen, offering to her sister.

"Would you say I'm brave?" Ruby's hair was down and covering her face.

"Hmmm let's think. What about the stupid decision to race out into the forest after me, with an unknown stranger, how about the fear of discovering a new horrendous monster, all for the hope of saving your one and only beautiful sister?" Yang teased at her and shook her locks about.

"That sounds pretty brave to me. And I know you've done even more since I've been away. Ruby, you're a very brave girl. Since the moment you said you would take the ship with me here, and every moment afterwords."

"But I don't feel like I am." Ruby had a bit of tears in her eyes. "I could hardly vote to save our home at the council, I felt so weak with all of them there. I thought maybe they would know what was best but… No one did anything! I thought I could at least be the one to stand out, to support Astera where no one could. I love my home, I love my life here…. So why couldn't I say so?"

"Ruby, that was just a very tense meeting that had a lot going on. I didn't raise my hand either did I? But I felt the same. I think it was more about the weight of the conversation, it was pretty heavy stuff and that caused everyone to hesitate. You're no different from any other rational person here. I guarantee it."

"I guess. But what if I can't do it? What if I can't be brave when the time comes? I don't want to lose you, or Weiss or Blake. I want to be there for them no matter what." Ruby forced her nose into her sisters shoulder.

"We will be Ruby. Don't worry, we all got each other's backs no matter what happens in the future. I promise you that."

Ruby nodded her head and felt a little better, she pulled away and wiped at her eyes.

"Thanks Yang. I missed you so much."

Her sister smiled, "I missed you to. It was rough being gone so long… I took a pretty nasty fall early into the expedition before the First Wyeverians saved us, but after that… Well something good came out of all of this I think."

Ruby quirked her eyebrow and Yang fidgeted in an uncharacteristic manner.

"I uh. Maybe you've been able to tell but me and Blake have gotten really close." Yang had a small blush starting at her cheek bones and working down across her face. Ruby nodded.

"And-Uh, yeah! We're kind of a thing now. I honestly don't know what to call it but its more than friends, and some romance and-" Yang huffed.

"Ruby, I am seriously in love with this girl. And I know I've said I'd been in love before, but this is like… I don't know. I don't know! She's just… All I want. All the time. It's a little pathetic hah. But, all the same, I'm in love with her and she might be in love with me." She finished the declaration with a smile.

Ruby gave her an amused look and quirked her own mouth upwards, "I had some suspicions. But I'm glad it's working out. You two are really cute together, and she clearly has you on a leash."

Yang's face was set in mock outrage, but quickly settled back into a goofy grin. "Yeah well. That's what I get. And hey, I uh… made a promise to Blake about something. After all this is done she wants to go on a long research trip into the wilds… Maybe for a couple months just the two of us…" Yang let the last sentence trail off, and Ruby waited for more. When there was nothing she finally said, "That sounds cool! Maybe a little dangerous… Can you two wait until we absolutely deal with everything that's been going on? I don't want you to run into anything crazy again… Outside of the normal monsters I mean."

"You bet sis." Yang smiled and leapt up onto her feet.

"Yang." Ruby stood beside her, "Be safe. You know I can't…"

Her sister pulled her in tight one last time.

"Of course Rubes."

A horn sounded at the front.

The two barely had a moment before Astera exploded into a frenzy, shouts and calls being cast around. Yang snapped her head towards the noise before fiercely grabbing her sister again. After she let go her smile had slackened a bit.

"Go get geared up, we have a fight to win." Ruby nodded and made to move only for Yang to shout after her. "Ruby! I love you!"

"I love you too!"

And so Ruby Rose dashed off to assemble her hunting gear, strap on her scythe and don a new addition that had excited her terribly: A shimmering red and silver cloak, forged from Grimm blood, and wrestled it around her shoulders. As she left her room and followed the stream of stern and determined faces to the gates she took a deep breath and released the tension from her body.

There was work to be done.

AN: Hi, I've started uploading this story simultaneously on AO3, if that's your preferred reading site. Also the next few chapters are pretty intense, so bare with me as I work through them. May be a minute before I get them finished. As always thank you for reading!