A hand took hold of Ruby's, surprisingly gentle in its grasp.
"You promise you'll catch up with us, right? Promise you'll make it out?" Yang's voice cracked as she spoke, and she was so quiet that Ruby almost didn't hear her words over the roar of the evacuee airships taking off all around them. It brought a sad smile to her face. Her sister always tried her best to be a pillar of strength, tried not to show how much she was hurting in front of others. It made times like these, where the facade cracked and you saw the emotions within, all the more precious.
"Don't worry." Ruby could relate to all that, of course. Trying to be strong for others, trying not to show her fears and pains. Maybe it ran in the family or something. She'd have to ask Dad next time they were able to talk. If there ever was a next time, after this. "I'll meet up with you all in Vacuo, once I've wrapped things up here. We'll see each other again soon, I promise."
A hand took hold of Ruby's, surprisingly gentle in its grasp.
"I don't suppose you've somehow come up with a way to get out here?" Cinder's voice was dry as Ruby helped her up to her feet, but there was a very real edge of fear running underneath it. Ruby suspected that when the maiden said that she was having a panic attack earlier, she hadn't been lying. Not that she really blamed her, under the circumstances.
"Well, I have an idea at the very least," Ruby did her best to keep her voice even in turn. "I'm pretty sure we've landed just a few miles away from Mantle." She pointed past Cinder, at the ruined buildings that could be seen in the distance, across the expanse of tundra. "If we can manage to make it there on foot, hopefully we can find a transport and escape. It's our best shot."
Cinder stared at her for a few moments, seemingly in confusion, then softly said, "Fuck," and promptly sat right back down in the snow. She turned away from Ruby, going back to staring at the smoldering wreckage of their ship. "You really are just an idiot."
Ruby blinked once in surprise, then exasperatedly marched round to stand in front of Cinder again, demanding her attention. "Look, I know it's not a great plan, but it's all we've got right now."
Cinder glanced up at her, eye narrowed in annoyance. "It's not a plan at all. All it is, is pointless. Even if it was possible to make it to Mantle before Salem catches up, the place is in ruins, and every working ship already flew away with the evacuation." She waved a hand dismissively. "There's nothing there to find. You can stumble off in that direction if you want though, I'd rather not have to deal with you annoying me in my final moments."
"Ugh, so what? You're just gonna sit in the snow and wait for her? Why did you even bother saving me if you were just gonna give up right away?"
Cinder snarled at that, but averted her gaze, not wanting to look Ruby in the eye. "I don't expect you to understand my reasons. Just leave me alone."
Ruby sighed in frustration. She was so exhausted, in so much pain. Maybe Cinder had the right idea. Her left leg in particular was quite bad, to the point where just walking was a struggle, she'd strained her aura so badly she doubted it'd be regenerating any time soon, and while she hadn't had the chance to examine exactly what kind of damage Salem's magic had done to her, it hurt like hell, and she was certain the results weren't going to be pretty. Even just making it to Mantle without freezing to death or being caught by Salem was already pretty impossible. It'd be so much easier to just… give up…
But she couldn't. Not like this.
"Cinder, look at me," Ruby dropped down to her knees, getting herself eye level with Cinder, and then just stared at the maiden until at last she met her gaze again. "I know you hate me. I know we're enemies. But right now, working together is the best chance that either of us has to survive. I'll go it alone if I have to, but I know that you don't really want to just roll over and die here. So please, work with me, just this once. Our odds aren't great, but you and I have both done things that other people would say are impossible. Together, I know that we can make it. And as soon as we're out, we can go our separate ways."
Cinder stared at her for a few seconds. Up close like this, Ruby could see the redness around that beautiful golden iris. Could see the bag that had formed under her eye from sleep deprivation. Could notice the way her hand shook where it was settled in her lap. She looked so… tired like this. So vulnerable. Eventually, Cinder gave a quiet sigh and then, reluctantly, a small nod. "Fine. If you really think we can make it out, I'll help you. But… I just don't see how this idea of yours is going to work. It's not like someone will have left a working ship just sitting there in Mantle, waiting for us to take."
A grin spread across Ruby's face. She'd really agreed. "Well, a working ship no, but a broken one? Probably. Plenty of Mantas got shot down over the course of the last few days of fighting over the city. If we can find one that's not too badly damaged, I might be able to get it flying again by scavenging parts from some of the others."
"It's… possible," Cinder spoke slowly, turning the idea over in her mind, "But unlikely. When Atlas crashed down it destroyed most of Mantle, our Manta would need to have had a very gentle crash, and gone down in the outskirts to have avoided being destroyed. Plus, do you actually know how to repair something like that?"
Ruby gave a thumbs up with as much enthusiasm as she could manage under the circumstances. "I built Crescent Rose myself, so I know my way around a set of tools. Plus, Yang used to let me watch while she did work on her bike. I should be able to manage."
"You know that there's a pretty big difference between a military grade airship and a bike, right?"
"Do you know what the difference is?" Ruby tilted her head to the side as she spoke.
"I- Well, I mean. No, but I know that there is one," Cinder spluttered back.
"Ah, I'm sure I can figure it out."
Once again, Cinder just stared at her, before shaking her head with a sigh and standing up. "You're an idiot. I can't believe I'm going along with this, but I guess it's not like I have any other options."
Ruby sucked in a breath of icy air, steeling herself for the painful experience of standing up with her bad leg, and then the even more painful trek that awaited her after that. Before she could actually make any moves to stand, however, she suddenly felt herself be picked up, hefted into a princess carry by Cinder. She squeaked in surprise, wrapping her arms around the other woman for stability. "Ci-Cinder? What are you doing?"
Cinder looked down at her, annoyance clear on her features. "I'm carrying you. What does it look like?"
"Uh… yeah, I guess just… why?"
"Your leg. You can hardly walk, it'll take way too long for us to make it there on foot. So, I'll fly us there instead."
"Oh, right." Ruby exhaled nervously, then gave Cinder a slightly awkward pat on the shoulder. "Good thinking. Go team!"
"Please, shut up." A tongue of flame began to flow from Cinder's eye as she readied herself. "To be honest, between Salem and all those grimm, I've worn myself out pretty badly. I think I can make it to the city, but beyond that, I won't have much left in the tank." With that, twin jets of flame erupted out from Cinder's feet, propelling the pair into the air together.
Flying in the open air like this was always an interesting experience. Ruby had done it briefly a couple of times on the Queen Lancer that Weiss could summon, but this felt a bit different. Cinder was certainly faster, for one, and the icy wind whipped relentlessly into her as a result, stinging her eyes and exposed skin. Eventually, when the irritation grew to be too much, she turned and pressed her face into Cinder's shoulder to shield it.
That was another quite different part of the experience, the whole 'being held in Cinder Fall's arms' part. Ruby wasn't entirely sure how she felt about that. Certainly, a few days ago this is something she wouldn't have ever imagined happening, not in a million years. At the very least, it was nice to give her legs a break, and Cinder's body was pretty warm, a nice relief from the icy temperatures. Maybe she just shouldn't think about it too hard.
It didn't take long for them to reach the city like that. Ruby couldn't exactly see with her face pressed up to Cinder, but she certainly felt them gradually slowing their forward momentum, until they came to a complete stop, hovering in place up in the air.
"Where do you want to start?" called out Cinder, as Ruby pulled her face away to look down at the ruined city, blinking rapidly to adjust to the light once more.
She grimaced slightly, looking at the damage. She'd been captured already by the time Atlas crashed down, so this was her first time getting to see the devastation that had been caused. An entire kingdom turned into rubble. It was lucky that the majority of the population had managed to evacuate, but still… it was horrible.
Setting aside the sick feeling that had settled into her stomach, Ruby got on with her task, scanning her eyes across some of the areas along the outskirts where the damage wasn't as bad. Eventually, she saw what she was looking for. "Down there!" she pointed as she spoke, "I can see a crashed Manta, no idea what condition it's in but it's worth a look."
"Alright." Cinder replied simply, beginning to fly slowly toward the ship, gradually lowering their altitude as she went. Soon, they touched down, landing in the street right next to where the Manta had crashed directly into some unfortunate shop.
Even as Cinder set her down on the ground, Ruby could tell that this Manta wasn't going to be their ticket out of this place. She limped towards it, but unfortunately a closer inspection didn't do anything to change her opinion. The cockpit was almost entirely caved in, with all the control systems reduced to scrap. She… tried not to pay too much attention to the remains in the pilot and copilot's seats. Regardless, she didn't have the first idea about how she'd go about replacing all that, especially under such short notice.
She turned around and hobbled back over to Cinder, who was presently sat on the side of the street, staring blankly up at the sky. "Are we good?" she asked as Ruby neared, not bothering to look down.
"No, the damage is too bad, we'll need to find another one."
Cinder was quiet for a few moments, then stood up with a sigh. "Alright, you stay here, I'll fly around and look for another one."
"I… thought you said you weren't going to have much left in the tank once we got here?"
"I don't," Cinder spat back, not bothering to hide her irritation, "But we can't afford to wait for you to stumble around the city searching on foot, so I'll just have to push myself. If you haven't noticed, we're under a bit of time pressure."
Ruby finally looked up to what Cinder had been staring at. The dark storm that hid Salem's horde was sitting there, ominously, in the distance. Still far away, but… noticeably closer than it had been before. "Right, that sounds like a good idea."
"You should sit down for a bit or something, you look like shit." Cinder didn't wait for another reply, rocketing up into the air immediately after she finished talking.
Following that advice, Ruby took a seat right where Cinder had been mere moments before. A groan immediately forced its way out of her lips as she became infinitely more aware of all the little aches and pains that were plaguing her body. What she wouldn't give for a chance to just… sleep. Ugh, she missed her bunk bed back at Beacon. Really, she just missed Beacon in general. Things had seemed so simple back then. Back before…
A memory sprang unbidden to her mind. Desperately racing up the side of the tower, softly glowing glyphs beneath her feet. Trying to push herself harder, faster. But she just wasn't fast enough. She arrived just too late to do anything. Only in time to watch a body be reduced to ash in an instant, and then everything going white.
Ruby slowly curled in on herself. Cinder… what she'd done. Ruby had been trying not to think about it but… it was hard not to. She sucked in a shuddery breath, held it for a few seconds, and then slowly exhaled. Was it wrong to be working with the maiden like this? Ruby couldn't really say. She'd done terrible things, but at the same time, she'd saved Ruby at no benefit to herself. It was confusing, to say the least.
What Cinder had said earlier echoed through her mind. "I don't expect you to understand my reasons." That was true, but it went far beyond just the events of today. There was so much she simply didn't know about her, about why she had done all of those things. It made Ruby curious.
She was brought back to reality by the sound of Cinder touching back down to the ground in front of her.
"I found one that looks like it isn't too bad. It's on the other side of the city though, I'll carry you over."
Ruby perked up at that. They might really be able to pull this off. "Oh, that's great. Hey though, if you're gonna pick me up again, do you think instead of a princess-" Without waiting for her to finish, Cinder reached down and picked Ruby up, once again in a princess carry. "Oh, well alright then. That's okay," she finished lamely.
And then, once more, they were soaring through the air together. Cinder skirted around the edge of what remained of Mantle, flying just a little above the wall that had once protected the city. They were sticking to a slower pace than during their flight over the tundra, Ruby guessed that was probably a result of Cinder tiring herself out. At the very least, that meant it was more comfortable for Ruby to look around as they flew.
The first sight that her eyes were drawn to was that ever approaching cloud of darkness. Deciding that it probably wasn't the best thing to be staring at if she wanted to keep her morale high, she tore her gaze away. Looking down at the ruined city, a city that she'd fought so hard to protect only to come up short, had a similar effect, so ultimately she found herself looking at the only other thing there really was to focus on. Cinder.
Before today, she'd never really had a chance to look at Cinder close up. Earlier, in the snow, she found herself focusing on Cinder's eye, and the marks of exhaustion it contained. This time, instead, her attention was drawn to the woman's scar. Most of it was covered by her eyepatch, of course, but she ran her gaze along the small parts that poked out all the same. It was so strange to think that this was something she had done to her. Ruby didn't regret it, not that she'd even had much choice in the activation of her eyes to begin with, but all the same it was nasty to think about causing that kind of injury to someone. She wondered how badly it had hurt.
If Cinder noticed the attention Ruby was paying to her, she didn't show it, instead focusing entirely on their flight. It didn't take them long to arrive at the Manta Cinder had found, touching down lightly in the street right beside it. Ruby felt her hopes rise just looking at it. It'd managed to crash down right in the middle of the street, avoiding impacting any buildings, and from the looks of things must've been at a pretty low altitude and speed at the time. If Ruby had to guess, this must've been one of the ships tasked with evacuating civilians during Watts and Tyrian's attack on the city, damaged as it was coming in for a landing and then abandoned where it lay.
Looking closer, and Ruby was liking what she saw. All the internal control systems seemed to be working just fine, with the screens flickering to life at the press of a button. That, then, made the rest of her job a lot easier, as rather than trying to check everything herself, she could rely on the ship's inbuilt diagnostics to tell her what needs to be fixed. Turns out, not a whole lot.
There was some minor structural damage, probably all from the crash, but nothing that would stop them flying. The only thing that actually needed to be fixed was the thruster that sat out on the end of the starboard wing, presumably the damage that had knocked the ship out of the air in the first place. Stepping back out of the cockpit and examining the thruster in question, she could see what the diagnostic had meant. Hard to tell exactly what had caused it, but it must've suffered a pretty significant impact that disabled the whole thing. Probably clipped a Teryx as it was descending or something.
She bit her lip as she thought it over. She'd need to climb up onto the wing to see for sure, but it didn't seem too bad. If their luck held, she'd just need to replace a few components. The hardest part, then, would be to find said components, but even then she was sure that could be managed. They'd just need to find another crashed Manta that had the parts they needed undamaged, and requisition them.
Yeah… yeah, this was gonna work. She looked over to Cinder, who was sitting on the other side of the street, idly tracing patterns in the snow. "I think this should be good!"
"Alright, work fast," was the simple reply the maiden afforded her.
Ruby just grinned. Time to hope Cinder wasn't too right about there being a big difference between this and a motorbike.
Turns out there wasn't. Well, there kinda was, but the major principles of the whole thing were more or less the same. Thankfully the ship contained a small toolkit, presumably for emergency patch jobs just like this, and so Ruby had an easy time getting into the damaged thruster and locating the components that needed replacing. Then, all that was needed was a light bit of scavenging, some elbow grease, and they were set.
Cinder sat beside her on the wing, staring ever intently up at the approaching dark cloud, worry set deep on her features. After returning from flying out to gather the parts Ruby needed, she hadn't said a word other than occasionally asking how much longer it was going to take. The woman was growing more and more tense as time passed. Ruby could understand that, of course, she was certainly feeling the pressure too. Luckily, she thought to herself as she tightened one last bolt, she was pretty sure that she was done now.
A long groan of relief escaped Ruby's lips as she sat back, stretching her muscles out after having been hunched over the engine for so long. Cinder's head immediately shot round to look at her expectantly, and so Ruby gave her a tired thumbs up by way of answer.
Cinder let out a long held breath. "That's good. We should get going quickly, she'll be close enough to start sending grimm after us soon."
"Don't need to tell me twice," Ruby sighed back. "Help me down onto the ground?"
Cinder rolled her eye at that, but all the same scooped Ruby up in her arms and then hopped down off the wing. She even went the extra mile of carrying Ruby inside the Manta, and setting her down right in the pilot's seat.
"Putting me in the pilot seat again huh?" Ruby asked, but shut up when she saw the glare Cinder was giving her. "That's fine, I can figure it out." She turned back to the controls, flicking on the electronics and running one last diagnostics check on everything. When it came up green, she released a breath she didn't even know she'd been holding. "Okay, we're good to go."
With one ever so slightly hesitant push of a button, the ship's engines thrummed to life, the whole Manta vibrating slightly as they pulsed with power. Slowly but surely, they began to hover upwards, gradually rising up and above the buildings that surrounded them.
"Can you not go any faster?" Cinder practically growled from where she stood right behind Ruby, the claws of her grimm hand gripping tight to the headrest of the seat the huntress occupied.
Ruby rolled her eyes, still carefully fiddling with the thrust controls. "I only have a vague understanding of what I'm doing here, so unless you wanna crash and have this all have been for nothing, I think slow is the way to go."
"Fine, fine. It's just-"
"I know," Ruby cut her off. "We'll be fine, just relax."
Once they'd risen to an altitude where their chances of ramming into anything were acceptably low, Ruby carefully reached over for the thrust control, taking another deep breath as she did. "Alright, are you ready to-"
And this time it was Cinder cutting Ruby off with an annoyed "for crying out loud," before the maiden reached down, grabbed the lever herself, and immediately cranked it up to full.
The ship shot forward suddenly, and Ruby found herself being pushed back into her seat by the force. "Cinder! What the hell!"
"You're taking too long." Cinder replied, calmly turning and walking away to the back of the Manta, seemingly entirely unaffected by their forward motion.
"Jeez, fly it yourself if you're so picky," Ruby snipped back, but nonetheless turned her attention away from Cinder and onto actually controlling the ship. She pulled it up into a gradual ascent, rising higher and higher, further away from Atlas, from Mantle, and from Salem. Eventually, once they'd reached what the onboard computer referred to as 'acceptable cruising altitude,' she switched things over to autopilot, plugging in a course that should take them down south-east toward Anima, and then leaned back in her seat. More directly to Vacuo, where her team was waiting, would be ideal, but for the time being Salem was pretty firmly in the way, so a more roundabout route was called for. Nonetheless, a long sigh of relief escaped from her lips. It seemed like they might actually be home free.
She spun the chair around, standing up with some difficulty, and took a few steps back toward Cinder. The maiden was presently parked in front of one of the ship's doors, staring intently out of the window. As she drew closer, Ruby saw that, unsurprisingly, her gaze was fixed on that dark stormcloud, watching as it slowly but surely shrank into the distance. "So…" she started awkwardly, "I guess we're safe huh? Good job."
"For now," Cinder murmured after a few moments of silence, so quietly that Ruby almost didn't hear. She turned and stalked away from the window, dropping down into one of the passenger seats and then burying her face in her hands with a sigh.
Slowly, Ruby took a seat of her own, on the opposite side of the passenger hold to Cinder. She just stared at the woman at first. Ruby felt so… confused about her. Unsure of how she should be treating her, how she should act towards her. Should she even just be letting Cinder go after everything she'd done? But then, it wasn't as if Ruby could take her down in a fight right now. And even if she could, it'd just feel… wrong after everything Cinder had done to help her today.
"So uh," Ruby broke the silence that had settled between the pair, "I've just plugged in a course down to Anima at the moment. Any idea where you're gonna go after we split up? What you're gonna do?"
Slowly, Cinder looked up at her, meeting her eye for a few moments, before letting out a short bark of laughter. "I don't think you understand the situation I'm in now. I don't have anywhere to go." She tilted her head back, lone golden eye staring up at the ceiling. "All I can do now is run, until she catches back up with me. And then I'll be done. Congratulations, you won't have to deal with me anymore."
Ruby blinked slowly. "You… don't have anywhere? No one you can go to, anyone who could help you hide out?"
Another short laugh. "No. And even if I did, there's nowhere I could hide from her. She'd find me."
"That's terrible," Ruby murmured without thinking.
Cinder slowly looked back down at her, eye narrowed with barely contained annoyance. "Don't pretend that you care. Now, are you done with the questions? I'd like to get some rest without you bugging me."
Ruby frowned, mind racing with an unexpected idea. Was she really about to do this? For Cinder? It seemed crazy but… as much harm as she'd caused, Ruby didn't think the woman deserved any of this. Especially after what happened today. Ruby might not know Cinder's reasons for what she did, but she could tell that there was a lot more to the woman than what she could see on the surface. And at the end of the day, Cinder was in trouble, and she deserved help, same as anyone.
"Cinder," she began, doing her best to keep any lingering doubts out of her voice. "If you really don't have anywhere to go, why not stay with me?"
Now it was Cinder's turn to blink slowly. "What? Why would I ever want to do that? Why would you ever want to do that?"
"Because, if we're together we can keep each other safe."
Cinder sneered at that. "Have you forgotten who you're talking to? I'm not one of your friends, Ruby."
"I know, but you're in danger, Cinder. I'm not going to just turn my back on you when you need my help."
Cinder seemed taken aback, her eye widening noticeably at Ruby's words. She looked away before speaking again, seeming to be struggling with eye contact. "You… want to help me?" her voice was quiet, and more uncertain than Ruby had ever heard her.
"I do, if you'll let me. I'll understand if you'd rather not and I'm not going to force you into anything. For what it's worth, I'm going to be travelling over to Vacuo to meet up with my friends. You can stick with me for as long as you like, and if you ever want to leave, or if you find a place you want to stay along the way, we can split up just like that."
"… What's the catch?" Cinder replied slowly, still looking away.
"No catch. If you'd like, you can just think of it as me paying back the favour for you saving me from Salem." Ruby pushed herself up to her feet, wincing slightly. "You don't have to decide right now either, you can think it over while we're flying. Like I said, I don't want to pressure you into anything. I'll uh," she glanced around the small cabin, and eventually started to limp back over to the pilot seat, "I'll stick up the front so we can both have some privacy, get some rest and all that, and you can think about it."
Right as she reached the seat and started to settle herself in, she heard Cinder call out to her again. She glanced back, and saw that eye of molten gold staring at her.
"I'll… do it. I'll stick with you. For now, at least." Cinder crossed her arms snootily. "Until I find a better option."
A smile grew on Ruby's face, so genuine that it even surprised herself. She looked at Cinder, at her new partner for however long they stuck together, and replied the only way she could think to. "I'll keep you safe, I promise."