Chapter 7: Unrest
White Fang HQ, Mistral
Sienna ducked as a shotgun slug howled right above her head, she quickly ducked behind her throne and pulled out her dust chain whip, activating the lightning dust variation as more bullets began pouring in. Loyalist battled Insurgent as the Headquarters of the White Fang became filled with smoke and blood, bullets and dust flying all over the room. More loyalists poured in from the back entrance, one of them carrying a sniper rifle, and began shooting at the people too close to the throne. Sienna sprang into action, whirling the chain whip overhead, following up with swinging it left and right, carving into the insurgents, each hit shocking them. The battle seemed to be in her favour as more and more Insurgents fled as they found that they were losing more and more members to the well trained personal guards of Sienna.
The room was silent once more as the last of them fled, and Sienna limped back to her throne, having taken a hit to her leg. She silently thanked Kali for having the back of her throne layered in iron, ridiculous as it sounded, it worked out in the end when it took a few bullets meant for her. Her tiger ears perked up again, as did her personal guard as shouts came from outside of the door. Sienna grimaced, realizing that the real attack had yet to come. She got up out of her throne again, and pulled out her chain whip, switching it to fire, she was fighting to kill this time.
Xiao Long Household, Patch
The day had started poorly.
Yang woke up to the sound of Ruby sniffling in her sleep. Ruby no longer needed to actually sleep due to the fact that her new "brain" did not need to rest and repair, but the idea staying up for twelve hours was a very boring prospect, so she decided to sleep. Yang watched on has her little sister tossed and turned, waving her arms out as she shielded herself from an unknown threat.
She couldn't take watching Ruby silently suffering in her sleep, and got off her bed, making her way slowly towards Ruby's bed. "Ruby wake up," she whispered, shaking her slightly to shake her out of the nightmare she was having. Ruby woke up with a start, ears twitching rapidly as she tried to remember where she was. She calmed down when she saw Yang to her right, quickly enveloping her in a hug. She cried into Yang's shoulder, blubbering about how she kept reliving that day when the explosion nearly claimed her life, asking why there would be people who would do such a thing.
The elder sister listened to the younger cry, struggling to keep a straight face herself. She heard stories from her father about how villains would be large and boastful, always taking the hero head on in a fight, but she was confused not, confused by the fact that the one who nearly killed Ruby was another girl herself. Looking at the crying android before her, she made a promise to find the one who did this to her, if she did find that girl Blake, then she'd better have Qrow protecting her, because she hurt Ruby, mentally and physically, and she had made a promise to keep Ruby safe.
Ruby made her way down for breakfast with Yang. Spring break was almost over and Ruby had to get ready for her first year of school . Tai greeted them, with Bacon and eggs sizzling on the pan, the scent gaining Ruby's attention. Tai laughed as Ruby sniffed the air and started moving towards the pan at a faster pace, determined to have a sample of the delicious food Tai had cooked (his noodles were still overcooked). Dr. Polendina had told the family of four that Ruby was still capable of eating food, but her method of disposing of it had been kept secret, the man had only told them that it wasn't very subtle.
Qrow appeared at the doorway, grinning as his two nieces ran towards him to greet him. He ruffled Ruby's ears while smiling at Yang, who knew the meaning of the silent message and began to tickle Ruby. It seems that Doctor Polendina had future-sight, because as soon as her fingers met Ruby's side, Ruby had crumpled onto the ground clutching her sides in mock fear. Her last coherent words were "help me!" before she was beset by both Qrow and Tai, only stopping until she cried uncle. It warmed Tai's heart as Qrow kneeled down and played along with Ruby and Yang, knowing that of all the things Qrow did, this was the one thing he enjoyed the most. They seated themselves around the table and ate, table silent as they all stuffed themselves full of food. They finished eating, and then watched Ruby, waiting to see what would happen.
Ruby hiccupped, ears perking up, and sneezed out a cloud of spent gravity dust, sitting still with an unreadable face. Everyone was silent for a few moments, until Yang burst out laughing, soon followed by everyone else. Everyone calmed down, only to realize that only one person had not laughed. Ruby sat wide eyed, the smell of dust once again triggering bad memories. Tai realized this, and he quickly went up to Ruby and wrapped her in an embrace, with yang close behind. This seemed to wake Ruby up, and she smiled and hugged back. Qrow looked at this scene, heart twisting in sadness. He signaled Qrow, whispering "we need to talk" in his ear. The two went upstairs, as Yang lead Ruby to the yard to take her mind off those horrible memories.
"Tai, I have to tell you something."
Qrow knew that a talk like this would happen soon, so he hoped for the best and told Tai:
"Old Oz has given me a new pupil, but… it's very complicated."
"How complicated Qrow, is it Raven level complicated?" Tai asked, mentioning the wife that left him 7 years ago.
"Not to that level, but pretty bad. Look umm… the new pupil, well her name is Blake."
"…Can you run that by me again, did you just say Blake, as in Blake Belladonna?"
"…Yes. She didn't know the bomb was in the box, and she certainly did not bear ill will against us. Apparently some members of the Fang decided that they didn't want to do the bombing themselves, so they used some small kid instead."
"Well shit Qrow, this is indeed very, very complicated. How are we gonna break the news to Ruby?"
Qrow had been thinking about that for the past few days, and he had an answer, it was one he didn't like, but it was the best he could think of.
"We wait for Ruby to seek us to ask us what happened on that day, or… we go up to Ruby and tell her up front, and risk Yang being extremely mad at me for not pounding Blake into the ground, cause I heard what she was saying in her room when I was flying by."
"I feel we should talk about this event as a family as soon as possible, it only gets worse if Ruby holds in how she feels." Tai's scroll rang, and the two looked at the caller ID, it was Hivern. Tai accepted the video call, and Hivern came into view.
"Hello Tai, how are you? It's been a busy week for us with security tightening around the premises, and we wanted to know how Ruby is doing." The Schnees had been informed about Ruby's survival, but they had been in the dark about Ruby fared afterwards. Tai took the scroll and opened the window to the backyard. In the backyard, bushes were getting beaten senseless with Yang and Ruby. They were playing a complex from of tag that required hiding in the shrubbery. Ruby would jump into a bush, only to run out to hide in another one as Yang soon followed, flattening many of the wild bushes in the yard.
"She is physically fine, the process went smoothly, but she wakes up during the middle of the night from nightmares the doctors say she has mild PTSD, so not completely AOK, but going there."
"She looks pretty life like, if I didn't know any better she came out of that explosion completely unscathed." Tai nodded in agreement
"Anything else on your mind Hivern?"
"Well yes… it's Winter. She has been silently blaming herself for all of this mess, and it's taken a toll on her. She had aspirations of becoming an Atlas specialist, but now she feels incapable of doing such work, and I'm not sure how to help her, and Jacques fears that he'll be too direct with Winter."
"Tell her that's absurd. I would also spend more time with her and maybe get Ruby to talk to her. You could also tell her some stories of you not doing something right but learning from it in the end. Use that old saying that goes around, I think it was uh…"
"Atlas wasn't built in a day, thanks Tai, for the advice. Do you mind if you called up Ruby for a second?"
"I don't mind, Hey Ruby!" He called out, seeing Ruby per up from a bush, only to get pounced on by Yang: "Aunt Hivern wants to see you." As Ruby ran for the house, he saw Winter seated near Hivern, with a subdued look. Ruby came up, and greeted Winter with a normal Ruby greeting.
"Hi Winter!"
"Hello Ruby, it's good to see that you are in fine condition." Winter sat tight lipped staring down.
"Winter, why do you look like that?"
"It's because…I'm the reason you got hurt, I tried to put up a repulsion glyph but it ended up being a suppression glyph, which trapped both of us to the bomb."
"Um…what?" Ruby didn't quite catch what Winter said, it was too jumbled for her to piece together.
"I got you hurt, almost killed, because I thought I was able to handle the situation better than an adult, Ruby, I want to apologize for putting your life in danger."
"But you're okay right? Did you get hurt?" Winter was caught off guard.
"Well yes I'm fine, but, you should be mad at me for-"Ruby cut in, and spoke with the maturity of someone ten years her senior.
"Nope" Ruby said, popping the p.
"What? But-"
"Nope, I'm not mad at you. You didn't hurt me, you tried to protect me, and that's what matters." She ended with her best Tai imitation voice.
It was now Tai's turn to console Winter: "Winter, don't beat yourself up about this. Nobody learns without making mistakes, unless you were perfect, but nobody is." Winter began to look up at him with the eyes of a pupil when their master praises them. "I believe that you'll make a fantastic specialist Winter. You unlocked your semblance at a very young age, younger than your mother or I for that matter. You learned how to wield a sabre at the same time as well, to the point where you could easily go to signal as a first year. Don't let failure stop you, it's only one step in front of learning."
Winter was elated that she had been praised by an elite huntsman and also happy that Ruby had forgiven her. She smiled with tears in her eyes, and looked up to her mother, who smiled back.
"I guess that's it for today's video chat, I have a PR Meeting to go to." Hivern got up from her seat, with winter following her. "Goodbye Tai."
"Perhaps you mean GoodTai?" Hivern and Qrow, who was perched at the window in his corvid form, cringed and both made haste to escape with Tai's laughter ringing in their ears.
White Fang HQ, Mistral
Sienna sat on her throne, dead and defeated traitors surrounding her. A medic tended to her injured legs as the wounded and deceased were carted out. Sienna looked down the hall, chain whip clutched in her hand in case someone else dared to attack. It had been a very physically taxing day, and Sienna knew that the next few days would not be spent here, but in a safe house south of the main HQ, it was too risky to stay here, with hundreds of people who were either with her or against her.
The days of unrest have begun, fighting the actual battle is one half, and the other half is ratting out the traitors. This is going to suck, a lot. She slumped in her seat and groaned into her hands, ignoring the angry medic who was telling her not to shift in her seat.
Winter is 9 at this point in time, and ruby will be turning 6 in half a year. Yang is 8 and Weiss is 7.
Updates will slow down to one a week as the new school term starts, but I am not going into hiatus, until next time