New Divide
"We'll rest here for the night and see Lionheart in the morning." Ruby announced to the group as they had stopped in front of what seemed to be a Hunter Lodge. It was still fairly early out, but having been walking non-stop, they had to literally drag themselves into the city of Mistral before Ruby had found a promising rest stop for them.
"About damn time." Yang breathed out in relief.
In fact the atmosphere around them changed as Ruby made this announcement. The walk had been tense with no one really talking. Pyrrha had been making a point to walk nowhere near the young reaper, going as far to make a point of not even look in her direction. However Ruby knew that she kept the secret that had been disclosed to her, having heard the conversation that she had with her own team when questioned what the two had talked about on their trek.
Ruby held the door open as she allowed her teammates into the building first with Pyrrha just barely acknowledging her thanks. Ruby sighed to herself, allowing the warrior her space. Walking in now, she sees that Weiss is already trying to get two rooms for their group. Approaching the desk, she sees that Weiss is already pulling out her card and handing it to the man. He swipes it through the card reader and it beeps in alert, "I'm sorry, but it is declined."
"Excuse me? That cannot be right. Try again." Weiss demands.
He shrugs and tries again and the same thing happens, "I'm sorry. Do you have lien on you?" He asks handing back the card. The rest of the group exchanged troubling looks before looking at Ruby.
"No one carriers that much lien on them!" Weiss says taking her card back, "Try this one."
Ruby watches as the card gets declined and she gets a sinking feeling in her stomach. The only time she recalled this happening was when Weiss's pathetic bastard of a father cut her off during the Vytal Tournament. However there was no way for her father to contact her, but surely he must have known that she had left Beacon. Which possibly meant that…oh shit, "I'm sorry but if you have no lien, then you cannot stay." The man says with some remorse in his tone.
"Ruby what do we do now?" Jaune demands to know.
"Would Lionheart let us stay at the school?" Blake asks.
"This is unbelievable." Weiss seethes out, "I am an heiress-"
"Hold on." Ruby says holding up her hands. Then looking at the desk clerk she says, "Mr…" she looks on his counter to see his name, "Markins. I'm sure there must be something we can work out."
He looks at her, his aged blue eyes looking at her with regret, "I'm sorry but that is policy. I mean sure if you had enough for like a safety deposit then perhaps we could talk but-"
"Sir I assure you we are not just kids here looking for trouble, we can surely work out a payment plan of sorts. Between us," she motioned to the group, "we could come up with something that would be acceptable payment for two rooms in this fine establishment you got here."
He started faltering at her smile, "Look kid-"
Ruby held up a finger and pulled out her wallet now and showed him her false ID, "Does this say I am a child sir?"
The groups' eyes widened and as the Markins took her ID, Yang tugged on her arm, "Ruby what are you doing?"
"Trying to get us a place to sleep for the night or two. Relax it'll be fine." Ruby breathed back as Markins turned his attention back on her. Yang had let go and stood by the others giving her questioning looks to which she shook her head with her arms crossed.
"Well Ms. Rose-"
"Ruby please."
"Then you must call me Ezra." Clearing his throat he returned her ID card and looked at her team a bit less wary, but still concerned, "This is your team then Ruby?"
Ruby nodded and leaned against the counter in a casual manner, "Yes sir. We've been in the wilds for weeks now and were only looking to stay a night or two." She still gave him her signature brilliant smile.
Ezra nodded and thought for a moment and sighed, "Ok let me see what I can do for you." He walked away from the counter into the office area behind the desk.
"Thank you!" Ruby called out still smiling. She waited until he was fully in the office and quickly turned to her team, "Ok quick how much do you guys have on you?"
They pulled out their lien and saw immediately that it wasn't even enough for half the payment that was required for the rooms, "We don't have enough." Jaune said, "We just ended up bartering when we would come across a village here and there."
"I cannot believe I couldn't use my cards." Weiss said with her arms crossed, "I should have been able to afford two hundred and forty-eight lien. It's not like I've been wasting lien when we left Beacon."
She still had a disturbing theory on that, but Ruby for now wisely kept her mouth shut. Perhaps she'd try and find out some news from Atlas later. Ruby dug into her own bag and counted her lien. Thanks to her deals with Junior and the pilot whose plane she 'borrowed', she was down to just over five hundred lien. Sure she could have paid for the two rooms, but she needed that money for weapons' maintenance not only for herself but for her team too, "Alright Ms. Rose;" she turned to see Mr. Markins coming, "I talked with my super and he is willing to let your group stay for thirty percent off the rooms." He rang up a new total, "One hundred and seventy-three lien total."
She turned back to the group to look at them, "Still not enough." Blake said ears drooping, "Perhaps we should go somewhere else Ruby."
"There is nowhere else to go." The hell she was going into Haven Academy now and asking that potential traitor for rooms.
"Lion-" Ren started to say.
"No." Ruby said firmly and then looking at the desk clerk she says, "Ok." She started counting out her lien and handed it to him.
"Ruby that's all your lien." Nora breathed out wide eyed; as was everyone else Pyrrha included.
Ruby waved her hand, "Its fine. I still have enough for weapon stuff and gear if anyone needs it." I hope.
Ezra completed the transaction and gave them a card explaining that there are certain credits on it that came with the rooms, and keys to the two rooms. Ruby thanked the man and gave a key to Jaune, keeping the other, "Why don't we unpack and get settled then we can meet up and see what supplies we need?" Ruby suggested easily looking at them.
"What about seeing Lionheart?" Pyrrha asked, speaking to Ruby for the first time since the night before.
It was civil in nature, but there was an underlying hint of suspicion that was detected by everyone. However no one commented on the tone, "Uhm excuse me, but if you are seeing Headmaster Lionheart, he isn't here at the moment." They turned to see Ezra looking at them now.
"Wait what?" Ruby asked looking back at the man, "What do you mean he is not here?"
Ezra was counting his drawer as another young man took over to help the next person that had come up to the desk, "The headmaster is out. My friend is a staff member from the school; he said he left a few days ago. Something about a mission from the council, or so I've heard. He is still a hunter you know."
Ruby bit her lip and gave the others a look, "Did you happen to hear when he would be back?" She asked composing herself as she looked back at the man that helped them.
"That I do not know. My friend said he might be back at the school at the end of the week. In the meantime why not enjoy our festival? We haven't had much to celebrate lately with the Grimm attacks. Hopefully this will help raise village moral." With that he left them alone and went into the back office.
"Well that's perfect." Weiss said with her arms crossed, "You only paid for two nights."
"We'll cross that bridge when we come to it." Ruby stated, trying to not show how troubled she was by this set of news. She led the way to their hallway where the rooms were located, "Right now let's get settled a bit, check your equipment, and we'll go from there."
"How long are you giving us?" Jaune asked as they came to their room across from RWBY's room.
Ruby thought for a moment as she unlocked her teams' door, "Half hour?" Ruby asked quizzically.
"Can we go to that festival?" Nora asked, "Sounded like fun and we could use the night off."
Ruby internally flinches at this but fights to not let it show, "Yea ok. Meet out at the lobby in an hour and we'll go from there then." With that the two teams entered their rooms.
Once in the room, the girls looked around, "Well it's not the bunkbeds, but it'll do." Yang states as she goes over to the one full bed, "What side kitty-cat?"
"Please don't call me that, but I'll take the side by the window if that's ok." Blake says offering a small smile.
"Bunkbeds or not, I am glad I do not have to sleep outside." Weiss said going over to the other bed and sitting down on it, "Now I need to find out why my cards got declined." She pulled out her scroll.
"How are you going to do that if there is local communication only?" Yang asked flopping down on the other bed, "Maybe the communication couldn't get through to take your money."
Ruby was sitting by the desk, making a list of things that she needed for her weapon, while simultaneously trying to recall details from her last expedition to Haven, "She is right." Blake said as she started to unpack some of her belongings, "The CCT could have been more connected than it was originally known for. I mean it would make sense with your banking stuff being primarily in Atlas after all."
Weiss frowned and slowed down her typing on her scroll, "That is true I suppose. I mean we hadn't actually had to use our cards on this mission. The villages not really being electronically friendly before the Fall…" She then looked over at their leader, "Ruby? Your thoughts?"
Ruby jumped slightly, "What?"
"What do you think?" Weiss asked, "My cards not working…"
"Oh well…it could be whatever Blake said."
"You weren't listening were you?" Blake asked sighing.
"I am trying to focus. We are meeting up with the others in an hour and I need to get this down. Just like you guys should be doing."
Yang groaned, "I am really not liking this 'Drill Sargent Ruby'." Ruby flinched, "Come on Rubes Nora just asked for a night off. You said yes. Can we just chill for a bit and enjoy ourselves?" Ruby looked down at her notebook, "What is so important that you cannot just go one night with your nose in that book of yours anyway?"
Ruby sighed, there were a lot of things of great importance in that notebook, "Plans, ideas, lists." She closes her book, knowing that she would have to look at it later, "Ok fine."
"Yes!" Yang cheered, "Fun Ruby is back!"
Ruby cocked an eyebrow, "Excuse me?"
"Fun Ruby. You know my sister who liked to goof off and play games." Yang explained, "But seriously though there is something we would like to know. What happened between you and Pyrrha?"
"We talked for a bit, I may have crossed a line. But I am giving her space." May have? You did cross a line, a darker tone crawled into Ruby's mind.
Clearly this wasn't enough for her team as they gave her their full attention. Blake sat on the other side of the bed, Weiss sat up a bit and placed her scroll aside, and Yang was now alert, "What did you-" Blake started to ask.
"That is all I am saying for now. What was said between us, sticks between us. Now then who wants to freshen up first?" Ruby spoke with an air of finality.
-Snoopykid-
It had been decided that the group needed some time to each other. So while team JNPR went in one direction for the festival, RWBY took the other, "What should we do first?" Blake asks looking around at the tents and booths.
"Shopping!" Weiss declared quickly.
"Oh gods no." Ruby shot down and spotted a weapons booth, "Over here! Let's go there!" Maybe this night wouldn't be too bad after all.
"Hold on let's go here first. This one doesn't seem crowded right now." Yang said pointing to a tent. Above it read 'Fortune Teller'.
Blake crossed her arms, the smell of sushi in the air, "Actually let's get some food first."
"Aw come on! We can do food after that." Yang stated, "Besides it'll be a good team bonding experience! It'll be fun!" She called out cheerily as she grabbed her partner's arm and started pulling her towards the tent.
Seeing there was no other option, the trio allowed it to happen. Ruby rolled her eyes, "Right ok."
At this comment, Weiss made Ruby stop in her tracks, "What's with you?" Weiss asked as Blake trailed next to Yang, but was listening all the same, "I thought you would be all over this." The yellow and black duo entered the tent with Blake turning to give Weiss a 'good luck' motion.
"Come on Weiss. You cannot be serious. It's a load of hub-bub." Ruby commented, having seen real magic. Then as an afterthought, she said something hoping that Weiss would understand, "Look I know we all want to have fun, but there is stuff I need to do too. In fact the weapons booth is somewhere that I really need to go and we need to go over supplies. Killing two Nevermore with one stone, but this?" She motions to the tent, "It's not necessary."
Weiss raised an eyebrow, "Sure yes that may be so, but it's all about having fun. Never thought I'd have to explain that to you." Sighing she says, "Look we are all under stress here; but try and loosen up. This coming from me that should say a lot."
Ruby nodded as they entered the tent, "Ah your teammates. Here have some tea." The woman offered handing Weiss and Ruby their cups, "Careful it is hot, but once you are done then we can begin."
Ruby looks at her drink, a sense of caution ringing in her head, "Come on dearie its ok." She looks to see the woman smiling at her and her team looking at her. Shrugging she starts to drink slowly. There wasn't much in the cup and all she saw were the leaves at the bottom. Regardless, she did as the other girls had done, and placed her cup down in front of her.
"Now then, let's start with you dearie." She says looking at Ruby, molten gray eyes met silver and there was a brief flash that came across the elderly woman's features. Hesitantly she reached for her cup and looked down, "Interesting. The leaves are contradictory in nature."
"My sister has always been a source of contradictory." Yang says laughing, "It works though as it throws her enemies off." She bumps her elbow into Blake, who laughs softly. Weiss smiles, but Ruby doesn't say anything and neither does the woman.
"They indicate you had been on a journey, but had also stayed put." It was as if someone had taken an ice ball the size of a Goliath and drowned her in it. Ruby suddenly did not like this woman as her gravelly voice continued, "They also indicated that the journey you were on, you met strangers but at the same time friends. There is more, but I want to see something before I continue."
The woman places the cup on the table and moves on to Weiss, reading her cup, "Your leaves indicate a sense of loneliness and isolation." Weiss looks uneasy, "This most likely due to heavy strain to your early life; making you have a difficult personality. However," Weiss held her head down, trying to hide from the concerned faces of her friends, but at this remark the woman's voice makes her look up a smidge, "after you do warm up, you place a great deal of trust in those you call friends. Be warned though, the path you are on is not an easy one. It will break the very bonded nature of the blood that you are, but will also grow to become someone unrecognizable."
Weiss shrinks and pales at the woman's gaze before moving on towards Blake, "You my dear, display a cool, reserved and serious personality most of the time. However that doesn't mean you lack humor. Your leaves say you declare righteous and a sense of respect to other people's lives. You fight those who judge and discriminate based on racial prejudice. This is all that you have known from a young age. However you too bore chains much like your teammate next to you." Blake and Weiss share a look at this, "You lived in a dark shadow, and have just began to find the light; but there is a different darkness approaching, a past soon to be catching up with you." Blake's ears spike forward in alert before folding down to the side, "Be wary for fear will most certainly undo everything you fought to change."
Yang grabbed Blake's hand to offer comfort, "Wow you are good lady. Whatcha got for me?" She smiled to try and lighten the dark mood that fell around the room. She notices that Blake is frowning in thought, Weiss is now closed off some, and Ruby…well the only way she could describe her sister at the moment was solemn and serious. Not how she expected this reading to go.
The woman smiles lightly, seemingly ignorant to the other's moods as she grabs Yang's cup, "You are very straightforward and confident as well as cheerful, energetic, and bright. However, while your anger is used as a main asset in battle, it can lead to acts of predictably."
"Ok that is true. Something I have to work on…" Yang trails off. She was rewarded with small smirks from her team.
The woman gives her a small smile as well before frowning into the cup, "Your attitude and demeanor also hides that you are very mature and extremely nurturing." At this she looks between Yang and Ruby with a thoughtful look on her features, "You had to grow up fast as well. You lost someone important while young in life, and discovered something else. Something that has led you with a great deal of baggage: fear of abandonment and self-blame for something you had no control over."
"Now see here no one-" Yang starts to growl out low when she feels her hand tighten. Looking over she sees Blake holding it tightly and offering support and Weiss too smiling at her in support. However the one person's smile she hoped to see was not looking in her direction. Instead Ruby wore a haunted type look to her.
Placing the cup down the woman finishes her thought to Yang as if the brawler hadn't said anything, "There is a storm brewing, something that will threaten your light. A truth that will shatter your essence. Roles that you thought were clear will reverse, but try to remember feelings will not change. Only grow, and it's ok to show weakness now…and again."
The woman looks back to Ruby, "Your hand dear, no worries you will not be charged for this extra reading."
Ruby had been quiet through her friends' readings. Everything the old fortune teller was saying, was like knife stabbed through her heart. She had a feeling she knew the events that the woman was referring too, and now here she was asking for her hand, "Which one?"
"Your dominant one dear."
'Hub-bub', Ruby had said to Weiss. She tried to not let it bother her. Maybe this woman was just an expert at body language, and yet she had given what seemed to be clear personality readings to her teammates…and her's…just what the hell was her's about? Ruby allowed the woman to take her left hand; and she looked at it closely with a perplexed expression on her face, "What is it? My fate too horrible to conceive?" Ruby asked jokingly.
"Rubes seriously we are hunters. Let's not joke about that." Yang says now all joking aside, clearly bothered by the tea leaf reading she had gotten.
"The lines of the palm only indicates what the person is, and of course reflects the change over time. Make no mistake, a person's fate is in the hand, but only the seed of it." She turns Ruby's hand over one way then the other, reading the lines, "You are truly fascinating. Your hand already shows a lot of change for someone so young. As if there has been a war you have been fighting your whole life." She adds this part mostly to herself, but Ruby hears it and pales, fully aware of her team watching and listening closely.
The woman points to her thumb, "Your thumb is very strong. You are strong-minded; I can also see that you seem to not bode well with your own emotions. You tend to make sure that everybody else is okay. This attitude while selfless, also means that you are not dealing with your own issues. This can and will eventually destroy you."
Ruby flinches and almost pulls her hand back, not wanting to hear anything more, but the woman keeps a firmer grip as she looks at the reaper's palm in more crucial detail, "There are times when you had to be ruthless, all to protect the ones you love. This ruthlessness though has had you cross many lines. At times you justify it, to assure yourself it's what had to be done at the time. However it has also led you astray. You molarity is off, but it is not too late to come back."
Yang looks at Ruby in concern wondering what it is that has her younger sister had done, "Now here is something interesting, this right here is your lifeline." A delicate finger traces Ruby's palm now, "See how well-marked it is? Means you are in good health, but it's so chopped up. Means that your life has changed markedly. There is also a divergence." She traces the pattern, "And at this divergence? It comes back to this point."
"What does that mean?" Weiss asks, sitting next to Ruby and seeing what the woman is describing.
"A do-over of sorts." The woman says and she feels the red cloaked girl stiffen and a slight jerk back, "Or a point at which you feel like you were the happiest." Again another flinch and jerk, at this the woman lets go and meets the girl's silver eyed sharp gaze, "You were born a warrior, and trained like a solider."
"A solider? Ruby's a huntress like we are." Yang said chuckling softly, but still a spike of concern as she sees Ruby is uncomfortable to the point she looks physically ill.
The woman shakes her head, "Body language speaks volumes. Knowing how to read your client is just as important to reading the palm and tea leaves." Looking back at Ruby, she says, "You act as if the world needs a great defender and true it is your fate and your destiny; however how you go about it is what you need to be wary of." Silver meets molten gray, "The light can and will fade; if that does happen then the dark will return and that light will cease to burn. So tell me…" Ruby sat up straight now, as the woman leaned forward and whispered so low that only she could hear, "What if all the plans you made were not worth the price they paid?"
Ruby swallowed deeply, throat suddenly dry and feeling as if it were closing on her. She moves away from the table, "I think I need some air." The girls watched her go and then back at the woman.
She waves to them, "Go, your team leader needs you. However the readings and advice I gave you apply to all of you as well. Your bonds are fragile in nature despite your strong ability to work as a team. Fear is the path to darkness. Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering. If you do find yourselves in that dark place, then use it to find our true selves and that knowledge will light your way." Then in a cheerful tone, she says, "Enjoy the rest of your evening!"
The woman watches them uneasily leave her tent. She frowns as Yang closes the flap behind the small group, "Well Fiona? Did you sense that?" Another older woman asks appearing next to her.
Fiona sighs and looks at her friend, "I did. The aura and magic was strong in that silver eyed warrior. Is that what you have been sensing Maria?"
The silver haired woman next to her nodded as she hopped up on to the previously occupied seats. Her prosthetic eyes narrowing as she looked in the direction the small group had exited, "Yes. For months now I've been wondering what it was I was sensing. I honestly haven't felt power like that in many years." Fiona nodded along and took out a deck of tarot cards and began shuffling them, "What color?" Maria asked after a brief stint of silence.
"Sorry?" Fiona asked setting three cards down on the table.
"The girl. What color were her eyes?"
"Silver." Maria sighed and left the tent, debating on her next move.
Fiona shook her head and flipped the three cards over: The Ten of Swords, The Tower, and The Devil. Past, Present, and Future. She sighs deeply and draws a fourth card from the deck: Death. Before she could draw another card, a couple walks into her tent. She gathers up the cards hoping that as the saying goes 'with death, comes rebirth'.
