"Oscar, I need to talk to you."

Ruby took Oscar by the hand and pulled him towards the trees, slightly rough. Oscar followed her, already having an idea as to what she was wanting to talk about. Yesterday morning's meeting and Ruby's plan had his heart racing, and he knew that Ruby's was already regretting her choice of plan. He could see it on her face shortly after she had finished suggesting it, and he was worried about the outcome of it.

After the meeting, the group had packed all of their things and began their trip back to Atlas...on foot. Shortly before leaving, Qrow had talked to Ruby, explaining his new dedication for this plan. He told her how he admired her spry and clever plan, and told her he'd do his best. Sort of a new thing for Ruby, not like Qrow had never told her how much he loved and appreciated her, but that he was so quick to agree to move along with this plan.- Manage Stories It kind of concerned her, but she thought less of it as the hours went by, and she simply thanked him and went along. Jaune also had some sort of relief that Ruby was 'up and running'. He had been quite worried about whether or not she was actually normal or okay, but this confirmed his thoughts and put his mind at rest. Everyone else also seemed much less suspicious. But for Ruby, it was like finishing 5 miles in a 100 mile run, still having so much more to deal with and hide. This was just the start of her and Oscar's miserable journey.

And last night they had stopped in another forest, setting up camp and going to sleep. The creek that had been at their first site seemed to be slowly turning into a river the farther they went. Indeed, the stream would developed into a huge, roaring river only a few day's more of walking. And that river ran through Atlas, dumping into the Atlesian Ocean. The group's new campsite had a similar creek spot as their first one, where Ruby and Qrow had sat on the fallen tree, talking. It was a guilty conversation for Ruby, and she tried hard not to think about it too much.

The two of them walked into the small clearing, the larger, wider creek swirling in the weak current and making the weeds at the bottom wave around like they were dancing. The bank of the creek was mostly moss, squishing down and making the bottoms of their boots wet as they stepped onto it. Trees surrounded the area, a few vines hanging around, and a large bird's nest was sitting atop a fat branch that was hanging about the creek. Ruby took both of Oscar's hands and looked deeply into his eyes. Her face was filled with fear and worry, making his heart ache to help her.

"What's the matter?" he asked, already knowing her reply. Ruby took a deep breath and sighed.

"I messed up," she said, her voice just on the brink of breaking. Tears were already swimming in her silver eyes, making them shiny. "I messed up bad." She sniffed and quickly wiped at her eyes, streaking the side of her face with tears. Oscar sighed and held her hands a little tighter.

"It's okay," he said quietly, "You just had a good idea and you shared it. No one can blame you. To the others...it was a great idea and a clear sign that you're clear and free. They don't think you're u to anything anymore. You've proven innocence to them and now they have something to keep them occupied."

"No," Ruby said, gaining frustration and getting upset, "Fake innocence. And now I'm gonna screw everything up even more for us. For you! I'm going to mess up during the plan, and then everyone's going to know." More tears made their way into her eyes. Oscar lifted a hand to brush her tears away.

"No, you won't mess up-" he began, but Ruby stepped away from him, closer to the water, sniffing.

"No, Oscar!" she said, emotion making her voice tremble, "I'm weak! I get tired in the middle of the day; I get exhausted just by working hard for an hour; I'm always hungry, and I need more sleep and rest in order to remain halfway normal! And when we had to fight those Grimm yesterday, I could barely kill just one. One, Oscar! I was so tired from swinging my scythe around and dodging and running, I had to pretend I had gotten hit or something and disappear into the trees to take a break! Plus, I think my aura gets depleted faster. Isn't that great?!"

She raised her voice louder and louder as the momentum of her 'speech' got higher. More tears were streaming down her face, and she was stepping closer and closer to the water. Oscar watched with a close eye as she got nearer to falling in, and he stepped forward, ready to catch her.

"I'm pretty sure that this baby is sapping my aura for it's own!" she shouted, "Because when I got hit once, the aura level on my scroll was down to 60, even though I started with 100! So now I'm delicate and useless!" She let out a brief sob and wiped hard at her eyes, trying to make them disappear. But more tears accompanied the ones being wiped away, and her face was wetter than ever. She took one last step backwards before Oscar reached forward and snatched her wrist, jerking her back with his strong arms. She stumbled in front of him and found herself standing in front of Oscar, dry and unharmed.

"You need to calm down," Oscar said, putting a hand on her fragile shoulder, "You're overreacting. I know you have a lot to get all worked up about, but this kind of situation works a lot like a Grimm does. You panic, it gets worse. You stay calm, nobody senses anything to be worried about and you can think things through. And it also helps you be less stressed. We don't need more of that. It isn't healthy."

Ruby sniffed and swallowed a waiting sob. She wiped at her eyes again and suddenly felt foolish. She replayed her thoughts and what had just happened in her mind and then felt very bad about it.

I'm such a meany.

"I'm sorry," she said, sniffing again and taking a deep breath, "You're right. I'm getting too worked up about everything." She looked down at the plants and moss at her feet and then at the foliage around them, taking in every leaf, branch, and plant. Then she looked up at Oscar's handsome face. He still had that cute edge about him, like when he was 14. But now he was so grown up, dealing with this horrible situation with such calmness and maturity. That was something she really loved about him.

"But what do we do?" she asked, wiping some more tears away. Oscar thought for a moment and then sighed.

"I dunno," he said, almost guilty sounding, "But one thing's for sure. We need to carry on with this plan and grit our teeth. Just be careful. We don't want to hurt the baby." He smiled softly, but Ruby could tell it was an unsure smile. Even Oscar wasn't sure about this whole thing. Ruby smiled and tried to look convinced. It was no use freaking out about this. It would just cloud her mind some more.

"Well, I guess Weiss won't be happy about calling her dad," she said, smiling again and pulling away from him, turning towards the exit to the clearing. Oscar chuckled a little and nodded.

"Miss Schnee-I mean, Weiss, probably won't," he answered. His little stutter at Weiss's name concerned Ruby. Was Oscar already basically turning into Ozma? She wasn't ready for that. She didn't want to marry Ozma. She wanted to marry Oscar. Oscar Pine.

"Hey, are you okay?" Ruby asked, brushing a fallen leaf off his face. Oscar sighed and looked down, obviously unhappy.

"Yeah," he said, looking back up at her, "Don't worry. I won't be fully transformed too soon." He smiled lightly at her, but they both know it was going to be a terrible loss once he was fully replaced with Ozma. It would be really sad to see Oscar go, but they would both have to deal with it. And besides, he wouldn't be entirely lost. He would still have that little Oscar edge to himself. So that, mixed with his normal appearance, and the fact that his change was quite gradual, wasn't in itself that bad. But it still made Ruby and Oscar both dread the time of its coming.

"Ruby!" Jaune's voice echoed through the forest as he searched for his friend. Ruby looked at Oscar, flashed him a quick smile, and then retreated towards the clearing's exit, disappearing through the trees. She burst into the camp, slamming into Jaune and causing them both to fall over into a heap on the grass. Ruby's head went wonky for a moment, and then cleared shortly after she sat dizzily up, rubbing a hurting spot on her head. The pain dulled and became nothing only after a moment. Jaune sat up with a groan and quickly apologized.

"Oh my gosh!" he exclaimed, standing up and quickly offering her his hand, "I'm so sorry!" He helped Ruby back up to her feet with one strong pull of his arm and then sighed, nervously holding the back of his neck.

"Are you okay? I didn't know you would come back...right away."

"Yeah, I'm fine. Why wouldn't I be? I just slammed into you super hard. Nothing major...or anything."

"Okay. Hey, we're gonna get going soon. Are you all packed up and ready?"

"Um...not quite. I'll just get to that right away."

She turned to leave, but Jaune's hand grabbed her shoulder, stopping her from leaving. She glanced over her shoulder to see what he had to say.

"Hey, great plan, by the way," he said, smirking pleasantly, "I think it'll really get us somewhere." He smiled and let go of her shoulder. Ruby nodded her head dutifully, doing what she normally would in this situation.

"You bet!" she said happily, giving him a sunny smile before skipping away towards her unfolded tent. She ducked down into her tent and looked at all the things that needed to be packed. Her sleeping bag, an extra blanket, two small books, and Weiss's little mirror she had borrowed. She bit her lip, remembering how she had been expected to return it yesterday, but then decided not to care much. It was just Weiss's mirror, anyway. She didn't care.

She messily rolled up her sleeping bag, stuffing it into her backpack along with the blanket, books, and Weiss's mirror. Cramming it shut, she zipped it closed and hoisted it onto her shoulders. Then she left her tent, ducking under the folds and once again feeling some sort of awkwardness as the roundish firmness of her small bump made itself clear that it was there. It was all so new and strange, that bump, and at the same time, she felt like she was getting quite used to it. All this gradual stuff about becoming more and more pregnant was annoying, like being creeped on by a tiger. And then she wondered when she would feel her baby move. She had always wondered what that felt like for mothers-to-be, and now, she was one. Did it hurt? Did it tickle? Was it small? Annoying? Sweet or fluttery? She had no idea, in fact, she hardly knew anything about this whole thing. But she was going to do this. With Oscar. They would raise this baby with love, and hopefully, they would get married sooner or later.

"I just need to find a way for Jaune to not get upset," she muttered, her head down as she approached the others. They were waiting for the last of the group, who, seeing who was there, were only herself and Oscar. They were mostly ready, their backpacks on their shoulders and their tents all packed. Nora eagerly greeted her friend, waving vigorously for her to come over.

"Hey, Ruby!" she said energetically, "You all ready to go?" She was smiling broadly with her arm around Ren. Boy, did those two seem so close all of a sudden. Ruby smiled and nodded, patting her backpack as she spoke.

"Yep! Got everything in my pack!"

"I hope this operation goes as planned," Blake said in her usual quiet tone, "Because if we fail again, we may never get a chance at this again."

Yang rolled her eyes and waved a hand.

"Oh, pshaw, Blakey!" she said cheerfully, wrapping an arm around Blake's shoulders, "We could do this in our sleep! At least...if maybe everybody else was asleep, anyway." She stood up straighter and threw on another big smile. "But that's okay! Because we're super awesome, and we're the best group of huntsmen and huntresses to do anything near to this. We've fought plenty of top-notch forces, so this just adds on to the list. We can do this, guys. I can feel it."

"Wow," Weiss said, looking at Yang with her sky blue eyes, "That's...awfully spurring."

Yang nodded. "You bet!" She shifted her attention to Ruby. "You all ready, sis?"

Ruby was about to give Yang a repeat of her answer to Nora, when she suddenly remembered.

Wait, my tent!

Ruby swung around, suddenly remembering that she hadn't packed up her tent in her haste. Why was she so absent minded sometimes?

"I'll be right back!" she called as she raced away towards her tent, hoping she wasn't going to delay them any longer. She felt like any wrong step out of place would immediately reveal her secret, and they were just about to leave on an extremely important mission! But just as she looked up at her tent, she saw Oscar, carefully folding up her tent and neatly pulling the case over it. She stopped running and walked the rest of the short distance to where he tent had been. She stepped next to Oscar, smiling with the smallest hint of a blush on her cheeks.

"Thanks," she said, feeling a cozy warmth inside, "I can't believe I'd forgotten."

Oscar looked up from her now packed tent and smiled.

"You bet," he said with a wink, "And everyone forgets something at some point." The two of them started into each other's eyes for a little while, admiring each other and feeling some sort of bond keeping them there, stalling the others. The group, who was watching them from the entrance to the camp, observed this with close eyes. Qrow grumbled something darkly under his breath and looked up, as if purposely avoiding any kind of contact with the scene. Nora only grinned and squinted at them, as if trying to get a better look or something, Yang doing the same.

"Oo," Yang said, getting that playful look she often had, "Look at those two love birds. Although, I thought my little sis was with you, Jaune." Yang's face melted into some sort of insincere confusion. Jaune's face was slightly confused, and almost hurt, but he didn't say anything, but observed the scene.

"No..," he began, watching as Ruby almost seemed to peck Oscar as she passed him, "I...don't know. I mean, I'll admit, I kind of liked-"

"Don't be ridiculous!" Nora shouted, zipping over to him, "You know you like her! Don't deny it, buddy! You know you've had eyes on her since the day Pyrrha died!" Nora's eyes suddenly widened and she shrunk back, seeming deflated. "I'm sorry."

All of the members of team JNPR missed Pyrrha dearly, but Jaune missed her most of all. He had loved her so much, and yet, he hd never actually told her how he really felt. Pyrrha had been the one to do that, in a way. And now she was gone, and there was nothing anybody could do. Nearly every mention of her or her name made left Jaune just about in tears. He just wished she could have been there when he had used his semblance for the first time, or when they had decided to make a real difference in the world...

Jaune shook his head, his eyes already shiny. "It's alright." He sighed and wiped at his eyes, shaking his head to clear it, as well as his thoughts of Pyrrha. He needed to leave all of that behind, and just not forget her. How could he. It was impossible.

Ruby was back to the group now, her tent all packed and her backpack full. Oscar had joined her on her way back, and now they were all set to go. Jaune weakly smiled and cleared his throat, forgetting the scene with Ruby and Oscar.

"Alright, guys," he said, taking up a more courageous tone, "You ready to go?"

The group all gave him their affirmative answer, and then he nodded.

"Then let's get going! We'll head to the outside of Argus, and then Weiss will call her dad there." Weiss rolled her eyes. Jaune smiled and then, with a gesture of his hand, began walking, following the trail they had been taking. It was sunny, bright, a cool breeze was blowing, the birds were chirping, and the growing river beside them continued its quite rushing. They mostly just had to follow the river, and then they would find their way into Atlas. Pretty simple, and much easier on Jaune. Plus, the louder the river got, the closer they'd be.

Ruby took in a deep breath of the fresh morning air, trying to forget the looks she had gotten when she had come back from talking to Oscar. She needed to stop worrying so much about her secret and just roll along with the day. The plan. And now they were on the way to Atlas, executing her plan and trying to get both Relics so that they could protect themselves and others from Salem. Ruby tried not to think so much about how long they would have to walk today...and tomorrow...and the many days left to come. At least it wouldn't take as long as it took to walk to Mistral. Boy, had that been a nightmare.

She looked slowly to her left, feeling an unnaturally warm breeze on her cheek, only to be face to face with Qrow. His suddenness and his serious face startled her, making her produce a tiny squeak and jump back a bit. Fortunately, it wasn't noticed by her teammates or friends. But now she was staring at a very solemn Qrow, who didn't look very happy for some reason. She swallowed nervously and smiled.

"Hey, Uncle Qrow!" she said, "Uh, what's up?"

Qrow sighed and locked eyes with her as they walked.

"Ruby," he began, "You've got some explaining to do, you hear me?" He looked hard at her, his maroon gaze seeming to shoot through her and dig into her soul, searching for her unspoken secret. His words bore themselves deep into her pool of fear, and all she could think to do was panic, panic, panic. But she wouldn't. Oscar had spoken against that. She simply swallowed and threw on an innocent look.

"Okay..," she said, trying to get rid of the slight tremble in her voice, "About what?"

Qrow gave her an unamused look and then shook his head. "Your friends don't seem very happy about your little affair with little boy Oz, especially Blondie over there." He gestured towards Jaune, who was leading the group, his back to them. Ruby's eyes widened and she smiled nervously.

"What? No!" she said, sounding like a child about to be punished, "Me and Oscar aren't a 'thing'! He was just helping me out with my tent like any good friend would!"

Qrow just rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah," he said sarcastically, "And I'm sure he's 'just a friend' when you two randomly sneak into the trees without telling anybody, and 'just a friend' when Nora and Ren find you two in your tent, while you were wearing a tight tank top and leggings, and 'just a friend' while you two constantly hug each other. Yeah, I'm you two aren't a single bit twitterpated."

Ruby sighed and looked down, wishing he wasn't so observing. Probably a huntsman thing.

"Look, we're just really good friends," Ruby said, knowing how weak her side of the argument was, "There's nothing else. Seriously!"

Qrow wasn't buying it. He knew Ruby, and he wasn't going to let her hide anything from her. Their previous talk at the other campsite about bad deeds and such had his mind going. Was she concerned about falling in love, and having someone else, someone she wasn't in love with, like her and think that she liked them? If she was in love with Oscar, and Jaune was obviously in love with her, she must be too afraid to tell Jaune, and she didn't want to tell Qrow because she was afraid he'd tell Jaune. It was pretty relieving to know that, much worse things floating around in his mind originally.

"Look, Kiddo," he said, "If you feel all fuzzy about Oscar, that's...fine." He inwardly winced at those words, the thought of Ruby falling in love with anybody sounding bitter and stale in his mind. "But if you've got Juan falling head over heels for you, then you've gotta tell him, or this is going to loop around like a snake bitting its tail."

"It's Jaune."

Ruby looked down, but Qrow lifted her head up by her chin.

"Kid," he said, looking into her eyes with a loving look, "I don't want you to feel like the worst person in existence, okay? But I don't want you to feel like you can just ignore things like a plague or something. Just tell him and get it over with...But try not to break his heart. He's had it hard."

Ruby felt slightly surprised that Qrow had some sort of sympathy for Jaune, seeing how little he cared for most people that weren't his family or friends. But it gave her a little hope for Oscar. But that hope faded to doubt as she really thought about it. Why in Remnant would Qrow take her situation with Oscar lightly? He would explode, then kill Oscar, then banish her to eternal misery. Okay, maybe he wouldn't go that bad, but the chances of something similar weren't very slim.

"Okay," she said softly, "I will."

Eventually.

Qrow nodded slowly, and then looked forward, walking in silence. Ruby inwardly breath a huge sigh of relief. Perhaps Qrow thought that her liking Oscar was the issue. If he did, then at least one worry was relieved. And one of the larger ones, at least for now. This was still the easier part of her and Oscar's trials. She shook her head and went back to the present, catching on to a sentence that Weiss was in the middle of.

"...and I lastly hope that we don't encounter too many obstacles. We're far enough behind already."

"Yeah," Ruby chimed in, stepping forward a bit, "I hope we don't have to end up fighting a bunch of Grimm. We need to hurry up and get to Argus again. The sooner the better!"

The group nodded in agreement.

"And I'm sure we won't encounter a single Grimm at all the short way there," he mumbled under his breath. Ruby slightly elbowed him.

"Aw, c'mon, Uncle Qrow!" she said cheerfully, "I'm sure we'll be fine!"

Qrow gave her a look that said, Yeah, Kiddo. As if my semblance didn't exist whatsoever. Ruby simply rolled her eyes and gave a slight giggle. She returned his look with one that said, Nah, we'll be fine! We can fight, you know.

Qrow just sighed and kept looking forward.

It had only been about an hour when Ruby's feet had begun to hurt already. She was hot from the sun, thirsty, her stomach kept rumbling, her legs and feet were tired, and she just wanted to lie down. It was actually quite a hot day, the sky perfectly cloudless, allowing the scorching sun to beat down on the group. They were all tired and hot from the sun by now, but Ruby was the most exhausted. Everything hit her harder than everyone else. Oscar seemed to notice her fatigue, and glanced at her over his shoulder, gesturing towards Jaune. Ruby shook her head slightly, assuring him that they shouldn't stop, but a slight wave of dizziness caused her to stumble. Qrow caught her arm in time, jerking her up with a look of worry.

"You okay, Short Stack?" he asked, concerned. Ruby nodded her head and gave a nervous laugh.

"Yep!" she panted, "I'm fine! Just super tired from the sun. I'm melting!"

Jaune, who had heard the mild disturbance, looked over his shoulder and observed the group. Yes, everyone looked hot and tired, but Ruby looked very hot and tired. Perhaps it was because she was the youngest of the group. Maybe she hadn't quite shaken off the weakness from her previous sickness.

"You okay?" he asked, arousing the attention of the others, who were plodding along without much thought. It was that hot out. Ruby answered with a nod, that simple movement making her head spin a little. As much as she hated dizziness and would try almost anything to get it to stop, she didn't make a single face that would show her mental thoughts. She just swallowed hard and kept her head up. Oscar gave her a sympathetic look and then continued walking. He was worried about her more, now. She didn't seem to be doing too well.

Hopefully this heat isn't too much for her. The again, it's pretty hard on most of us, not just her. But she's so much more delicate than everyone else! What happens if she gets too hot? Will her temperature go up, and then will the heat cook our baby?!

He suddenly realized just how silly and over exaggerating he was being at the moment. The heat had seemed to get into his head too. He wiped his sweaty forehead and kept on walking, eager to find a good point to stop and rest. He had wanted to suggest that earlier, when Ruby had first stumbled, or whatever she did, but she had insisted they didn't. Sometimes Ruby was just too determined, and that could lead to loss or pain.

Maybe I should ask for a break now...

He was just opening his mouth to request the break, when a fierce growl cut him off, rousing the others from their heat daze. Everyone's gaze snapped to the left, their eyes wide and alert their bodies tense and ready. They pulled out their weapons, loaded them, and immediately spread out, eager to destroy whatever it was that lurked in the trees and bushes. Ruby swallowed, incredibly nervous. She didn't feel like fighting, especially now, while she was hot, tired, and trained.

More growls and snarls came from the shadows of the bushes and trees, and then glowing, fierce, yellow eyes appeared, several pairs, glaring at them and burning into their souls. The dark red smoke that always wafted from their eyes appeared as well, as they slowly came into the light. Only their big, ugly heads showed, the bony white plates masking their hideous, black faces. It was a big pack of Ursa and Beowolves, not like those were super hard to defeat or anything, but rather the weather and how many were lurking there, ready to attack and rip everything apart.

The first thing Oscar did was jump in front of Ruby, pulling out his cane and holding it out in front of him, ready to attack. Ruby felt immediate affection, moved by how ready Oscar was to defend her. But then she realized that she was the only one who hadn't puled out her weapon yet, and she was quick to do so. Grabbing Crescent Rose, she swung her around and unfolded her into her beautiful scythe form, stabbing it into the ground. Jaune gave a nod at her and eagerly ran forward, his sword arced high above his head.

The pack of Grimm suddenly stood on their hind legs, and then leaped high into the air, just about on him. But just as the first one was about to smash its horrible claws into Jaune's face, he swung his sword, slicing it through the middle into two. The two halves flew to the side and Jaune quickly held up his shield, another Beowolf slamming into it and knocking Jaune back slightly. He stepped down hard on the Grimm that had fallen from his shield, stabbed his sword into its head, and then sliced his sword wildly at the many Grimm around him. He was slightly impressed at himself, not having fought like that since...well, since Pyrrha had last fought with him in Breach.

While Jaune had been slicing that first Grimm, Blake and Yang had both aimed two shots at three other Grimm that were aimed at Jaune, shooting them and causing them to fall backwards, dead. Ren and Nora also wasted no time and raced at the pack, weapons ready. Nora shot a big pink bullet at two Grimm just on Jaune's tail, exploding them in a pink cloud and ending them. Ren raced at one, sliced its neck three times with three brisk movements, and the kicked it back at Nora, who slammed her hammer into it. It faded into black mist upon impact.

Weiss had formed a series of black glyphs under several Grimm, holding them down. Yang glanced over just in time to see Ruby signaling for her to look at Weiss. Yang whipped around, noticed the row of Grimm rooted to their spots, and then grinned, shooting both her gauntlet and her arm shot, and propelling her forward at high speed. She smashed every Grimm in her way, finishing off her finale with leap off of Jaune's shield and a nice fist to the face of an Ursa.

Meanwhile, Oscar had been whacking Grimm with his cane surprisingly strong. Every hit was aura charged, and then, after he felt he was getting a little low on aura, he twisted the handle of the cane to the the right, and it started making clicking sounds as the gears ground together. The smooth stick of his cane suddenly shot back, but instead of the whole staff part going into the handle, there was a shiny, silver blade there, sharper than any blade anyone had ever seen. Whipping it back, he sliced an Ursa in half, the long way, like a filet knife through a banana. And then be began slicing Grimm into pieces, turning them into virtual chunks. He was soon joined by Qrow, who began hacking up the other Grimm that crowded the area. There were a lot more than they had first seen.

Ruby stood there, watching and monitoring what was happening with eagle eyes. The group was totally smashing these Grimm with decent ease, and they didn't need her help. She would just worry them. But maybe if she helped just a little, nobody would get suspicious of her anymore. Observing the scene, she decided that they might as well get this whole fight over with.

"Guys!" she shouted, catching everyone's attention, "Clear out! Nora, get ready!"

The group raced away, Nora the only one remaining. They shot at the Grimm as they ran away, shaping the Grimm into a sort of line-crowd, Nora climbing wildly up a thick tree. Ruby pulled out her lightning dust pack, loaded her barrel, and then aimed it carefully at Nora, slowly sliding her finger to the trigger. Once Nora was nice and high on the the peak of the tree, she gave her a thumbs up, and Ruby pressed the trigger. The shot of lightening sped to Nora, hitting her hard and exploding her in lightning. The she ran a few steps, jumped, and then landed in a huge, pink explosion, smashing the crowd of Grimm in lightning and causing a huge cloud of dust to rise up.

When the dust cleared, Nora was standing here, her hammer slung across her shoulder and her hand on her hip, grinning. A heap of dead Grimm lay behind her, only about 2 or 3 remaining. The small amount of Grimm wined and then suddenly raced away, disappearing into the trees. Nora walked back to the group, smiling smugly as a cloud of black mist rose up behind her as the Grimm faded away, leaving a large dent in the ground where Nora had landed.

There was a moment of silence as the group watched the Grimm fade, and then they all began to cheer, high fiving each other and complementing each other's skills. Ruby felt relieved that she and Nora had been able to finish them off, together. It made her feel a little less...useless. As she folded Crescent Rose back up and put it away, she saw Oscar approaching her.

"Are you okay?" he asked, just like he always did when something exciting happened to her. Ruby nodded.

"Yep! I hardly had to do anything." She shrugged and smiled.

"Well, I'm gonna go as Jaune for a little break," he said, looking up towards Jaune, who was talking to Qrow, "I'll be right back." Oscar lightly touched her shoulder, smiled, and then walked away, leaving Ruby to Yang, who was approaching her. Ruby felt Yang's strong grip on her shoulders as her sister dumped herself on her back, weighing her down and making them both fall onto the ground.

"Yang!" Ruby wined, "Why do you do that?! Stop it!" Yang was laughing as she pulled herself off of the ground and as she brushed the dust off her legs and hair. Ruby jumped to her feet and angrily rubbed a small spot of dirt off her sleeve. Yang swung her head back, and then forward, purposely giving Ruby a face full of thick golden hair. Ruby had accidentally gotten some in her mouth, and she quickly spit it out, stepping back and rubbing her face. Yang's hair had been tickly.

"Stop it, Yang!" she squeaked in her high voice. Yang just fell over into more peels of laughter, clutching her side to stifle the pain of her laughter. She staggered over to Ruby and fuzzed the top of her hair.

"Oh, sis," she said, her laughter melted down to giggling, "I love you so much. You're so silly." She patted Ruby's back and started walking away towards Blake. But Ruby turned around, eager to return the affection.

"I love you too!" she answered. Yang squinted and stuck her tongue out.

"Nah," she called back, "I love you more!" She laughed and then walked away with Blake, eager to get a drink of water and sit in the shade.

Ruby sighed with a smile and shook her head. Yang was the best sister ever, and no one could ever ask for a better sibling. But her love and happiness of Yang suddenly melted into guilt. Her smiled slowly faded and she lowered her head, looking down at her barely visible stomach. She unconsciously rubbed her hand over it, feeling its firmness and some sort of warmth about it, imagining what the baby inside looked like. But she quickly jerked her hand back, realizing how risky that had been. Glancing around, she breathed a sigh of relief to find that nobody had seen her. And then Jaune locked eyes with her, startling her for some reason.

"Hey, Ruby," he called, jogging over to her, "Nice thinking, you and Nora's team attack. It really finished the job last minute." He smiled and rubbed the back of his head. Ruby smiled nervously and nodded.

"Yeah!" she said, also rubbing the back of her head, "Me and Nora made it up on the way to Haven. One of our random chatting while you and Ren fought over the map." She giggled at her last line and shook her head. "I kinda miss traveling with you guys."

Jaune shrugged and smiled. "Well, you're kind of doing that right now. Just with more people."

Ruby tilted her head to the side and looked at all the others. "Yeah. Sort of."

Jaune sighed and stretched. "Well, I'm gonna get some water. Nice job." And he walked away towards his pack. Ruby quickly turned around.

"Hey, nice hustle back there!" she called back, earning a nod and a smile from Jaune. She sighed and turned around, pulling her hood a little closer to herself. She really missed Summer right now, and just wanted a hug, one more time. The last thing she had ever done with Summer was give her a long, warm hug. And then she died, and now it was just her hood that she had left of her.

"Mom," Ruby whispered, holding up her hood to her face and wiping her already wet eyes, "I miss you a lot right now. Please help me and and Oscar get through this. It's really hard and I know you would know what to do." She sniffed and swallowed down a parade of sobs wanting to make squeeze out of her mouth. Wiping her eyes one more time, she took in a deep breath of the muggy air and sighed.

"Don't let the emptiness and sadness take the place of you."

Welp, at least this chapter didn't take forever to write and post. I didn't have any delays this time! Yaaaaaaaaay...But anyway.

Yes, that last line is based off of a lyric from Red Like Roses Pt.2, even though I'm pretty sure most of you know that. I guess this not was mostly for the people who watch(ed) the show, but don't really listen to the soundtrack. And the name of this chapter is Latin, by the way.

Thanks for reading and stay tuned from more chapters!