And now for the greatest chapter ever: Compost Mantis. Truly, this shall be the crowning jewel of my work. The culmination of years of writing.

Or at the very least its better than Twilight. Low bar, but so long as I'm over that I'm content.

"Well obviously she's gone, but to where?"

"Did she leave with Cinder and the others?"

"No, Yang. They left earlier in the morning, Weiss was with us until the evening. Unless Cinder came back for her -"

"Doubt that. She couldn't stand any of us from the moment we got aboard her little ship."

While Blake and Yang did their best impression of Remnant's worst investigators Ruby busied herself by having an internal meltdown. Weiss was gone, plain and simple. Departed with little more than a brief note, what few supplies she had carried on her person, and Nike in tow. Beyond that they had nothing; no bearing, no plans to meet up, and not even a halfhearted reassurance that she was okay. Panic wouldn't help solve the issue but in the moment, having just woken up to the absence of her partner and friend, panic had smothered logic with a pillow and demanded her full attention.

Why? The predominant question in her mind played over and over again, like a minstrel stuck on one singular verse. The answer that came back was always the same: Weiss was afraid. Not of them but of herself. Of what she could do.

If Ruby hadn't ended up with a rapier in her shoulder or hadn't witnessed Weiss attack Yang back in Galloway she might call those concerns unfounded. But they had enough proof that something was demonstrably wrong, obviously, and no amount of wishful thinking or attempting to ignore the matter had helped out. 'Yang has a Grimm inside of her. She could lose control at any moment too, you know!' Weiss had yelled at her. The vehement declaration had made Ruby defensive for her sister and ignorant to Weiss' plight in the moment. Yang had shown considerable control of her own affliction but who was to say Weiss hadn't as well? They had been attacked twice by their friend; how many times had Weiss thwarted an attempt? In fear for her own safety, founded or otherwise, Ruby had pushed her friend away. Even in traveling together she had put up a wall that clearly had felt impenetrable to Weiss.

Oh good, an emotion beyond panic found her. Not that guilt was preferable - no, it was worse, but it was a strange relief to feel something else. Even if that something else roiled in her gut and twisted like a jagged knife.

"Okay, okay, we just need to think. There's no way they could have gotten that far."

Yang's vaguely optimistic suggestion came crashing down with Blake's reply. "Nike is with her, who can fly. She could have covered miles last night if she carried Weiss," the Faunus pointed out. "Which is likely if they wanted to put as much distance between themselves and us."

"Do you think Nike took her, then?"

Rather than reply to Yang, Blake looked to Ruby with a contrite expression and apologetic smile. Not that it was Blake's fault, not wholly. They had all, every one of them, failed Weiss. A group effort to tarnish any hope of traveling in solidarity. Go team.

"Right, well until Qrow gets back we just gotta sit tight. No use in wandering off and getting ourselves lost too," Yang drawled, huffing out a breath of air and dragging a hand through her messy hair. "Hey, Rubes? You uh, find any other clues over there?"

Ruby stuffed her hand in her trousers pocket and shook her head, pushing off the tree to stand. "No, nothing. She didn't leave any clues." Voice ringing hollow in her ears she tried to force a smile, felt her lips twitch, then felt gravity slap her attempted gesture back to earth. Her free, trembling hand rubbed at her face and smeared traces of bark and dirt across it. "She's okay though, right? We'll find her."

"We'll find her," Blake agreed. Amber eyes flickered to where Weiss had gone to rest the evening before and her ears flattened. "She really just wants us to keep going though? Without her?"

That was what 'continue to Mistral City on your own' meant, unless Ruby had somehow learned the entire Common tongue wrong all these years. Assuming she had a proper grasp on the language with which she spoke then yes, they were to keep going. A group that had abruptly lost over half its numbers would continue onward while the other half, some of which Ruby shamefully admitted she didn't worry for, would trek to gods only knew where.

Not even a week after their chaotic landing in the kingdom, things had, as Yang aptly worded earlier, turned into a "shitshow of heavenly proportions."

And now Ruby had no idea what to do. As she languished beneath the shade of the magically infused tree and absently watched green energy ebb and flow she wondered idly, glumly, if Weiss might be better off without them. No one to be used against her beyond Nike whom she barely knew. That bittersweet notion faded when she considered how deeply Weiss had longed for a family of her own; she had had one in them only for them to be separated by that… Thing in her head.

"Salem," Ruby whispered harshly, scowling as her hand tightened on the scrap in her pocket. That woman, Grimm, whatever the hells it was, she'd make damned sure to make pay for hurting Weiss. The how didn't matter, and the small issue of where Salem might even be could wait. Ruby needed something to hold onto beyond frantic guilt and hatred, disgusting as it was, seemed preferable.

So she boarded the carriage of detestation, strapped herself in, and resolved to ride it until they either found Weiss or she had made Salem pay for ever causing this mess. Ozpin as well, however unlikely and improbable a goal that was. But again, better the poison intended for others than herself, even if the outcome would invariably be the same.

A full hour passed in rueful silence before Qrow returned. Lingering in the shadow of the enchanted oak they accomplished nothing, throwing conjecture haphazardly to find something that stuck. When her uncle emerged from the undergrowth, briars and leaves clinging to his clothing and hair, the sallow expression he wore told Ruby all she needed to know. No signs of Weiss, no hints as to where they had gone. No attempts to leave a trail for them to follow. That made perfect sense if Nike had indeed ferried them away on wing, a possibility that seemed all the more likely now. Despite the futility in searching further, Qrow offered to head out again, slaking his thirst on a thin waterskin and chewing on an overheard bread crust. Even if it might had led to some clue, Ruby couldn't make him search again. They would stick together from now on and continue on their intended path. As much as it pained her to make that choice, and it was a choice left to her of all people, it seemed the only reasonable route.

Going to the capital meant Weiss would know where they were. If they were ever to cross paths, which Ruby hoped like hells they did, it would be there. Better that than gallivanting around an unknown kingdom hoping to spy a glimpse of Weiss.

That might have been the sensible option. Unfortunately, high emotions had little use for sense. Instead, high emotions had Ruby begin pacing to the point she might bore a rut into the earth itself, gnawing at her lower lip until she tasted iron on her tongue. "We should go after her. We can't just let her go off on her own."

"Ruby, we don't even know where she's gone."

"Oh, I'm such an idiot! I should never have said what I did," Ruby went on, wholly ignoring Yang as she pulled at her hair. "Why did I think that would help anything? We could've just kept going without me saying it and she would have been fine!"

Not fine. Nothing about Weiss' condition was 'fine', but it would have been better. Marginally. A boat just taking on water as opposed to a boat taking on water while on fire, surrounded by sharks.

Yang stepped into her path and Ruby veered around her, rubbing her arms and shivering. "We can't just go blindly running across Mistral to find her," her older sister went on. Footfalls followed her own and Ruby began cutting a loose circle around their camp. "Ruby, stop pacing. We can't freak out about this."

"What if she's hurt, Yang? What if Cinder did take her? Rhodes said that Weiss was responsible for her now; what if Cinder took Weiss because she thought she needed her?"

"Without a fight?" Blake asked. "Ruby, I doubt there was a fight, and you know Weiss would have fought. Cinder left early in the day, Weiss during the night. I'm guessing those things are unrelated." The Faunus bit out a huff and shook her head. "But we should probably try and search for her. If she's not going to the capital then where…?"

"None of us know Mistral that well. Of the four of us I have the best idea," Qrow interjected, rising from his stumpy chair and waving a piece of jerky. "And I'm completely lost here. I get wanting to go after her, Ruby, but we'd be running blind in a foreign land. Weiss has Nike, and tampered or not that girl at least knows the kingdom. She can get Weiss wherever she's going safely."

Stunned, Ruby came to such an abrupt stop that Yang nearly slammed into her. Her mouth opened, closed, then tasted a few words of indignity before settling on a breathless groan, sinking her hands into her face. "This is all my fault…"

"Ruby, none of this is -"

"Yes it is!" she howled, whirling on Yang and swatting her hand away. "Weiss needed me, Yang! She needed my support and I just tore her heart out, then expected her to be okay! I wanted her to just accept that I didn't want to be with her, even though I wanted to still be with her, you know?" Blank stares said no. Ruby went on anyway. "I was scared because of what she did, because of what Salem did to me, and I blamed her for it! I tried to pretend it was okay but I still blamed her!"

"Ruby, we all made a mistake. It wasn't just you who could have done things differently," Blake insisted. "I should have tried to keep a better eye on Rhodes, or tried to do something to help protect Weiss."

"What I said… It was wrong." Grimacing, Yang rubbed the back of her neck and hung her head. "Lose control? Hah, I almost killed you two and Blake when we met outside Holbrook. And it's a miracle I haven't gone mental again. A miracle, that's all." Lifting her bandaged hand she smiled sourly and scoffed. "I wanted you two to break up but I wanted to stay around you myself. How's that any different?"

It wasn't really. Well, aside from the small fact that she and Weiss kissed a handful of times. Not the sisterly kind either, the sort that made Ruby green thinking about repeating it with Yang. Close enough though that the hypocrisy of it ought to have made her reconsider speaking to Weiss in the first place. But she hadn't. She'd gone through with the idea, watched Weiss crumble at her words, then ran away when guilt became too much and tried to act as though nothing had 1changed.

"Look, girls, not that this whole 'I've screwed up' thing isn't important," Qrow drawled, sounding as apologetic as he looked, which was none whatsoever. "But we can save the pity party for later, yeah? Trust me: I've tried the whole sulking and blaming yourself thing, doesn't do anyone a lick of good. And I sure as hells didn't travel across the ocean to sit under this overstuffed tree and mope in perpetual twilight with you."

"Uncle Qrow!" Ruby balked.

"Weiss left, we can't change that," he went on. "But we can help her still. We're to meet this Maria lady in the capital, yeah? And she knows all about a Warden's marks, and probably Yang's too."

Blake's eyes widened a smidgen as she rose to her feet. "We find the solution first, then find Weiss. Or, she appears at the capital too after she's finished with whatever she's gone to do."

"If we chase after her right now one of two things will happen: whatever's going on with her will get worse, and we'll be endangering her and ourselves." Qrow clicked his tongue and frowned. "Or, if we're lucky, she just runs off again. We can't help her right now and chasing after her is more for ourselves than it is for her. Don't like feeling guilty? Use that as fuel to find a way to help her instead of sulking."

"Well, we're not giving up," Yang said. "And we're sure as hell not stopping here."

"Never said you were, firecracker. But every minute we idle is another Weiss has a chance to do something she might regret, or that we could lose our chance to find this Maria lady."

Ruby's heart wanted to explode in protest. Her tongue had swollen to the point that it became a dry, useless lump in her mouth. Try as she might to protest the idea of leaving Weiss to her devices, it was a sound, if unwelcome, idea. Hands groping uselessly at the hem of her skirt she tasted a myriad of excuses to pursue and found each hollow, selfish, and bitter. She wanted to help Weiss, and she needed assurances that she was okay. The latter she couldn't get without seeing her partner: the former relied on Qrow's proposal.

With heart and mind tearing her in two separate directions she closed her eyes, embraced herself, and took a few deep, steadying breaths. Focusing on how her tunic clung to her back, a thin layer of sweat acting as an adhesive, she let herself drown in the sounds of the forest. The hiss of leaves in the wind, the faint pitter-patter of creatures scuttling about.

The not-so-discreet clearing of Yang's throat signaling they were waiting for her to say something.

"Okay," she whispered, cracking open her eyes and nodding to herself. "Okay, we are going to Mistral. We'll find Maria, get a way to fix things, and then we'll all figure the rest out together." Whatever 'the rest' meant. However she could reconcile the urge to give chase with doing what was best for now. Evidenced by her lips rumbling like a sputtering waterwheel and her shoulders drooping, her body doing its best impression of a drooping flower. "I really, really can't stop worrying about her though."

Blake's hand settled square on her back as she stepped nearer. "No one's telling you to stop worrying, Ruby. I won't. We're just doing what we can for now."

"Things are so much easier when you can just knock something around to solve your problems."

"Yang, don't be such a brute," Blake said.

Rather than look abashed, Yang grinned lopsidedly and shrugged. "What? I'm right, you know I'm right." In the way that a hammer was correct by hammering a nail: that was all it was designed to do. Ruby bit her tongue and refrained from voicing that one, especially as her sister looked to her with a softer smile that would've made the comment totally unwarranted. "We'll help her, Ruby. And me, I guess, but mostly her. And once we're all back together we'll make sure no one else has to go through the same crap again."

"And that all starts with us getting out of this forest. Which if it's all the same to you girls I'd like to have done about an hour ago." Something buzzed by Ruby's ear and Qrow batted at the air in front of his face with a scowl. "Before we're eaten alive by the insects in this place."

Yang collected their belongings and slung them over one shoulder, which was impressive considering that constituted four bags - five with Weiss' now, and Qrow's weapon. She lobbed the latter to its owner and pointed off to her right. "You heard him, ladies. Back to the road we go!"

"That leads deeper into the forest," Blake said. She left Yang stammering for correction and eased Ruby along, winking at the brunette. "She's hopeless with directions, isn't she? I'm not sure she knows the difference between up and down."

"I can hear you, Belladonna!"

"Oh yeah? And where's my voice coming from?"

Yang huffed and began to tromp after them loudly. "Your mouth, smartass!"

Unable to help herself, Ruby turned halfway back and wagged a finger at her sister. "Language," she chastised through giggles.

"Is how most people communicate, yes," Qrow tacked on, patting Yang's back as he rested his sword on his shoulder. "Come on, the road's not far ;we should be able to make plenty of headway before tonight," he added more helpfully.

"Hey, before we get all gung-ho about continuing though, we should seriously consider where the hell Cinder and her crew have gone, shouldn't we?" Yang poised the question as an afterthought and almost looked embarrassed to bring it up. "You know, considering that there's still a chance she had something to do with Weiss leaving."

This not-so-revelatory revelation brought them to a halt again. Ruby wouldn't say she had forgotten about that aspect, not aloud, even if that would have been admitting the truth. Nor would she acknowledge the bubbling unease that had crept back into her breast. She missed that bud of hope that had begun to take root. Wistfully, she tried to conjure up the image of said bud in her mind and smothered it in fertilizer and water. Hugs and kisses. Whatever it needed to flourish in place of the niggling dread.

Lacking a green thumb she watched that baby plant wither and die. Thankfully, Blake seemed to have more of a knack for gardening than she did. "Cinder has no use for Weiss, and less reason still to adhere to whatever Rhodes told her to do by sticking with us. She's probably taken Emerald and Mercury and struck out on her own."

"Which could be problematic," Yang began again.

"For the Church. It's not our job to police this kingdom. And it's not our fault if she goes off and makes a problem for Mistral either," Qrow finished. "One problem at a time girls, we can't solve everything on our own. We'll head to the capital like we planned and if we find Cinder along the way then we will deal with her then."

If there was anything to even deal with. Besides the potential to be grossly violent, which if Ruby were honest Yang had the capacity for too, they didn't have much reason to get in Cinder's way. They shared a common enemy and, she assumed, a common goal. Easier to just let each other be, at least until Weiss was reunited with them.

With the slight hope they weren't leaving a burning ember alone in a dense forest they kept along, shielding their eyes as they left the shady alcove of the woods for the bright, early morning sun. A gentle, crisp breeze rolled down the road and chased away the remnants of Ruby's sleep, along with the vestiges of her warmth. Shivering, she tugged her cloak around her more tightly, dipped her head into the wind and, with a waking, bellowing cheer from Yang, forced her hesitant feet to march down the dusty Mistralian road.

Hoping against all hope that wherever Weiss was, she was doing okay.

/+/+/+/+/+/

Weiss awoke to a pool of blood.

As oxygen left her in a stifled scream her mind managed to recognize that it was not a pool of blood, but muddied earth. Some blood mixed in to be sure, some of it even her own, but not solely blood. With that small crisis averted she took to panting in ragged breaths instead of losing her mind, sitting upright and clutching her face with her hands.

Mud. Right. Scowling, she wiped her face on her sleeves, wiped those off on the dew-kissed grass she'd made her bed in, and completely gave up on trying to clean her back and rear. Ignoring the protests of every muscle in her body she rose to her feet, popped nearly every joint in one stretch, and redoubled her effort to not panic. Her addled mind took a moment longer to recount just where she was, and while that didn't allay her worry the recognition did help somewhat. She found Nike not far off on a decidedly more pleasant bed of a sleeping roll, drier and, Weiss noted jealously, still sound asleep. A combination of fatigue and the copious amounts of medicines she'd forced the woman to take last night. Either both of them could be miserable or one of them would, and considering she was already somewhere between 'upset' and 'loathing every fiber of her own being', Weiss decided that 'miserable' fit somewhere within that range.

To the matter at hand she groaned as her shoulders popped with a roll, wiping flecks of mud on the grass before trouncing to their extinguished fire. Deeming the scraps of wood spent, she busied herself with replacing charcoal with fresh wood. The task didn't prove to be as thought-consuming as she had hoped.

The good news first, because nothing was more endearing than an optimist. She had secured not only medicine for Nike but also some rations for their journey. Not much, just a few days worth, but more than they had before. While they wouldn't be eating like royalty any time soon they could at least rest well knowing they had a meal to wake up to.

Oh, and she'd resisted an attempt by Salem to turn her into a mass murderer.

So that was nice.

Clicking the flint against stone bore sparks but the fire refused to light. After a few attempts Weiss dropped the tool aside, wove a rune, and watched as flames leapt to life before her eyes, engorging themselves on the paltry offering of damp wood. She fed limbs and dry grass to the flames, well dryer grass, and settled once the fire seemed to be well and truly burning.

Cracking open a small ceramic pot she tossed a few pieces of marbled pork onto a metal pan, fixing said pan onto a spit and letting the heat do its thing. Her mouth watered as flesh hissed and crackled, spackles of grease flying out of the pan and coating the rims in a shimmering layer of fat and flavor.

Right, the murder. With little to keep her mind off the events of the prior evening Weiss revisited them as one would a drunken night of revelry. If said night of revelry included hellish beasts, property damage, and existential turmoil.

/+/+/+/+/+/

The village she and Nike had flown over, and the one she ended up revisiting, was about as quaint as a village could be. With maybe a dozen buildings to its name and said buildings thrown together with whatever materials were on hand - sticks and stones, slabs of granite, and a hope and prayer, it was hardly a metropolis. Such a place's highlights usually included who saw a bird in the sky, what the weather for the day might be, and how many mugs of suspect ale could someone ingest before succumbing. Hardly the sort of place that Weiss wanted to rely on, but as she passed through the rickety wooden barricades that couldn't stop a breeze, wandered towards a lopsided shack that conceitedly labeled itself a 'general goods store', she had little option but to do so.

Unsurprisingly, the dead of night was not the owner's usual business hours. Weiss couldn't blame the man for answering her with a knife and scowl, demanding she leave him so he could sleep. No pleading or begging on her part seemed to sway him either, and with no Lien she had nothing to offer for the goods she needed.

On the verge of desperation Salem had decided to offer her helpful advice on how to procure the medicine she needed. 'You could just kill him, you know' she had whispered. Or maybe yelled. It all sounded the same in Weiss' head. 'It's a small village in the middle of nowhere, who will know? Don't debase yourself by begging.'

Weiss had decided to continue to debase herself, going so far as offering some of her garments to the man. If he had a daughter half her age then maybe he'd have had a use for them, but he didn't, and so he refused them.

Although her offering to disrobe seemed to spark something in the man's eye, and make Weiss' gut turn to lead.

Would she do that for Nike? She barely knew the woman, and there was a not zero chance that she might recover from her illness without lasting effects. But if Nike did suffer lasting damages, and Weiss had the opportunity to prevent that there and now, she couldn't live with herself. And as loathe as she might have been to admit it she needed Nike to travel if she wanted to cover ground in any meaningful amount of time.

Salem, either out of consideration or impatience, stopped her long before she had a chance to further contemplate the idea. 'I'll do it for you if you refuse, Weiss. We have more important things to do than haggle with a nobody.'

Weiss' fingers had clung to her rapier, her arm had trembled as though she strained to remove the sword from stone, not a leather sheath. With two minds vying for command of a singular limb she stood in front of the store, red faced and trembling, striving to not condemn a town of innocents to a maniacal woman's whims.

Which, surprisingly, she had succeeded in. She felt Salem's grasp ease and could almost see the woman's bemused smile as she relinquished her attempt at control.

'No? You still wish to do right by these mortals? How amusing. You still want to protect others even when you yourself are a danger to them.'

She wasn't a threat. She would never hurt an innocent man, not even over something she desperately needed.

'An innocent woman though. Or was Miss Rose guilty of a crime I'm not aware of?'

That… That hadn't been her. Salem had made her do that. She would never harm Ruby of her own accord, not if her life depended on it! Weiss would sooner take her own than do such a thing!

'Still trying to play the hero. Ever the valiant little Warden, aren't you?'

Now visibly confused why Weiss stood still before him, face flashing between emotions as she shivered, the shopkeeper began retreating back into his home. Weiss caught the door before he could close it and insisted again upon being given medicine, at whatever cost to herself.

'Perhaps you would prefer a chance to earn it then, hm? I can arrange that.' As if hearing evil incarnate offer anything was ever comforting. Weiss couldn't stop Salem though, and the woman's intent was made known to her moments before a terrible, rattling howl split the night air. The shopkeeper heard it, because anyone with two working ears would hear a Beowolf howl, and he disappeared inside, slamming the door shut behind him. Weiss heard the click of a deadbolt and staggered back, blood chilling as a chorus of howls rose to meet the first.

'Well, little Warden? You're all that stands between these good people and slaughter.' An invisible hand pushed her from behind and Weiss staggered into the middle of the village. 'Make me proud, Weiss.'

Red eyes began to appear on the edge of the village, baleful orbs seeming to glow in the dark. Transient silhouettes gained form and Grimm hurtled towards the village, splitting apart and barreling towards Weiss and the homes, all of which had erupted into songs of terror and pleading.

Her rapier hissed from its home. Magic crackled as she ran, weaving one rune after another, tears blurring her vision and her throat aching as a raw, bestial scream crashed against the baying of the beasts.

Alone. Weiss darted from building to building, slaying monsters as swiftly as her legs and magic could carry her.

Slash. Pierce. Fire and ice. Doors caved in and screams rose to a breaking pitch, her ears pained by the cacophony of sounds. Her weapon sundered blackened flesh, deflected jaws and talons, claws and barbed tails as she cut down every Grimm in her wake.

By sunrise one person had died. An elderly man who had foolishly taken up a pitchfork to try and aid her. She watched him turn to bloody ribbons as a Beowolf cut him down just outside his door. She made certain that not even a particle of the creature remained.

The village had survived. The townsfolk, grieving and terrified, regaled her as a hero and thanked her endlessly for saving them, offering whatever she needed, questioning not the fact that her arrival had brought their near deaths upon them.

They thanked her. Hugged her and cried with her. And by the time the sun had begun to climb out of its slumber she departed with a pack of medicine, food, clothing, and whatever other meager offerings the residents could give her.

'Well, look at you, a hero. You must be so pleased with yourself, Weiss.' Salem's voice echoed in her head, bounced around like a fish trying to escape a barrel. A hundred yards from the village a fresh wave of tears overtook Weiss. Two hundred and she collapsed in the dirt, stomach attempting to release food it didn't hold, her tears dried but her eyes doing their damnedest to produce more for her. In a stupor she returned to where Nike rested, administered the medicine to the barely conscious woman, and collapsed in the grass, heart turned arid and mind desolate of thought.

/+/+/+/+/+/

Burning. Weiss blinked sluggishly and realized the pork had turned black. Inedible. Scowling, she grabbed the pan and yelped at the heat, cradling her scalded palm to her chest. With a snarl she kicked at the damnable thing and watched the food scatter, disappearing with a final dying hiss into the tall, drenched grass. Ruddy faced, she crawled back to her newly gotten goods and dragged out a piece of hardtack, awkwardly unwrapping it one-handed and breaking it apart to eat. Overly salty, difficult to chew, but nutritious. She suffered the meal and ate until her jaw refused to work through the tedium of chewing, chasing down the lingering flavor with a gulp of lukewarm water from her canteen.

Hunger satiated somewhat she had begun to tidy up when she heard Nike approach. Not expecting the woman to be upright just yet Weiss inclined her head, inspecting the visibly haggard woman. "You should be resting still."

"You're injured," Nike said by way of greeting.

In more ways than one. Weiss inspected herself, touched a few bloodied spots on her shirt, shaking her head. "It's not mine."

"Ah, the grass bleeds then."

Was that sass? Caught between relief that the unadulterated reverence had ceased and annoyed by it, Weiss simply stared at Nike. The woman stared back, blinked once, then averted her gaze and uttered a hushed apology. Please don't bring back the subservience, she almost screamed, grinding her molars until her jaw ached. She couldn't handle someone bending over backwards for her again. Not when she was the reason their situation had turned so dire.

Thankfully, Nike took up a spot near the fire and began feeding the flames to keep them going. Weiss inwardly groaned, outwardly grimaced when the woman looked to her for permission to eat, hand already halfway into their new bag of goods. "May I cook myself breakfast, ma'am?"

"Nike, I am several years younger than you -"

"A goddess is not quantified by -"

"Don't interrupt." Temper already frayed, Weiss snapped, narrowing her eyes at the contrite looking Faunus. "You do not need to ask me to eat; I will not have you starving yourself because you need permission to do everything. Nor will I suffer you calling me 'goddess' anymore, or 'ma'am'. I am Weiss. Simply Weiss, am I understood?"

Comprehended certainly. Would she oblige? Nike looked as keen on obeying as a fish would if told to take flight; outside of their earthly capabilities. The woman nodded though and begged pardon in a whisper.

Resigned to watch the last of their meager pork offerings cook away, Weiss sat back down, slowly wiping her hand over the cool, damp grass to ease the dull thrum of pain. "How are you feeling? Has the medicine helped?"

"Permission to speak candidly?" Nike asked.

"I will grant you permission to let me freeze your mouth solid if you continue to ask for permission." Which was a roundabout way of saying 'yes'. Or no. Instructions unclear Nike went for it regardless.

"I feel like I have been run over by a carriage, then said carriage doubled back and ran me over again to check on me." Nike cleared her throat and a flicker of color dusted her cheeks. "To put it more bluntly, ma- Weiss, I feel like shit."

Once more stricken by the candidness Weiss raised her eyebrows, the faintest glimpse of a smile dragging the corners of her mouth up. "Eloquently put."

"I figured you would appreciate the honesty."

"I do. Gods know I've had people speak circles around me enough already." Or at her. Or ignored her entirely. Taking a nearby stick she prodded at the fire and teased out charred wood from fresh, watching embers dance aimlessly among the crackling flames. Heat licked at her face and she welcomed it, glad to feel something beyond the gnawing hollowness of earlier. "I just did not expect such language out of you," she went on, not taking her eyes from the fire.

"I am a Hunter, Weiss. Our priority is slaying Grimm and protecting people. We have little room for decorum or platitudes outside of formal meetings." Nike chuckled and the sound grated on Weiss. Not because it was unwelcome but because the woman wheezed partway through and turned her head to cough. "Greyson might stress appearances but I always found it tiresome."

"Appearances are important, you know. People often make up their minds about you at a single glance."

"Oh believe me I'm aware." Nike unfurled her smoke-colored wings and smiled bitterly, tucking them in again with a flutter of feathers.

Right, there was a proverbial minefield that Weiss neither had the expertise nor patience to navigate. Instead she pushed a crumbling log aside, ignited the tip of the stick, then flicked it into the flames and watched the fire consume its new food.

"You seem in a rather good mood considering you were on the verge of collapse just last night."

"And you seem ten times worse than I previously described." Weiss' jaw dropped and Nike's followed suit. It might have hit the ground if it was flexible enough. Pallid, Nike stammered, dropping the stick she'd been holding and putting up her hands. "I'm sorry! That was rude of me, I apologize! Please don't mind me."

"Mind you? Nike," she snickered, briefly, "It's refreshing to have you speak to me like a person. I appreciate it."

"Ah." So loquacious.

Weiss pushed herself to her feet and managed to not topple over. An impressive accomplishment considering her legs felt like slabs of marble, her back stiff, and her head being torn between a pounding headache and on the verge of passing out. "I will appreciate it furthermore if you continue to speak to me like this. We are not a partnership where either of us hold superiority."

That was a bold faced lie. Nike was the veteran Hunter; Weiss had gained superiority by way of Rhodes' machinations. But power gotten by ill means was a falsehood, one which Weiss refused to partake in. If she hadn't earned it then it meant nothing more than an empty promise.

"I can do that. I figured you might like it, considering…" When Nike trailed off Weiss gave her a pointed look to continue. Reluctant, Nike dipped her head and uttered in a lower voice. "I thought the camaraderie might be nice considering we've parted ways with your companions."

Oh, right. That small matter. "Don't force yourself to act kindly towards me. We scarcely know one another, I would not expect us to get along instantly."

Nike looked like she wanted to refute. Say something like, 'You're my goddess and I would literally lick the ground clean if you asked me to' and 'That's dumb, don't say that'. The Faunus went with neither and instead offered a sympathetic smile which was, all things considered, worse than the alternatives. "You don't have to be alone in this, Weiss."

"I am not asking for your pity, Nike."

"Nor am I giving it." Nike used her wing, not her magic, to fan the fire. Pork crackled and popped and she used the hem of her shirt as a glove to snatch the pan from the flame, carefully plucking giblets of meat in her fingertips. "I am offering companionship, that's all. Forgive me for being so presumptuous but I thought you might like it, considering…"

The vague, useless gesture said enough. The awkward glimpse that retreated to the food said the rest. Considering you've absolutely lost your mind and don't want to be alone. Weiss rolled her tongue in her mouth and considered telling Nike off for correctly assuming her mindset. Not that she had made much effort to hide her misery - she figured the sobbing and fetal position when she'd returned hadn't gone entirely unnoticed, but she still had some dignity to her. A sliver, barely more than the width of a strip of silk, but it was there.

"We'll continue traveling tomorrow. Take the day to rest and recuperate. There's a river not far from here to bathe in if you so desire." Weiss did, and she planned to the moment she finished this discussion. Her clothing stuck to her and other people's blood had begun crusting on her skin, caked beneath her fingernails where she had tried to scrape it off.

"My wings should be fine to fly again by the evening. We can leave sooner, Weiss, and I don't mind -"

"We'll be walking. There's another village a few miles north of here. We can try to secure a horse there if they have any, or charter a carriage." Assuming either of those even existed in what equated to the wilderness. "We will keep flying to a minimum, and refrain from using magic unless absolutely necessary. Take today to rest."

"We could travel faster if I flew, though. If you just tell me where we're going then I can have us there in no time."

Weiss bit down on her lower lip until she tasted iron on her tongue. It's not her fault. She can't help herself, she told herself repeatedly. To Nike she said, "We will walk. Rest. Once I return you can go bathe and we'll plan our next step from there."

"Understood, ma'am…"

Not bothering to correct Nike, Weiss turned curtly on her heel and marched through the grass. Towards where she had seen the bubbling creek earlier that day and away from the mindless drone she had been given as a companion. Her one and only source of conversation in this aimless journey north. Well, the only person she remotely wanted to talk to; the alternative was such a distant second they might as well be in Vacuo. And, surprisingly, said alternative had been silent as death since she had woken up that morning. Perhaps she had better things to do than harass Weiss all day.

``Good morning to you as well, child."

Perhaps not.

So, the title. "Non Compos Mentis" is Latin - shocking, I know, and more or less means "not of sound mind". Picked it for no reason. No reason at all.

Anywho, I'm going to keep writing one shots where Weiss and co are happy and this eternal hell isn't happening. Toodles! And thanks for reading as always!