You know one of these days the spineless weasels that call me a pedo in guest reviews who clearly can't read are going to our Ao3 account. Man we are going to be entertained for DAYS. The stupidity shall be like sweet juice to drink, because if they actually read our stuff they'd know we don't have a single story where Ruby is underage. Meanwhile I shall post another chapter of the 64 I have already finished on Ao3 just for funnies because pissing of morons is fun. And my advice to people who get hatemail, make more of what's pissing them off. Bullies are pathetic, so continue to have fun and ignore them.
The howling wind was what disturbed Ruby's slumber the next morning. It beat against the sides of their shelter furiously and she rolled over, hands reaching blindly for her Scroll that lay somewhere above her head. Ruby blinked at the time reading ten to eight and groaned turning it off. Weiss stirred beside her. "What time is it?" She grumbled rubbing her eyes. It was too dark to tell the time by the sun at all.
"Time to get up if we want to be at the mine at a reasonable hour." Ruby poked Oz in the shoulder. "Oz wake up we gotta get going." She started to crawl out of the top of the pallet letting cold air invade the bed.
That did get Ozpin moving. "Ruby~, come back, it's cold."
Ruby staggered to her feet and walked over to the firepit. She knelt and added some tinder to the embers getting flames to rise up quickly as she added a few smaller pieces of wood. "Come on guys we don't want to waste firewood." She walked over to her backpack and started to change back into her hunting gear.
Qrow got going as the fire started to crackle. He was up and rummaging through his pack quickly to fight off the frigid cold. "She's right, don't want to be breaking into that mine when it's dark out."
One by one the team got up and dressed, Ozpin being the most annoyed at being forced from his cocoon of warmth. By the time they got out the Ace Ops were getting ready to leave as well. Two Atlas military soldiers would be staying at the camp to maintain it while the Huntsmen went ahead to the mines. They intended on returning to this point to break again before returning to Altas.
They piled into the trucks much in the same arrangement as before and headed off. It was still completely dark out and they ate ration bars rather than hot food. Clover stewed as he ate, quickly noticing Qrow was wearing gloves again. Qrow caught him staring and turned so his back was towards the Ace Op. He pulled off his gloves he looked at his pink nails, while they had slept his claws had finally vanished again. He really wasn't sure what to make of that. Qrow turned back and saw Clovers eyes flick to his fingers a frown quickly grew on his lips. "Do you paint them or some strange faunus thing?"
"I'm not a faunus."
"Harriet's back disagrees with you." Clover crossed his arms. "But that's beside the point I'm more wondering why that wasn't in your file. It's illegal to not register as a faunus."
Qrow held up his hand. "Not a faunus."
Clover glared. "I'll be sure to report it when we get back."
"You do that and make a fool out of yourself."
"Enough you two! If you can't be polite to each other just don't talk to each other." Ruby stood up and snapped at the two. She got that they were two very different cultures clashing right now and it wasn't going to go well but they had to work together. "We can split up once we breach the mine."
"Sure thing girly." Clover looked out the front of the truck.
Ruby and Weiss went back to working on their school work. They stopped once for another very cold break and arrived at the mine site somewhere around three in the afternoon. The sun was just starting to set again and they had about an hour of daylight left. They all piled out of the trucks to a small base, yurts already set up as the forward personal had hunkered down to relax when they weren't Grimm to shoot.
Qrow looked up at the mine entrance, it was big enough for a pair of the trucks but that was about it. The entrance had been caved in with stone and ice. The raven haired man took a deep breath through his mask, he didn't like this one bit but he had nothing to show for his unease. "Hey Oz, how are we doing this?"
"Hmm." Ozpin walked over to the stone wall and set a hand on it, he used a drop of magic to cast beyond the wall. "There isn't any Dust, it should be safe for Nora and Elm to smash it open, they should just take it slow better to make sure it falls towards us not inward just in case."
The rest of the teams had approached as Ozpin spoke. "Sweet I get to smash something!" Nora pulled her weapon off her hip.
Ozpin pointed at a smaller cluster of stone at the bottom of the pile. "Here Nora see if you can't pitch it upward and loosen the rest."
"Right!" Nora lined up her hit. She was wearing a mask like the rest and she made sure to step out of the way as she hit the stone.
Everyone could hear rocks loosen on the other side, Elm joined Nora and they took turns working at the spot while everyone else got out of the way. Nora and Elm could see it as the wall of stones started to come apart and quickly backed away as the rock came down in a small pile at their feet creating an opening that was just large enough for pairs of two to walk in. Elm wrinkled her nose. "Air smells old."
All the people from Beacon were wearing masks so they couldn't smell anything through the filters. "That would make sense." Ozpin walked up the pile of stones and into the cave pulling his Scroll out and turning it to flashlight. "It has been sealed for years, Grimm aside and I doubt they'd have used this entrance." Oz took point and climbed through dropping down into the entrance hall. "We've got bodies." As he strode in the rest followed the bodies were frozen through rather then rotten so their physical condition was preserved. He drew his sword and extended to push a body over. Most of them were on their fronts or sides. He pushed one over to reveal several very obvious bullet holes and blood stains. "They were shot down, kept in here probably when the entrance was blown."
Qrow walked over but kept his distance from the corpse. "Can't tell much without touching it."
"Don't, not worth the risk when we don't know what happened here." Ozpin said.
Ruby had wandered into the dark expanse. She counted a dozen bodies just in this open space. She was very glad for her mask, though none of the Ops were acting like the bodies had much of a smell. "I wonder if they have ID on them?"
"That is a good thought Ruby." Ozpin knelt by the corpse he had pushed over and put his sword away. Rather then touch the body directly Oz used a drop of magic which he used to push the coat of the corpse open. It crackled and broke the blood and frost having damaged the fabric. He quested through the garb and sure enough levitated a wallet free. Another flick of his fingers it opened to reveal a Vale citizenship card, the line of his mouth hardened. "This one is from Vale, I'm willing to bet the others are as well."
"We should stick to the plan and split up. Your team goes west while mine goes east and we flush out the Grimm to the main cavern." Clover said, he wasn't about to poke through bodies.
"Agreed, just don't touch anything. Something tells me James would be upset if any of you got hurt." Ozpin lead the way through the western tunnel as they came to a fork in the path. His team walked in silence for several minutes, there weren't any more bodies and it was still cold the walls pure ice. Eventually Nora spoke up. "So… we didn't really chat all that much with Vine, Elm, Harriet and Marrow but I take it you don't like Clover."
"He is very Atlas. Beyond that there is something about him I just don't trust." Ozpin said.
"He reminds me of Cardin, like a grown up version of Cardin that can hide what he is thinking." Ren offered.
Weiss pursed her lips as they walked thinking it over. "I agree, we could be completely wrong about him but there is something off about him. He was staring at you Ruby."
Ruby's hugged herself. "Do you think he knows about my eyes? So far we've managed to dodge any inquires about them but wasn't the General in Mistral asking about them? I used them at Argus too, the only reason no one has been getting on my case about them here is because James is the General."
"Don't forget about that doctor who wanted to hold you in Argus. You should really be more careful Ruby, James may be at the top but I wouldn't put it past those under him starting to push the issue if they find out just what you can do. Or worse the general public finding out, you'd be seen as a weapon and there are a lot of scientists studying Aura that would give up a limb for an hour to poke at you." Weiss said as they turned to walk down a corridor.
"Please don't remind me, I'll work at keeping my emotions in check." Ruby picked up her steps to wrap an arm around Qrow's. Just that small amount of contact with him calmed her down.
Qrow drew it down so he could hold her hand. "Relax, we'll keep you safe."
Ozpin pursed his lips as they came to a heavy door. "What worries me is where are all the Geists ground troops? If it is as old as we think there should be more Grimm in here."
"Maybe they Ace Ops ran into them." Ren said.
"They should have called in if that was the case. Regardless of our differences." Ozpin glanced around and frowned. "Nora this is on you again."
Nora pulled out her hammer and set to work on the doors. Within the first few strikes Oz's Scroll sounded out with Clover's voice. "That racket you guys?"
"Yes, another door and no key card. Have you seen any Grimm?" Ozpin spoke without looking down to his Scroll.
"A few Centinels, seems like the forward teams did a good job." Clover said.
"Interesting."
The left door smashed open and Nora threw her shoulder into it, trying to push it open. Qrow let Ruby's hand go and helped Nora, together they heaved at the ice making the door both easier and harder to leverage open. Weiss, Ruby, Ren and Ozpin slipped through the small gap and Oz held the door open from the opposite side as Qrow and Nora zipped through. When he let it go it slid back shut with a bang.
This hall was stone and ice beyond it were three bodies all piled together. Two wearing labour's outfits while the last had a uniform. Qrow walked over and pulled the man in the suit out from under the others, a quick rifling through his pockets produced a key card and a Scroll. "Perfect. Maybe the Scroll will have something on it. Jacques may have refused to give up the mines history but James can arrange for a way to break into this without any issues."
"Good thinking, given all the bodies whatever happened here was sudden." Ozpin looked down the dark tunnel. "To bad the power is offline otherwise that key card is useless."
"Yeah, I can't get the last time we were crawling through pitch black tunnels out of my head. Gods I miss my cloak." Ruby hugged herself. "How much farther do you think the main cavern is?"
"This particular mine is rather underdeveloped, so it shouldn't be much farther." Ozpin said as the coms went off again. "This is Alpha we've engaged the target in the main chamber."
"Crap." Ozpin and crew took flight racing down the hall as fast as they dared. A light rain of stone and dust hit their heads as the mine shook very faintly. They came into the main cavern to see the Ace Ops battling the Geist Grimm that had infused itself with large chunks of stone filled to the brim with Dust. Clover had just jumped up into the air casting his fishing line to wrap around the Grimm's head.
"THAT IDIOT! NORA, QROW BREAK THE MAIN BODY. RUBY, REN, WEISS UNDERNEATH, I'M GOING TO HOLD EVERYTHING IN MY SEMBLANCE BE READY." Ozpin raced to the edge of the ledge. Nora and Qrow fired off of it together, Nora with her hammer out and smashing into the core of the Grimm while Qrow charged up a fist with Aura.
Clover pulled the Geist Grimm free of the Dust and ice. Harriet jumped into the air punching the Geist heads apart. As they did the body of the Grimm started to splinter and fall apart, it came crashing down Dust and all. Ruby and Ren were already underneath. Ozpin cast his arms forward and enveloped the scene in his power Nora, Qrow, Ruby, Ren and Weiss. To him the scene slowed down. Clover and Harriet hung in the air, while Weiss cast her biggest gravity glyph slowing down large boulders of Dust that fell from the pieced together Grimm. Ruby used her Semblance to zip around hurryingly grabbing the Dust crystals while Ren helped her. Qrow grabbed Nora and Rose-Petal-Burst through the Grimm bits. They landed and set about catching the huge purple crystals.
Sweat dripped down Weiss's head, her Aura was evaporating under her demands. Ozpin's Semblance working on them all was giving them the precious seconds to prevent them all from getting blown up. Still they were running out of time and Weiss was almost out of Aura. "I'm almost out! Ruby, Qrow!"
Ruby and Qrow grasped hands and spun out in her Semblance creating a thin storm of petals buffeting the remaining pieces into the air. Ren and Nora grabbed a large piece between them before setting it on the ground. Weiss helped but without Aura she could only catch the small ones.
Ozpin saw Ren grab the last piece and let go of the scene and crashed down onto his side. He didn't think he'd ever held that many people at one time. The heat in the cave from the Dust energy bled through his gloves, his left arm screamed at being fallen on.
To the Ace Ops the second team just appeared out of nowhere, even Harriet hadn't been able to see them come. The purple Gravity Dust that had still been in the core Grimm body was neatly stacked at the sides of the room and a thick swirl of rose petals condensed before snapping back into two people. Ruby and Qrow were entangled together sitting on their butts panting as they held each other.
"What the heck?!" Clover asked as he and Harriet landed. "How did you guys do that?!"
Qrow got up and dusted himself down. He strode right over to that stupid smug Ace Ops and clocked Clover in the jaw so fast the tall man spun. "You colossal idiot!" Qrow roared. "What! You couldn't call in when you found it and waited?! You nearly got us all killed! The core was still full of Dust and you have no way of catching it or breaking apart and still catching all the pieces! If even a single one had hit the ground it would have resulted in a catalyst that WOULD have brought this whole place down. You endangered the whole mission and all our lives!"
Clover held his jaw he could feel the fracture in it, he healed it with Aura. "Marrow and Elm-."
"Are scattered around the cavern! You failed to call when you found it and should have held back till we got here!" Qrow was beyond pissed, this little shit had almost gotten them all killed.
"We were doing just fine catching the pieces on our own, we would have managed-."
"Bullshit!" Qrow seethed and pointed at their pieces. The majority of the Dust had been embedded in the main body, the bits they had grabbed had only been from the limbs. "You were probably counting on the ice casing to save your ass which given up much of the Dust was exposed is an assine move!"
Clover for once didn't have any response. He looked over to the Vale team, Weiss was sitting beside Ruby chest heaving as she tried to regain her breath. Nora and Ren looked like they had burned through all of their Aura as well. Ozpin wasn't even there. "Where's Ozpin?"
Qrow spun around and looked at the ledge. "Oz?!"
Ozpin forced himself to roll over and sit up propping himself up with his good arm. "I'm good, just tapped out. Never done that many people before." He swung his legs over the ledge and dropped down with a wobble he stumbled and slumped onto a crate. "Yeah, I'm tapped out. Let's never do that again." He reached up and pulled his mask off, this room was more than warm enough.
"Just what did you do?" Harriet asked as the rest of the Ace Ops gathered together.
"..My Semblance...oww." Oz grabbed his bad arm he could feel the bandages starting to soak through. "My Semblance is a form of Time Manipulation. To those within its influence it seems like the outside world is at a standstill or moving very slowly as was the case here. I'm not quite sure how it works in all honesty, I just know that those I do not influence with it don't have time pass for them."
"So while you were all having your hang time." Nora said putting a hand on her hip. "We cleaned up your mess so we didn't all get blown up. You're welcome."
"Thank you." Elm said crossing her arms over her wide chest. "Mission complete, let's call the General in, Amity is already on it's way."
"Sure, you do that." Qrow glared at Clover. "I will be writing a report on this. I doubt you'll get what you deserve for this fuck up but you can bet your ass James will know about it." The garnet eyed man turned on his heel and walked towards Oz, who was barely holding himself up. He knew that Oz was reliant on his Aura and the pain in his arm was leaching over the bond even that Qrow could feel it making his own thoughts fuzzy, so he didn't want to guess what Oz's own mind was like.
"And what do I deserve for this?" Clover asked raising his chin proudly.
Qrow recognized it as something Weiss did when she was pissed. "Court martial. If you weren't an Ace Ops you'd be out on your ass so fast there would be skid marks. For endangering your teammates by neglect if nothing else and I am sure Oz and I could think of a few other things." Qrow strode away and as he got closer he could see the sweat and pain on Oz's face. "Your arm?"
"Aura is tapped, it does make managing everything else more difficult." Ozpin moved with Qrow putting his good arm over his shoulder. "We are still missing bodies, there has to be a hold up of people somewhere in here."
Ruby got up with Weiss the two leaning on each other. She was trying to gather up enough Aura to help Oz. She and Qrow had shared the burden of the maelstrom so as she put a hand on her collar and trickled Aura over it, with the bonds assistance she could guide the available Aura too just Oz. Qrow could feel Ruby draw from him as well and in the next moment Ozpin was standing taller, his pale cheeks a little pinked and his breathing not as laboured. Weiss could feel the warmth of Aura on Ruby's skin and wished that she could share in some of it. "Oz is right we should keep looking around." She pulled her Scroll from her pocket and shined the light around the dim chamber. "There is a side passage over there."
"Let's go." Ruby said and headed off with Weiss.
The Ace Ops made for the exit while Ozpin picked a piece of Grimm to sit on. He looked up at Qrow. "Stay with the girls, if they run into something bad they won't know what to do with it."
"Okay Oz, just be careful with that arm." Qrow kissed his cheek and jogged after Ruby and Weiss.
Nora collapsed her hammer and walked over, opening a side pouch on Oz's trench coat. "That was pretty cool Oz, I didn't know you could do that with your Semblance."
Ren helped Ozpin take his coat off. "We should check your arm."
For once Oz didn't protest. "Missed you too Ren. I wasn't sure I could, Ruby and Qrow I've managed before, the bonds make sharing it with them easier but all of you was a first. It's a miracle I didn't eat ice right after."
Ren pulled Oz's shirt off and then undid the buckles holding the compression sleeve in place. Nora frowned with her boyfriend when splotches of blood already soaked through. "Well at least it's warm in here." Nora said as Ren rolled down the sleeve and Nora got the scissors out. She carefully cut down from Oz's shoulder to his finger tips. The bandages were peeled away, it was very clear where he had fallen on it. The weeping was centred on his shoulder following a clear line down to his elbow. "You need to be more careful Oz."
Ren had already pulled out a piece of linen to absorb the oozing blood. "That was needlessly risky."
"I wouldn't say needlessly, I'd rather lose some blood then have you all get blown to bits. I'll be back but you'll turn through the wheel. I'd rather not wait another twenty plus years to find you all again." He reached up and held the absorbent pad that Nora placed on his shoulder.
"Point taken." Ren started to rewrap the arm.
Vine and Marrow walked back into the room just as the lights came on. "Huh I guess your teammates found the generator." Marrow caught sight of Oz's arm and gagged swiftly covering his nose.
Ozpin chuckled. "Yes, welcome to my life."
Vine walked over and held the cloth so Ozpin did not have too peering at the bloody limb. "How long has it been like this?"
"Better part of a year, this is actually an improvement over where it was." The copper eyed man flashed a smile.
Vine extend his own yellow Aura and applied it to the arm. He was moderately surprised when it only seemed to slow the bleeding. "The internal damage must be profound."
"That's one way to put it." Ozpin held the end of the bandage to his wrist as Ren tied it back up.
"You shouldn't put the compression sleeve back on, it's already got too much blood in it." Ren picked up the sleeve and wrapped it up wet side in.
Marrow looked back as Nora helped Oz back into his shirt noticing the extensive scarring on Oz's chest. "What hap-."
"Oz! We found the Valeans. There is a bunk room by the generator and there all there and they are all dead. Some of them have big black sores." Ruby's voice came over the coms panicked.
Ozpin shot up to his feet and snapped into his Scroll. "Do Not Touch Anything. I'll be right here."
"Oz!" Nora huffed as he ran off. "I swear, keeping him out of trouble is harder than getting Yang out of bed in the morning!"
Marrow and Vine exchanged a glance, both wondered who Yang was and followed the Valeans charging down the hallway. It quickly got warmer and smaller. The walls started closing in tighter until they found Ruby, Qrow and Weiss sitting on the stone across from an open door. Ozpin went straight for the door, the sight made him cover his mouth and take a steadying breath. Within the room were around twenty eight bodies. Probably the remains of the Valeans that hadn't made a run for the entrance or had already been too far gone to try. A quick glance confirmed his suspicions.
Plague.
Ozpin closed the door and summoned a brief flame over his hand to burn away any germs that might have been lingering on it. "Who opened the door?"
Weiss raised her gloved hands. The fire Ozpin wreathed them in singed her gloves but didn't burn her hands. Oz turned his attention to the two Ace Ops. "Tell Clover that there are twenty eight plague victims in this room. No one is even to open the door without proper protection. The bodies we found by the entrance are likely infected as well."
"I'll get some Dust to burn them as well." Elm said as they walked out.
By the time they got to entrance Amity had arrived, James had just arrived by Manta. The small ship came down to land, the side door was thrown open and James stepped off followed by four troops. They started unloading more supplies for the troops currently stationed there. Clover got up off his box and moved towards the General.
James held a hand for silence as Clover opened his mouth. "What have you found Ozpin?"
"What we were worried about. I didn't check the earlier bodies out of caution and the pre existing damage but we found a bunk house with almost thirty bodies showing clear signs of plague and another two in the west halls." Ozpin pulled out his mask and sealed it back into place.
"Damn it Jacques, I'll have his hide for this." James clenched his fists as he ground his teeth.
Qrow walked over and pulled the ID and Scroll he had taken from a body. "I pinched these off of a worker, they might be helpful."
"Thank you Qrow." James took both and looked between Clover and Qrow. "I get the feeling that hoping you two would get along was a bit much on my part."
"No of cour-"
"Damn straight, Atlasian cockhead." Qrow crossed his arms and hissed.
Ozpin couldn't help it, he laughed and ended up holding his bad arm still. "Aww, Gods it's like how you two were at the start James."
Qrow went completely deadpan. "You couldn't pay me to do this Atlas prick!" He pointed at Clover with this thumb. "I'd sooner try catching a bullet from Due Process with my teeth!"
"The feeling is mutual, you've probably got a petri dish worth of diseases old man." Clover glared right back at him.
"I am not OLD! I'm im-." Qrow snapped his teeth shut with a clack baring them.
"Might as well just tell him Qrow, it's not like you've got any grey in your hair." James was starting to find this amusing.
"I'm immortal you little shit, I stopped aging when I was your age. You may have read my file but let's make one thing very clear." Qrow invaded Clover's space almost poking him in the chin with a finger. "You don't know jack shit about me. I'll outlive you by centuries." The garnet eyed man turned on his heel and stormed away muttering. "Little shit, stupid good luck Semblance, fucking knob jocky prick, why the fuck did he get it when I got saddled…"
Ozpin and James couldn't hear anymore and Qrow walked off following the smell of hot food. "Well, I just learned something about Qrow." Ozpin mused.
"You and me both." James said.
"He actually can get jealous. Vengeful, I knew about and protective but jealous. I don't think I've seen Qrow jealous since I started playing with Ruby." Ozpin said putting his hand on his hip.
"Hmm I'm sensing a story there." James said looking the groups over. Ruby and Weiss had followed Qrow with Nora and Ren.
Oz followed his gaze. "Eh you've heard bits of it already, at least I don't have to worry about feeding the masses." He sniffed the air smelling a beef stew from within the yurt even through the filters.
"Can I give my report please?" Clover didn't feel like watching the two older men remiss about old conquests.
"Yes please." James turned his attention to the Ace op.
Qrow ate with furious determination. Ruby was snuggled up to his side with Weiss beside her, they both had a bowl of stew but unlike Qrow they weren't immune to the image of death. So they forced themselves to eat, it was so cold out they couldn't afford to not have extra calories to burn. Nora and Ren were having an easier time of it given they hadn't seen the room full of bodies. They could hear the occasional shout from outside of the yurt, clearly Ozpin was filling James on his side of Clover's actions in the mine. Ten minutes later, James and Ozpin walked into the yurt and sat down by the fire to thaw out.
"Where are the Ops?" Nora asked.
"Doing the rounds. Clover has been given a week of suspension for his errors in the mine. While it would be nice to slap something harsher on him I need all hands on deck." James pulled out his Scroll and brought up a new file. "Qrow what do you make of this."
Qrow took the file from him. It was the autopsy report for a man named Forest but no last name was listened. He flicked up the autopsy report. One wound, stabbed with a fine point lean with very little flare. Poison corrosive. Qrow wrinkled his nose at the sight of Forest's chest melted open. His right hand gripped his side he remembered that purple poison. "Seems the fucker is here."
Ruby looked over and all the colour drained from her face. She shot to her feet and started to pace in the busy yurt, her heart was pounding as fear rose up. The silver eyed warrior hugged herself and really hoped it was someone- anyone else. James got up and went to her stopping her pacing. "Ruby, what is it?" He could see the tears gathering in her eyes, she opened her mouth but only managed a suppressed hiccuping cough.
"Tyrian Callows. A scorpion faunus that murdered most of Mistral's Huntsmen along with Hazel Rainart. He also kidnapped and…" Ozpin clenched his fists and couldn't hide the storm of fury on his face.
James saw it and Ruby's tears and put two and two together. "Oh Gods, Ruby." He gently reached out and she moved at the little promoting and hid her face against his chest.
"He almost killed Qrow too, they got into a fight on the way to Mistral and he opened up Qrow's side and dosed him with the poison." Ren said as Nora snuggled up to his side.
Qrow flinched as Oz stood up. "You failed to mention that."
The red eyed man stood up and turned the Scroll off. "I was fine, there was no point in mentioning it. But unless there is some other murder happy poisonous faunus in the world that would benefit from making your life difficult James. It must be him. I haven't heard hide nor hair of him since Oz thrashed him. I guess he was licking his wounds."
"Forest was a very outspoken individual against my office. So this Tyrian is trying to frame me. Lovely." James stroked Ruby's back. "Do you wish to stay at the school and out of the field Ruby?"
Ruby couldn't bare the thought of being stolen again. She might have a new sword, she might be better trained and a stronger person but he was her rapist. He was in Mantle or Atlas for all they knew and the idea of working in either city became terrifying in seconds. The petite woman nodded into James's chest.
James reached up and pet her hair. "Alright, you all have work to do in Atlas anyway. Qrow, you can do what you do best. Find him. Ozpin you have your own tasks to get to. The Ace Ops can handle escorting the shipments for a while then we'll rotate you all in."
Ruby pulled away and attempted to clean her face. "Sounds good, I just really want to go back to the flat now. He's just-I… I just wanna hide for a bit."
Qrow got up and hugged her tightly and she clung to him just as tight. "He won't get you, never again."
Ozpin walked over and hugged her so she was surrounded by them, he could feel Ruby's fear even as she tried to hide it across the bonds. "Let's not stay in this frozen place any longer. There is home to look forward to."
