Here's chapter 121, everyone.
Winter paced back and forth, wishing she didn't have so much on her shoulders. She didn't look at her sister as a burden, neither Olivia, but overall, it was a stressful time debating on how to handle her discussion with General Ironwood. Especially after learning of the questionable decisions he's made in the past.
"Miss Winter," Klein spoke, snapping her out of her thoughts. "Would you like me to inform your sister of your talk with the Headmaster? Clearly you are concerned, so maybe if she were to know more, nothing has to be hidden."
"Hidden…" Winter sighed. "Yes, well, I can speak with her myself. There's just… More than I thought that needs to be dealt with. Nothing you need to concern yourself with Klein."
The short butler wasn't completely convinced to just drop the subject. "You were always so determined to make your way up the ranks in the Atlas Military, and seeing you here now, makes me so proud of you, Miss Winter." Klein patted her arm a few times, trying to bring her spirits up. "Even so, there is no one saying you must shoulder all of this responsibility."
Winter appreciated Klein just as much as her Mother and sister, so she gave him a thankful nod. "I know, I do, but it seems that there is more than just discovering my sister's heritage that I must work on. Even the General has… Questionable motives."
Klein was surprised to hear that. "Is that so?"
"Extreme measures for a good cause. It was what I gathered from what Ozpin spoke with me about, and since I now know of The Relentless, there's no telling what General Ironwood will try to do to stop them." Winter explained her concern and stressful obstacles she needed to deal with.
"I see," Klein took a breath and held his arms behind his back. "It's as I said, your determination on getting to a high ranking position says a lot about you. I am not saying that you are invincible, no one is, but I can say with complete confidence that you will not let it reach those extreme conditions."
Winter needed to hear that, especially from someone who raised her, so she stepped in line, right in front of the man who raised her and her sister, bowing respectfully to him. "Thank you, Klein."
Klein's eyes turned red, and he crossed his arms. "Now what is this? Bowing to me like that. You may be an Atlas Specialist, but that does not mean you bring that sorta strict nonsense with family."
Hearing that surprised Winter, seeing his personality had swapped again, so she sighed a bit, but let out a light smile, noting how he referred himself as family, because he was. "Right, I apolo-."
He jumped up and slapped the top of her head, making her cry out and cover the top of her head. "Ay, no apologizing for doing nothing wrong, missy. I didn't raise you that way. Now stop being so glum and show me that same confidence you always have had."
Winter truly respected the man, and it hurt her remembering that she yelled at him back in Mistral. She lowered her hands and nodded, but she knew it was a sort of test. Instead of saying anything, Winter brought her scroll out, sending a message directly to General Ironwood himself.
Klein smiled, his eyes returning to their normal shade. "I can assume you've sent word to General Ironwood?"
"Yes, I have plans to return to Mistral. I made a promise to search for someone, and once I return to Atlas I'll know what I can do to keep things from falling apart." Winter said with no more worry in her voice.
It brought joy to Klein to see how far Winter had come, and he couldn't wait to see how Weiss too will grow as a person. "I shall make my way back to Atlas myself, though it will be earlier than your trip back," He took a moment to think of what to say. "About your Mother-."
"It's okay, Klein. Mother is another person I can't be afraid to speak to on my own, just because of circumstances. She does know that you took Weiss and her friends to Kuroyuri though, so if she tries to place blame on you, I won't allow it." Winter swore to defend her father figure.
Klein chuckled a little. "That's quite alright. I made a choice, and will face the consequences for it. You mustn't have that on your mind. Besides, your Mother and I have shared secrets for too long, and I believe she knows just as much as I, that things would be out in the open, one way or the other."
In an unknown location, the supposed leader of The Relentless received some, less than pleasing information. Slamming her fist on the desk, she glared at the one who brought her the information. "In short, you are telling me she has either been killed or captured?!"
"I-I can't say for certain, Ma'am, but Operative Quarts has failed to report back in for several hours. Even with the range of our communicators, we have others in several kingdoms, so the chances of her being out of range is… Nearly impossible, Ma'am." The fearful Relentless member explained.
Korrina growled,as she held her arm, specifically the mark on it, as she believed that Mia went after her target instead. "Leave me. I will see to it that Operative Quarts is found, and dealt with for going against my orders."
The Relentless member bowed and quickly left her office, as Korrina yelled out in anger, swiping off several items from her desk. After the crashing sounds of her items ended, Korrina took several breaths and opened a drawer in her desk.
After rummaging through a few files, she found Mia's files, grabbing a red marker and crossing an X over it. "Whether your mission was a failure, or you disobeyed my orders, Mia… I will find you and make sure you are punished, that is, if you aren't dead already."
Groaning in anger, Korrina shoved the files back into the drawer. Her support system was still in need of improvements, but her resolve grew stronger with the knowledge of losing a valuable asset in Mia.
Taking a moment to raise two fingers up to her support system on her neck, Korrina took a deep breath, feeling the air support doing its job. She shook her head, knowing full well she wasn't ready yet, and that was truly what made her angrier than losing Mia that day.
Ruby looked on from a distance. She couldn't believe her eyes. Weiss was where she expected her to be, but she was much bigger than she was last she saw her in wolf form. "Weiss… What happened to cause this?" She softly said to herself.
She ran over to her partner, noticing she was sleeping under the tree. It made her breathe a sigh of relief, as it seemed that she was at least calm enough to sleep easily. Ruby also noticed the clothes and wolf pendant that were next to her.
"Her pendant."
Knowing what to do, Ruby gently grabbed it and began to slowly wrap it around Weiss' neck as best she could without actually waking up the white wolf. "Silly. What if I didn't show up and someone tried to steal it from under your nose?"
"I'd scare them off, dolt." Weiss answered, making Ruby lightly scream, even jumping back as she looked down, seeing Weiss raising her head. "Resting your eyes isn't the same as sleeping, Ruby Rose."
Ruby held her hand to her heart, feeling it racing a bit. "Sheesh! You can't just pretend to be asleep like that! What if my reflexes kicked in and I hit you?!"
Weiss rolled her eyes. "Relax, you don't even have that huge gardening tool on you, Ruby. A light punch wouldn't hurt."
"G-Gardening tool?! Crescent Rose is the greatest weapon any huntress would love to use!" Ruby pouted, crossing her arms as she glared at her partner. "And besides, I could so totally land a tough punch if I wanted to!"
"Mhmm, sure you would." Weiss slowly got up, making Ruby yelp in startlement, as it was the first time actually seeing how big she really was at that point. The white wolf looked down at her partner, since she was just a bit shorter than her, causing her to smirk. "What's wrong, Ruby? Didn't you say you could land a tough punch? Well? Go on."
Ruby blinked a few times, staring up at her partner. "This is so not fair… Go back to being your short human self!" Instantly she gasped and slapped her hands to her mouth.
Weiss growled at that. "Did you just call me short?!"
"W-What?! No! I mean… Uh, I meant short compared to how tall you are now! Yeah! That!" Ruby chuckled nervously as she was staring down an angry white wolf, who grunted and rolled her eyes again.
"You're lucky I've already had to deal with an even bigger idiot than you today, Ruby." Weiss said, sighing as she sat down, thinking about her altercation with Team CRDL.
Ruby didn't like the sound of that, and chose to drop the jokes and sat next to her partner. "Wait, what do you mean? Did someone bother you today?" She placed her palm on Weiss' fur, which helped ease her stress.
"Cardin. That meathead couldn't let go of the fact that you and Yang taught him a lesson the first day we all got to Beacon." Weiss shook her head in disappointment. "He couldn't just get over it."
"Did he hurt you?" Ruby was ready to find Cardin herself if she had to.
"Ruby, please, don't make this worse than it needs to be." Hearing that basically confirmed he hurt her in some way, though Ruby did notice she didn't look physically hurt. "A few hits here and there, but nothing serious. Honestly, I'm surprised you didn't notice the bit of ground missing over there." Weiss said as she looked over at where Cardin used his earth dust crystal.
Seeing the damage, Ruby couldn't believe Cardin would seriously use dust against her partner like that, all because of a small grudge he kept. "Weiss, I am not about to let him get away with trying to attack you."
"Going after him won't help anyone, Ruby. It'll just make it worse, and with everything that's recently happened, I really don't want that piled on it too." Weiss said as she laid down, but then realized she was wearing her wolf pendant. "My pendant…"
Ruby didn't like doing nothing against Cardin, but with how her partner was feeling, she chose to set that aside for the time being. "Yeah… I thought you'd want it on, so I wrapped it around you while I thought you were asleep."
"Right… You always do. Thank you." Weiss smiled and moved close to Ruby, gently nuzzling her a bit, as it made her girlfriend blush, so she rubbed her a few times in return.
"Weiss, about last night, I hope you still remember the promises we all made… About things not changing." Ruby reminded.
The white wolf slowly nodded, stopping her nuzzling as she looked over at Beacon. "I do, Ruby. You, Blake and Yang, Team JNPR, Klein, my sister. I know… And about that, well, what happened last night. I think I know now why those people are called relentless." Ruby waited on her partner to continue. "How Cardin acted towards me, I tried to reason with him to stop, but he wouldn't listen. Maybe it was just me being unable to get to him, but… I know now that not everyone on the planet will listen to reason, and if I somehow end up being marked-."
Ruby cut her off by grabbing onto her. "No, that isn't gonna happen cause we'll always pass it off as your semblance, so don't even say that's a possibility."
Weiss sighed, pulling away and standing up on all fours again. "Ruby, you know it's not up to us whether it happens or not… My birth Mother gave me up to keep that from happening, but look at me. I was born a wolf, so I have a semblance with it too. It's a small chance, but it can happen. You can't ignore that fact."
"I'm not ignoring anything," Ruby muttered, standing up as well. "But that doesn't mean I won't stop it from happening. I don't care what I'd have to do, Weiss. They will never mark you."
"Anything… Even kill?" Wind flew past the two, as both remained silent for a moment, while Weiss could only look into her partner's eyes, as serious as she could be about her question.
"W-What?"
Weiss looked to the ground, recounting events in her head. "During our mission with Miss Goodwitch, I told you about how I killed a Strom and bit into its neck… I killed a Grimm to protect you, Ruby, but The Relentless are people. Are you telling me to stop one from marking me, you'd kill them? Because that's not the Ruby Rose I know… Not even for a second…"
Ruby's world was spinning. She cared deeply for Weiss, even to the point of saying she loves her, but could she really take the life of another, just to stop Weiss from being marked. "I-I… I wouldn't have to kill them to stop them… I'd find another way!"
"Will you stop acting like a child!" Weiss yelled, wishing she didn't have to. "I'm not saying I'd look for them, Ruby… I just want us to be prepared for the worst, nothing more."
"I don't want the worst to happen," Ruby's voice felt a bit strained.
Weiss looked around, seeing a few students were beginning to leave the school, more than likely to get fresh air or just walk to another part of the school through another entrance. "I'd rather not make a scene, Ruby." She moved to her clothes pile. "We should get back to the dorm."
"Not until you tell me why you brought that up… I need to know what made you think that way." Ruby said without turning to face her partner, because she believed she wasn't there for her to stop those negative thoughts from invading her mind.
"It's just something I need to keep in mind, Ruby. You heard everything about me… How my birth Mother gave me up to protect me. She was a normal person like me, trying to live her life, but they found her. I know you don't want to hear it-."
"You're right, I don't." Ruby muttered, but Weiss could hear her.
Weiss' ears drooped. "This isn't easy on me either y'know."
"Of course it's not," Ruby spun around, not trying to make it seem like Weiss wasn't going through anything herself. "I don't even want you to go through this, but… You're right, it's a possibility of happening."
"And we can prepare ourselves for it… If you want to shoulder that with me." Weiss said, while knowing Ruby would, also not wanting to drag her loved ones through it.
Ruby crossed her arms. "Like I'd ever let you go through it alone."
"I figured that be your answer," Weiss smiled, letting her tail sway back and forth. "Ruby, I think maybe it's time we get back inside, and focus on Beacon-."
"To become huntresses." Ruby finished her sentence. "Hey, um, about your birth Mother, do you ever want to find her?"
Weiss knew Ruby would ask that at one point, so she had an answer prepared. "Honestly, when I told Torn not to tell her about me if he ever saw her again, it was just the adrenaline of the situation," She looked up at the clouds again. "I think I'd like to meet her. To get to know the person who chose to protect me."
Ruby stayed silent, feeling bad for all the things Weiss had to have on her mind.
"It's okay to not know what to say, Ruby." Weiss said, still looking up at the clouds. "I don't know if she's even alive, but if there's any chance she is, I hope I can tell her that I ended up with a good home."
"Weiss," Ruby moved closer and gently rubbed her back, wishing she could say more.
"Come on, let's get inside." Weiss said as she was about to grab her clothes with her teeth, but Ruby stopped her, choosing to pick up the clothing for her. "Right, I shouldn't be surprised." Her tail swayed back and forth, as she and her partner made their way back into Beacon.
Not much to say here, though I am glad to update this again more often.
To JJ- I'm really glad you enjoyed that chapter. Cardin was an idiot for trying to attack another student, but hey, at least because of the situation, Weiss was able to learn something from it.
I hoped you all enjoyed chapter 121. Remember, reviews are welcomed, but not required. See you all in chapter 122.