Chapter 3: Painful Memories
Time felt frozen as Ruby and her team rushed Qrow towards Mistral; only the sun changing positions in the sky told them otherwise. It didn't take long for mountains to creep in and replace the forest they had been traveling through. Qrow had been mumbling Summer's name a lot since they started traveling.
It took until close to the sunset for the first person to question it. Jaune turned back to Ruby as they carried Qrow. "Hey Rubes?"
"Hmm?" Ruby answered; as she just stared at Qrow as he tried to rest. "What?"
"Why does he mainly mention your mother?" Jaune asked. "Her name's Summer right?"
Ruby froze; her mother flashed in her mind, as if a memory. It was on top of the cliff outside of their house; Summer was standing facing away in her huntress set up as she turned around; white petals dancing around her.
Jaune felt Ruby stop as he turned around. "Ruby?" he asked as he slowly lowered Qrow and the stretcher. This did not sit well in him; seeing Ruby frozen.
"Whoooa" a very delusional Qrow spoke out.
"Ruby?!" Jaune shouted again, catching Ren and Nora's attention as he rushed around Qrow to grab a hold of Ruby's ends of the stretcher to put them down before Ruby dropped them. For a split moment he looked up to see Ruby's silver eyes full of something he had never really seen from her before: they were misty and glistening. Without a real focus as they moved around, devoid of connecting to the people in front of her.
Ren quickly came to Ruby's side as he put his hand on Ruby and within moments Ruby's whole body turned a grey color. Jaune just stood there, unable to take it in. "What's happening?" He asked Nora, who had managed to put an arm herself on his shoulder.
"Ruby's… having an episode, Jaune." Nora's words were soft as Ren tried to calm down Ruby.
"An episode of what?!"
"We all have baggage Jaune… you just said something that triggered Ruby's." Nora answered.
"Ruby, you need to speak to me." Ren said; grabbing Ruby's shoulder.
"Ren. It might be wise to just stop and set up here." Nora said looking around. "Jaune can you help me chop down a tree to use for firewood while Renny tries to talk to Ruby?"
Jaune stood there a second before moving. "Yeah."
Ren and Ruby just looked at each other as Nora and Jaune worked around them. It took nearly an half hour until Ruby snapped out of her episode and sat down on one of the logs cut already.
Ren on the other hand had started to take out his pans and made use of the nearby creek to get some soup going for everyone.
"It's ready." Ren spoke out aloud after a while as Nora excused herself from sitting next to Ruby and grabbed the spoon to get some herself.
"We can wash them out in the creek after we're done." said Jaune before noticing Ruby getting up silently from her log and grabbing two bowls from Ren's bag.
The now more quiet leader walked up to her uncle. "Uncle Qrow?" she asked, causing Qrow to awake and look at her.
"Huh? Oh hey Short-stack." he said, as he looked towards her. "Where's Tai and Rae?"
'Short-stack?' Ruby thought as she moved to gesture to the bowl as she spoke. "Qrow, you need to eat."
"Oh, I see, they're busy making out, aren't they?" he said chuckling. "So what is it?" he asked, not really noticing the soup that Ruby had.
"It's soup, Qrow. Cheese and Broccoli, through there's not much broccoli." Ruby answered.
"Did you make it?" he asked, his pale pink eyes staring directly at her; unnerving Ruby. "Sum, please tell me you did, the last time Tai made-" Qrows words slurred as he spoke until he finished. "-vomited."
Ruby looked over to Ren, then back to Qrow. "Yes Qrow, I did."
"Thanks Sum." said Qrow as he took the bowl and started to drink. "Ouch!" he said as he moved, agitating the cut a bit. He looked down at it. "I guess I got hit really badly, how are Rae and Tai doing?"
"They're fine Qrow, Taiyang's recovering, and Raven's-" said Ruby, lying to try to make Qrow feel better.
Qrow cut Ruby off. "Being herself?" Qrow giggled as he spoke. "That's normal for her, how are you holding up?"
"I'm fine, Qrow, you took the worst beating though." Ruby smiled back at Qrow, though she noticed there was something different about how Qrow was acting. There was something in the back of Ruby's mind ticking. This Qrow in front of her; yet being her uncle also felt like a different more happy person. Soon enough, Qrow had finished his bowl. "Thanks Summer!" he said, smiling. "That was really good!"
"Yeah… Get some rest Qrow, you're gonna need it." said Ruby, now forcing a smile on her face, as she grabbed his bowl.
"Alright…. I'll see you when I wake up." he said as he closed his eyes.
Ruby walked over to the others, sitting down at the fire that was still going. "How's your uncle?" asked Jaune, a small frown was on his face as he looked at Ruby.
"He's.. I honestly think he's just needing some rest." Ruby replied, trying to put on a smile, but failing.
"And what about yourself?" Nora perked up from the other side. "We all saw what happened to you earlier today."
"I'm fine." Ruby said; lying. "I'm tired though so I'm gonna lay down.. Night." Ruby said as she put down her bowl and walked to her sleeping bag.
"Well… should we take turns watching them?" asked Nora. Jaune and Ren looked at each other then back to Nora. "I mean Qrow and Ruby." Nora answered quietly.
"I'll keep watch first." said Ren, as Jaune and Nora nodded in agreement and got into their sleeping bags and fell asleep. Ren just frowned in the flickering fire's light as he watched over Qrow and Ruby; barely noticing a little raven watching over them all.
The same nightmare from the night before crept into Jaune's mind, the tower; the rain; Ruby running on him to fight Cinder… He didn't get to the call part as his eyes shot open. Bloodshot eyes moved as he got up, unaware fully of his surroundings.
"Jaune?" asked a very tired Ren, still up at the fire.
Jaune was startled by Ren's voice. "Just a dream Ren." Jaune moved from his sleeping bag and moved to grab a small pan to grab some creek water. "I'm up now Ren, so I'll watch over Qrow and the others, you can go get some sleep."
"Thanks Jaune." said Ren as he left his spot and went to his sleeping bag and soon fell asleep. Jaune, on the other hand, stayed with the fire, putting the pan of water over the fire. Once the water boiled and moved aside, Jaune slipped away to a small patch of ground nearby that was bare. He pulled out Crocea Mors and his phone and started to practice with a familiar voice coming from the scroll.
"Alright Jaune, just like we practiced..." started Pyrrha in the video.
Ruby awoke to the sound of her name being shouted. There was Yang; no more than maybe fifteen feet away from her, looking as bright as ever.
"Yang!" shouted Ruby, as she started to run towards her sister, not even noticing that Yang had both arms still.
"How are ya?" Yang asked, as she pulled Ruby into a hug, her smile noticeably off.
"Yang, you're crushing me!" shouted Ruby as Yang loosened up. "Thanks Sis, I have so much to tell you, but… how are you?" Ruby looked up to see Yang's eyes shifting from lilac to red, back and forth a couple times.
No response came from Yang, her smile slowly turned into a frown, tears started to flow from her eyes. "Yang?" Ruby asked again, still no response came from Yang.
Yang slowly stepped back from their hug, to reveal her arm now a bleeding stub, causing Ruby to gasp. "To tell you the truth Ruby, I would love to tell you that I'm okay." she stopped to look into Ruby's silver eyes, her eyes a near cold stone red glare. "But I'm not. It's all gone. The school, Penny.." Yang turned away from Ruby, shielding herself from Ruby's face. "Pyrrha- They're all gone."
Ruby looked at Yang. "What about-" she started to speak as Yang's eyes burrowed into her as if lightning had struck, Yang's red eyes no longer felt cold; now they looked like they were on fire.
Yang's body felt like it was on fire as Ruby tried to touch her for comfort. "Weiss's father came to take her to Atlas and Blake fucking ran on us!"
"Sis-" Ruby tried to ask of her sister; her face pale from worry.
Yang cut her off with her rant. "And you know what?! I don't care!" Ruby gasped as Yang pushed her away, causing Ruby to stumble and collapse.
"Yang?" asked Ruby, tears forming in her eyes as she struggled to try to stand. "What should I do?"
"I don't care what you do Ruby, I just want to stand here, you can go do whatever and get yourself killed like Pyrrha." Yang turned to look straight into Ruby's eyes. They shifted to a cold pair of lilac eyes as she said her final words. "Like your own damn mother, Ruby!"
Ruby opened her eyes, her heart was beating fast as she got up and splashed some water from the creek onto her face. "It's okay Ruby, it was just a nightmare. Yang's gonna be fine with Dad at home. Dad'll help her recover." she said, as she took a breath, trying to calm herself down. She turned to Qrow, and sighed, unsure what was happening in his brain at this time.
"Oz… you know I can't bring Sum-" Qrow's words turned into mumbles as he talked in his sleep.
"-needs a mother figure."
"Poor Uncle Qrow…-" she started to say, before hearing something.
"I want you to know that I'm just happy to be a part of your life." Ruby got up as she recognized those words. "I'll always be here for you, Jaune." Pyrrha's voice was nearly enchanting her to its location as she followed to voice to see Jaune practicing in the light of the moon. She sat down to watch.
Time slowed as Ruby watched Jaune practice again and again. Jaune was so focused on the end goal that he never noticed Ruby sitting there.
After what seemed like an hour of watching, Ruby noticed Jaune slowing; his breath panting. His face had lost color and he started to look-. Ruby stopped looking as Jaune started to collapse and without hesitation Ruby used her semblance to get under Jaune's arm to prop him up.
"Ruby?!" Jaune squeaked out; with a loss of breath.
"Hi." Ruby said with a small smirk. "You shouldn't be pushing yourself too hard Jaune."
"But-" Jaune started to speak but Ruby put a hand on his shoulder.
"Tell me back at the camp you made." Ruby smiled as she helped Jaune move around to grab his scroll before heading back to the camp.
Once there Jaune tried to pull out a cup only to nearly fall. "Jaune.. Here." Ruby said moving to grab the cups; noticing the water Jaune had boiled hours before. Ruby poured him a cup as she sat down on one of the longer logs. "Here." Ruby said as she handed it to him and pulled him down onto her lap. "So we can see each other."
Jaune just layed there sipping his now cold water. "I'm sorry for what happened earlier." Jaune quietly spoke.
Ruby turned to him. "You're not at fault Jaune; I should have stopped myself but couldn't. My mom was special to me." She tried to smile as her own words made her remind herself of the nightmare.
"I know.. But I caused you pain. I should not have questioned him." Jaune said turning over to see Qrow sleeping nearby. "I can't imagine how much this all pains you; as I've never had to deal with this."
"Just worried about him…-" said Ruby, looking back towards Qrow, before turning back down to the pair of blue eyes shining in the moonlight below her. "However I'm also worried about you."
"I'm fine."
"No you are not Jaune!" Ruby cut him off. "You nearly collapsed back there Jaune! And what if you did? What would have happened then? We would have wondered where you were and could have attracted grimm to your sleeping body!" Ruby stopped talking as tears started to fall on Jaune's face. "And as.. your best friend; you know I can't have that."
"Ruby-"
"No! I've lost so many people; and I-" Ruby stopped herself. "I feel like I messed up, as I wasn't able to save Yang from getting her arm cut off or-"
"Don't think of the past like that Ruby, you were in the right place, and at the right time." Jaune said, cutting Ruby off from starting to cry herself, he knew what she was about to say about Pyrrha and Penny. "And honestly, I think I would have been a shit leader without your help."
"You think?"
"Yeah…" Jaune stopped looking around to focus on Ren and Nora in their sleeping bags across the fire. "If you didn't encourage me that I was gonna be a good leader… I think I might have been a different person in Beacon.." Jaune sighed. "Without you there I might of even left Beacon-"
"Same here Jaune." Ruby paused to stare at the fire before speaking. "Come on 'Vomit Boy', we need to get some sleep if we're gonna be able to get anywhere tomorrow, and we need to hurry too."
"'Vomit Boy'? Are we bringing back nicknames…" A slight smirk fell over Jaune's face. "Now how about I start calling you 'Crater Face' again?" he added, laughing. Ruby joined in as the two got back to the fire.
Ruby stopped to look at Qrow. "Goodnight Uncle Qrow." she said as she walked towards her sleeping bag.
"Goodnight my sweet Petal." muttered Qrow in his sleep.
Jaune walked over to Nora's bed. "Hey Nora?" he nearly shouted as he slightly nudged Nora's sleeping bag.
Nora stirred as she moved and opened her eyes.. "Yeah Jaune? What's up?"
"You think you can watch over the group for a bit? Me and Ruby need some sleep."
"Sure Jaune, go to bed, I'll watch over Qrow." Nora said, getting up.
"Thanks Nora. Well goodnight Ruby." said Jaune from across the fire to Ruby and got into his sleeping bag.
"Goodnight Jaune." said Ruby as she began to think over everything Qrow had said that day in his slumbers. Ruby stared up at the stars until she slowly fell asleep, the moon glowing warmly over her.