A/N: I've been looking forward to this chapter for a while.
- Fiercesomest
About midday, Ruby and Weiss switched with Yang and Blake and ran beside the sled.
By the time they reached the cliffs, the sun was starting to set. Panting, Ruby jogged over to the edge of the divide where her team and JNPR's had taken on their first Deathstalker and Nevermore. The broken ruins stood shadowed by the towering wall of black stone.
"We're almost there," she said, "We could go now, or wait till morning. But it looks like we'll have to leave the sled either way. Unless we want to go around."
Weiss kept a hand on the edge of the sled in case it decided to slide towards the deep rift.
"Well, we're probably going to have to go around anyway," Yang remarked with a wave of one hand as she sat leaned against the sled's front corner. When Blake threw her a questioning glance, the brawler straightened up a bit, "I mean, unless you've got a plan for how to get these two," she pointed to Robin in her lap and Drei at the head of the sled, "across that," she then pointed to the sheer drop where the bridge to the ruins used to be.
Ruby peered down the sheer cliffs. They vanished into the mist below. She looked to Weiss, "... ice bridge?"
Weiss rolled her eyes, "That wouldn't exactly help us get up the cliff on the other side."
"Giant ice staircase?" Ruby brightened hopping up and down in place, "Ooh! Like in that movie! You can sing all the way to the top! Please?"
"We've been travelling for weeks- I don't have enough Dust packed for a fully supported giant ice staircase. Even if I did, stairs made of ice? That's a ridiculously dangerous idea." Weiss crossed her arms with an air of finality, "I will not be responsible for one of you slipping and dying half a mile from the school."
"What about your glyphs?" Blake had a hand to her chin, amber eyes distant in thought. She'd seen Weiss cover vast distances with her semblance. "Can they hold more than one person?"
"As much as I'd love to see Weiss scale a cliff on her glyphs while carrying a dog that's about as big as she is," Yang cut in, eyes flicking from Blake, to Weiss, to Drei. The pinkish hound simply smiled back, panting. "I dunno if traumatizing this little one here with a wild ride through the air is a great idea," the brawler patted the tiny Faunus girl in her lap between the ears, lightly ruffling her hair.
Blake deflated a bit, ears visibly drooping, but she had to agree with her partner. The next logical course of action would be to split up, two of them go around with the dog and child, and two of them press onwards to Beacon... but she couldn't bring herself to suggest it, so she kept her silence.
Robin whined and tried to snuggle up closer to Yang for warmth as the sky deepened to orange.
"I mean... I guess we could just climb the cliff," Ruby frowned. The ice bridge would work to get over to what was left of the snowy ruins. They'd have to find a way to bundle Drei and Robin up, and they'd definitely have to leave the sled behind, but Beacon wasn't far if they could make it up. They'd be able to see the school from the top of the cliffs, especially if the trees were dead like the ones they'd come through.
The more she thought about it, the less she wanted to spend an extra day or two getting around this chasm. They were so close! If they were going to climb, though, they'd have to wait till morning so they could take their time getting everyone to the top. Waiting a whole night when they were only a few miles from home would be agony. Frustrated, Ruby shut her eyes and ran both gloved hands over her hair, trying to come up with an idea.
"I think one of us should go up," Weiss crossed her arms, "Not that James Point had much to recommend itself, but if they're still holding out they're going to need help as soon as possible. If we fire a distress signal from the ridge, someone at Beacon is bound to see it."
"Yeah, I'm with Weiss, but maybe two of us should go up? Because you know, the buddy system and all," Yang tapped her fingers on the edge of the sled, locking eyes with her sister, "Ruby's obviously the fastest... and I mean, you may as well take Weiss with you, right? You sped up that cliff side with her glyphs in seconds flat the last time we were here, carrying a nevermore no less."
"Yeah," Ruby thought back to that day for a second. Funny how it had seemed like such a big fight at the time. "Yeah, Weiss? Want to come?"
Weiss cleared her throat, glancing sideways and up at the few pillars that stood around them, "It's actually... very difficult to maintain a string of glyphs like that and run at the same time. Maybe Blake could go?"
One of Blake's ears twitched, eyes narrowing at the heiress, but before she could decide whether to voice her suspicions, Yang spoke up, apparently riding the same train of thought.
"Weiss," the brawler's head had dipped, and she held the edge of the sled in a death-grip, "I swear we're not going to disappear again, if that's what you're worried about."
"What? No, that's not what I meant," Weiss waved Yang off before reddening a little in the deepening shade cast by the opposite ridge, "It's just... you know keeping up with the sled wears me out. Not that I couldn't go up the cliff. Just... I'm not quite sure if I could make it back down again without a rest," glaring at Yang after that admission, she added, "Honestly, I know you won't leave again. At least you'd better not."
"Good. All right, yeah, that's good." Yang straightened up a bit, curling both arms around the tiny Faunus trying to bury herself into her lap.
Blake uncrossed her arms, unsheathed Gambol Shroud and nodded to Ruby. "Okay then. I'm ready when you are."
Ruby looked up from watching the curious little Faunus dig in Yang's almost non-existent jacket pockets. "Right."
Weiss bridged the demolished walkway with a sweep of thick, solid ice.
"Just watch your step," she cautioned before leading the way across. The wind whistled down the rift and the ice creaked where it joined the stone, but it held.
Ruby crossed after her, coaching Blake on how to run up a wall using Weiss's glyphs. "It helps me if I pretend the cliff is flat ground, and maybe lean forward a little. Ooh, also don't jump or you might fall off."
"The effect that holds you to the cliff has a spherical radius of about three feet. It's strongest in the center," Weiss tested the snow-covered stone on the other side of the makeshift bridge before putting her full weight on it. She tossed her hair and raised an eyebrow at Ruby while she spoke to Blake, "In case you needed some actual information instead of the vague but helpful advice to not jump."
"Three feet. Don't jump." Mouth set in a thin line, Blake followed Weiss and Ruby to the base of the cliff and eyed the near-vertical incline, pushing down the apprehension that came with thoughts of tripping, or a well-placed gust of wind, or nearly a million other things that could result in her dropping like the world's most ungraceful rock. Still, worst-case-scenario she should be able to catch herself just fine, so... "Okay. Sounds simple enough."
They were deep in shadow now; the sky fading to twilight as the three took their positions.
Ruby cast a quick look back towards the sled to make sure the Grimm were still keeping their distance- they hadn't seen too many, and most had seemed busy, moving west towards the city. Not so unusual, and the small pack size of the Beowolves they'd seen was a nice break from their usual number. Still, Yang would be on her own for a minute or two and a quick check in was never amiss. Ruby's breath hung in the air as she turned back to the cliff, then to Weiss and Blake.
"We're almost there guys," she grinned, bracing to run, to Blake she added, "Just follow right after me. Ready?"
With a final, longing glance back at Yang, who was pulling the dog up into the sled, and Robin, who was quietly watching her from Yang's lap, Blake turned and tried to mentally prepare herself to run as well... vertically, using an unfamiliar semblance, up a cliff...
As not ready as she felt, the Faunus took a deep breath, let it out in a steadying sigh, and firmly reminded herself to have a little more faith in her teammates. Blake looked to her team leader, mirroring her stance. "I'm ready."
At a nod from Ruby, Weiss took a step back, icy determination in her gaze as she summoned up her semblance. Myrtenaster glowed in her hand as she pointed her middle and index fingers and the sword's tip on the cliff face.
A string of pale blue glyphs sprang up in a straight line all the way up the sheer rock wall.
Ruby took off like a shot, hardly slowing down when she leapt from the snow to the vertical stone. As soon as her boots touched, the glyphs took effect, both holding her to the cliff and propelling her as she sprinted up. Wind rushed in her ears- she hardly noticed the drag of her cape as she sprinted. Twenty feet. Sixty feet. She'd be able to see Beacon from the top. And farther out, home.
Hopefully Blake was following- Ruby couldn't break focus to check till suddenly-finally- the cliff ended and Weiss's glyphs launched her up into thin air.
"Whoa!" she came down in a forward roll in the frozen grass and dirt at the top. The wind cut across the top of the cliffs sharp with the smell of snow as she laughed, straightening her cloak and shaking snow out of her sleeves and collar. Nothing like a rush to brighten your day! Well, night.
When Blake finally caught up, she too shot up into the air, eyes wide with shock as she attempted a hasty adjustment, darting downward and forward - or at least what felt like it, but was actually forward and upward - maybe? Her sense of direction was utterly shot.
She had not been prepared for the sensation of running straight off of the edge of a cliff, or the sudden shift in gravity's pull that followed, and despite her best attempts to recover, her race to the top ultimately ended with her leaving a shadow clone that dropped right back down the cliff side, while she landed flat on her back on the ground a good ten feet in front of Ruby. It knocked the wind (and any pride in her agility) clean out of her, but somewhere in the back of her mind she took dark satisfaction in the fact that this proved she was indeed more person than cat, as she did not in fact always land on her feet.
Ruby straightened up and looked to make sure Blake was alright before scurrying to the edge of the cliff and waving down to Weiss, who shrieked something back, arms flailing. The wind made it mostly unintelligible, but Ruby got the gist. She winced, and called to Blake, "I think she saw your clone and thought you fell off the cliff."
Groaning, Blake rolled over and pushed herself to her feet, stumbling over to stand beside Ruby. She waved to Weiss, who looked paler than usual, and also at Yang, who was standing in the sled, covering Robin's eyes, which she quickly uncovered so Blake could wave at them both. The brawler's beaming smile was visible even from this distance. Once she was certain they were certain she hadn't just fallen to her death, Blake side-eyed Ruby.
"Well, after landing like a sack of rocks and traumatizing our teammates and a small child, I think I'm ready to go."
"Yeah, let's signal from the top of the rise," Ruby started up the low grade obstructing their view of the school. She was already thinking about a hot shower, and cookies at the cafeteria, and of course delivering the news about James Point- her stomach dropped as it had every time she thought of the village in the past couple of weeks of travel. They'd made good time, though. There was still hope, right? After all the nightmares and lack of sleep and the deserted town and destroyed way station, there was still hope. Ruby picked up her pace, pushing through the thin, dead branches of some determined bushes clinging in the rocky soil, tired, her senses buzzed with an urgent brand of excitement, "What are you going to do first when we get back? I mean, we'll get help for James Point, of course- do you think they'll let us ride back out with Chuck?- but, okay, after that, what are you going to do? Because I am definitely going to-"
As she forced her way free of the bushes, topping the rise, she broke off.
The rest of the forest (the considerably tamer half of it) lay in a long sweep down the gentle hill towards Beacon's cliffs, and then Vale and the bay.
The sun had dipped low over the sea- Ruby could almost smell salt on the air, even though they were still too far for that to really be possible. And there was Beacon, perched like a toy castle on the edge of the cliffs.
Ruby's hand went to Crescent Rose. She could make out the outline of the school's buildings against the fading orange of the sky. They seemed... wrong. Some of the arches fell at odd angles, and the corners of the dormitories weren't right. Then she noticed the smoke, black and thick, rising in streams from someplace beyond, down in the city.
The emerald lights of Beacon's tower were gone.