A/N: Aw yeah guess who's back from the mountains and DIDN'T get eaten by a bear? I'll give you a hint it's ME. We might have had to flee from forest fires though. If it's not one thing it's another, right?
Still all in all fabulous trip, 10/10, would recommend, maybe while carrying less weight. 45 pounds is maybe a little too much. (haha no my toes aren't still numb what are you talking about, sob)
So yeah it's good to be back :3 Let's jump right in! Enjoy the chapter!
HUGS,
D
Ruby let the heavy canvas flap of the supply tent fall shut behind her. She'd left Pyrrha in the medical tent. It had been quiet over there- Yang slept like a rock with Robin snuggled up to her. The little Faunus's ears hadn't even twitched when she and Pyrrha had gone in. Jaune was still on his cot, the blanket pulled up to his chest. He could have just been sleeping. Blake wasn't around, but she'd probably gone to sleep in a different tent or something.
So Ruby dragged her feet back to the supply tent. Crescent Rose felt like a lead weight at her back. James Point, and now Beacon. And Vale. That ship... had it been full of people? What had happened to the evacuees? There were people counting on them back in the mountains- Cyan and Curtis and the townspeople. They'd promised to send help, but with Beacon in ruins it looked like there wasn't any to send.
How was she going to fix any of this? How could she even start?
Heaving a long sigh, she decided she could at least get some sleep, and in the morning have breakfast. Those were good goals, and maybe the next step would be easier after those. She felt her way in the quiet dark down the narrow path between the boxes and stuff littering the floor over to where her sleeping bag was laid out, only to stumble on top of something warm.
"Ack!" she squeaked, too off balance to do anything but bear her weight down on the flailing other person. The clash of steel against some other metal junk pricked Ruby's senses and she scrambled to get back before a weapon came into play, "It's me!"
"Ruby?" the dark retreated as Weiss activated her rapier's Dust chambers. She stared at her partner, her eyes bleary and her brow furrowed.
"Sorry, yeah, I'm sorry," Ruby tried to extricate herself from the tangle of limbs and her cloak.
"No, I should've- I was just-" Weiss pulled back, flustered and rubbing her eyes. "Did you want to sleep?"
"Yeah..." Ruby trailed off as her stomach gave a painful growl. She clapped a hand to it, grimacing. "Actually, I... haven't eaten anything."
Weiss looked at her like she'd just said that she'd forgotten to breathe, but then her stomach echoed Ruby's.
Ruby raised her brow. "Have you?"
"Shut up," Weiss grumbled and turned to the corner of the tent to dig in what looked like one of their supply boxes. The sounds of their gear shifting seemed loud in the small, dark space. The walls of the tent muted the lonely sounds of the wind outside. "Ugh, are we really going to do this again?"
"Do what aga- oh. Uh," Ruby looked over Weiss's shoulder at the three cans of baked beans- aka misery incarnate- that had made it back with them from James Point. Ruby sank down till she was lying on her face on one of their backpacks. She groaned into the fabric, "Maybe we can just go to sleep instead."
A winter-chilled breeze swirled low through the campgrounds, curling through the dust gathered at the bottom of the fallen coliseum and lightly tousling the closed flap of the medical tent.
The barely-audible scraping of fabric over the ground gave Pyrrha something to focus on other than the person lying prone before her. Jaune's chest rose and fell in slow, shallow breaths, just enough to presume he was still alive, somehow, despite having been otherwise motionless on this cot for weeks. That ever-present lead weighted guilt guided Pyrrha to kneel beside his cot.
"Jaune," she whispered, mindful of Yang and the small Faunus girl sleeping soundly just a few feet away. "I know you can hear me..." she took one of his hands in both of hers, resting her arms and head on the cot's edge, "...is what I want to say... But I'm starting to wonder if you can sense me at all."
In an attempt to focus, Pyrrha let her eyes fall shut, quietly gathering her aura as Nora and Ren had taught her. The two had gone to great lengths to help her learn the technique. It hadn't been easy, but with practice she'd eventually been able to briefly connect with Ren, and later Nora. Her success rate with Jaune however...
A soft red-gold glow rose around her as it always did, gently reaching out, searching. But, even with Jaune's hand clasped tightly in her own, his aura refused to respond. It roiled white-hot against her fingertips, somehow solid and unyielding despite writhing in turmoil wherever she tried to connect. After a particularly nasty shock, Pyrrha reflexively released his hand and pushed herself to her feet again. She grit her teeth, turning her back to Jaune so she wouldn't have to keep looking at barely-living proof her failures. Why did she think she'd be able to reach him this time when every other attempt hadn't worked either? She felt stupid for even trying.
"Pyrrha?"
Emerald eyes snapped to the medical tent's entrance. Ren stood just inside, with the flap held open over his head for Blake who followed close behind. How long had they been there?
"Blake is looking for Ruby," Ren said, the sympathy in his eyes telling Pyrrha that he'd seen more than she would have liked.
"He said you might know where she went," Blake added, her Faunus ears perked with hope.
A beat of silence passed, then Pyrrha managed a smile. "Then, you're in luck. She went to the storage tent to sleep."
Blake smiled right back, "Thanks." Sparing a lingering glance at Yang's peacefully sleeping form, Blake nodded to Ren and Pyrrha and vanished out the exit, leaving the medical tent in silence once more.
Pyrrha's smile faded as Ren crossed the tent to stand beside her. She watched him rest a hand on Jaune's chest, using the other to gently lift one of his eyelids open. Burning red stared back up at them both, though there was still a hint of Jaune's former blue lacing the innermost circle of his iris.
"Why can't I reach him," Pyrrha whispered half to herself.
Ren gave her a measured look. He let Jaune's eye fall back shut, resting that hand on Pyrrha's shoulder instead. The tension radiating from her rivaled the tension he felt in Jaune. "I don't know."
Toxic doubts clouded Pyrrha's mind, none of which she could bring herself to voice. Maybe Jaune was angry with her. He had to know she'd killed someone. He probably regretted saving her. He had to be disgusted with her. He hated her.
Forcing herself to look away, Pyrrha's eyes happened across that strange cane leaning against the crate holding their map of Vale. She vaguely recalled Qrow having it in hand... giving it to Ruby... Her face darkened at the thought of that man... but how much of that ire was Amber's? It was getting harder and harder to tell where Amber's feelings ended and hers began...
"...Ren?" She glanced at him, embarrassed to find he'd been watching her the entire time - always with that patient expression. "I'd like to ask you and Nora a favor."
Ruby was still lying on her face on her backpack, her cloak a puddle of ragged cloth draped across her sleeping bag and legs when Blake came in through the tent flap. Weiss gazed at the can of baked beans with a glazed look, as if trying to decide whether opening the can would be any better than starving.
Neither of them had noticed the small stack of packaged crackers stacked on the edge of one of the supply crates behind them.
Neither of them had noticed Blake either, giving her a chance to fully take in the scene before her... and shake her head with a smile. Ren had asked if she'd be willing to help gather provisions for the camp. Now she could see why.
Stepping into the low lamplight, Blake crouched down and removed the offending can of beans from Weiss's line of sight, rolling it off into one of the tent's darkened corners. "So... either of you feel up to going on a hunt with me?"
Ruby propped herself up on her elbows at the sound of Blake's voice, swiping her hair out of her bleary eyes, "Now?"
Weiss, who had gotten approximately twenty minutes of sleep, looked at Blake like she might either strangle her or cry.
Blake blinked. The pair looked like death warmed over to slightly different degrees. She'd be better off taking a drunken /Nora/ along. "I was kidding," she immediately backpedaled, gently coaxing Ruby back onto her sleeping bag and tucking the ends of her red cloak around her. "But I'm not sure how long it will take, so no stressing if tomorrow morning rolls around and I'm not back yet," she looked pointedly at Weiss, as if she could somehow will her to relax.
The heiress looked down at Ruby, who wore a confused look as she fussed with the ends of her cloak and tried to sit back up. She looked at the corner where Blake had rolled the can of baked beans.
"Blake," Weiss said, her hands shaky, even resting on Myrtenaster. She wasn't actually going to start sobbing or anything, but it had been, what, two days? Three? Since she'd slept, and the last time she remembered eating was... was it the night before? Her throat closed, leaving her unable to communicate the sheer extent of what she needed.
Ruby hadn't eaten since she'd lost consciousness. Maybe Weiss's aura healing had given her a few hours' boost, but her hunger felt like someone had punched her in the stomach. She clutched at it, groaning, "We kind of need to eat something now. Like... before you go hunting."
One of Blake's ears twitched in amusement, but sympathy kept her expression in check. How was it that she of all people had been the only one on their team to maintain some semblance of good health? Ruby and Weiss both looked about ready to drop, but Blake knew all too well how horrible it felt to sleep on an empty stomach.
Pushing herself to her feet, Blake maneuvered around Weiss to investigate the crate that held the pack of crackers she'd spotted earlier. Her eyes cut through the darkness to catch sight of a fair sized tin of... something meaty sitting on the ground behind that same crate. It was already open, but it still smelled good... or, at least, better than beans. She tossed the crackers to Weiss and the mystery tin to Ruby. "Think this will hold you?"
"What- where did-" Weiss stared at the package of crackers. They looked like the cheddar and peanut butter kind you could get from a vending machine.
Ruby's mouth filled with drool the second the tin was in her hands. It was some kind of processed indestructible meat product, and beyond that she didn't care.
Weiss noticed her wolfing down the unidentified meat and balked, "Ugh, was that open?" She tried to grapple the tin from Ruby, which she succeeded in doing without much trouble as the container was already empty. She shook it at Blake, "Are you trying to poison her?"
"Hey, I'm not poisoned," Ruby protested, pushing Weiss's arm out of the way to climb over the crate where Blake found the food. She peered into the shadows, looking for a second stash of crackers or something, but the crate itself was just full of old radio equipment. "Where did you even find that?"
Blake shrugged, "The floor. Probably someone's snack stash." She skirted around Ruby and Weiss to reach the tent's entrance. "I plan on bringing back something a bit more substantial though." At least, she hoped she would.
Ruby sat back, disappointed that the stash hadn't been bigger, just in time to see Blake slip out of the tent. "She's really going?"
She wasn't going to stop Blake, of course. Blake had hunted all the way back here from James Point, and if she wanted to hunt, she could hunt. It was odd to choose to go out now, though. There were a lot of Grimm around. They were still figuring out what had even happened. More like the /why/ of it happening. Cinder being evil and the Atlas robots all going crazy and a ton of Grimm attacking the city... that was pretty well established in Ruby's mind.
Weiss fussed with the package of crackers, grumbling as she struggled to get the plastic open with her fingers stiff from cold and sleep, "As long as she doesn't get herself killed."
"Yeah," fatigue settled back over Ruby's shoulders. She shrugged her cloak around herself a little better, sitting next to her partner in the dim light. She could see dark circles around the heiress's eyes, way worse than they'd been during the sled trek to get here. Odds were she hadn't been sleeping. In fact, she /definitely/ hadn't been sleeping if she and Uncle Qrow had been able to convince her to go back to the tents. Ruby shifted a little so her elbow brushed Weiss's. "It doesn't feel the same."
Weiss lowered the package of crackers, darting Ruby a look, "What are you talking about?"
"I mean, we saw Sun, right?" Ruby bit her lip as Weiss bristled. She shifted tack, "That time... with the Grimm rats, I mean. I don't know why my eyes look weird, but it doesn't feel like it did that time. And I woke up fine, right?"
The fencer didn't say anything for a few beats. Her gaze dropped to the food in her hands. "You want me to stop."
She meant 'stop aura healing', and Ruby's words caught in her throat for a second. She leaned a little more into Weiss's shoulder, "I was just thinking we should both rest. We'll kind of all be in big trouble if you get too tired. Remember last time?"
Weiss huffed, "That was a fluke."
Next time she wouldn't give those bats a chance to get so close. If there was a next time. (Hopefully there wouldn't be.)
Ruby let Weiss think it over for a minute. Probably she was weighing the benefits of sleep against the disaster the rest of them would probably get into if she was too tired to stop them. Ruby motioned to the crackers, "Do you want me to open that?"
"No," Weiss held them out of reach. "Honestly, I can open a cheap package of food."
She ended up using Myrtenaster's edge to get it started. They shared the crackers, eating in silence for a few minutes.
"We should rest," Weiss allowed at last.
"That sounds great," Ruby brushed crumbs from her shirt and wrestled her combat boots off. Without the imminent threat of Grimm, they could sleep in relative luxury, which meant having a tent and not wearing shoes inside the sleeping bag.
Weiss searched Ruby, as if looking for any sign that she might have poison in her system, before following suit. "Wake me up if anything happens, or if you start feeling strange."
"Will do," Ruby snuggled down, facing the entrance of the tent. Crescent Rose and her boots lined up next to her side of the sleeping bag and blankets.
"If you don't wake up in the morning, I'm going to kill you," Weiss lay facing the other way, her back to Ruby, "Just so you know."
"Okay," Ruby yawned, already half asleep, "Just shake me or something first before you do anything really stabby."
Weiss let the light fade from her sword and lay there a few moments, listening to Ruby's breath even out. Before long, she was sleeping just as soundly.
Blake barely got ten feet from the tent's opening before she stopped again. There was another package of crackers outside. It lay on the ground a few feet away in the direction of the main gates, aka the way Blake would have to go to go out hunting. It was the same brand- a weird sour cream and onion flavored vending machine snack.
Blake openly stared at the surprise snack, torn between confusion and paranoia. Those had not been there a few minutes earlier... but, it could just be that someone had dropped them while passing by. Possibly Nora or Fox... Still, something about the small pack of crackers was unsettling enough that Blake kept her eyes and ears on high alert as she continued on her way... Only to catch sight of another pack of crackers... and another... and yet another... A literal trail of them led off to the eastern edge of the coliseum wall, ending in a huge pile of scrap sitting just beside the entrance to the maintenance tunnels.
If Blake's paranoia had been a snarling Beowolf before, it was now a raging Goliath. Her rational side told her there was no one at this camp other than people she knew... and that one girl she hadn't met yet. But why would anyone leave a trail of crackers? Her paranoia screamed TRAP, but honestly it was probably just... a prank, or someone having fun... Not that anyone here seemed in high enough spirits for something like that...
Blake eyed the medical tent. Perhaps Robin was playing a game?... She took a small detour to check, finding both Yang and Robin out cold, just as she'd left them. Pyrrha and Ren were nowhere to be seen either. She could just leave the crackers... it was probably nothing... but on the off chance it was something...
Biting her lip, Blake gently shook Yang's shoulder.
"Mnh... h-wha... Blake?"
"Yang. I'm going to investigate a trail of crackers."
"...okay?"
"If I'm walking into a trap, avenge me."
"...'kay."
Blake could tell Yang was barely half-awake at best, but the sleepy smile and thumbs up from her partner was enough to sate her rampant paranoia. She clasped Yang's hand for a moment, giving it a light squeeze before turning and heading back out into the night.