Not much to say this time asides from, enjoy and feel free to leave me a review. I love to hear from readers.
I do not own RWBY, or World War One...
Winter Pov:
It had been a couple of days and Winter was really getting worried now, to the point of distraught and losing sleep. She and Weiss were searching whenever they could and had some of their officers on lookout for the girl, not explaining except to bring her to them unharmed. But as time stretched out she was really beginning to break down. Had Ruby escaped back to France? Had something happened to her? What if she had been hurt? The worrying got worse when Klaus, a friend of Ruby's, showed up saying that he had found her bag of personal items in one of the old combat trenches that had been abandoned as the line moved up. As much as Winter wanted to devote all of her time and resources to finding Ruby, she couldn't. The French and British had gotten a lot of reinforcements and had renewed their attacks with as much manpower and vigor as they could, leaving both Weiss and herself swamped as they tried to maintain their line while requesting reinforcements.
"HQ, please we must have reinforcements or I cannot guarantee that we will be able to hold the enemy off." Winter was getting frustrated at the lack of help from the higher ups and was on her third request of the day.
"Commander Schnee we are trying but a blizzard has held up the Austrian division that was deployed and no other forces are available that are near enough to assist. The Austrians said that if the blizzard blows over soon then they can be there in two to three days if not then it could take closer to a week, so you must hold the line until then." The radio operator sounded scared, but knew that she could only repeat her orders to the enraged commander and hope for the best.
"What about Ironwood and Winchesters divisions?! They are nearby and should be more than able to assist us." Winter was ready to reach through her radio and smack the operator on the other end, she knew the woman hadn't done anything wrong but she was just so tired, angry and worried.
"We sent notices to both divisions. Ironwood said he was busy already assisting another portion of the lines, and Winchester said that he was busy with training new troops and dealing with prisoners." This caused Winter a pause. she hadn't known Cardin for long but he didn't seem like the type to train or waste his time with prisoners except maybe to torture them. She knew her forces couldn't hold for an entire week without some reinforcements and resupply. They would run out of troops and ammo before then. She had no other choice but to go and drag Cardin and his troops down to the trenches herself.
"HQ, if I can convince Winchester to move up may I have permission to do so?" There is a long pause as the girl likely went to her superior, after a minute or two she comes back over the radio.
"You may miss. Good luck if you do." With that Winter left her command post ordering Pyrrha to hold the line no matter what, she would be back soon.
Weiss Pov:
"Winter where are we going?" Her sister had shown up and dragged her out to the rear and they had been riding for the last half hour and curiosity had finally overtaken Weiss. Had she figured something out about Ruby, but if that were the case she would have said something.
"I am taking matters into my own hands and we are dragging Cardin by his stuck up ass to the trenches to assist us in holding the line whether he likes it or not." Weiss was shocked, but she approved of the plan. As much as she disliked the snobby american turncoat, she knew they needed more troops and ammunition if they were to hold off the attacks until more troops can arrive. They rode in grim silence for the rest of their short journey. When they arrived at the camp, one of the guards was sleeping and the others were playing cards, but they snap to attention and knock their sleeping friend over. The girls ride past and straight into the camp. No one is training. They aren't even alert. Most of the troops are sleeping or chilling out.
The troops all begin scrambling to attention and getting in formation. Once they are in a semi acceptable formation, Winter and Weiss dismount and approach. Winter addresses the officer.
"Where is your captain? Where is Winchester?" The officer begins to sputter and panic before pointing off to the house at the center of the camp. It didn't shock Weiss that Cardin had claimed the nicest building as his own. "Weiss, keep an eye on these morons. And disarm the drunks before they shoot themselves."
"Will do Winter" She snaps a salute to her sister as Winter marches off to the house. She grabs the rifles from the drunker of the soldier, and took their ranks before stepping back to wait for her sister to come back most likely with Winchester in tow. She was annoyed by the lack of discipline, and the apparent lack of training going on. Some rather loud noises begin coming from the house then followed by some rather unflattering screams.
Winter Pov:
She stomps into the rather luxurious house, quickly grabs one of the troops inside, and gently convinced the man to tell where the commander currently was at. With her answer, she dropped the man onto his ass, marched up stairs, quickly finds the room where Cardin is napping with one of the local girls, grabs him by his family jewels, and hauls him out to the yard where the troops are waiting. The man screams and hollers the whole way, but Winter pays him no mind. She is tired, angry, and at her wits end. They reach the yard and she finally releases Cardin, who drops to the ground whimpering and curling into a ball as if to protect his manhood from further damage.
"So here we all are huh, my troops are fighting and dying on the frontlines, while you lot are supposedly training, but actually drinking, playing, and generally being a disgrace to the uniforms you wear. Cardin, do you care to explain to my sister and I why you and your troops refused to reinforce us because of training when clearly these men including yourself clearly lack any training or discipline?"
Some of the troops look scared, others concerned, and a few of the older veterans look disgusted with themselves and their company, but no one speaks up. The only sounds that can be heard are the distant sounds of fighting at the front, wind and the whimpers of their commander. A few minutes pass before Cardin regains some sense of pride he got up and mumbled something about training when Winter suddenly turned and pulled her pistol and aimed at the cowardly officer. "Winchester, I swear to all that is good in this world if you claim that you and your troops are training then I will make sure the next thing your troops are trained in is digging graves. Now you can make a choice either you and your troops will agree to move up and support the front, or I will personally see that every day you have left in Europe is a living hell for you, am I understood?" The man shakes his head quickly, not wanting to make the woman any angrier. A nervous sweat had broken out on his brow and Weiss and Winter both caught onto it very quickly, moving closer and eyeing him suspiciously.
"Mister Winchester, do you have something to say?" As he starts to open his mouth a loud commotion arose from one of the smaller buildings on the grounds, a dingy little structure that had probably been a storehouse or animal enclosure before where a pair of guards were seen heading in to investigate the noise.
"Of course, yes, I will definitely see to it that we will…" Cardin was sweating up a storm and speaking very loudly as if to keep the two girls eyes on him, but he had lost them as both were clearly more interested in the yelling and screams coming from the small building. Had they been looking at him, they would have seen the ever growing fear in his eyes as they took notice of the situation. Suddenly the door to the building burst open a body goes tumbling to the ground before scrambling to its feet and bolting as the two men inside open fire, both girls eyes widen as they recognize the red headed girl who was running for her life.
"RUBY!" The sisters scream in unison, the redhead looks towards them and a mix of happiness and relief fills her eyes. It drains into a pain and and fear as the guards shots find their mark. As Ruby falls to the ground, the two sisters break into a sprint. The ground around the girl is rosey with the fresh blood that spills from the two bullet wounds Weiss falls to her knees and grabs Ruby and holds her close crying out for the girl to wake up. Winter on the other hand whips around and pulls her pistol from its holster and aims at Cardin.
"WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS, WINCHESTER? WHY IS ONE OF MY SOLDIERS LYING HERE BLEEDING SHOT BY YOUR GUARDS? YOU HAVE SIXTY SECONDS TO EXPLAIN YOURSELF BEFORE YOU FIND YOURSELF IN A SIMILAR PLACE!" Winter is shaking with anger, barely able to keep the gun from rattling in her hands, Cardin's eyes are filled with terror as he scrambles behind one of his soldiers who begins to panic at being caught between two officers, one who looks like she is on the verge of slaughter. The man decides his life isn't worth dying over a coward, he steps aside for Winter who is now practically on top of them. Cardin turns and runs when a single shot is heard, the round passes so close to him it leaves a small cut on his left ear.
"P-p-p- PLEASE DON'T KILL ME WINTER!" He drops to the ground and curls up hoping to be spared.
"GIVE ME ONE REASON I SHOULDN'T END YOUR MISERABLE EXISTENCE, YOU WRETCH!" Winter levels her gun with him, when she hears someone behind her.
"Please Winter… don't… sink to his level for me…" Ruby can barely speak, she leans on Weiss for support. Blood soaks the rags she wears most of it from the places where she was shot, but Winter can see other signs of abuse. She can barely contain her rage but Ruby's voice drags her focus back to her "Please, Winter please… for me… do not kill him, let's…. let's just go home." Winter feels her anger drain out of her. She feels tired and distressed at Ruby's injuries.
Winter turns back to Cardin, holstering her gun and looking down at him with a glare more of pity than anger. "You are a disgrace. You betrayed your own country, and then couldn't even be loyal to those you turned too. You are a coward and a snake. I expect you and your troops to be at the front by sunrise tomorrow, or HQ will be hearing all about you torturing one of my troops and lying to them about what you were doing here. Am I understood?" Cardin had probably never agreed to something so quickly in his life.
Weiss Pov:
They finally arrived back at their trenches and rush Ruby to the medical trench to get her treated. The next day, Cardin and his forces arrive and reinforce the front, and eventually, the ententes attacks slow and grind to a halt. A week passes before Ruby wakes back up, yet another week until she is feeling well enough to get up and walk around. The medics are thrilled with her progress. The bullets had struck her in the stomach and shoulder, but at first they weren't sure if she would survive or if they would need to amputate her arm; however, she made a full recovery within a month, though scars remained. Not just those caused by the bullets, but some from the torture that Ruby still refused to speak of. Cardin was now at Winter's beck and call. He couldn't afford to act against her without threat of being turned into HQ. They would not react well to what he had done, so he meekly obeyed and kept quiet.