The next morning, descending down the mountain slope, the pair were actually in good spirits as they saw the Forever Fall forest on the edge of the horizon. It's iconic pink and purple tree leaves blended in with the horizon of the rising sun, and both Ruby and Mercury took heart knowing that they would hopefully be walking among those trees before the sun set. Walking forward, Ruby and Mercury were happily joking, the conversation flicking back and forth from topic to topic on a total whim. And while from a distance it may have seemed as though they were just lightheartedly commenting on the weather, if someone got close they would realize how tilted the conversation really was.

Stepping under a low hanging branch, not waiting for Ruby to catch up, Mercury continued to walk down hill while calling back. "So all I'm saying is… If you have to make the choice, a brick is definitely the best random object to bash someone over the head with."

Ruby pinched her nose, already feeling as though she had won the argument earlier, and replied: "No, dumbass. I told you already, a bottle is always the best weapon to use if you're smashing someone's skull in."

"Hmph! Not a chance!" Mercury was scrounging through his pack, which he had swung over his shoulder and onto his stomach, and joked: "also, nine times out of ten a bottle breaks before it kills the dude. When have you ever broken a brick while mashing somebody's face in?"

Replying slyly, winking at Mercury mischievously out of the side of her eye, Ruby quipped: "Nine times out of ten I've found a bottle to work just fine. See, we can both make up stupid data... Seriously, what's with you and bricks."

Sighing with happiness, finally finding what he had been searching for, Mercury plucked a pair of cracked half-moon glasses out of the bottom of his bag. Using his sleeve to polish the glass, the silver-haired villain muttered absentmindedly to himself. "I just find it kind of funny to be honest. Have you ever seen the look on somebody's face when you throw a brick at them?"

"Nope. I don't throw things, it never ends well. If you miss, you're now left weaponless with an even more pissed off opponent than before."

Mercury smiled down at the brunette walking next to him and said: "I guess, but it's priceless Ruby. It's like the entire apocalypse is put on hold for a second, and I'm sure the only thing the other person can think is 'did you seriously just throw a brick at me?' The face they make just cracks me up every time."

Ruby rolled her eyes, taking off ahead of Mercury while calling back. "your sense of humor sucks!"

Putting a skip in his step to catch up, Mercury called after the hooded figure in front of him, yelling: "that means absolutely nothing from you Red!"

Making their way down the slope of the mountain, where they were almost down at sea level again, had been much easier than working their way up and over the mountain. Unfortunately for Ruby, somebody thought it was so easy that he thought he could multitask. And he refused to believe that he couldn't, even if the day's events said otherwise.

"Mercury, please stop reading your book until we get to a place to stop. I really don't mind taking a break if you want to read for an hour," Ruby whined, getting real tired of watching and hearing Mercury walk into trees. He made the dumbest huff noise every time he ran into an outreaching branch, as if all the air slowly wheezed out of him.

Peering over the cover of his book while continuing to maintain a steady pace, giving Ruby a glare, he snapped back. "I've been dying to get out of these mountains, and I want that to happen today. Also, you should read more." Looking back down at the book, flicking over the page with a thumb, Mercury mumbled: "seriously, since the world ended how many books have you read? I've got a few in my bag that I could loan to you; keep you from becoming illiterate…"

Ruby sighed while lying. "Plenty. But that's not the issue I'm having here. What does bother me is you constantly running into tree's because you're not watching where you're going. I'm getting tired of hearing you groan every few minutes as you smack headfirst into every other tree."

"I'm fine! Besides, this is a good book, and I'm at the best part!"

Ruby just pinched the bridge of her nose, already feeling a headache coming on from bickering with Mercury. Taking off ahead of the silver-haired man, she called back to him, saying: "Whatever! Do what you want!"

Ruby was only forced to sigh as she suddenly heard a grunt behind her as Mercury slammed head first into the umpteenth tree, one that the brunette had easily weaved around.

Turning away from Mercury, Ruby flexed her fingers, feeling as though something was amiss. Looking at her long slender fingers, left open to the air in her fingerless gloves, Ruby started squeezing and massaging each fingertip. Rubbing her palms together while she walked through the frigid air, Ruby mumbled to herself out loud. "That is really weird…"

"What is Red?" Looking over at Ruby, Mercury raised an eyebrow at the brunette when he saw Ruby holding both of her palms against her cheeks. "Um… yeah, I thought I could come up with an interesting way of asking, but I just can't. So I'm just going to ask point-blank... the hell are you up to?"

"You haven't been around that long, but my hands used to get super cold. Too cold, they used to hurt all season long while I was in the snow. Now…well, they feel fine." Ruby stuck her hands out in front of her, flexing them multiple times before muttering: "it's not as cold as it was a week ago, but I should still be getting pins and needles…"

"Ah, yeah, that." Mercury looked over the book he was reading while walking along, and his coal black eyes flashed while he quipped lightly: "I fixed that when I was working on you."

Ruby's head snapped around, and standing frozen mid stride in the frigid air she stared at Mercury with wide eyes. After a second of silence, where Mercury continued to walk as though he hadn't noticed Ruby stop, she suddenly snap at the happy go luck guy in front of her. "The fuck does that mean?"

Mercury closed the book he was reading, The Third Crusade, and replied as though he was commenting on the weather. "You had a real shitty heart, probably would have keeled over because of a heart attack sooner or later. I may have done a bit of work to fix that… along with the bullet holes."

"Wait, what!? So I was just going to drop dead at some point just because of bad luck?" Ruby, while finding the idea somewhat grim, also saw some irony in the statement as well. It was cryptic, but the idea of struggling on for years only to keel over clutching her chest was a little funny to the brunette.

"Not bad luck, you did that to yourself." Mercury opened his book again, thumbing across a few pages while trying to find his place. Once he found his place he read the first three words on the page before the book was snatched away by Ruby.

"Stop doing that!"

Flabbergasted, Mercury replied back: "what?! Reading?! If you've seriously got a problem with me reading, you're going to hell for being an uncultured hillside prick!" He reached for the book, although Ruby immediately pulled it away and held it over her shoulder away from him.

"I don't give a shit about your reading! I'm just sick of you dropping these little tidbits of information here and there, and then walking ahead nonchalantly as though what you're saying means nothing!" Ruby brought the book forward and quickly smacked Mercury on top of the head. Brandishing the book as though she was getting ready to hit him again, Ruby growled: "I want to know everything you have found out about… well, about anything you would think I would even remotely be interested in hearing!"

"Come on Red, I just got to the best part!"

"And I guess you'll get to read 'the best part' when tell me what the hell you meant by that!"

Sighing heavily, Mercury groaned "...meant by what exactly?"

"That heart comment you made! I am in top physical health, in peak…ish condition!"

"My god you're dense…," Mercury groaned, rubbing the top of his head where he was beginning to feel a welt form. "What causes people to have heart attacks Red?"

"Gah, I don't know…. french fries, bacon, fried pancakes… Well, anything from Atlas really…. Anyway, unless I've been eating like a pig unconsciously, I don't see how I'd be having any health issues!"

"None?"

Ruby replied back confidently. "Not a one!"

Running a hand through his hair slyly, Mercury smiled down at Ruby as though he was sharing a lighthearted joke with her. "I can think of a few things…"

"Like?"

Mercury put his hand in front of Ruby's face, holding up two fingers. Wiggling the two digits in front of her face, he said: "one would be severe stress, and the other would be chronic lack of sleep. Mix those two with not eating well, which I can understand can't be helped, and I see a very unhealthy lifestyle forming."

The brunette stared up at Mercury, whose mouth twitched at the corners. He had Ruby backed into a corner. Realizing that Mercury could be right, Ruby started stuttering while trying to think up excuses. "But… I… Well, it's not that I haven't-"

"Spare me the sob stories Ruby. You know, we weren't designed to sleep seven hours a night for fun; we do that because we need to. Maybe you could get away with it back when you were sitting on the couch at Beacon ten years ago, but not anymore." Looking down at Ruby, in a tone that somehow straddled the line between threatening and concerned, Mercury growled: "you don't have to listen to me, but it would be a shame to see you slumped over dead just because you like staying up late and fretting over every little thing."

"Every little thing?! Wha-, Mercury, we close our eyes for twenty minutes and we risk getting eaten! You can't tell me that everybody else isn't as high-strung as I am!"

Mercury sighed heavily, and snapped back at the redhead. "Well I guess we're all made of stronger stuff than you! Also, I'd disagree with that last statement! I like to think that I'm a pretty laid back guy!" Seeing Ruby's upper lip curl into a sneer, Mercury cut off the redhead one last time. "You need to learn to let go before your heart literally gives up on living. It's going to pop like a ballon if you keep this up…"

Ruby didn't know how to respond to that, so she just decided she wouldn't. Turning on her heel, she began to stalk away from her traveling companion. A half second after she started walking away, she heard the sound of someone clearing their voice behind her. Looking back, she saw Mercury hold out a hand and curl back his fingers a few times, raising an eyebrow and saying: "I'd really like my book back now please."

Ruby's eye twitched for a second, as though she was on the verge of a mental breakdown. The smug know it all look on Mercury's face was the worst part though. Ruby took a step towards Mercury, already knowing that she wasn't just going to hand it back. Ruby, playing a little bit dirty, smacked Mercury on the top of the head with the spine of his book, the quick blow knocking him to the ground. Seeing Mercury flop on his back, she turned away, tossing the book over her shoulder and hearing a solid thunk of what was probably the book connecting with Mercury's head a quarter of a second later. Walking off, calling over her shoulder, Ruby growled angrily, "I am not stressed! And you can take your no good Dr. Fix It attitude and find somebody who actually wants to listen to your lectures!"

Instead of hearing an angry growl curse at her, she heard a laughing voice call after her, saying: "Doctor Fix It thinks you've got some wire crossed in your head! If you were thinking clearly you would be able to see that brick is the way to go!" Ruby could only groan as a response as she slowed down. She was still walking away from Mercury, but Ruby was now walking slow enough that he'd catch up sooner rather than later.

"So, I've been meaning to ask you something…" Mercury muttered absentmindedly, massaging his neck while walking along side Ruby. He still had a red mark across his face from where the book had landed, and Ruby wasn't sure if it was her imagination, or if he actually had the word 'Crusade' stamped backwards across his forehead. Mercury had at least put the book back in his pack, although the silver-haired man had only done that when Ruby threatened him with another head wound if he didn't put it away.

"Oh my god, drop it with the bricks already. I honestly don't care; if its life or death and I have to kill somebody I'm using whatever's nearby, even if it's a freaking potted plant."

Shifting uncomfortably, slowing down slightly, Mercury mumbled: "It isn't."

"Uhhhhhhhhhhh… what is it?"

Mercury sighed, and then went: "nah… never mind."

Ruby's eyes flashed, and after a moment where she stared up at Mercury, silently fuming, she spat angrily: "Fucking ask! You've already pissed me off with the whole 'you lead an unhealthy lifestyle, you need to sleep, and do yoga, and deep breathing exercises, and skip off into the sunset while singing Kumbaya and Hakuna Matata' bullshit. I can't see you doing any more damage."

"You obviously don't have that great of an imagination…" Mercury started joking, although he trailed off when he saw the furious look on Ruby's face. Sighing heavily, Mercury groaned while muttering: "just don't bite my head off, okay."

"I reserve the right to do so if I decide you're being a moron," Ruby answered back with a raised eyebrow. Ruby started wondering to herself in her head, 'What's with you beating around the bush?'

Scratching his head, Mercury thought to himself for a second before sighing. "That's probably the best deal I'm going to get." Mercury scrunched up his face, bouncing up and down on the soles of his feet while thinking of how to ask the question he had been chewing on in the back of his mind since he had pick up and pieced back together the near death Ruby. Finally Mercury began, first asking: "You remember Emerald right?"

"Okay Mercury, I may be forgetful, but I'm not going to forget an arch nemesis!" The corners of Ruby's mouth twitched, and she added mockingly: "That's what makes you so memorable."

"Okay, alright! Just making sure!" Making placating gestures with his hands, Mercury went on. "That's where all this stuff starts. So, anyway, she had this thing," and suddenly Mercury cut himself off, looking uncomfortable for a second. "She called it this, not me by the way…"

"Oh my god, spit it out Mercury!"

"Alright, alright! Anyway, she had this sorta sense, she called it the… uh… well, she called it the Gay-dar."

Ruby's face scrunched up, taken off guard. "That's… mildly offensive…"

"Her not me! Anyway, this thing was on point man! Never wrong, like ever!" Mercury paused for a second, seeing he was drifting into creepy territory from the look on Ruby's face. "So she told me about you on the night of the dance, back when you were still a first year at Beacon, kept me from hitting on you. She laughed when I said I was going to take a shot… said she was getting red-hot signals from both you, your partner, and like half the room."

"First off… okay." Taking an involuntary step back, more uncomfortable than anything else, Ruby asked: "but…uh… what are you getting at Mercury? This is getting a little weird. Am I supposed to be flattered or something? Because I hate to tell you this, but it's not working."

"No, um…damn, how do I… Hell with it, I'll just get to the chase. When I found you I was following behind those bandits who were following you and Weiss."

"Yes…" Ruby responded, bobbing her head wearily, wondering where the hell he was going with this. Ruby was starting to get slight flashbacks of when she wanted to leave Mercury behind, even if she knew she wasn't going to act upon them this time. As bad as he could be at times, she had really warmed up to Mercury. But he was still being a creep, and Ruby honestly didn't know what he was getting on about.

"I heard… well, I heard that argument between you and Weiss… Pretty hard core shouting match…" Mercury rocked back and forth for a second, hands in his pockets while he waited for Ruby to comment. When she didn't, Mercury cut to the chase and just went forward with his question. "What exactly happened between the two of you for you guys to end up in an all out shouting match like that?"

Ruby just shrugged her shoulders, and replied back bluntly, surprised at how hard it had been for Mercury to ask that. "Uh, it was just difference of opinion I guess. I don't know, Weiss and I argue a lot now a days… Why do you care?"

Mercury rubbed his neck uncomfortably, trying to think of a way to just ask what had been chewing at him over the past few days. "I was just wondering… whether you guys were partners, or were you still… uh, partners-partners…"

Ruby froze mid step, suddenly catching on to what Mercury had been beating around the bush with. "Oh! ...ah, we are just… just partners." Mercury raised his eyebrows at the brunettes tone; he had never heard Ruby sound crestfallen before. It didn't fit her.

"Seriously?" Mercury's brow furrowed, remembering back to before the world ended. "Because, I distinctly remember the gossip around Vale, maybe a year or two before everything went to shit."

Sighing lightly, Ruby asked. "Mercury, could we not. I would rather...," but she trailed off when she saw that Mercury had no intention of stopping. Bitterly the redhead thought 'so were gonna fucking do this? Great…'

"I distinctly remember there being a prodigy student with no real connections, well, other than a decently respected uncle and a quirky stepfather, graduating at the top of her class two years ahead of the normal pace, set up to one day be one of the best huntresses ever trained inside of the organization. Everyone thought she'd probably end up taking Ozpin's place as head of the hunter association in ten to fifteen years, once she'd actually received the experience and… it sounds corny, but the wisdom from simply spending time in the field." Pausing for a few seconds for dramatic effect, the Mercury continued on with his story, trying not to make eye contact with Ruby. He was pretty sure she would try to stop him if she could.

"And after that part blew over, the entire city started gossiping on how this prodigy had hooked up with her partner, who by sheer coincidence happened to be the heiress to Schnee Dust, one of the most profitable and influential companies in the world." Mercury glanced down for a quarter of a second at Ruby, to see if she was still paying attention. He honestly couldn't tell; the brunette had suddenly acquired a thousand yard stare, and was looking out over the horizon wistfully.

"Apparently they had been trying to keep it quiet for a while, and had actually been successful for over two years. But then a certain loud mouthed monkey blabs to the wrong person when he gets drunk, and then the Schnee in question is dragged in front of her parents. They start asking… well, begging really, for her to say it wasn't true."

She still didn't acknowledge him. Ruby didn't respond to anything he had said, although she did breathe in and out deeply, as if she was trying to clear her head. Mercury took that as a sign to keep going, although really he wasn't entirely positive he should. He wasn't sure if there was a line to be crossed, and if there even was one, where it would be.

"But when she said it was true, and that she was actually, finally happy... well, they weren't good parents, because they really tried their damnedest to kill that happiness. I remember her being disowned, losing every dime and possession she owned. Well, it was quite scandalous really. It was big news in all the papers; her parents actually tried to force her to change her name, along with taking every title and birthright she'd ever possessed away." Again, Mercury looked down at Ruby, to see if she had reacted at all. Still nothing, although now it seemed as though something was paining the redhead.

"And the heiress was left with nothing but her school supplies and her crappy dorm room, after her family disowns her because of her life choices, and how she couldn't leave the family an heir as… well, as a lesbian with a lesbian partner, especially a partner who came from nothing. It didn't matter that the girl was going places, only that she hadn't come from the richy riches... well, that and..." Mercury suddenly trailed off while scratching his head, losing his train of thought for a second on a vulgar thought.

Remembering where he left off, he continued on. "Anyway, sure, if you read her quotes in the paper as if a robot said them it would seem as though Miss Princess was sad enough. But really, anyone with a brain could tell that she was really happy, underneath all the legal disputes and fancy lawyer talk."

Mercury let the last bit, the one part he knew would either get under Ruby's skin or be deflected by the brunette's heart, fall off his tongue sadly. "I know they got engaged, and were planning on getting married in the spring, if they hadn't been shipped out to Atlas to deal with the beginning of the end."

For the first time, Ruby actually responded to Mercury. "Yes Mercury. Yes, yes, fucking yes. I think you remembered all that just perfectly. So thank you so much for that trip down memory lane, but what does that have to do with anything?"

"I just want to know what happened? I hated your guts back then, but even I could see you two were happy. How did that change?"

"How the hell do you think it changed?" Bitterly Ruby snapped: "The world fell to pieces. That has to change things."

"But how did it make you two of all things go wrong? I wouldn't have bet on it, if I had been given the chance. I never would have."

"Tch! Do you seriously think I'm the same silly girl I was when I got out of Beacon? Do you think Weiss is the same either? Is anyone the same?" Ruby looked Mercury in the eyes, and he could easily see his reflection in the brunettes cold and lifeless ones. Ruby mumbled sadly: "you're definitely not the same. No one is. The world ending changed us all. I'd say we were all scarred when we changed."

"But how could you go from being madly in love to what I saw in front of Black Fall a week ago?"

Standing completely still in the quiet forest, which seemed to be hold its breath while waiting for an answer too, Ruby stared at the ground between her feet. The wind's howling had died down, and it was so quiet that the two couldn't even hear the sounds of sounds of the swaying branches that masked each other's breathing. She swayed back and forth for a few seconds, as though Ruby was unsure of how she would answer. But in the end Ruby just mumbled sadly into the scarf wrapped around her neck. "I'd rather not talk about it…"

Mercury reached out, grabbing Ruby on the shoulder as she tried to walk away again. The second his hand landed on her shoulder, the brunette jerked away. Ruby tried walking away again, shoving her hands into her pockets while she did so, as if she was washing her hands of this whole mess. But Mercury, knowing better than to reach for her again, weaved in front of Ruby and blocked her path. Standing directly in front of her, Mercury just said: "I want to know."

Ruby glared up at Mercury, flinging hateful thoughts at the silver-haired menace. But unable to pick one idea to stab at Mercury with, as there were so many hateful things whirling around in Ruby's head, she ended up just grumbling:"I do not want to talk about it."

Ruby tried to step around him, but when she tried to walk around Mercury to his right, he blocked her path again. "I want to know Red. I know literally nothing about you other than your depressing and cryptic, and I would say this seems damn well important enough for me to burn a few bridges on."

Ruby snapped angrily, finally breaking her cold facade. "And why do you want to know, hm? Just for some shitty piece of trivia, some little fast fact about one of your new patients!?"

Mercury answered her in a level voice. "I want to know how you could change so much."

"Tch! You seriously think there is some grandiose reason!"

Mercury answered her sadly, saying "I know there must be."

Whirling around on her heel, turning away for a second, only to turn back a second later and shove a finger in Mercury's face, Ruby started shouting. "You don't get to judge me! I know I've made mistakes, but they are mistakes that I at least made on my own!"

"What kinds of mistakes?"

Ruby knew she didn't want to tell him. She knew she wanted to keep on burying her mistakes deeper and deeper, until eventually she wouldn't be able to go back and get them… but she also wanted someone to know too. Not because he would understand, but because he would judge her for what she had done. In her core, so basic to the point of where she couldn't even know it herself, Ruby did want someone to judge her for all she had done over the last five years. She wanted someone to agree about all the things she thought she had become, to point out and confirm all the faults she already blamed herself for.

Ruby's voice came out thick, as if she was choking back emotions, and she started with a simple statement. Easy enough to get out.

"I've made my own mistakes! B-but they weren't my fault!" That last part sounded like a lie even to Ruby.

Stumbling over her words, trying to get them out quickly, Ruby shuddered to herself while huffing everything out. The way she was talking, it was as if Ruby thought she'd run out of time and be forced to keep the rest of this to herself. "I thought, after Yang died, that I had to make the choice to either keep Weiss happy, or keep Weiss alive. I was stupid back then… I still hoped that one day all of this would blow over, sort itself out!" Mimicking her own voice, coming out as a mocking, high-pitched ditzy idiot, Ruby mocked: "I thought to myself, 'I'll keep her alive, no matter the damage I do. I can fix it later. No matter the cost'."

Ruby then spat her next line bitterly. "The cost was how Weiss thought of me, how she loved me. I used her, my Weiss, to let myself justify becoming a monster. I thought it was… I don't know… easier to live as a heartless killer than as somebody who could both love and protect their loved ones." Ruby sniffed, and in a choked voice added at the end: "I knew that Weiss didn't love me the way we did before the world ended. But I thought we could eventually learn to love each other again in a different way. It took me four years to realize that Weiss doesn't just not love me anymore… she fucking hates me now. Because I'm the perfect example of everything that's wrong with the world."

Mercury stood there, stunned in silence. He didn't think the brunette would have opened up to him on that level. And he had absolutely no clue on what to say to something like that. "Maybe… are you sure she-"

"I read her diary pages. Just the ones I found were mean enough." Ruby laughed a cracked, hollow laugh, and added an out of place joke. "Well, they were brutally honest. I guess people don't say 'the truth hurts' for nothing. It's my fault for peeking where I knew there'd be trouble."

"Ruby, maybe she doesn't..." Mercury trailed off when he saw the crestfallen look on Ruby's face.

"She does, and she always will Mercury. I did things that I wouldn't forgive myself for if I was in her shoes. It doesn't matter that I did those things for her... If anything, for Weiss that made them worse. All that matters to her is that I did them." Ruby mashed her lips together, and they became a razor thin line as she looked over Mercury's shoulder at the sky. "We need to get moving if we want to make it to the bottom of the mountain before night falls."

And before Mercury could say anything else, she turned away from him and back to their original path. She walked off, already knowing that nothing had changed by this. Getting her dirty laundry out in the open didn't make her feel any better. It only made her far more sad. Because while Mercury did ask if Weiss could have forgive her, he didn't say that what Ruby had done wasn't wrong. He never came close to saying anything like that.

Walking along in silence, Ruby trudged along in front while Mercury tailed behind her. The sun was about to disappear behind the peak behind them, and it was as if the ball of fire knew that it had little time to act. Before it was lost for the rest of the day, the sun had really started to beat down on the backs of their necks, as if to remind them of it's season long absence. Both Ruby and Mercury were happy for the heat. It was a welcome change from the normal constant blistering cold winds. And as they walked down the slope, Ruby knew they both noticed when the incline they were walking along plateaued out. A small smile broke out along Ruby's face, and she thought grimly 'well, were out of the mountains at least'.

"So, now that were home free, what's next?" Mercury looked at Ruby out of the side of his eye, wondering if she would ever give over to waterworks. She had laid out some pretty heavy stuff, and he couldn't understand how she could look just fine while they were walking along. Saying that the love of her life had come to hate her would usually leave most people to at least need to wipe their eyes with a tissue. But after a few seconds where her eyes got no wetter than being misty, Ruby had just shook her head and walked on.

Ruby stopped for a second, and looking right and left, she saw the opening to a tunnel off to their right. Ruby cocked a thumb over at the cave, and without waiting for Mercury to stop she walked off towards the entrance. Passing into the shadow of the cave, where the ground was clean and hard, Ruby sat down against the tunnel wall and leaned her head back. Looking up, she guessed that the ceiling was around fifteen feet above them, and the other wall twenty feet away. And looking to her left, back into the depths of the tunnel, the area turned too black for her to be able to see what was hidden.

Standing in the center of the tunnel, not looking to sit down, Mercury muttered: "So what, you're taking now to call it a day?"

"Nope, but I just wanted to take a quick break. We've got a few hours before the sun goes down, so I figured we might as well rest here where it's nice before we set off one last time."

Raising an eyebrow at the woman sitting down against the granite wall, he asked: "you're up for taking breaks? I thought you would be nearly sprinting for... where ever we're going." Smirking slightly, Mercury added offhandedly: "which you have left me totally in the dark on. Care to let me in on your grand plan?"

"Hmmmmm... Well..." Ruby began, running a hand through her hair while she thought. "I'd say we're going to make a B-line for Beacon from here. Closest city, and if there is any place to start looking, that would be it."

"Alright. I'm good with that." Mercury looked up at the ceiling for a moment, and he tried to jump and skim his fingers off the cave's roof. He failed miserably, and after a second and third try he sourly asked: "you heard anything recent about Beacon? Because I haven't."

"Yeah, apparently it's functioning pretty similar to Caric. If you were rich enough to afford a boat ride, or lucky enough to get on a ship unnoticed, you could make the trip from Caric to Beacon in a few days. Apparently Beacon is still under martial law, although I don't know much past that. I guess we'll find out when we..." Ruby trailed off, the rest of her sentence still hanging on her tongue. Both she and Mercury looked off to her left, into the inky darkness of the cave, as an odd rumbling noise reverberated off the walls. "Do you hear-"

Ruby would have kept talking, but suddenly a figure shot out of the darkness, flying towards them at break neck speeds. She was visible for a quarter of a second before the pure white figure smashed into Mercury, who had been so caught off guard that he didn't even try to step out of her way. There was an audible thud as the two collided, and it was amazing that they didn't both go flying to the floor. Instead they just glance off of each other, and the smaller girl skittered towards Ruby for a second as she was knocked off-balance.

Ruby was on her feet in a flash, because in that quarter of a second, barely any time at all, she saw the face of the person who had slammed into Mercury. But Ruby didn't need to see her face. She didn't need to see the person's snow-white gear. Really it could only be one person.

It could only be Weiss.

Weiss didn't see Ruby getting off the floor, and she didn't register who Mercury was. After a quarter second where she almost fell on her face, her legs found their rhythm again, and before anything had changed she was already past the redhead at her original speed. She kept running, and calling back over her shoulder to Mercury, still unaware of Ruby, she screamed "Run!"

Ruby was already chasing after Weiss, already gaining on the shorter woman. She hadn't even registered what Weiss had said, but with Weiss running away, Ruby would follow. She'd abandon Mercury without a second thought if it meant keeping up with Weiss.

Mercury wasn't as quick thinking though. It had probably been less than two seconds, but as he stumbled around while regaining his balance, he suddenly saw a rustling of inky blackness at the back of the tunnel. His instincts told him to run, but his brain told him it was foolish. They had been gone for so long, one couldn't pop up in the most grand of circumstances. It wasn't until he suddenly heard a blood curdling howl that he realized his error.

A moment later the Beowolf was upon him.

Yay, Weiss is back! I hope you'll all be excited for what's to come, I've got a lot planned in the coming weeks! I'm really looking forward to it.

(Fucking hell, it's here too... Uh, maybe I was starting to feel a bit too positive. I thought all those errors had been long behind me. Now, not so much... But hey, this is the last one, and the next few chapters are really where I start getting better)