If Mercury hadn't been hardwired from years of training to deal with the monster he was suddenly facing against, he would have died the second the Beowolf was upon him. But his instincts took over where his mind stood frozen, and as a giant clawed hand ripped through the air in front of him, his legs moved on their own and shoved him back. His brain caught up a second later, and with a wry smile he looked at the challenge in front of him.

He was a huntsman, and sizing up the snarling black mass of fur in front of him, he didn't turn and run after the two women, although that would have been the smart approach. This was what he had trained his entire life for. It didn't matter that he had taken a near decade long break. He knew what to do, it was as if he was just breathing. He didn't feel brave as he walked forward, and as cold terror ran rampantly throughout his veins, a small part of him screamed at his legs to turn and bolt. But instead of running, Mercury stepped forward, already bouncing on his feet in anticipation of clashing against this monster. Let's see what you've got, you snarling chunk of smoke…

Most people think that a fight is long and draw out. They've seen too many action movies, thinking that the two combatants would square off against each other while throwing back and forth a few sneers, a couple of witty remarks, and after a tense few second silence they would brawl. But that's not how a real fight works. Especially when it's a clash between two fighters that are both looking for an easy kill.

Almost too fast to follow, the grimm lashed out with a giant clawed hand and ripping through the space that Mercury's head had been in less than a second before. Barely stepping out of range, feeling some of the fur on the beowolf's knuckles dust across his face, Mercury lunged forward and kicked at the beast's head with a steel toed boot. The blow barely connected, although it was more than enough to stun the beast. Mercury brought his foot back around, already aiming to deal a finishing blow.

But he hesitated for a second too long while lining up his shot, and before he could send a bullet through the beowolf's skull, a giant black paw wrapped around his leg. Suddenly yanked into the air, Mercury made eye contact with the beowolf for a second when he heard a resonating 'CRUNCH' come from his lower leg.

Before he had any time to feel the pain of his lower leg getting shattered, Mercury swung his other foot up and shifted his ankle, the trigger for his pistol spurs, aiming wildly. He couldn't even see where he fired, but after the loud gunshot that made his ears begin to ring Mercury felt the grip around his leg go slack. He fell to the cave floor before the echoing stopped bouncing back and forth off the cave walls.

Mercury dropped to the floor, landing painfully on his head and flopping onto his back, all the air forced out of his lungs. He lay there for a second, stunned by the sudden blow to his head, before he flared back to life.

"Dust!" Scrambling against the cave floor, Mercury shoved himself back as far as he could, until he felt his back press against a hard, smooth surface. Finally looking up, expecting to see some claws flying down at him to end his life, Mercury saw nothing. In a heap in front of him, falling gracelessly on the floor, Mercury saw the beowolf fall first to its knees, and from there onto it's face. Looking at Mercury, the beowolfs face had one destroyed eye, a crater where the orb should have been boring a hole straight through it's black brain, all the way through the head and out the base of it's skull.

"…I fucking did it…" A half second later, the realization kicked in. "I FUCKING DID IT! Fuck you, you piece of shit mongrel! You don't have anything on me! I'm not dying ye- ow!" When Mercury overextended himself, trying to raise himself off the ground to celebrate, he suddenly felt a pang of pain from his leg. Although it was less of a pang, and more of a gut wrenching, blood curdling scream of agony from his nerves.

Grimacing, Mercury ran both his hands up and down the fractured limb. Damn, it's shattered in almost six different places. He knew he had to fix his leg quickly, before he bled out internally. His aura, although it was weak after all this time, allowed him to feel around inside his leg and see what damage he had sustained. He could feel his blood beginning to pool in the ripped muscles surrounding the wound.

Muttering to himself angrily as he worked, Mercury blasted his leg with a few jolts of his silver aura. "I'm not an infinite source of healing, one day I'm going to run out… I'll probably find out while I'm in the middle of fixing something and be screwed." Shuddering as he felt his own life force slip out of his fingers and into his leg, Mercury groaned as he felt the bones shift back into place. "That always hurts like a bitch…"

Mercury didn't heal his leg completely. He didn't need to. Once his leg was good enough to walk on, albeit gingerly at best, he stopped and quickly cut off his aura, feeling the left over energy in his fingers flow back up his arms and seep into his torso from there. "I really need to save what's left…" Getting up slowly, leaning against the wall so that he wasn't putting weight on his leg, Mercury looked out to the entrance of the cave. Sighing heavily, Mercury sauntered forward, wincing every time his newly healed leg supported his weight. "Let's go find those two bitches…"

Meanwhile, almost a mile off in the distance, an exhausted woman was flying through the forest as fast as she could get her legs to move her. Weaving around tree trunks and bobbing under low hanging branches, Weiss ran as though her life depended on it. The blonde thought it still did.

"Weiss!"

Running at a break neck speed with the winds whipping by loudly in her ears, the blonde barely registered the sounds of shouting as someone called after her.

"Hey! Slow down!"

Weaving between the trees, clutching at her aching side as she ran while fighting off a stitch, Weiss began to wonder who was calling after her. She knew who the voice sounded like, but Weiss couldn't believe her ears. She'd already decided there were some people who she'd just never see again. But Weiss had to know, so instead of continuing to run away from the danger the blonde decided to be stupid, and turned around to look back.

For a couple of seconds, as Weiss looked back, all she saw were black bark covered tree trunks and old withered roots crisscrossing the ground. The air wasn't nearly as biting as it had been the last time she had been above ground, although the air was still cold, and it burned her lungs as she huffed in the air. Weiss felt as though she was barely getting anything out of the air as she felt her chest heave up and down. Although she was still in the shadow of the mountain, the surrounding forest was decently lit. It would have been much prettier in a gloom, all the light did was show how broken and dead the ground was, equally mixed with patches of dead grass, dirt, and snaking lines of dull brown roots.

When she looked behind her for that brief moment and saw nothing, Weiss assumed she must have been hearing things. With how loud her heart was pounding in her ears, Weiss was pretty sure she wasn't at top mental capacity anyway. I'm probably hearing things. I mean... uh, holy hell, I feel as though I'm going to pass out... wait, why am I even standing here, I should get as far away from this place as I can!

As Weiss began turning away, already getting ready to start her sprint again, she saw out of the corner of her eye someone whip out from behind a tree trunk just a little off the path she had taken through the woods. Weiss reacted on instinct, trying to jump out of the way. But instead Weiss accidentally leapt into the runner's path, and felt the person slam into her entire body and knock the heiress to the ground. Landing in a jumble of limbs on the ground, Weiss ended up with her back on the forest floor while looking up. Feeling her back press against the webbing of roots and grass tufts underneath her, which was somewhat uncomfortable, Weiss tried looking up and seeing who was on top of her. When she did Weiss found herself gazing up into a pair of both animated yet dull grey eyes.

Stunned, Weiss began to stutter, "Ru-," but was quickly jerked off the ground by the woman on top of her.

"No time!" Ruby, who had already scrambled back to her feet from their tumble, grabbed the heiress by her elbows and quickly wrenched Weiss up, lifting the smaller woman off the ground entirely for a split second. Letting the blonde go so that she landed on her feet, Ruby grabbed Weiss's wrist and started towing the smaller girl behind her, now running ahead of her partner. "What are we running from?!"

After getting the wind knocked out of her from falling, along with just being generally exhausted from running at a full sprint for far longer than she thought she could, Weiss could only get out broken phrases in between the huffs and pants for air she was making. "We… ru… grimm, going to… gah!" Weiss tripped over her own feet, and was dragged a half-dozen feet by Ruby for a couple of seconds. Weiss hissed as she felt the skin on her knees get torn up by exposed roots and rocks that laced the forest floor.

"Sorry!" Ruby yanked on Weiss's arm, yanking even harder on the blonde's arm, pulling the heiress back to her feet without stopping. In her mind, keeping the idle statement to herself, Ruby couldn't help but think: 'Are you this seriously this exhausted? How long were you running for?!'

Ruby ended up half-leading-half-dragging the girl behind her along for the next dozen or so seconds as they ran, the redhead being both taller and still at her full stamina. The blonde's legs more than anything just swung along underneath her, to keep herself from falling forward and ramming into the ground face first. But when Weiss stumbled again, ripping up the skin on her knees even more than she already had, Ruby realized that Weiss wasn't going to be able to keep up this pace for much longer.

Without warning her, Ruby suddenly jerked Weiss to their right, behind a fallen tree trunk that easily blocked them from view. Land hastily in the dirt, Ruby and Weiss ended up sitting side by side in the shadow of the fallen tree. Torso thick branches that could have been tree trunks themselves stuck out around the two, and it looked as though the dead tree limbs were forming a cage around them. The tree had probably fallen recently; the surrounding ground looked as though it had been recently torn up by the falling tree, whose branches had scrapped across the ground as it fell over. The earth they were sitting on gave off the strong husky, woodsy smell of dried mud and snapped twigs.

Looking over the top of their wooden barrier, Ruby saw nothing as she peered out over the forest behind them. Scouring the area they had just ran through for trouble… she really saw nothing. Ignoring the rapid panting noises coming from her right, Ruby didn't even see any signs of life in the forest. Except for a few birds that were flying off into the distance, away from the noise of the two runners, although they were so far away at this point they were nothing more than black silhouettes against the dark blue evening sky. There were just hundreds of rough black tree trunks sticking out of the ground, supporting the crooked and forked tree branches that split off and up wildly into the sky, reaching up a few hundred high with their barren branches. These trees were ancient, and it was odd that one of the giants had fallen over. The shorter, constantly purple clad leafy trees of Forever Fall were off further in the distance, maybe a dozen or two miles away. A total silence that blanketed the entire forest, only pierced by the girl next to Ruby.

Turning back to her partner, Ruby was suddenly alarmed when she saw how flushed the usual pail blonde was. Weiss's face was tinted an angry red, and her chest was rising up and down frantically as she sat propped up against the tree trunk, her head bobbing up and down as she took fast, shallow breaths. Weiss was definitely passed winded, she was probably on the verge of passing out.

In a calming voice… or as calming as Ruby could try to make herself sound, she mumbled quietly to her partner. "Just breathe Weiss, deep breaths. You're going to hyperventilate and pass out." Weiss didn't seem to be listening, and started coughing in-between the deep breaths she was taking, still barely holding on to the air she was trying to take in. "Just deep breaths Weiss. Just deep breaths…" Ruby held her hand out nervously over Weiss's shoulder, not sure if she should pat her partner on the back to work the cough out of Weiss, or just leave the blonde to recover on her own.

Weiss seemed to start paying attention to Ruby, and took a few deep breaths, sounding as though she was finally starting to recover. Ruby was glad; she wasn't entirely sure what she would do if Weiss did end up passing out. Maybe I'd carry her off until we were safe… that or just wait here and hope whatever we're running from doesn't find us?

Out of the side of her eye, which was still watering from Weiss's coughing, the blonde started asking broken question's between her pants. "You… shot… I thought you… dead… how…?"

Shushing Weiss, Ruby mumbled kindly to the coughing wreck of a woman. "Shhhhhhh…. Just breathe for me Weiss. We've got time, I'm not going anywhere."

Weiss's questions stopped for a few seconds, although the look on her face told Ruby the blonde's questions weren't going anywhere. After a few moments, where Weiss got to the point where she was only breathing through her nose, although to Ruby it sounded as though the blonde was failing at trying to stop her breath from coming out raggedly, Weiss's eyes flashed and her questions started to rattle out of her. "You… didn't die?"

"Duh, you're not talking to a corpse are you?"

Weiss was still too tired to roll her eyes, although she might have at that response. "I mean you… survived… getting shot. How?"

Ruby waved her hand, peering over the wooden log they were sitting behind. "It's a long story, I'll tell you about it later… Anyway, what are we running from?"

"It's a… a Grimm."

Ruby's head whipped back, and for a second the redhead wondered if Weiss had hit her head at some point while she was running. "The Grimm are dead," Ruby stated matter-of-factly.

Weiss shook her head, starting to regain her composure. "No, no there was one. A… a beowolf. It was old, and it was smart… tricked me into thinking it had disappeared; it was only hanging on the wall above where I was hiding. I had to run for my life, only got lucky…" Weiss trailed off for a second as she looked up at the sky, and without hearing it Ruby could guess what Weiss was going to say. I only got lucky that I made it outside.

"Hmmm… well, if there was one, it's not following us."

Weiss snapped at Ruby irately. "If?!"

Still looking out behind them, Ruby just shrugged her shoulders. "I'm somewhat inclined to believe there simply can't be a grimm out there. Curse the plague all you want, but it did do its job well…" While Ruby didn't say it out loud, she thought to herself in an annoyed tone: 'There's nothing chasing us; Weiss probably started seeing thing when she ran out of breath… although that doesn't really explain why she started running in the first place.'

"I was not hallucinating, and we really need to run."

"Shhhh, no we don't."Holding up two fingers, Ruby looked at Weiss with a bemused face. "A: if there really is a Beowolf, there is no way we would ever be able to outrun it for long. Hiding is a better option."

Weiss gave Ruby a hesitant look, and started to reply. "The chances of us hiding from a Grimm are-"

"Still better than our chances of running away while we don't have semblances and you're about a hair's width from passing out." Ruby smirked, and then added sarcastically: "and B: this gives us the absolutely wonderful chance to catch up."

"Wha… Ruby, that's a horrible idea. If we aren't running, we should be dead silent."

"Nah, if it can hear us, then it can definitely smell us already. Besides, grimm always had terrible hearing, it's why we could use all of those bullets and explosions in our weapons …, anyways, what's up with you?"

Now that she had the energy, Weiss actually did roll her eyes at her partner. "Oh, not much, just running for my life. You know how it is." Weiss's tone became somber after that quick, weak joke. "I… I thought you were dead…"

Flashing a wry smile, Ruby sighed happily while running a hand through her hair. "I'm happy you were worried, although you never have to. I've always told you not to look after me. Let's worry about you…" For the first time in a long while, Ruby gave Weiss a full smile, one that looked entirely sincere. Once that didn't look half faked. "I'm always going to be fine Weiss."

"Hmph… Still, how are you alright?" Weiss's piercing eyes roved up and down Ruby's body, settling on her leg. Weiss murmured to herself, thinking out loud about the redhead next to her. "That was a week ago at most; you should be on crutches at best…"

"Actually, that was over a week ago Weiss, and I had some… unfortunate help." Ruby peeked out over the trunk again, biting her lip while she looked out for Mercury. "And I'm starting to think I should go back for that annoying piece of shit."

Weiss got a quizzical look on her face, although she still had her iconic sneer stretched across her lips. "Who-"

Before she could finish her question, a sudden voice could be heard shouting angrily off in the distance. "BITCHES! WHERE THE FUCK DID YOU GO?!" HE must have really been screaming the top of his lungs, the voice echoed off the mountains in the distance behind them and resonated throughout the canyon a few times before the surrounding silence flared back, as though it was annoyed at being interrupted.

Ruby sighed, letting her head bonk back against the tree trunk. Do I have to get him? Ruby turned to Weiss, who was looking off suspiciously in the distance where the voice sounded like it came from, back where the 'supposed' Grimm was. Ruby still didn't believe Weiss on that one, although she would ask later. "That…," Ruby groaned while cocking a thumb back in the voices direction, "would be the unfortunate help."

Ruby knew she had to go get Mercury before he wandered off to far away from them and got lost. The last thing she wanted to do was go on another search mission just after she had finally found Weiss. Groaning in annoyance, the redhead pulled herself up off the ground, using some of the close by outstretched barren branches on the trunk as though they were the rungs on a ladder. Once Ruby was standing she looked down at Weiss, reaching out to help the shorter woman up. Instead of seeing Weiss getting up, she looked down to see a pair of icy blue eyes staring back up at Ruby apathetically. Ruby grumbled angrily at the look on Weiss's face, she had seen it more than a few times in the past. The blonde's lips were mashed into a hardline, and her eyebrows arched angrily, almost touching her hairline. Crossing her arms, Weiss made it crystal clear that she was going to stay parked where she was until she decided otherwise.

"Come on Weiss… lets go."

"And who the hell is that yelling off in the distance?!"

If I told you it was Mercury, you'd definitely try to convince me to run off before he found us. "Just a friend…"

Weiss scoffed, and defiantly tried to stare Ruby down, even though she was still sitting on the earth and barely at level with the redhead's knee. "I am not moving an inch until I know who this friend we're walking towards is!"

Sighing loudly, Ruby bent her knee and crouched down to where she was at Weiss's level, and looked her partner in the eyes. Weiss sat patiently while waiting for Ruby to answer her, and for the few seconds where they just silently locked eyes, she couldn't help but think to herself: 'Your eyes have gotten brighter…'

Instead of answering Weiss though, Ruby suddenly reached out with both arms and yanked the blonde off the ground. Before Weiss entirely knew what had happened, she was looking over Ruby's shoulder, and felt herself suddenly rise into the air as Ruby swiftly rose up off the ground to her full height again. The blonde felt an arm wrap around her waist as Ruby raised an arm to hold Weiss in place. Ruby was carrying Weiss over her shoulder as though she was just a bale of hay, or a particularly heavy crate. "We're coming," Ruby yelled loudly, shifting Weiss around on her shoulder a few times to make sure the heiress wouldn't' fall off.

Weiss couldn't even be annoyed; her mind was still trying to even comprehend what had just happened. Weiss's arms went limp and banged against Ruby's back a few times as she was hefted up and shifted around on the redhead's shoulder. She would have been lying if she said that being carried over Ruby's shoulder and feeling her partner's sharp collar-bone dig into her stomach was comfortable.

But once her mind caught up, Weiss's eyes flashed angrily as she tried pushing off Ruby's back with both of her arms. "What do you think you're doing?! Put me down!"

The only response Ruby gave to the blonde's squirming was by tightening her hold around Weiss's waist. Weiss couldn't see the brunette's face, although she could definitely hear the grin on Ruby's voice when the redhead quipped back to the girl over her shoulder. "Nah, I need somebody to watch my back."

Weiss couldn't believe her ears. Ruby making a pun? "Seriously Ruby, this is a move that even the worst, complete box office failure, reject level C-list comedy movie wouldn't attempt."

At this point Ruby had started jogging, and she laughed back to Weiss as she started to really pick up speed. "They didn't attempt it because they didn't have the balls to really commit! You got to make things awkward to get the jokes working. All of this is funny as hell to me. Now come on, enjoy the ride!"

Weiss would have snapped back at the redhead angrily, but as Ruby started jogging Weiss had to clamp her mouth shut. The blonde was afraid she would bite the tip of her tongue off as she bobbed up and down on Ruby's shoulder if she tried to talk.

Still though, why are you in this good of a mood? I mean, I guess you would be happy to catch up with me, but I expected you to just give me a cryptic smile and go 'glad you're back' at most. Also, you're alive! I… Well, I fully believed you were dead for the past week. It feels like longer though-

Weiss's train of thought was cut off when Ruby suddenly ducked under a low hanging branch without slowing down, or even warning the woman slung over her shoulder. With the sudden movement Weiss almost swung off Ruby's shoulder and was nearly flung onto the ground, although Ruby leaned back in the opposite direction so that Weiss didn't fall off at the last second. "Whoa, close one." The redhead began to chuckle to herself, and then in a voice that overflowed with high spirits she yelled out loud enough to make the birds in the surrounding tree's that leaned over their heads take off. "Don't go wandering too far off, we're coming!"

Weiss risked getting her tongue bitten off, and in a withering voice she tried as best she could to question the redhead. It wasn't easy, as she kept bouncing up and down with Ruby's jog, and her voice came out warbled as she shook. "W-w-w-w-w-why are you so ha-a-a-a-a-a-appy?"

Ruby snorted loudly, and then glanced back over her shoulder for a quarter of a second, barely long enough to make eye contact with the girl slung over her shoulder. "Why wouldn't I be? I've got the whole team together again! I thought I'd have to wait around for months in Vale before I found you, and with my luck you'd end up going to Signal instead…" Ruby stopped of a second, and she slowed down to a walk as she got back to the cave where they had originally ran away from.

Standing in the clearing that housed the opening to Weiss's cave, Ruby was surprised to not find Mercury leaning nonchalantly up against a tree trunk waiting for them. "Dumbass, you around here?" Ruby turned around a few times, almost giving the partner on her back motion sickness, and whistled loudly as though she was calling to a horse. "Hey! I heard you calling from somewhere around here! Where'd you go?"

For a few seconds, all Weiss could hear were the sounds of the forest. She expected to hear howls and angry growls coming off from her right, back where the Grimm had chased her from, but instead all she could hear was the quiet rusting of dead tree branches above them scraping off of each other in the wind. Their knotted and gnarled branches crisscrossed the entire sky maybe thirty feet up above them, and gave the feeling of as though she was trapped in a giant cage. Idly Weiss began to muse to herself while she tuned out Ruby, who was still whirling around while yelling out a balanced mixture of insults and concerned calls. I really hope the trees start regrowing their leaves soon; I hate the look of the woods this time of year.

Suddenly, out of Weiss's field of vision, she heard the sound of somebody muttering angrily under their breath and stalking towards them.

"Hey, there you are! Sorry about that!" Ruby's voice came out brightly as she began calling to Mercury, who was limping up towards them from the tree line a few dozen feet away, still half hidden in the afternoon shadows. Hefting up the silent girl on her shoulder, Ruby laughed: "Had to catch this one before she ran too far off."

But Mercury was in no mood for jokes, and in a seething rage he limped forward, not even noticing the new company. "SORRY ABOUT THAT?! YOU RUN OFF AND ABANDON ME TO DEAL WITH A FUCKING BEOWOLF ALL ALONE, AND YOU THINK JUST WALTZING BACK AND SAYING 'SORRY MERCURY' IS GOOD ENOUGH?!"

Slightly taken aback, Ruby laughed uncomfortably. "There wasn't actually a Grimm, was there?"

Limping forward angrily, already halving the distance between them, Mercury growled back at her in a quieter voice than before, although it was a few rungs above normal conversation volume. "It's still back in that cave, probably hasn't dissolved yet… but don't change the fucking conversation! I swear to god Red, you're going to get me killed one of these days. My leg hurts like hell thanks to you!"

Weiss only heard Ruby reply back as the redhead mumbled quietly "holy…" Giving a squirm, Weiss tried pushing off Ruby's back again, attempting to get out of the woman's vise like grip. Being carried around on the redhead's shoulder as though she was some temper tantrum child was humiliating, to put it mildly.

Mercury finally notice Weiss slung over Ruby's shoulder when he saw the girls legs swing back and forth, bouncing off of Ruby's chest, while she tried to shake free of Ruby's grip. He was still furious, but something about seeing the old, prissy girl getting carried around like a six year old brought a smile to his face. "Well, I was hoping to do this in a grand and suave way, reinvent myself a little after all the grudges you're probably still holding against me." Barely fighting off a laugh, he finished his introduction mildly. "But I've got to say, I never thought I'd be meeting the new traveling companion ass first. You do make great entrances if anything else Weiss…"

Weiss started squirming again, trying to push herself out of the redhead's grip and off Ruby's back with both of her arms. When Ruby felt Weiss's arms against her back, instead of putting Weiss down, she simply turned around so that the girl over her shoulder was facing the direction she had just been. When the blonde was forced to look at Mercury, although she had already guessed who they were talking to, Weiss groaned at having her suspicions confirmed.

Mercury waved at the shoulder strung girl, smiling at her brightly. Instead of replying in kind, all Weiss did was groan and bury her face in the back of Ruby's jacket in response. Her voice came out muffled as she complained into Ruby's back, the blonde's long white locks almost falling down farther than her arms hung. "Are you seriously saying you got saved by this nerd?"

Ruby sighed, and grumbled a few unintelligible affirmatives.

Mercury on the other hand suddenly stuttered at the girl hanging over Ruby's shoulder. "Nerd! Who are you, Miss Priss, to call me a nerd?!"

Weiss raised her head off Ruby's back, and through a veil of hair she glared at Mercury. "In the entire year you spent undercover at our school, I had barely a single conversation with you. And the one we did have was just you telling me off about some stupid comic book character."

Stomping the foot from his good leg angrily, Mercury pointed at the blonde as though she actually cared. "Why would you ever think X-Ray was the British one?! He was obviously Mexican! The other guy even had a Union Jack on his chest!"

All Weiss did was give Mercury a withering look, and after a few seconds both Ruby and Weiss replied simultaneously: "Nerd."

Mercury pinched the bridge of his nose angrily, already getting frustrated at what was going on. Sighing heavily, he raised an eyebrow at the two women standing in front of him. "So do you just enjoy carrying Icepick around, or you afraid she's going to run off or something?"

Apparently Ruby had entirely forgotten that she was carrying Weiss, and looked over at the girl across her shoulder. "Oh, whoops!" Ruby let her arm go, and before she even had the chance to put Weiss down the blonde had already pushed herself off the redhead's shoulder. Landing on the ground in front of Ruby, Weiss took a few steps back while massaging her bruised stomach.

"You know Ruby, carrying me around like that actually hurt a lot."

Ruby just shrugged her shoulders. "I wanted to catch up with Mercury before he got too far away... You didn't really give me much choice."

"I would have come if you had told me that we needed to catch up with someone."

Raising an eyebrow, Ruby asked: "If that somebody had been Mercury?"

"Eh, probably…"

Turning around a few times, Ruby looked over at Mercury, who was standing oddly. It took a second for the brunette to realize that Mercury was trying to not put weight onto his left leg, and that his left foot was barely hovering over the brow ground. "What happened to you?"

Pointing back at the cave angrily, Mercury snarled at the pair "did you not hear me? Fucking beowolf!"

"Oh right!" Ruby, without even asking if Mercury was okay, suddenly took off for the mouth of the cave at a slow jog. Mercury stood back with Weiss, staring off at Ruby as she walked away without giving him a second glance.

"I'd like a fucking thank you… bitch!"

Weiss turned to Mercury, who was still silently fuming while staring at the walking away redhead. Clearly, trying to sound as sincere as possible, Weiss addressed the silver-haired man standing next to her. Weiss already knew she didn't have to hold any grudges to hold against him, especially after what he had already done for both herself and Ruby. Weiss would get the entire story later, but she knew enough about Mercury to guess how Ruby was still walking around. "Thank you Mercury. Really, thank you. We'd be dead if you hadn't helped us."

"Pffft, you make it sound so stiff." Mercury rubbed his neck for a second, and then looked down on Weiss with a tiny smile, which was no more than a slight upturn at the corners of his mouth. "Don't worry about it Weiss, I'll mend."

Before Weiss could respond, a voice called out from the cave in front of them. "Guys, get over here! It's starting to disintegrate!"

After a second where Weiss stood conflicted, not sure if she wanted to walk back into those tunnels again, the blonde walked forward towards the sound of Ruby's voice. Mercury followed behind Weiss, hissing whenever his bad leg had to support his weight, even if it was only for brief moment. Weiss thought about falling back to help him, offer him her shoulder to lean against, but thought better of it. Something told Weiss he'd say no.

Walking into the cave, which looked exactly the same as it had when they left it only a few minutes before except for the giant black body now laying against the cave floor, Weiss and Mercury found Ruby crouched down by the head. Ruby was twisting her head back and forth, trying to look at the shattered bone mask of the Grimm before it disappeared into nothingness. "So how'd you kill this thing?"

Mercury just tapped the barrel of shoe to the ground, and muttered angrily under his breath, almost too low for them to hear. "You think I just keep these things around because they look cool?"

Giving Mercury a sheepish look, Ruby asked: "They still work?"

"What, you think I would be that sentimental?"

"I don't know, maybe…" Ruby looked over at Weiss, who was giving her an odd look. It looked as though Weiss felt out of place, or at least extremely uncomfortable with the current situation. "What's up Weiss?"

Weiss just stood off to the side silently, and after a few seconds just mumbled into the ground quietly. "Nothing, don't worry about it… hey, the beowolf is starting to dissolve."

Looking over, both Ruby and Mercury saw that Weiss was right. Curling in on itself, like paper that was burning in an invisible fire, the beowolf's corpse slowly began warping as it began to disappear. Bits of fur and black skin drifted upwards from the corpse, as though the flecks were being carried on an updraft that had appeared in the middle of the cave. The small flecks would drift around on currents in the air for a few seconds before disappearing completely into nothingness.

As they all watched on, they all began feeling guilty in their own ways for the beast's death. Mercury's thoughts were particularly grim.

I may have just killed the last Grimm in existence… I ended a survivor, a… a giant fuck you to this whole epidemic thing. You were living proof that the virus didn't have to be the end-all-be-all for us and the world. And I killed you.

Mercury made a scoffing noise at the back of his throat, although when the other two women looked over at him he just shook his head and refused to explain what he was thinking. As they all stood shoulder to shoulder looking down on the dissolving creature, which had almost entirely disappeared except for a few claws and a couple of shards of the cracked bonemask, Ruby cleared her throat. Turning away from the beast, looking out of the cave towards the horizon, Ruby smiled.

"We've got maybe two more hours before the sun sets… lets head out, finally get out of these mountains for good."

Weiss and Mercury exchanged a look, both of them egging on the other. Neither wanted to bring down the oddly sunny Ruby, who seemed to be on top of the world. Originally pointing at the blonde while shaking his head, Mercury folded under a particularly withering glare from Weiss. Sighing heavily, he limped forward a few steps to catch up to the redhead. Groaning angrily, Mercury called to Ruby, who had started slowly meandering towards the cave entrance. "Yeah, about that… as much as I want to get out of these mountains… I would say that's a no, for tonight at least."

"Ow! Stop fucking stabbing me!"

Grumbling angrily, Ruby hissed at Weiss, whose knee was stretched over the redheads lap. Holding up a needle, Ruby tried to hide how aggravated she was at the blonde. "If you would just give me your jeans for two minutes, this would be a hell of a lot easier!"

"No thank you!" Weiss then narrowed her eyes to slits and glared at Ruby, already feeling the redhead's growing levels of aggravation. "And before you get all pissy with me, I said earlier that I could do this myself!"

"Pfft, no you can't. I remember the last time you tried to sew something up, it did not go well." Ruby shifted her leg underneath Weiss, fighting off the numbness that had come from having the blonde's foot resting on her knee and cutting off blood flow. "The scar is at least three times large than if I'd gotten somebody else to do it…"

Rolling her eyes, Weiss responded in a withering tone. "I think fixing a pair of jeans would be a lot easier than a giant bleeding gash, especially when the one getting the stitches is constantly squirming."

Ruby didn't respond to that, although Weiss suddenly jumped again when she felt the needle's point jab into the frayed flesh of her knee. "Whoops," Ruby muttered sarcastically, making it obvious that she did that on purpose.

Across the fire, Mercury laughed at the sound of Weiss's sudden intake of breath. "So, where's the scar?"

Absentmindedly, still looking down at Weiss's knee and trying to pinch the white denim together, Ruby replied: "From the outer side of my right knee, and about half way down my leg from there…"

"Hm… how'd you get it?"

Ruby replied back blandly: "You know those metal anvil shaped things on docks?" At the nod from Mercury, Ruby continued on. "I stabbed myself against the metal edge of one of those when I was jumping from of a boat to the pier."

Mercury laughed lightly, and then asked: "So why didn't you just get somebody else there to help you?"

Weiss perked up, looking across the fire at Mercury. "We weren't really supposed to be there. We were doing a vandalism job for our old boss. He wanted us to ruin a ship before the harbor froze over and it would be anchored out in open waters. We figured a winter frozen in ice would do the trick, crack up the hull..." Muttering to herself absent mindedly, Weiss added: "We had to run when we got caught."

"Hmph, sounds fun." After a brief pause, Mercury ended the momentary silence by throwing another large branch on the fire, which was crackling loudly in between him and the two women. After a few seconds, where the fire revved into life with the new fuel, the pit returned to its quiet crackling. Every once in a while a spark would drift upwards from the burning wood, and these floating ashes gave the area a warm, comforting smell.

They were still in the cave that Weiss had sprung out from, seeing as it at least provided some shelter. Still on edge, Weiss had argued against the spot, but the other two had convinced her otherwise. Ruby had originally complained when Mercury said he couldn't keep up a good pace for the rest of the day, although she really couldn't argue with him. So they ended up here, sitting in a circle around the fire.

After they had set up camp for the night, the two groups shared what had happened to each other over the past week. Ruby told Weiss about how she had woken up in Mercury's care, and had traveled up and over the mountain with him. Weiss then told the redhead how she had traveled through the underground tunnels, and eventually ran into the beowolf. Mercury seemed to be particularly interested in that part of her story, although he didn't comment on it.

After the few hours of storytelling, Ruby noticed Weiss's jeans in tatters, and ordered Weiss to take off her jeans and give them to Ruby. Weiss probably would have, until she started and she heard a long low whistle behind her. Mercury wasn't afraid of Ruby's glare anymore, and continued to chant "Take it off! Take it off!" until the redhead wrenched off her boot and threw it at him over the fire. And thus Weiss sitting in Ruby's lap while Ruby worked on sewing the holes in Weiss's jeans shut.

Ruby continued to mend Weiss's clothes, and while she poked the heiress for fun occasionally, she was careful to leave the scabs Weiss had developed alone. Running her thumb over one, feeling the scaly patch that had started to form over Weiss's knee, Ruby muttered: "These are going to make hiking a pain tomorrow, we might have to wait another few days…"

After a shrug of her shoulders, Weiss just looked off to the side and out of the cave. "eh, who cares? I'll limp…"

"Don't be so melodramatic, I'm no slave driver." Poking the scab with one finger lightly, Ruby scrunched up her brow in thought. "It's a pain, but if we really need to stop for a few days, we stop for a few days…"

Mercury quipped at the two of them across the fire, sounding somewhat annoyed. "Oh, I see how it is. Weiss gets a few scabs on her knees, let's rest up for the week. Mercury shatters his leg… we can keep going, good ol'Mercury will surely be fine right?"

Neither of the two women responded, although Ruby did break a smirk at his little tirade. Weiss again shot Ruby an odd, pained look, although only Mercury saw it.

Alright, I'll give them some time to work things out… Getting up off the ground, Mercury placed a hand against the wall to keep himself from putting weight on his bad leg. "Whelp, I feel like a third wheel. So… I'm going to go and see where this tunnel leads to. I'm sure it will be super interesting." Starting to limp away, Mercury raise a hand over his shoulder as he walked away, waving goodbye to the two girls behind him. "I'll try not go and get lost. Have fun with the girl talk…"

Ruby and Weiss both watched as Mercury limped away, back into the recesses of the cave. Weiss yelled off after him as he walked away. "There could be more beowolves, I wouldn't-" Weiss came to a sudden stop when Mercury flipped her off over his shoulder, continuing to limp away.

Once Mercury was out of eyesight, Ruby turned to Weiss and smiled apologetically. "He's not that bad really. He can be funny at times, when he's not pissing us off."

"I'm not bothered by Mercury… he seems decent enough, if only a little rude." Weiss leaned back, so that her back was against the ground and she was looking up at the curved cave ceiling above her. She left her leg in Ruby's lap, so the that the redhead could continue working on her jeans. "I really wish I was out from under these cave ceilings…"

Ruby pointed off towards the cave entrance, and asked: "I can move the fire out into the field surrounding where this tunnel lets out if you'd like? It'd take me ten minutes tops."

Weiss shook her head, although she also dragged her hair back and forth across the cave floor while she did that. "It's okay, I'm good. It's too frivolous to do something like that…"

"Hmm… here, give me your other knee." Without waiting for Weiss to comply, Ruby reached over and pulled the blonde's other leg over her lap. Ruby began sewing again, and over her work she laughed at Weiss: "It's funny that you lose everything except the one thing we needed. You showing up with just a sewing kit is a little ironic."

Shrugging her shoulders, looking uncomfortable without knowing what to do with her hands, Weiss just sighed as a response. Ruby being so chipper really stung Weiss. Did being rid of me for a week really make you this happy?

Ruby caught on to Weiss's somber mood, and stopped using the needle. Looking up, Ruby leaned forward with both her palms pressing down on Weiss's shin. "Spill it Weiss… what's biting at you?"

"Nothing's bothering me."

Shaking her head, Ruby replied "you can't lie for shit Weiss; you've never been able to."

Interlacing her fingers and folding her hands over her stomach while continuing to look up at the ceiling, Weiss breathed in and out for a few seconds loudly, before asking Ruby what was on her mind in a quiet voice.

"…Why are you in such a good mood Ruby?"

Ruby was not expecting that to be the problem, although she answered Weiss honestly. "It's a mixture of a few things. I'm riding the high of finding you, more than anything else though. I thought it would be months before I finally hunted you down."

"…you really thought I was alive?"

"Of course you were. I knew you wouldn't go down that easily, not in a million years."

Weiss shook her head, and muttered sadly: "I'll be honest, I whole heartedly believed you were dead."

"I understand." Ruby began thrumming her fingers against Weiss's leg, and smiled over at the blonde who was still lying on the floor. "I got hurt badly, anyone would assume that… now be honest, what is really bothering you?"

"That's what was bothering me… I felt guilty that I gave up on you."

"Nope, its not that." Ruby smiled at Weiss sinisterly, and said: "I'm trying to be sweet her Weiss, but I've technically got you here in a nice wrestling lock, if I only just lift your leg up a little bit…"

"Hmph!" Scoffing at Ruby, Weiss smiled for a quarter second, but was immediately brought down when Ruby smiled back. Because it wasn't the fake smile that she had seen from the redhead over the past five years. It was the realest smile she had seen in a while from Ruby.

"There it is again!" Pointing at Weiss, Ruby exclaimed: "Something is bringing you down Weiss, and I want to know what that is!"

Sighing sadly, Weiss kept her eyes locked on the ceiling. "You seem happy…"

Ruby looked over at Weiss, and was surprised to see tears in the blonde's pail blue eyes. "I… I am happy, that I found you…"

After a few seconds of silence, Weiss responded in a thick voice, which sounded as though it was choked by emotion. "So, you got this happy… while I was gone."

"Oh… no Weiss, it wasn't like that."

Weiss started to talk, although her words still came out shaky and thick. "It just seems as though while I'm gone, you find some new friend, who makes everything better. You're cracking jokes, you're smiling, you actually seem to care about things again. It's as if I was the thing-"

Before Weiss could get any farther, Ruby cut her off. "You did nothing wrong Weiss. Ever. I was worried out of my mind about you while you were lost."

Weiss only sniffed back: "It doesn't seem like it..."

Scratching the back of her head, Ruby thought for a second before continuing. "I… when I almost died, I knew I fucked you over, and that I have been for the last few years. It may be stupid, but that… well, it kind of forced me to have an epiphany." Ruby looked over and smiled at Weiss, this one another true smile. "I know I've been horrible to you for the past few years, and I also know I can't undo all that in a few hours, days or weeks. But I'm going to work on being more human, more of a… a friend to you again, I guess."

Weiss, looking troubled, pushed herself off the floor and kept herself propped up on one elbow. "I didn't-"

Ruby just wave Weiss off, looking up at the grey ceiling thoughtfully as she did so. "Eh… look, I know it'll take me some time to fix things, and I don't expect everything to change overnight… but things will change. I promise."

Weiss would have said something, but she heard the metal clicking noises of Mercury sauntering back to the camp site. "Wow, it gets dark back there! I had to turn back before I got lost, stumbling around in the dark."

Ruby looked up at Mercury, who was standing over the redhead's shoulder and looking down on them. He raised an eyebrow at the way Weiss was lying across Ruby's lap, although he didn't say anything past that. Ruby just shrugged, and muttered darkly: "Good thing you came back, I wouldn't have gone looking for you…"

Sitting back down on his side of the fire, Mercury popped all the knuckles on his right hand, and then repeated the motion with the ones on his left. Weiss cringed at the sharp, slick crunching sounds that echoed off the gray walls. "Nah, you'd come for me eventually… anyway, what's the plan for tomorrow."

"We're sticking around here until everybody's at a hundred percent… although you're still going to annoy me either way, I can't see dragging your sorry ass around while you're limping behind us be any fun."

Mercury's fist shot into the air, and he grinned: "Yes! Being annoying for the win!"

"But you're taking first watch."

"Wha- hell no!" Mercury pointed angrily at Ruby, and began arguing with the redhead. "I was the one up first this morning, I'm exhausted and damaged to boot!"

Weiss, still somewhat wrapped in thought, mumbled at the two who were bickering in front of her. "I'm not going to sleep for a while, I'll take first watch…"

"Perfect!" and without another word, Mercury flopped backwards onto the cave floor.

Pinching the bridge of her nose, Ruby grumbled angrily at the cloaked figure lying on the ground across the fire from them. "Uhhhhh… I'll stay up Weiss. You're probably tired."

Sitting up, pulling her legs off of Ruby so that she was sitting next to the redhead instead of on top of her, Weiss muttered: "Just go to sleep Ruby. I'll watch until tomorrow."

After a few seconds, where Ruby just looked up at Weiss, the brunette shrugged her shoulders. "Alright… if Mercury isn't up in six hours, then wake me. Until then, I guess I need my, uh, beauty sleep."

"Six…? So are things really changing?"

"Doctor Nerd's orders."

"Hm... okay." Weiss couldn't help but smile, even if it was a small one. Maybe things will change...

Ruby could hear the smile on Weiss's voice, and smiled back while keeping her eyes closed. Plucking Weiss's thoughts right out of the air, Ruby mumbled to the blonde next to her while she felt herself drift off to sleep. "Ride the winds of change Weiss… ride the winds of change..."

Thanks for reading, I had a blast writing this part. I hope you all enjoy it!

P.S. The chapter name is from the theme song to Dark Cloud 2. It's probably my all time favorite game, and I just replayed it again.

So favorite, follow, and leave a comment, because it's only going up from here!