Ruby's feet drummed against the ground in a rhythmic, almost hypnotic fashion. The steady beat of her bare feet against the ground was smooth and relaxing, as consistent as the ticking of a clock. The constant thudding was so soothing that Ruby almost lost all track of time, and lost her trace on reality with it. The redhead was sure that if she hadn't been forcing herself to pay attention, Ruby would have slowed down and begun to just meander through the forest without purpose, lost in the sounds of her feet against the floor.

But Ruby kept snapping herself back into focus. She had a job to do... and as cliche as it sounded, she had a mission to complete.

'They'll thank me later, this was the best option we- FUCKING HELL!' Ruby, while she didn't say anything, hissed at the sudden flair of pain that shot up her leg from the arch of her foot.

Her thought process broken, Ruby hopped forward for a few seconds, feeling something sharp and painful still sticking itself to the sole of her foot. Slowing down to a fast walk, Ruby hobbled forward awkwardly for a few seconds, trying to keep the arch of her foot off the ground as she tiptoed forward. A quarter of a second later, Ruby felt whatever had stuck to her fall off and land in the grass below her feet.

Without waiting for the dull ache resonating up her leg to fade away, Ruby took off at her full speed again, now trying to watch where she was running. She scolded herself as she hopped over a small bundle of twigs on the forest floor, still attached to their lavender leaves. 'You can't afford to slow down now, they'll catch up... besides, you always put pressure on a bruise.'

If speed hadn't been the redhead's number one concern, she wouldn't be subjugating her feet to this torture in the first place. Ruby's feet already hurt, constantly getting jabbed and poked by the scattered and random debris that littered the ground. But she needed to bare the pain. Ruby had been forced to take her shoes off earlier during the escape, the thick, rigid leather of her snow boots made running as fast as Ruby needed to impossible. If she'd had a set of cleat's Ruby would have been able to blaze through this forest in half the time it was taking her now. But it wasn't as if Ruby could just lug around an extra pair of running sneakers now a days, although days like today made her wish she really could. That extra weight wasn't easily justifiable, even if it was only two or three extra pounds.

Ruby needed to get moving quickly, so she made the easiest decision. Now the redhead jogged over the dirt trails surrounding Beacon in her bare feet, her beige snow boots tucked under the crook of her arm.

Or, trials that had once been dirt. Now, after a near decade of neglect, the snaking paths through the forest had been overtaken by weeds and small saplings. To anyone else, they wouldn't have even seen a path, just an oddly formed gap in the trees. But as Ruby ran past, her imagination took over, and she could remember the surrounding trees and saplings vividly.

'This brings back memories...' She could easily remember her routine of throwing in ear buds, turning on her music to the point where an eighteen wheeler could be barreling towards her and she wouldn't notice, and just running her free days away. Ruby did that for most of her time at Beacon, leaving herself the time to finally think... that and really just mull over all that she'd gone through. Sometimes she'd be at the trail for barely an hour before getting bored, and some days Ruby would be gone for over six hours of simple running before one of her teammates would go get her.

Weiss used to chastise her for it, sighing in her iconic, annoyed tone. Whenever the heiress had been forced to go get Ruby, she'd spend the walk back mock heckling her partner, calling her names like 'dolt and dweeb', sarcastically tell her girlfriend that she felt neglected. Weiss had always found Ruby's habits odd, but she loved her oddball girlfriend for them. Ruby had spent enough of her time fawning over Weiss back then; they both enjoyed the few hours of break from each other.

Picking up her stride again, Ruby retrieved her old thought process. It actually took her a few seconds to remember what she'd been thinking about, Ruby had gotten so involved in her old thoughts. 'They'll thank me later, this was the best option we had. I'm not letting Weiss risk her life, she's too important to even think of endangering... she'll understand if I make it back to her before the day is out.'

That last part was a blatant lie, and as Ruby thought on her schemes, she knew that fact well enough. This was all Ruby could do now ... break Weiss's heart, over and over again. Ruby knew Weiss wouldn't forgive her for this. The heiress would just be disappointed, cut by Ruby's sharp, frozen heart again. Every time she reached out to Ruby, she'd come back out covered in slices and bruises for herself, and for nothing in return. Always forced to go patch herself up from whatever damage she received from Ruby's selfishness...

Ruby was still trying to convince herself that this particular decision, which she had made about an hour ago, was the right one. An hour ago, when she snuck away from the camp. Once she'd left, Ruby knew she couldn't just come waltzing back in. No, once she had picked herself up off of the forest floor and flitted away into the early morning, Ruby knew that she'd be unable play off slinking back if her nerve broke. Leaving forced the redhead's hand to action.

So Ruby decided that if she had to burn bridges, she'd at least burn them thoroughly. Ruby would protect Weiss with her dying breath again... she'd already done that once this month. Ruby had left none of her possessions behind, bringing her rifle and pack so that if she did get... stopped... well, anyone picking over her body wouldn't start to wonder why she'd turned up empty handed and supplyless, with only a surprisingly valuable rifle in tow. She'd keep Weiss safe that way at least... keep suspicion off of her partner's presence in the woods.

But even as she continued to run, Ruby couldn't get rid of the lump of guilt that seemed to have settled in her stomach. It felt like a lead weight weighing her down, coiling itself around in Ruby's gut and strangling her from the inside. Again, Ruby had lied to Weiss. She'd been good for two whole weeks, put on her best effort to make the blonde happy. But all that was wiped out now. This act of betrayal, of crushing the trust she was starting to get back with Weiss, was going to be worth a month of effort just to equal. Ruby couldn't even think of paying her back yet. I'm just not right for her... I keep trying to convince myself otherwise, but the simple truth is she's too good for me now. The only reason she's still around is that the pickings are just too slim for her to go find somebody else.'

'Hmph! Sucks for us that our tastes make thing a bit difficult huh Weiss? After all, where're you going to find a gay redhead in the apocalypse? Where am I going to find a stuck up shorty? Ha, I'd have an easier search than you! I'd settle for...' Ruby realized that what she was about to think wasn't true. She couldn't be sure about Weiss, but Ruby knew who she wanted. She would only ever want Weiss, even if Weiss didn't want her back. 'I'll only ever want you Weiss. There'll never be some shitty knock off version, no replacement. You were my snowflake. You're just not mine anymore...'

Shaking those thoughts out of her head, Ruby focused on the task at hand. 'I can't afford to get sappy now.' She had to get to Beacon quickly, before Weiss and Mercury could catch her. Luckily, in a foot race, Ruby had them beat.

Ruby didn't take pride in the knowledge, although a younger version of herself would have sang and danced around while proclaiming the fact, but Ruby was confident she could still outrun most people without even pushing herself. Although she was a bit slower than she used to be, Ruby had been both a superb sprinter and an excellent marathon runner during her days as a huntress. That skill then had to transfer over somewhat now, even after all this time. Ruby had the edge here, running ahead of Weiss to keep her safe. After all Ruby's running, about a half hour of it, the redhead knew she'd put enough distance between herself and their camp that her jogging speed would be more than enough to keep Weiss at a safe distance. Weiss, always being so predictable, would probably try to sprint after Ruby until she finally dropped from exhaustion. Pushing herself too hard as she tried to catch the redhead before Ruby got too far away.

Ruby thought to herself grimly: 'Weiss'll burn herself out without even making it close to me...'

Now that she had hit her stride and the ground had seemed to clear, Ruby could actually look around at the surrounding forest. Ruby used to spend her free time running, simply taking the time to think. Maybe it was the outdoor air, maybe it was the calming quiet, but Ruby could remember the days when she would relish getting to disappear for a few hours just to walk her thoughts away. Her mind was always cluttered, and it was as though her brain was a computer set to cleaning mode while she ran.

She remembered these woods... she used to take jogs through them every morning, waking up and sneaking out before Weiss could catch her. She'd keep Weiss up with her late into the night, and then slip out the morning after their fun so that she could enjoy herself and the calm the forest brought her. Sometimes the trick didn't work and Ruby ended up sleeping in with Weiss, but she was usually successful. Ruby had been a light sleeper even then, and waking up early always came easy to her. 'Although now I take it to a bit of an extreme,' Ruby unconsciously snorted. 'Well, actually, lately I've been sleeping a lot. I don't feel like it changes much, but Weiss seemed to think so...'

As Ruby ran past an oddly shaped dead trunk, which she had always thought resembled the statue in front of the academy, the redhead finally pinpointed exactly where she was. Right now she was maybe forty minutes from the old Beacon academy. Maybe twenty minutes from her old dorm on the outskirts on the campus. Ruby was sure that if she looked, she'd find some of the old purple rings that she had spray painted on tree trunk's to keep herself from straying too far from her own path.

But more important than that, Ruby knew that she was about ten minutes from the city's eastern most entrance, which bordered their academy. If she had to go into the city, it might as well be through there.

'That's where Weiss would think I'd go in through... if there is a cleanup, I want her to see it so that she stays away... god, I'm a pessimist lately. I wonder if it has something to do with the wind?'

The air was stagnant though, still and calm in the morning's first light. But jogging through the forest, still at an admirable pace, gave the illusion of wind. The cold, early morning spring air was burning her cheeks as it whipped by, although the felling on her face didn't come to her in an unpleasant way. It was more the sting you felt when you used mouthwash after neglecting to brush well for a few weeks. It left your mouth feeling raw, but also more clean than you could imagine. This wind felt the same way. It washed away any of her hesitation, any of her fear about entering the city.

The sound of Ruby's pace suddenly changed, the light crunching coming from under her feet changing to more of a thudding as her feet stopped landing on the withered, fading purple leaves. Looking down, the redhead saw that she had made it to road. Tarnished, neglected, cracked to hell pavement... but it was still blacktop. 'The most important part of civilization, other than the people living in it. Roads are always the first thing we build, keeping us all connected...'

Looking ahead, seeing the thick brush overhead beginning to thin out, Ruby slowed down to a fast walk. 'I guess I can slow down now... I'm close enough that I can afford to walk in... god, what's that phrase Weiss used to say? She used to say it when we got home and noticed Blake and Yang had probably been getting frisky. Uh... I know it would be perfect...

Just as Ruby walked out from under the final layer of dense canopy of purple leaves, a perfect break in the tree branches above her allowed her to the outline of Beacon's tallest tower off in the distance, outlined against the early morning sky. An ancient, garish black obelisk thrusting itself up into the air, surrounded on both sides by purple horizons and streaks of ashen grey clouds that seemed to bend and warp around the monolith.

Ozpin had always said that his academy would be 'a beacon of learning, of hope and of understanding for all who wish to aid in continuing its tradition'. He'd never understood how his 'beacon of learning' was one of the most intimidating, most imposing structures ever designed on the planet.

The sight of it, and all it meant to her and her past, stunned Ruby for a few seconds. She stopped running, stopped walking, and just stood there silently while staring up at the tower. Just as she was sure she had done hundreds of times during her training at Beacon. Every day Ruby ran, she'd stop and stand there, feeling proud to be a part of what that tower meant to the world. And as she stood there, Ruby felt as though she was somehow in two places at once. Or in two times at once.

It was the oddest feeling, one that Ruby wouldn't have been able to describe if she'd been asked to. One person was standing there now, with an old rifle slung over her back, dressed in worn and tattered clothing. One who, while she was really trying to bring some light into herself, was just a shadow of who she used to be.

But someone else was standing there too, in the exact same spot. She was a bit shorter. She was a bit sharper. She was far happier, still brimming with energy that came with simple optimism. Still lugging around her giant Crescent Rose on her back, her claim to fame as the academy's greatest huntress. She still listened and smiled to rock music that Weiss thought was horribly vulgar and disturbing. A girl who still loved life and the world...

And it was that feeling of being in two places at once that finally rocked Ruby's world.

Staggered as though she'd been stunned, Ruby muttered to herself out loud, uncaring that she was talking to herself for no real reason. "Whoa... I, I've changed..." Ruby looked down at her hand's for a second, almost not recognizing them. She didn't remember her fingers being long and thin, covered in nicks and callouses. They didn't look like the hands she was seeing right now in her memory. Her old hands were softer, kinder. Meant for picking flowers and tending to wounds. To carry weapons maybe, to use them to help others. Not to use the blades to rip others apart.

All she saw now were the hands of a butcher. One who'd forgotten what they should have been suited for in this world, and became a lost, hopeless, soulless wanderer. "I haven't grown up, I haven't gotten stronger... I've just...," Ruby stuttered, blanching for a second. She didn't know what to say anymore. Not in this moment where she felt like she was living two lives.

Ruby dropped her hands, shaking her head and her useless thoughts away. 'I can't dwell now, I'll think about it later...' And when she chased those errant thoughts out of her head, another ran up to replace it. She remembered what she had been trying to earlier. Looking up at the sky, Ruby began walking forward again, mumbling to herself while she walked.

'I'm walking into the lion's den...'

Weiss's sides burned worse than when she had ran from that beowolf three weeks prior. It was a stabbing pain, as though a dagger had been shoved deep into her rib cage, flaring with up with almost unbearable pain with each of her hurried, panting breaths. Every time she drew air in, someone twisted that dagger in deeper into her side, trying to incapacitate her. It wasn't mind numbing yet, but the pain would transition to that soon if she didn't slow down and take a break.

But Weiss couldn't afford to slow down now. She couldn't stop for a second. The heiress was god-knows how far behind Ruby, and that status couldn't stay the same.

Weiss's conscious, which was just as egotistical and arrogant as the real, bonified Weiss was, hurled curses angrily at the redhead. Weiss was getting real tired of Ruby's bullshit. 'You fucking bitch! I swear to god, the second I get my hands on you, I'll thrash you for this! How could you ever think I'm okay with this?!'

An even smaller voice, as if it was tired and horse from all of Weiss's running, rose up and began to mock the heiress. It answered her in Ruby's voice, although it sighed it's answer in the redhead's dead tone, which had been nice and absent for the past few weeks. 'Because Weiss... I'm keeping you safe. Because I'm keeping you safe Weiss...'

"Hmph. I'll need to change that about her...," Weiss muttered to herself out loud, barely able to even get out that sentence between all of her huffing. Weiss didn't know it came out almost intelligible, more like: "Hi... heed to hange haa... her."

Feeling lightheaded from her breathlessness, and also somewhat distracted by her own thoughts, Weiss tripped over her feet as she sprinted along through the forest. Her arms shooting out to break her fall, Weiss's palms scraped against the floor and a particularly nasty clump of knotted roots. But instead of staying there for a second to catch her breath, Weiss shoved herself off the ground and forward again, trying to force her shaking legs to move her faster than they had before with sheer willpower. 'I can't afford to relive three weeks ago! Not now, not when we have to catch up to her!'

But Weiss's mental message didn't translate to stronger legs. Weiss shot forward for a few steps, before her knees buckled and she had to break her fall with her hands again.

That was it for Weiss. She'd been getting tired of the world giving her nothing but crap hands. Just as things were looking up, this happens. She wasn't about to give up, but in a five second fit of rage Weiss just pounded the ground, ignoring the painful feeling of her hand smacking the hard earth. It may have been childish, but Weiss couldn't help but shriek in frustration, punching the hard packed mix of gravel, twigs and dirt below her a few more times.

Before Weiss could stop though, she felt Mercury catch up to her. Weiss had passed him at some point during their running; she'd apparently been faster, even at her shorter height. Although it seemed she hadn't outpaced him by much. He'd caught up pretty quick. She heard him burst through a patch of bushes behind her, his iconic clicking still following him as he ran forward to Weiss. It didn't sound like he was going to stop as he closed the distance between himself and her.

Suddenly, Weiss felt him hook his fingers under the strap of her backpack. Wrenching it off her while he talked, Mercury hurried out: "Alright, take this off. We'll come back for it later, but right now it's weighing us down." Mercury did the same with his own rucksack, and Weiss heard him throw both of the bags off to their left, somewhere inside a bunch of brambles next to them. Weiss didn't actually see any of this though, her face still looking down and panting into the ground.

Not taking the time to explain what he was doing, Mercury then hooked his arm under one of Weiss's shoulders, lifting her up quickly and swinging her over his back. Weiss's arms naturally locked together around his neck, which had been what Mercury was shooting for.

Weiss felt Mercury shift underneath her, trying to move the tiny woman into a comfortable spot. "Whoa, you weigh nothing...," Mercury muttered absentmindedly as he jogged forward, already picking up speed again.

"What are you doing?"

At a near full sprint now, a little slower than Weiss had been running before he collapsed, Mercury spoke over his shoulder to Weiss. "You've been slowing down for the past five minutes, although I am impressed that you were able to keep up a sprint for that long. But where you're just a person, I'm still a hunter; carrying you while running is literally nothing to me." Mercury kept on running, and then said to her: "I'm not getting stuck with just you! I can barely take you two when you're each keeping the other preoccupied!"

Weiss was touched by the statement, even though she was getting jostled badly over Mercury's shoulder. He was running as fast as he could with Weiss slowing him down, and she knew that while this was faster, it was still leaving them behind Ruby.

As if he could hear Weiss's thoughts, Mercury yelled back to her, almost tuned out by the wind. "We're twenty minutes from the Beacon, even if Red does beat us, it doesn't matter by how much. We just need to catch up to Idiot before she sticks her foot into a bear trap!"

Ruby hated walking into this part of the town. The road leading into Beacon here had been built in such a stupid way. 'Whoever had the bright idea to build the main road leading out of the city straight up the only hill near Beacon instead of going around it better have gotten fired. I mean seriously, what the hell were they thinking? You couldn't drive a car up it without feeling like you're in a roller coaster, and god forbid wanting to just walk up to the top! My calves are already burning just thinking about it. Walking down is almost as much a pain.'

As much as it seemed like Ruby was complaining just to complain, anyone listening would have agreed that her observations were justified. The roadwork of the hill hit the bottom of the hill at an almost 45 degree angle, and kept that step slop all the way up the few hundred feet long track of blacktop.

She found it odd that she got such a large amount of joy out of feeling the ground level out again. As her feet planted themselves in solid ground again, Ruby thought to herself: 'I've gotta enjoy the little things I guess..."

Passing the first building, Ruby couldn't help but feel somewhat vindicated at the state of things. Sure this was the outskirts, but if the center of the city was anything like what the outskirts looked like, Ruby's earlier proclamation about the city to Weiss would be spot on. 'This place is worse than Caric, it's a freaking, rotting husk...'

The city really was falling apart, and across all her years of traveling, Ruby couldn't think of a more deteriorated sight. 'I mean, I guess it's to be expected... a decade of neglect tends to do this to buildings'. The brick walls of the shops nearest Ruby's path had fallen outwards, and the next few were the same. The whole street was in tatters really, and looking out, Ruby couldn't help but imagine rows upon rows of playing card houses, all knocked over by a simple gust of wind. 'But the academy's tower is still standing... I bet Ozpin would like that. He'd have some stupid, prosaic quote about how "empires may rise and fall, but knowledge will remain..." Man, I used to eat those words up. Too bad those words didn't do him any good. I'm still standing, I doubt he is. Actually, I'm sure he's dead. He'd have gone out defending some sacred, scholarly text from bandits or something...

As Ruby continued to walk down the street, her rifle in hand, she continued to do an inventory of her old acquaintances. All the people she had worried about meeting again for the past two weeks. 'CFVY... all dead, except for maybe Fox, he only went MIA... although he'd probably do well in this world now, wasn't much of a talker to begin with. JNPR, I have no clue, they all ran after us. CRDL, I hope those dicks are dead, follow in Dove's footsteps. SSSN, deadish... SPRT, REPR, FLWR, GRDN, CMCL, aaaaaaaand RMNC... God, it was a pain chaperoning all of those teams, holding their hands as if they were children throughout the chaos.' Ruby snorted at the memories of consoling the wide eyed newbies; getting them just mentally healthy enough to then send them back out into the fray.

'Hmph, some of them were older than Yang was, they were all older than me... most of them weren't even worth nodding at, I don't remember most of the people on those teams...' Ruby actually started to go over names as if it was a game, going through the dead as though she had a stack of stat cards. She'd imagine the name, remember them for a minute, and then put them out of her mind.

'No point in mourning over them after all this time, I didn't for the last decade. It wouldn't be fair for me to feel bad for it now...'

Running alongside Mercury, having already caught up on her breath, Weiss felt the ground underneath her feet turn to asphalt. She heard Mercury make some observation, some witty remark, but it didn't register. The one time heiress wasn't out of air anymore, but she did feel a growing sense of dread as she ran towards the city. For a half second, Weiss saw what must have been Beacon's main tower in a gap in the tree branches overhead. 'Great, so we're at least somewhat close... now we've just got to grab Ruby and make a break for it. We'll make the split second decision if we want to go forward or back once we have her.'

Weiss almost felt as though she was overheating, her winter coat holding all her heat and slow cooking the flushed runner. Again, heard Mercury mutter something next to her, this time sounding as though it was directed at her.

"What Mercury?"

Mercury's voice, still level, breathed out easy. He sounded as though he hadn't been running at a near sprint for almost a half hour, staying just slow enough so that his silver head didn't outstrip Weiss and take off into the distance with her left in the dust. "Are you sure we want to go into Beacon like a pair of track stars? Running after her like this?"

"WHAT?! SO YOU THINK WE'LL JUST BAIL ON HER LIKE THIS?! AFTER ALL WE'VE GONE THROUGH TO GET HER?!"

"Whoa, okay, you did not take that the way I meant it..." Hesitating for a second, Mercury tried asking what was on his mind again. "I mean, Ruby did raise a few valid points last night. They probably won't shot at her as she is right now right? We go in after her gun's blazing, and she end up in more trouble than if she'd walked in with us..."

Weiss stayed silent, and the mixture of tension and anger emanating off the blonde made Mercury think that she had no intention of responding. But without any prompting from Mercury, and without warning him either, Weiss slowed down suddenly and veered off the road to her right. Mercury slowed down to Weiss's walking speed, falling in besides her as she stepped off the worn asphalt path.

"And we're slowing down because? Am I winning you over with my world class debating skills?"

Snorting angrily, Weiss kept walking forward without looking back. "As much as it pains me to admit it, you may be somewhat right..." Weiss looked up above her, seeing the canopy of dense purple leaves beginning to fade away behind them, already seeing gaps in the once solid overhang. "So while we are going to get Ruby, it's probably best if we first..."

"So, good old Mercury was right wasn't he?" Leering at Weiss happily, Mercury gave the blonde an exaggerated and obviously overdone smile. "Can I get a 'you were right Mercury?' I feel as though I deserve one after all this."

"Go fuck yourself."

Mercury scoffed at the blonde's rude reply. It felt sorely out of character for the prim and proper princess. "Alright, yeah, I'll go do that..." As he trailed off, Mercury looked over the horizon and saw Beacon academy's tower outlined against the dark morning sky. "Yeesh, that thing's an eyesore. I mean, seriously, why the hell is that thing still standing, couldn't be that hard to knock down right?"

He didn't get an answer back. Mercury had been expecting some snooty and high strung response from Weiss, probably something along the lines of: 'Beacon's tower is one of the most iconic and revered monuments on our planet, it is a good thing that our world didn't lose that great piece of history.' Instead, as he looked down at the substantially shorter woman standing a few steps in front of him, he saw her just staring off into the distance. But it wasn't as though she was lost in thought. It looked like Weiss had locked in on something, close to the horizon.

"Hello, earth to Weiss?' Mercury leaned in and waved his hand in front of Weiss's face, which had gone totally blank as she stared off into the distance. 'Can you read me soldier?"

Still no response. Mercury tried to follow Weiss's gaze. He crouched down to Weiss's height, who was still staring off hungrily in the distance, and tried to line up his own line of sight with hers. At first, all he saw from atop the giant hill they were stand on was Beacon's largest, once grand eastern entrance. Which had really fallen apart. Looking out, Mercury was no real critic, but he was qualified enough to say the city really did look terrible. Fallen over buildings, abandoned cars, and numerous signs of chaos adorned the street. And where damage didn't destroy the city, it looked like nature had. He could see crisscrossing green ivy strands covering every surface the vines seemed to be able to get a hold of. But looking down a bit, squinting his eyes as he looked directly under where the sun had started to rise from, he saw what Weiss had gotten hooked on.

Off in the distance, barely visible alongside the glare of the rising sun, Mercury could see a bobbing tangle of red hair off in the distance, seeming to dance over her back and along her figure in some far off breeze.

The second Mercury saw what Weiss had gotten hooked on, he reached out and grabbed Weiss's shoulder. It was a good thing that he had; Weiss totally forgot everything she'd said a few seconds ago about thinking out a plan. Weiss hissed as she felt his grip on her arm.

"Weiss, we need to think."

His words seemed to make it through to her, Weiss seeming to pull less against him under his hand. Weiss's eyes narrowed to slits as she looked out towards Ruby. She seemed to think for a second, and then brought her right hand up to her face. She hooked two fingers into her mouth, breathed in deeply so deeply that Mercury for a second wondered if Weiss wasn't an A cup after all... and then blew.

'I didn't bring my lighter with me?' Still walking forward, Ruby had started searching through her belongings as she petered along, her gaze flicking up to the road periodically. Ruby had swung her pack, an old messenger bag she'd picked up along the road, around her shoulder so that it was hanging down her chest. 'Oh yeah, I remember now, I let Weiss keep it since she makes the fires...'

"Tch!" Pulling the bag off her body, and then immediately sliding her head through strap's loop, Ruby ran her fingers over the thick yellow strap absentmindedly as it fell back into place on her back. Ruby had always liked her bag. She liked how it only dug into one of her shoulders, so that she could have her rifle strap grate along the other. Kept her from feeling lopsided as she walked along. Ruby had picked it up about a year into the apocalypse, back when Yang was still with them, and had held onto it ever since. Something about the borrowed bag was sentimental to her, something that made her value it nearly as much as her rifle and pendant. The faded bumblebee grey and yellow stripped nylon had been covered in dozens of scribbles from a black sharpie, most of which she had no clue what they meant. The little sketches ranged across dozens of topics, and showed off the artist's obvious skill. Most of the large ones were geometric designs, of bears, wolves, stars, ships, and anchors. The drawings often followed a phrase or a word, some only a single letter. A few of the scraps were interesting, or funny... she couldn't begin to imagine what "TENT BABY" even meant, which was scratched into the chest strap with big block letters.

But just as many of the artworks were sad. A wilted rose surrounded by fallen birds was traced out along the front top of the pack, just above the first zipper. A skeletal bunny with a carrot hanging just out of reach was painted on the left rim of the bag. Even more dismally grim, a G.R. and an M.R. were drawn into tombstones on the back of the bag, followed by the dates of their lives. One of the lives was long, clear into its forties. The other was so small in comparison, barely making it to ten. Ruby sometimes felt as though the ink was burning itself in between her shoulder blades. She sometimes felt the lives burning into herself, as though they were just as important to her as to whoever put them there.

Ruby had always wondered why she kept the bag around. Really, the names meant nothing to her. And if they were that bad of an influence on her mental health, all the more reason to get rid of it. But against the dozens of chances to replace the bag, Ruby instead simply replaced and restitched the broken parts. The redhead had decided that the grim sketches somehow kept her focused. They kept her alive, or at least kept her from ever even thinking of giving up. Because while they obviously never had even planed on dying, Ruby could feel the heartache of whoever had scratched in their names as clear as day.

'I wish I knew who G.R. and M.R. were, to whoever owned this bag... M.R. was a kid, maybe a son or a daughter. Maybe G.R. was a wife... At least, whoever those two were, they died on the same day. Maybe they wouldn't have wanted to be apart.'

As she took another step forward, still deep in her dark thoughts, a faint, piercing note rang out across the city. Ruby snapped out of her reflective mood, her head twitching up while trying to catch the sound. From far away, Ruby heard the soft melody, although it echoed so much that she had a hard time pin pointing where it came from.

It was a simple chime, which Ruby finally pinpointed as echoing out from the hill that she had just walked down about ten minutes prior. Only four notes. Two short, and two long. Ruby was so out of it, so lost in her thoughts, that at first she didn't remember what that melody meant. It repeated once, twice, and a third time before its significance finally dawned on her.

'FUCK! How the hell did they catch up to me?!' Ruby's thoughts scrambling, she began to walk a bit faster, although that was more her tension driving her muscles to move faster, not herself actually thinking about speed. 'Okay, fact that she's whistling means that she's stopped and isn't just running after me... still, how the hell did she catch up?! I had a fucking lead!"

Her thoughts distracted, Ruby didn't notice as she kept walking forward that there were moving shadows off to her right. Down an backstreet, something that had been stumbling around in the darkness of the closest alleyway twitched as it saw a figure move past the side street's entrance out of its own periphery. Ruby would have seen him first if she hadn't been preoccupied by other thoughts. But she herd him a second later, at he suddenly bellowed in animal rage.

Ruby stumbled back for a second, looking at the gap in the wall where the infected ran out after her from. She reached up to her shoulder, already tugging on her rifle's strap to pull it into her hands. But as she watched the first infected rush out of the dark, Ruby saw a second, and then a third figure follow. And without a second thought, Ruby turned on a heel and bolted, heading deeper into the city.

Ruby started running, hearing the infected at the back of the procession bounce off the alley wall as they all started barreling after her. She would have turned to shoot one, maybe two, but three was a bad idea. Running, hearing the snarls of the ravenous monsters chasing after her starting to fade slightly as she widened the gap between herself and the infected, Ruby glanced back.

It was a mistake, the second she looked back she felt something thin and stringy press against her shin. Whatever the thing was gave a bit, but not much, and Ruby suddenly flew forward with her leg hooked behind her. Her momentum caused her to sail through the air for a few feet before she actually fell towards the ground hard. Ruby was so surprised by her tripping that she barely got the chance to protect her face from the sudden fall.

She only half succeeded. As she flew towards the ground head first, she did protect the upper part of her face with her crossed arms. But while she protected her eyes and nose, that wasn't what collided with the ground first. With the sound of a heavy box landing from a ten foot drop, the redhead's chin bounced off the rough and jagged black surface into the road. Along with biting a good chunk of skin out of her cheek with the sudden blow, Ruby felt the skin at the very bottom of her jaw split open from the blunt force. To put it simply, the hit hurt.

Her torso slammed into the ground a second later, so hard that all of her breath whooshed out of her lungs. Lying on the ground stunned for a second, almost too shocked to move, Ruby flared back to life with a quick groan.

Ruby flipped herself over with one arm and began to backpedal across the ground while she looked in front of her, back where she had come from. Whatever had tripped her had also knocked over the following infected, and they all were sprawled out on the ground a few feet behind her. But they, already blind to surprise through their madness, got up much faster. The first one, closest and probably the most infected, shoved itself off the ground and jumped at her.

Aiming with one arm, which basically meant she wasn't aiming her rifle at all, Ruby fired a first bullet at the leaping infected. A lucky shot, it's head jerked backwards as Ruby landed a hit. But instead of celebrating, Ruby yanked back the bolt and pulled the trigger a second time, pointing her rifle blindly at the second infected which, had picked itself up off the ground and begun rushing after her as well. This bullet didn't land as cleanly, and while it did fall, it fell screaming. Ruby hoped that it was down and wouldn't get back up.

Before Ruby had a chance to fire at the third, it was already past her rifle barrel. It, an infected woman, shoved the rifle away, pushing Ruby's entire right arm to the side with the gun, and fell down on top of her.

Reaching out and locking her arm, Ruby wrapped her hand around the woman's neck and kept the infected's teeth away at arm length. If it had still been able to put together a coherent thought, she would have grabbed Ruby and pulled her in. It's own weight pressing down on Ruby, she would have found it easy with her leverage. But lost in mindless rage, the infected simply let her arms batter against Ruby, smacking and clawing at her chest and neck. Ruby's other arm was still at her side, weighed down and tangled awkwardly by the rifle's strap.

Looking up, Ruby saw the face of the infected woman snarling down at her. The woman's crooked and broken teeth, mixed in with rotting, cankerous flesh. And watching the snapping mouth take bites at the air separating them, the space between Ruby's shoulder blades suddenly seemed like it was on fire. She felt G.R. and M.R.'s names blaze into her back, and that inferno leapt into her eyes. 'Weiss can see this! I cannot die here! I can see myself die for her, but I am NEVER DYING IN FRONT OF HER! I WILL NEVER MAKE HER SEE THAT!'

Full of fury, Ruby brought her foot up in between herself and the hissing, clawing woman, and shoved. As hard as she could, Ruby put enough force into the kick to get the infected off her, and the snarls skipped a beat as the woman flipped over Ruby's head. The infected passed out of Ruby's line of sight, but she did hear a hard thud as the infected landed hard against the road's surface.

Ruby pushed herself off the ground, almost toppling again as she both spun and rose off the ground in one jerky, disjointed motion. Spinning on one knee quickly, Ruby almost toppled herself as she spun around again. The infected woman had already started pushing itself off the ground as well, one of her arms clawing at the air in between them as she came to her knees. Not taking the time to actually grab the rifle correctly, the strap still tangled weirdly around her arm, Ruby just wrapped her fingers around the long metal barrel of the gun. She could feel the sight under her palm, the little protruding piece of metal at the end of the barrel digging into her skin. So swinging wildly, Ruby used the cedar butt of her gun as a club and bated at the infected's head. She connected, the woman's face suddenly turning to the left from the blow. Ruby heard a satisfying crack at the same moment, although she hoped that was the sound of bone breaking and not of her wooden stock splintering under the sudden strike.

Bringing her rifle back again, getting ready to deal a final blow, Ruby heard a harsh ping sound. It was an odd noise, one that Ruby couldn't quite place although she'd heard it before, almost like a rusty stapler getting pressed into wood.

In response to the sudden sound the woman's body below her suddenly twitched sharply before it finally fell perfectly still, and Ruby felt several flecks of blood splatter against her pant legs. Landing face down, Ruby could see clear as day a bullet hole already leaking putrid, rotten blood out of the infected woman's back.

Looking up, Ruby already knew what she was going to see. It took her a second to find them, but she knew they were there. Finally she saw them, two dark shadows standing under an overhang of bricks. At first they only looked like distortions in the world, and Ruby would have dismissed them. But her brain picked up on something her eyes didn't, and after a few seconds of starring into the darkness, the shadows shifted.

Stepping forward, Ruby saw two figures, both dressed in black and aiming at her, slowly walk forward and into the middle of the road about thirty feet away. Both had their faces covered, one by a mask and another by a cowl and scarf.

Her could-be executioners were only a stone throw away.

Her would-be executioners. In one fluid motion, they both raised their arms and aimed their respective weapons at Ruby. One stood with a staggered stance, gripping an old pistol with both of his hands and aiming at her face. The other stood just to the left of the first, aiming a rifle as nice as Ruby's own at the redhead. Ruby noticed good six inch long silencer screwed onto the end of the rifle. She couldn't remember the last time she saw as nice a weapon mod in this apocalypses. It really was a beauty, and Ruby understood now what had hit the infected woman and ended mod was probably more expensive than the entire rifle it was attached to, if it did it's job that well. 'I'm about to get gunned down and I'm admiring riflry? Maybe I really haven't changed that much...'

Ruby's stomach sank. 'I guess this is my hand... better play like a fucking cheat if I want to win...'

Weiss was already down the hill, past the first few buildings, and flying through the city outskirts on her short legs. She'd started running the second she saw Ruby run, and saw the figures run out of the dark alleys after her. Unable to see Ruby now that she didn't have the high ground, Weiss had to just hope that Ruby wouldn't turn off the main street.

Suddenly, out of nowhere, Weiss involuntarily flinched as she heard one loud crack. She barely even twitched after she heard two. After all these years, Weiss knew the sound of Ruby's rifle almost as well as she recognized the call of the redhead's own voice.

Weiss waited for a moment, not slowing down with her anticipation, but running forward on bated breath. She waited for the final shot, or any more if Ruby oddly missed... and it felt like the world had come crashing down around Weiss when she didn't hear a third ear splitting crack.

Still running, Weiss began pleading with the universe, or whatever she thought it was, in her mind, to Ruby. 'Hold on Ruby! It doesn't matter if it bites you, they aren't clickers yet! Just don't die, and you'll be fine! We can patch you up, we can...'

From the sounds of Ruby's shot, she guessed Ruby was maybe five minutes away, and either directly in front of her, or a side street in either direction. She hoped she would make it, unaware that Ruby had run into an even greater threat. One that Weiss would be no help in, weaponless and unable to hit the broad side of a barn even if she was armed...

Ruby started backpedaling, walking backwards while she kept her rifle aimed at the one with a rifle. 'If one's going to shoot me, I'd rather shoot rifle girl and have to duke it out with pistol boy. Distance will be my friend in this fight...'

Those were really the only generalizations she could make about the two. The woman was about a head taller than the man standing next to her, and from this far away Ruby could still tell that she would have been extremely beautiful. She had the figure everyone seemed to go for, tall and slender, yet not thin like a twig. Ruby would have fallen in that category if she'd been maybe six inches taller, but her five foot seven left her at average height and average build. Pretty, but not drop dead gorgeous...

Ruby scolded herself, annoyed at the errant thought. 'Now is not the time to make comparisons and get jealous! 'Hey I love your hair, are you going to kill me?' God, I'm an idiot...'

But Ruby got hung on the looks of the others. It was really the only thing she could do, starring down the barrel of her rifle. Ruby could tell that she fell shorter than both of them, although she was probably only an inch or two shorter than the man. He was lean too, although he seemed to be proportioned nicely, like an acrobat.

Still walking back, Ruby was making sure to pick up her foot entirely and place it down slowly, so that she didn't find herself tripped over again. 'Although, if they were laughing at me landing like a turtle on my back hard enough, they may decide not to shot me.'

Suddenly, Ruby heard a disgusting, gurgling retch coming from her right. Looking down, Ruby saw the second infected, still writhing on the ground. Apparently she'd only mortally wounded it, not actually dealt it a killing blow. It's death throws were distracting to say the least, as it hacked and snorted on blood leaking from it's mouth, writhing on it's side in a growing pool of dust and it's blood.

The man, taking a small step towards her, pointed at her with the secondary hand that had been wrapped over the other. He still pointed the gun at her as confidently with just his left hand, and immediately the only think Ruby could think of while she looked at his ski mask covered face was 'gangster'.

"Drop the rifle."

'Uh, not only is he completely covered up so I can see nothing about him, he even sound's bland. If I'm going to get shot, I'd like it to be by somebody with a bit of passion! If you're gonna kill me, I'd like it to be with a sneer, a grimace, a laugh. Now some blank voice without a face... maybe I'm being a bit melodramatic.' Opening her mouth to respond, Ruby started saying: "Not-," but was cut off by another lurching gurgle from the infected below her.

"No-," Ruby tried again, but was just as quickly cut off by the writhing figure again. Ruby started speaking two more times, but got overrun by the infected again both times. Finally, with rage, Ruby took her sight off the two gunmen, and before they had a chance to react shot the already dead infected in the head. She flicked the rifle back up at the woman again, pulling back the pin in the same motion. The spent bullet flew across her field of vision, and as the gold blur flipped end over end past her head and over her shoulder, Ruby finally got to speak.

"Not a chance. Do you think I'm that stupid? I made it this long by not letting go of my baby, I think you'd have already assumed that I'd say no."

The man took another half step forward. "Don't think we won't shoot you." His tone of voice made Ruby believe that he expected this would devolve into a fight. Those were the worst brawls to end up in, where one person had already resigned themselves to the shootout.

'It's always better when everybody involved wants to run for the hills.' Lifting her head up slightly, although she didn't shift her arms and shoulders in the slightest, she quipped: "I would rather you didn't." As Ruby spoke, she felt a trickle of blood shake off her chin and drip down onto her shirt. An errant thought, Ruby wondered if the blood would stain.

They all stood there silently, at a standoff. And as she stood there, Ruby started getting the strangest vibes that something was off. At first, it inspired worry in her, that something was triggering Ruby's old huntress senses. Maybe the redhead was feeling there were more thugs nearby that she should be worrying about. Ruby quickly looked at the buildings around, checking the edges of her vision and periphery for movement.

But there was nothing. Ruby knew there was nothing really, because she was sure that her source of unease was the duo now standing maybe thirty or so or so feet up the street. There was something off about both of them, something that put Ruby on edge. The man in front seemed relaxed enough with pointing his pistol, which was old, black and in seriously in need of a polishing, at her with one hand. But his other hand... well, Ruby couldn't quite place it. It seemed as though he didn't know what to do with his right, and it hung awkwardly at his side.

And the woman standing next to him was just giving Ruby the hibijibis. Through all of this gunplay, and all their short banter as they threatened each other, it seemed like 'Ms. Mystery' was getting more and more comfortable. Even with a gun pointed at her head the cowled woman, who had yet to speak a word, had slowly lowered her rifle to the point where she was aiming at Ruby's gut. 'Definitely not a killing wound. Although... I guess a strong enough rifle pretty much ruins everything it's pointed at. So maybe she doesn't need to shoot high.'

As though she was reading Ruby's thoughts, the woman seemed to shift, and let her rifle droop down even further. Now the silenced rifle aimed between Ruby's legs, and it would probably miss if the mystery woman suddenly fired. She finally spoke up, and with a somewhat familiar accent, the cowled woman asked one muffled word through her face mask. A single word that sent a bolt of bone chilling ice through the redhead's system.

"...Ruby?"

Ruby, at the call of her own name, skittered back several half steps. 'SHIT! I knew somebody would remember me! I don't even know who they are, but they somehow remember me! I've got to get out of here NOW!'

When the redhead backed up, taking two or three hasty steps back away from whoever the two were, the woman calmly stepped forward in time with Ruby. Calling out to the frantic woman backing away, with a voice that Ruby still couldn't place, the rifle toting woman asked: "I... it's really you? Yes, it must be, your voice hasn't changed. I could barely tell though, everything else is so different. I never really thought to imagine you older than twenty, you were so lively I somehow thought you wouldn't age; long hair doesn't suit you though..."

Aiming at her angrily, feeling even more disturbed by the calm that the woman was emanating during what should have been a frantic standoff, Ruby almost screamed back at the woman. "Thanks for the complements and insults... And who the hell are you?!"

She seemed to not be paying attention, and her shadowed face cocked to the side while she looked at Ruby. "You look so different though... you look worn, I don't think I ever remember a tired Ruby..."

"OKAY BITCH, ENOUGH NIT-PICKING WHAT I LOOK LIKE! WHO THE HELL ARE YOU?!" That final yell teared through three octaves as Ruby screamed, almost feeling totally powerless in the odd and pointless standoff. At some point during their aiming, every single one of them realized that no one had the intention to shoot. Even the guy over standing back and watching the spectacle in front of him had lowered his gun a bit.

At that final yell, which left Ruby's throat feeling raw, the woman finally reacted. Letting go of her rifle with her dominant hand, taking her finger off the trigger, she hooked a finger under her hood and pulled the cloth back.

As the black fabric of her hood fell back, the charcoal grey scarf wrapped around her face slacked as well, as if they were both holding the other in place. The hood falling off her head, scarlet red hair tumbled down the woman's back, almost making it down to her hips. And no longer hidden in shadows, the woman's emerald eyes made her easy enough to identify.

Finally lowering her own rifle, Ruby couldn't believe her eyes for a moment. It seemed like too grand a coincidence. 'But the world runs on crazy coincidence now, doesn't it?' Unable to hold onto her thoughts any longer, she simply breathed out in astonishment.

"...Pyrrha?"

The champion's old smile flashed across her face, and she strode forward while holding out a hand to the redhead. "It's been too long Ruby... we have an entire decade to catch up on now, don't we?"

And what I hope you all think is a great end to what I consider to be the end of Act One. The end of my first, actual writing project.

I didn't have much to say, and I won't drone on and bore you all. I've learned a lot this year, both through trial and error, and other authors and their great advice. I've still got a long way to go, but I think it's pretty obvious I've improved from when I wrote chapter one about three months ago. With luck, I'll still be improving through all of next year too.

So I'll just say 'Hurray' to a new year, and hopefully an even better Act Two than Act One!