Months. It had been months since Ruby had tried to stop Weiss from leaving Beacon. Months since she had failed. After a long and arduous recovery, Ruby was finally back on her feet. She returned to her now empty dorm room and sat down on her bed. She gave her hands a good look. It was simply a miracle that she was alive, the doctors had said. Yang and Blake had arrived a few minutes after her fight with Weiss, and had somehow gotten her back before she bled to death on that snowy field.
She thought about Weiss' words that day. What did she mean when she talked about revenge? What happened to her in the past? Why now? Her head was filled to the brim with questions that couldn't be answered. It wasn't long before she lay down her head and fell into a restless sleep.
Blake could hear her from a mile away. Before the inevitable, she put her book away and sat up in her bed. Yang whipped the door open and stormed into their room. She slammed it shut with enough force to put a crack right down the middle. "Ugh!" She exclaimed as she sat down heavily in her chair. "Still no sign of her anywhere!"
Blake decided against bringing up the door. Instead, she said, "We'll find her, don't worry."
"I'm not worried!" Yang snapped. "But my little sister almost died trying to stop her! and now we have no idea where she went, or even why she left! It's just so...so…"
"Aggravating?" Blake offered.
"Yes!" Yang replied.
Blake chose her next words carefully, "We are going to find her, Yang, but we have to be patient. there's no point in wasting our energy when we are going to need it to bring Weiss back."
Yang looked at her for a moment with an angry look in her eyes, but then conceded defeat, "I suppose you're right. I guess I'm still just scared about the fact that the only thing that saved Ruby's life was that note she left us."
Blake nodded. They had come back from their classes to find a hastily written note by Ruby on their door. It read, "Weiss ran away. Going to get her. Towards the altar." Yang knew about the altar that Ruby was speaking of, it was the altar that they had visited many times when they were younger. It was that fact alone that had allowed them to find Ruby in time, and Blake had not forgotten that.
"How about we go check on Ruby?" Blake asked the blonde-haired girl. "I believe she got out of the infirmary yesterday." The road to recovery is a long one. She thought to herself.
Yang nodded and stood up. "Sounds like a plan." Blake stood, leaving a note on the door that it needed to be replaced, and they walked to Ruby's room.
When they arrived, Yang tapped softly on the door and opened it. "Ruby?" She asked quietly. She walked in to see Ruby lying on her bed, not asleep anymore but clearly not wanting to move.
Ruby rolled her head to face the door. "Hey guys." She replied as Blake followed Yang into the room.
"How're you doing?" Yang asked, taking a seat on the bed next to Ruby. Blake contented herself with standing.
"Fine." Ruby replied. Could've seen that coming. Yang chided herself.
"Hey," Yang said, "Don't be so down, alright? We are going to find her, and when we do we're gonna bring her back. You hear me?"
"I do." Ruby answered, "But we wouldn't have to find her if I'd been strong enough to stop her."
"Don't say that, Ruby." Blake chimed in. "You did everything you could, and next time we're going to do it together. Until we do, we're all going to train as hard as we can to prepare."
"You better believe it." Yang added. "We'll be right alongside you next time. And Weiss will have no choice but to come back."
"You think so?" Ruby asked.
"I know so, Ruby, team RWBY won't be split up so easily." Yang replied. She put on a smile for her little sister. "Now come on and get out of bed. Let's go get you something to eat. I bet they gave you nothing but mush in that hospital."
That, at least, brought a little smirk out of the smaller girl. "You don't know the half of it."
They all made their way down to the cafeteria together, and quickly got their food. As they went to find a table, however, the girls could feel the eyes of everyone in the room turning to glance at them. News spread quickly around Beacon, and quite some time had passed since Weiss left. This was also the first anyone had seen of Ruby since her battle with Weiss. By the time they had sat down, Ruby had lost her appetite again.
She didn't do much but pick at her food for a bit, but did manage to get some down. As she rolled her peas around her plate, she heard a familiar voice. "Hey Ruby." She looked up to see the goofy smile of Jaune Arc looking down at her. "Is this seat taken?" Motioning to the seat next to her.
Ruby smiled at Jaune's attempt to sound suave and shook her head.
Jaune took a seat and then said, "Haven't seen you in a while. How're you doing?" His usual cheerfulness was somewhat subdued, but he seemed to be making an effort.
"I'm fine." Ruby answered. She then proceeded to continue the rolling of her peas.
"Ruby," Jaune said, "I know this kind of thing can't be easy, and you know I'm not really great with words, but I do know that Team JNPR will help you no matter what. Know that we've got your back. You aren't alone in wanting to bring Weiss back."
"Thanks Jaune," Ruby answered, "But I screwed up. I don't want my friends to get hurt as a result of my mistakes."
"Don't even try, Ruby." He replied. "I wasn't asking your permission. I'm telling you that we are going to help you get Weiss back, no matter what it takes." Jaune smiled, "Besides, we can't let you guys have all the fun. There are bound to be some nasty monsters in our way."
For the first time in a while, Ruby felt something stir within her. Hope. She broke into a pretty wide grin. "Thanks Jaune." She then addressed the entire table. "I couldn't ask for better friends." Ruby's grin was infectious, and soon her teammates were smiling as well.
Like I said Weiss. Ruby thought. I will bring you back.