Oh wow. It's been so long. I wrote this chapter in segments, out of order, over the course of 2 months, all of course well after 4 am. There are errors. The pacing is probably bad. Please inform me so I can correct it later. This is the chapter that single handedly stopped all of my writing progress, and I'm done tweaking it for the moment, I need progress. I'm sorry, here it is, blarglajdlsf.
Ruby was numb. Her body felt distant from her as she ran through a snow clad glade, a Beowolf following close behind. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't flash away with her semblance, the beast closing in. The moon stared her down in her pathetic jog, the white surface filling a third of the sky, too close to be natural she thought. Looking behind her, the movement of her neck feeling too difficult and stiff, she caught a glimpse of the lunging creature before she slammed into the ground, her muscles tensing violently. Pushing against it with her on her back, Ruby thought it was odd how her little arms could hold it back, given that she struggled enough. Waving her arms in front of her, she felt a pressure being relieved from her arm, like a needle being pulled out. For another minute she struggled, body still numb.
Then she felt the pain.
Grinding her teeth, Ruby's arms gave way to the enormous weight of the Beowolf, it's claws tearing into her body. Everything that had once hurt now came back, the little girl rolling in place to try and displace the wounds, but found no solution. The image of the moon burned itself into her mind as the red claws dragged across her face, blinding her and delivering her into blackness. Letting out a stifled cry, she reached for her eyes but did not feel flesh, and rolled over in anguish, her body feeling even more pain which now felt amplified compared to her numb state before. Feeling that the Grimm was not on her for the moment, Ruby fought the ground until she felt earth beneath her feet and ran with all her might, crying with eyes she couldn't see.
Something loose and drooping ran across her body, but she ignored it, then she felt the distinctive touch of dirt under foot, wet crumbs sticking between her toes. After a moment of blind dashing, Ruby banged her knee into something low and hard, a chain of clamor ensuing where it sounded like falling debris. Picking her self up again, she continued to run until she slammed into something, sometimes something hard, sometimes something like fabric, and as she did so, she couldn't hear the growl of the Beowolf anymore but rather the sound of voices, whispers and shouts, inquisitive tones, and confused expletives.
"Ruby!" she heard someone call, a girl. Terrified of the notion that the Grimm learned her name, Ruby forced her legs harder despite the aches of her being.
But she didn't get much farther.
"Ruby!" they said again, grabbing the young girl and trapping her in their arms. Ruby struggled and lost control of herself, but they just squeezed harder, repeating her name. "Ruby! It's me, Yang! Ruby! Come on, wake up! It's okay..."
"Let go of me!" Ruby cried, still fighting. "Stop tormenting me! Why!? Why do you exist!? Why...!?" her voice broke off as her body weakened it's spasms.
Yang followed Ruby down when the latter's knees gave out, cradling the frail figure in her embrace. Her sister was blind folded with heavy gauze, same around her chest frame where a patient's gown dangled, and blood trickled from a dot shaped hole in her arm. "Ruby, talk to me, what's wrong?" she spoke, her voice catching in her throat, "what happened to you?" Incoherent blabbering lead the brawler to believe Ruby wasn't really awake, and feared the other possibilities. Looking around at the gathering of soldiers flocking in to see who was screaming in the middle of the night, Yang could only think of one thing to do and that was to hide her sister from prying observers.
"Yang! Is that Ruby!?" Qrow sternly asked, Weiss next to him. "What happened?"
"I don't know!" Yang lifted her up into a bridal carry, hiding the girl's face in her shoulder although she knew no one would've really recognized Ruby with the dim lighting and bandaged body.
"You don't know who it is?" Qrow yelled, not angry but stressed out.
"I don't know what happened!" She jogged up to her uncle, pulling close to his ear and whispering "it's Ruby, I don't know what happened though."
"Is it Ruby?" exclaimed Weiss, noticeably panicked and reaching for Yang's arm.
"Shut up Weiss, Yang, bring her inside!"
Running to their tent, the blonde shushing and stroking the exposed hair of the broken girl along the way, the other former students of Beacon watched with wide eyes as Yang laid Ruby down on a hammock, pulling blankets over her and hugging her head to keep calming her.
Qrow threw his hands at the youngsters, shooing them, "out, out!" until it was only him, his niece, and Weiss. "Ruby, can you hear me? What happened?"
"I think she had a nightmare or something!"
Weiss, who hovered over Yang, pointed out the obvious, as someone needed to. "Those are patient duds, why is she wearing those? What'd they do?"
"Dammit!" went Qrow, standing up and away from his nieces. "They did something with her eyes no doubt, I was worried they'd would," he whispered the last half, though Yang and Weiss heard just fine but thought nothing of his distrust, as Ruby's current state clouded their reasoning. "I'm going to find the medical staff and find out what went on, I'll be back..."
After Qrow ran out, Ruby's cries simmered down to weak whimpers, asking, "Yang?"
"Yeah?" The brawler gave her room to breathe.
Ruby uncurled herself, though kept a hand pressed against her chest. Her other hand rested on her brow in a tired fashion, and she said, "don't let me fall asleep again..."
"Why?" returned Weiss softly, "you need your rest you know, and we're here for you."
"Nightmares..." Ruby continued, "...every single night. Every single night I see the Grimm, and I can't stop—" her voice started breaking again, as she was clearly not finished with crying, "I can't stop them."
Weiss and Yang looked to each other, distraught and lost.
Qrow came back with one of the doctors not long after, the doctor explaining the gist of Ruby's operation, telling them that Ruby needed to rest for a few days before taking off the bandages, and that after that she would be fine. Qrow talked them into letting Ruby stay with her friends while she rested, though the doctor gave the huntsmen explicit orders that the young girl had to report to her unit when the bandages came off.
As time passed, Ruby sobered up whilst her teammates fell victim to the late hour, Weiss passing out on her bunk while Yang tried cajoling a restless Ruby into sleep. Hearing footsteps belonging to a single person draw near, Yang asked who it was that entered the tent.
"Jaune, why?" he responded, standing at the door flap without peering inside, knowing better than to intrude on the girl's privacy.
Yang whispered to her sister, "hold on," getting up and meeting the boy just out of sight. Speaking quietly so no one else could hear, she conspired with the knight. "How do you feel about taking another ride outside?"
He folded his arms, deep set wrinkles forming in his seldom used brown coat, shrugging as he thought out loud "I wouldn't be horribly against it, I need all the practice I can get. Wait, why do you care?" His eyes widened and darted to her tent room and then to her pajama's, certain thoughts rising to mind, asking "wait, you don't need me gone because you're, uh, you've got company" he air quoted 'company' with his hands, "and everyone else is gone, do you?"
The brawler cocked her head briefly before slapping his shoulder, dismissing his insinuation, "no you jackass, I was wondering if you could like, I don't know, give Ruby a ride or something to keep her mind of things, tire her out, keep her company. I would but she's just getting more antsy."
"Ruby's here?" he almost shouted, resisting the urge to explode in his surprise.
A frown. "Yeah, she's apparently been having nightmares and is wide awake right now." The blonde folded her arms too, striking a pose and scratching her head wistfully.
"Why didn't she come to us before now?" he asked, perplexed by Ruby's sudden presence where before she eluded them.
A sigh. "You'd be better asking her rather than me."
Jaune didn't wish to waste time. "Kay, I'll be back in a couple minutes."
Nodding to each other, they separated, Jaune to get his horse, and Yang to ready Ruby. When they regrouped just outside, Jaune saw Ruby in her fresh, vulnerable state for the first time, hushed in his shock. Yang shepherd her to Jaune, the smaller girl wrapped up in one of Yangs oversized coats and almost perfectly sized boots. She too remained silent, letting her sister and friend direct her up and onto the horse. The boy was glad he caught the shifting of facial muscles telegraphing Ruby's abrupt curiosity, hidden behind her medical mask.
Climbing on after her, the knight circled the chestnut horse to settle control, looking to Yang and saluting as he said, "I'll bring her back... I uh, I guess in like an hour maybe?" He didn't know when at all really, believing his interpretation of Yang's desire's to be keeping Ruby company until she tires, but he had no idea when that would be, and he didn't want to say 'when she get's tired,' either, thinking his passenger might not appreciate being treated like a toddler.
"Doesn't matter, just no funny business Jaune. If I found out you did something, there's a line of people you know who might be inclined to kill you" she warned.
Images of sitting at the end of Weiss's blade and Yang's gauntlets during training flashed through his mind, and without a shred of humor or sarcasm replied, "I know. I'm more upset by the fact that you don't completely trust me..."
In a rare moment, Yang gave a sincere apology, "sorry," slightly ashamed of herself as she nodded her head, averting her gaze.
Sighing, Jaune gave Ruby warning to hold on, starting the horse along on a slow trot. The clouds splotched the sky, and the rider followed the rays of scattered moonlight and tent lights out of the encampment, prompting the girl's first words to him since she last saw him before the attack on Vale. "Not into the woods, not too far."
Jaune strained his ears to hear her whisper over the low whistle of passing wind. "Of course," was his answer, one part agreement upon what he thought was an obvious assumption, one part unease, unsure why she felt it necessary to say it at all. "Yet again I meet you, Ruby Rose, one on one, looking worse for wear. You don't have the best of luck, do you?" he solemnly asked, remembering the previous times he's had to comfort her. It felt too often to him, and not from her own weakness but from luck's cruel tastes.
"I guess," she replied. He waited for a longer answer, but got none.
"Well guess what, I think I can do something this time. Here, I've figured out a riding path, for practice you know? Promise to hold on tight though, okay?"
"Sure..." she mumbled, arms loosely laying against her driver's belly, arbitrarily skeptical. Then Jaune kicked the side of the horse. Then the horse started running. Cold, brisk air rushed against her skin moist by sweat, loud and embracing, like whenever she flew the air in a fight, except now there was an irregular motion pattern made by the hind quarters of the horse, bucking her up and into Jaune's back with every fast step. Her arms cinched around his waist and she buried her head in between his shoulders, his hoody flapping atop her hair as she muffled her laughter into his back, her giggles vibrating from her chest into his. In her delight, she didn't even notice her new eye ache, and though she couldn't see it, he too smiled gleefully, his skill greatly tested by having not only a passenger but racing in dark conditions, tested like one who races their vehicles through familiar roads.
Starting to loose sufficient vision to run, the knight slowed the horse to a walk, petting him for good measure. "We'll relax for a bit."
"What's her name?" Ruby asked, voice noticeably more lively, though still soft.
"His," Jaune corrected, though gently, "his name is... well, I'm still deciding. I'm really liking the idea of Captain Nitzel Schruffle Wuggen or something like that..."
A giggle. "Captain Nizel Shuffle Wiggins? Really?"
"No, Captain Nitzel Schruffle Wuggen, come on Ruby, don't be rude."
"Is that so?" The way in which Ruby's soft voice drifted like italics through the air as her cheek pressed into him tickled something in Jaune's brain, sending shiver's down his spine, forcing him to clear his throat to remain on his train of thought.
"Yep. It's either that or Shit Face" he stated in a 'matter of fact' kind of tone.
"But..." she started, stuttering, "that rude simply— that's simply rude."
"Yeah," he retorted, "he can be a rude horse. He's lucky I'm so forgiving. So yeah, Captain Nitzel Schruffle Wuggen it is, or Levon for short."
"Huh?"
"He shall be Levon, and he shall be a good horse... hopefully, I hope, I'll try." His confidence fell off.
A comfortable silence ensued, only now the hoots of owls in the wet winter woods catching their attention. Minutes passed and Jaune stopped them at a clearing, exclaiming in hushed words and phrases, helping Ruby down as he did so. "What is it?" she asked.
"You're not going to believe this, but there is a uh, nest, swarm? A bunch, I guess is what you'd call it, a bunch of fireflies down the hill here, and guess whose there..." Jaune whispered, pleased and smug. Ruby shrugged. He threw down his horse blanket for him and Ruby to sit on, Levon kneeling behind the girl. "Ren and Nora."
She followed his hand downwards, resting bottoms first then pulling her knees up to her chin. "What're they doing here?"
"Dancing." A chuckle.
"How so? Like slow or goofy?"
"Like, slow and completely lost in the moment, they don't even notice us." From where Jaune sat, past some grass granting them cover, down a far stretch of hill, in the middle of a swirl of softly floating fireflies danced the two in question. It was a classical dance, to his surprise, Ren's arm around Nora's waist, and her hand resting on his shoulder, both of them joining their second hand together at the side. "It's about time there's progress on the front. Wait, are fireflies in season, late fall, early winter?"
She didn't believe him, it was too random, too nice a thought. "You're kidding right?"
"Naw, here, I'll video tape it, and show it to you later..." Whipping out his scroll, Jaune started recording the scene.
"That's odd. Have you seen them do this before?"
"No, we stumbled onto them by luck, serious." He waved his scroll around, making sure to capture Ruby's fleeting chuckle.
"Heh. Well that's nice."
"Yeah," Jaune nodded to no one's sight. "What do you think their children will be like? I'm thinking the first born's going to be like Nora. Ginger hair, but pink eyes, he's going to be wild all round."
She giggled. "Black hair, blue eyes, she's going to be adorable. "
"Is that a bamble get I hear?" Jaune drawled as he looked to Ruby.
Her mouth motioned words but took several seconds to finally remark "bamble get?" If anyone could see her brow, it would've been scrunched in confusion.
"Bamble— eh, fu— ugh..." Jaune drew his tongue between his lips to blow a raspberry. "Hmm, gamble, is that a bet I hear? What do we gamble?" he said quickly.
"Food— uh, no, uhm, I don't know" She shook her head. Hunger gnawed at her, but that had apparently become standard.
He spoke out loud for his own sake as much as hers. "Well what do want in the event of victory? A dare would be stupid... maybe a gift."
"Sure," she agreed.
"Either to the winner, or maybe to Ren and Nora."
"Or the kid."
"Or the kid," he echoed.
"Something worth it, like a weapon."
"Nothing too grown up, maybe a toy."
"Something meaningful though, like a pet."
"Yeah, like a dog."
"Yeah, like a golden retriever."
"What, no, like a wolf hybrid."
Jaune nodded. "I think we have our bet."
"So, if the kid is black haired and pinked eyed, you'll get him a retriever, and if she's orange and blue, I get her a wolf?"
"What? You just described Ren and Nora. You mean if it's a boy with orange hair and blue eyes, then wolf, but if it's a girl with black hair and blue eyes, retriever."
"Wait, you have it backwards."
"No I— oh shit. Yeah, if she has blue hair and orange eyes, retriever, and visa versa.
"Yeah, and pink— no, orange hair and black eyes, wolf."
"Wait."
"We're too tired for this."
"Yeah."
"Don't forget this conversation though."
"I don't think it would be fair to bet on something like this actually."
"What?" he recoiled, "does the notion of gambling on someone's life bother—"
Her head jerked in his direction, "—what? No. I just think it's obvious that Nora's genes will come through stronger than Ren's."
Jaune took a long moment to logically come to the same conclusion as Ruby, but struck a brick wall. "What?"
"Well, Nora's stronger than Ren, so she's got the dominant genes, so... pink hair... orange eyes..." Ruby paused. "Pink— orange hair, blue eyes..."
"But you said..." He stopped himself and disregarded the failure in consistency. "Anyways, you know that's not how genes work, right?"
"Well, I remember napping during that science week, but, I remember the teacher saying that the stronger genes are the dominant ones."
"That's... exactly the opposite of what the teacher said. Well not opposite, but that's not how it works, dominant genes just means something about some genes taking precedence in determining... genes."
"But how does that make sense? Are you saying a strength gene could lose to a non-strengthy gene? That's stupid."
"Yeah, that's not how that works at all. In any capacity."
"How does that make sense?"
"I don't know. Sorcery."
"You're going to have to explain it to me later." The two of them left each other alone for the moment, Ruby taking to touching finger tip to finger tip. Standard sensations became nonstandard whilst blind, her imagination filling in many of the blanks before her. Finally, "anyways, I was thinking you'll be their godfather." The concept brought a smaller yet stronger smile to her lips.
"You think? I mean..." Jaune sounded dubious, and started considering the other candidates, "Weiss, no, mean aunt maybe. Blake, no, absent aunt. Yang, no, but cool baby sitter. You... maybe, maybe Pyrrha, and I guess maybe me."
"What do you mean 'maybe' for me? They definitely wouldn't choose me" she said cooly.
"You could protect them a lot better than I could, and you're sweet, so not a bad choice." He smiled to himself, realizing once again she couldn't see his face.
"Thank you," a smile, "but I think they'd probably trust you still."
"Why?"
"I don't know, I feel mother's have a bad track record in our world, fate would be kinder to you."
They sat in silence for a moment, the boy seriously considering what she could've meant by that. "I don't think I have the whole story on that, but I think I might see where you're coming from."
"You and Nora have also been hurt less than the rest of us, so, yeah..." Fingertips traced from her heart to her collar bone, then to her shoulder, finally drawing a line from her neck to her bandaged brow. "I forgot how much pain hurts" she continued, contemplative even in her simple statement.
"I'm sorry." His voice cracked quietly.
"Don't be, you weren't the one who did this to me. What's-his-face and Grimm did this to me... and, something I've never seen."
His head turned to her, her distant tone making his heart skip a beat, a fearful thread pulling throughout his body. "Wait, you mean like a Grimm uncommon to Vale? Like some of the migrated Grimm I heard about?"
"No," she said, Jaune's fear becoming more tangible. "I've read all the books on Grimm many times before, illustrated mostly, and what I saw wasn't in any of the books."
"That's... worrisome." The existence of Grimm had always been a question for the ages, where they came from, and why they do what they do, but something made people feel safe in simply believing they knew what kind of monsters were out there. People like Jaune and Ruby knew all the different kinds, even if they hadn't seen them in person. Any seeds of doubt in their foundation of knowledge scared them, just another step closer to the unknown. "What did it look like?"
No longer steady were the fingers upon her face, as they now tapped at her temple non-rhythmically. "Jaune, it... it was made of smoke, Jaune," Ruby's irregular breathing shot equally irregular bursts of visible breath into the air, "it was like black smoke, and it smiled at me, Jaune, with pearly white, perfect teeth, Jaune, it smiled at me, deliberately, Jaune..."
Jaune saw the first stages of hysteria and intervened. "Ruby, hey, calm down, did this thing really freak you out? Usually Grimm don't bother you." Dropping his scroll, he grabbed her frantic hand, clapping both of his around her pale skin, both beings cold to the touch.
Tears behind cloth formed, "I don't know," her voice broke, a faint whine choking her breaths in between phrases, "there was something about it, or maybe the fact that I saw it vaporize a kid, a baby, had something to do with it."
For the first time he could recall, he gasped. "No way... no Ruby..."
Thinking back minutes before, talking about Ren and Nora's hypothetical child, Ruby, even if for a moment, imagined a life and personality to this child. Someone who would grow up to be someone else. A person, just like her or Jaune. They have a future. But the child she saw, who had very real parents, who suffered real death, had itself ended before it could ever know anything, it was killed before it could ever live. A person who could've stood right alongside Ruby, or Jaune, or Ren, or anyone, talking, acting, aware, was simply erased from all of those fates. "Right in front of me Jaune, it was just a baby—" she stopped, the words not forming for the effort to resist sobbing proved too much.
"Shhh, shhh, you can't think about that," he whimpered, pulling her into his chest, muffling her cries. It proved too much for Jaune as well. Pyrrha leaving, innocents dying, civil war, and Ruby's honest pathetic state wore him down. "Don't think about it, I'm sorry, but it's too much." His eyes watered and turned red, but he tried his damnedest to keep it just at that. How could Ruby find confidence if he didn't show any either.
"I don't want to hunt anymore," she continued. "I'm scared, I'm terrified, I've never felt this helpless." It registered barely as a whisper.
"I... I can't think of any nice words, Ruby, other than..." Silence... on his part.
What was he to say? He couldn't know the depths Ruby had mentally fallen. Thinking hard on trying to relate, they sat there for several minutes, her whimpers weak but enduring.
At least, until finally she composed herself if only enough to mumble at a steady pace, a somber metronome conducting her confession. "And it's not just the baby, but I didn't realize it until I saw that thing, but... I'm so tired." The air became heavier, thicker, at her word, at 'tired', the burden of going on suddenly palpable. "I'm not even seventeen yet, and I've given so much to my... ideal. What was I thinking? Heroism? When I think about it, I don't have anything, Jaune, I don't have anything except fighting. I live to fight, and it's not enough. Maybe if I had only lost an eye, or a handful of fights, or just some of my childhood, I would be fine, but no, fight fight fight, kill kill kill, and I deluded myself in thinking that fondly thinking about the times we could have together, you and me, me and Yang, me and Weiss, all of them, would be enough to offset my... life." She spat the last word, clearly disgusted with the notion that what she had consisted of something reminiscent of a worthy life.
"It's hard, isn't it..." he choked. This was the most he had heard Ruby say in a long, long time.
And it was not good.
He didn't think himself clever for recognizing the clear existential crisis Ruby was undergoing. Ruby was doing something that they had continuously avoided, though mostly unwittingly, and that was stopping to smell the roses. Roses of blood rot and growing barbs. Something he now knew he couldn't do lest he falter too.
"Waking up is hard. Training is exhausting and painful. Schoolwork is— was tedious and stressful. Thinking about the people out there who want to ruin everything for whatever reason is upsetting. Fighting them, hunting Grimm, it's a task with the best outcome being to not lose anyone, and not to be hurt in the process. It can only go down from net zero. We make no headway, and we fight uphill. Forever. And this new Grimm? Just another reminder that we're clueless pawns in the machinations of the fucking cosmos." More spiteful crescendos.
Her swearing would've surprised him more on a normal day, except this wasn't one of them. Again, he felt verbally inadequate. "Well—"
"I just want to sleep, Jaune. A poofy bed, warm, white sheets, clean, early morning, I want to look out the window and see sunshine light up my bed. I want to see fields of wheat or barley or whatever waving in the wind, with a cute little windmill churning on a hill. And silence. Not the silence of people slowly churning in a dorm, but the silence of isolation. I don't want to see any Grimm in the horizon, just plains. Peace." A beautiful picture, one they could agree on. She shivered underneath his arms.
A chilled hand reached down and tugged up on her chin. Through blurry eyes he looked her over, face half concealed, but lips telling a story with more than words. Small lips, as they were, curled and trembled, shaky breath whistling through her chilled nose. Never had Jaune wanted to kiss Ruby more than now, a hope for comfort for both parties, a distraction, and a promise of finer things in life. But he couldn't forget Pyrrha, and guilt stabbed him in the center of his chest.
Admittedly, it hurt less than the times he actually had been hacked or cut, those pains easily more searing, intense, and crippling, but his guilt was not without its brand of pain. This time, it was hard to breathe.
But inaction was not an option. Putting his modest muscle to use, the knight scooped Ruby up from under her legs, cradled her back, and sat her sideways in his lap. Taking his arms out of his sleeves, he tented them both under his wool lined coat. Levon the horse felt like participating too and rubbed his cheek against the back of Jaune's head.
Warmth grew in the space between their chests, and Jaune was reminded of the simple pleasure of human contact, the feel of something real, the feel of another mind, another conscious soul, that close to one's own. He rubbed his stubbled cheek against the dome of her head, noticing now that Ren and Nora were gone from the swirl of fireflies.
"You can't not fight." He sighed deeply and grimaced, Ruby rising slightly with the inflation in his chest. "For the sake of others, pure and simple."
Fitting words for a knight, or perhaps a soldier.
"But what's the point of fighting if it never makes a difference," she muttered. "I can't stop what's coming, I can't kill or slow down what never really dies. And then they fade away, like we never hunted them down at all."
Frustrations of a hunter, or perhaps a hero?
"You have to fight Ruby, then eventually, the fighting will end. You can rest."
Her head shook beneath his cheek, nodding 'no'. "You're an idiot Jaune. The Grimm, bad people, misfortune, they've been around since the beginning. We will never win, or they'll never lose. They will be around long after you and me die, and nothing we do will matter. All that struggling, for nothing."
"Fortune, good people, fun times, they've been around since the beginning," he mused. He couldn't be wrong with that logic, and there was comfort in that alone.
"I've had my fill," she heartlessly disregarded him. "Let me end."
Let me end.
The words that dribbled from her mouth tapped his ears with nerve shattering force, his body suddenly rigid and surreal. Jaune became viciously aware of his surroundings, the nipping cold, his visible breath, the scattered clouds, the shimmering grass, his sleeping horse, breaths now loud and obtrusive, the whistle of the wind, and Ruby's weight. The frog that had been catching in his throat now was just a wet and restrictive lump, and the limit he put on his breathing as to not rustle Ruby disappeared, a deep inhale moving both of them marginally. He struggled to recall his sympathy as his grip on her loosened.
"No. Never." When did he voice get so throaty, so gravelly?
"Give me a reason." When did she ever sound so small?
"That kid you couldn't save; he deserved a chance. A life. You will save the next one. We will, because they deserve it."
A second could've been several, twenty could've been ten, all Jaune knew was that the time that passed was longer than it needed to be. "Dammit Jaune. Fine."
Two small, pale hands crawled up his chest, both at an awkward angle. One gripped on his shoulder, the other his collar bone. Both pulled him closer, white knuckles and quivering fingers digging into his shirt and skin. It hurt him a little, but he didn't care. Instead, he closed his arms on her and reciprocated, squeezing her tightly as if he was afraid she might be pulled away.
After minutes, the painful grip eased into a lethargic embrace and his hyper awareness dulled down to below normal. Jaune kept his eyes closed.
"It's different this time, isn't it?" she whispered.
"What do you mean?"
"You comforting me. This time is different."
He thought. Unlike previous times, Ruby wasn't seeking full reprieve from momentary issues. Rather, Ruby finally stumbled off an existential cliff she couldn't climb back up, and her disposition would be forever be tainted by how she fell tonight. He tried catching her, but she would still feel the fall, the crushing stop at the bottom. The pain will never pass.
Let me end.
It was different. "Yes." A long sigh. "When we walk away from this, we won't leave with comfort, but a new resolution. It can't be resolved, but you have a new resolve. I can't do this for you again."
Minutes again.
Ruby shifted in place, "a flower someone plants in their garden dies regardless of the care they give it, and mourn it's passing, but a flower that grows by it's own volition they call a weed and scorn it. What right do we have to condemn some plants as weeds and others not simply by their determination to live?"
"Forgive me" muttered the boy, "but that came out of nowhere." They shared the first chuckle in a little while.
She shrugged. "I just never understood gardeners. If a flower grows on it's own, they hate it, then waste time caring for the weak flowers."
A hearty laugh, to Ruby's surprise, and Jaune said, "well, when you put it like that..."
"Ugh, I mean... they look the same. Flowers they classify as weeds oppose to flowers they leave as flowers. Weeds are the ones that struggle and win, instead of giving up, why scorn them so?"
"Well, that's a change of tune?" he smirked.
"Shut up. For example, I didn't ask for a sister, but I have one, and I love her. Are some people that much of control freaks?"
"Weeds kill the other flowers though."
"They can, but they don't have to either. They don't expressly kill anything unless there's a lack of nourishment to begin with, I think."
"A thought; Roses are flowers." Jaune had been waiting a long time to joke about her name, and now was his chance. Ruby however, blind, couldn't catch the humor in his expression, and took the statement seriously. Or at least as seriously as a whispering, half awake girl could.
"Sure. Flowers with thorn vines and inch long barbs. A rose bush could kill a horse if it tried running through it by way of blood loss. But sure. Flower, a murderous, thorny, flower. I'm pretty sure rose bushes are used as barriers sometimes."
"What's a rose bush doing trying to run through a horse?" Ruby grunted in retort. "Besides, if a rose is a flower that strives, doesn't that counter your point about weeds being misunderstood or whatever?"
"Em, uh, fuh, eh," she fumbled, failing to form a logical train of thought in her head and in her words. "Well it's not consistent, excuse me. Like, they're called violets, but everyone talks about them like they're blue. I thought violet was purple."
"I don't know, good question, but hey, another thought; maybe roses get a pass because people expect the thorns, like they need it. As in, you can't have the beauty without the dark side of it, it needs to balance. Or as you said, with the barrier, they need the thorns and the prettiness."
"Stop talking, I can't follow anymore. Too tired." All she could do was mumble.
"Maybe" Jaune drawled, "people need a certain red rose," his head nuzzled hers, subtlety not being the name of the game, "they need this rose to be as deadly as they need it to be charming. Solace is valuable."
Jaune could've said anything however, as the result would've been the same. "Ugh..." Ruby throated listlessly.
"Ruby?" he whispered. No response. He let her fall asleep, social ambitions giving way to his own exhaustion.
After a quick nap, Jaune lifted Ruby into a bridal carry with his coat wrapped around her like a blanket. With one arm, he bundled the blanket he laid down, stuffing it into a sack on Levon, and pocketed his scroll. To his surprise, the battery was dead. Exercising painful dexterity, the knight managed to finagle himself and his passenger onto the steed without waking her, seating her in front of Jaune this time. This allowed him to hold her around the waist and gently walk them all back to camp.
He first stopped at the horse pens, dismounting Captain Nitzel Schruffle Wuggen and closing the gate. The saddle and gear sacks were still on him, and Jaune didn't feed, groom, or lay him to rest. He knew he would get flak for not properly taking care of his horse, but he thought not being pampered would build the steed's character, or at least that was the least lazy excuse he could think of. Further bridal carrying from the pen, the rest of the base was dark and quiet, a stark contrast to an otherwise busy and noisy scene which the young man found quite creepy. Ducking into the large tent where his former classmates rested, Jaune drew a sharp breath to see Cardin sitting on a crate, a small knife shimmering silver from some unknown light source shaving bits of some ration into his palm. The only way Jaune recognized the huntsmen in the near pitch blackness was by his silhouette, most notably his hair, lacking any outstanding shape like Ren's or Qrow's. Ignoring him for the moment, Jaune slipped past the flaps of Yang and Weiss's 'room', and with the utmost care, laid the small figure onto a hammock with whom he assumed was Yang, pale hair sprawled in all directions.
Sighing in relief, he left, and sat across from Cardin.
"Here," the more masculine boy's voice sighed so low Jaune would've never heard it were it not for the preceding dead silence. Cardin's hand outreached, to which Jaune held out his hand in return. Rations cut into pencil width and of around four inch lengths fell into his hand.
Raising the sticks to his mouth, Jaune shuddered as he bit into the old chocolate, its bitter and bland taste never designed to be enjoyed. "Thanks," he offered.
"Hmm. Where did you guys go?" Cardin asked.
"Out. Why are you still up?" Jaune answered and asked cautiously.
"Her screams. They kinda put me on edge." Jaune hadn't heard this kind of sincerity or vulnerability from Cardin before, and surprised him.
"Hmm." It made sense to him, no doubt. People crying was never a good thing. Usually.
"Hope you didn't try anything weird while she's all... weirded out." Fortunately for Jaune, there were hints of humor.
"Hmph," he smiled, "what's with you and Yang. Suddenly I'm a creep." A second bite of the chocolate proved just as bad as the first.
"Don't worry, you've always been weird. It's just that now, you might be hard up now Pyrrha's gone." Were it brighter, Jaune would see the wide grin on his face.
Jaune would've also seen it was the same grin on his own face. "Wow, so vulgar. Hey, at least I'm not a virgin like you."
"A virgin? Like me?" Cardin sounded amused by the notion.
After a quick inhale, Jaune interrupted him, "I don't wanna know. I'm sorry, that was pretty presumptuous."
A minute passed where Jaune nibbled at his sticks of chocolate and Cardin kept carving his block. "I hope she recovers. And for what it's worth, I'm sorry Pyrrha had to go. I kinda miss her too."
Eventually, Jaune agreed, "yeah," hiding his darker thoughts.
"You know she's missing you too."
Without anger or resentment, Jaune plainly mused, "now if I enjoyed her suffering, that thought would be of consolation."
A shot cracked the air itself, the explosion mistakable for raw, unadulterated thunder. Pyrrha dropped her new sniper rifle and rolled sideways out of her firing position to clamp both hands over her eye, a fresh gash now bleeding from behind her eyebrow.
"You hit low and to the left," Neptune shouted from a feet steps aways, binoculars raised. Looking down the early morning shooting range, Pyrrha had hit the target at half a mile away on her fist shot, but within a foot of the center. Lowering the sighting device, he finally noticed the redhead rolling on the ground. With slight concern, he asked "you okay?"
A groan of pain. "Recoil. The scope got my eye."
"Should probably get a muzzle break" he thought out loud.
"Yeah, thanks," Pyrrha returned sarcastically. She crawled back to her massive rifle, the yellow sun reflecting gold and orange off the long barrel. Blood trickled down the side of her face down to her chin while she adjusted the dials on her scope.
"Anyways, as I was saying, things should turn out okay. I mean, technically, we're home. Things aren't too bad. We get to visit our families for the first time in a while. Your dad doesn't live too far from the city, right?" Neptune chatted optimistically.
"My dad?" Pyrrha queried, her head turning from the scope.
"Yeah, your dad," Neptune repeated, somewhat confused by her own apparent confusion.
"My dad? Yeah, no, my dad," she blinked sporadically for a moment, "yeah, lives uh... close. In the hills."
"Uhm, yeah. So you get to see him, which is nice. Silver lining. Also, I was talking to the guys, and we think the fighting won't last more than a month before the Kingdoms come back together. Imagine summer break, except in the winter, then we get to see everyone from Beacon again."
"Sure," Pyrrha thoughtlessly replied, her hand now on the trigger and the butt of the gun braced thoroughly against her shoulder.
"Hey," Neptune laughed, "what do you think the first thing you're going to do is when you get to see Jaune again?"
"Jaune?" she blinked again. "Oh, Jaune, yeah." She aimed.
Before he raised his binoculars, the boy eyed his friend, shivers running down his spine. Something was clearly off, both in the way Pyrrha moved and in the way she seemed distant, distracted. Not even overtly polite, a warning sign for Pyrrha if there ever was one.
And then, as though answering a different question, the redhead mumbled, "Jaune. That would be nice." Then fired. Thunder echoed for miles.
Neptune looked down range. A large hole appeared an inch to the right of the center target spot. He whistled. "At this range, I would call that good enough."
"Motherfucker!" the shooter shouted, on her back and squirming. Blood smeared her hands, forehead, and cheek.
"You should've fucking braced yourself then!" he shouted, angry at the very thought of profanity coming from Pyrrha.
"I did!" she snapped back.
-End Chapter 4-
Sorry. This wasn't a happy chapter.
But hey, now that a RWBY volume won't be approaching anytime soon, and it's not airing anymore, I'll have to get my RWBY fix from writing fan fic again. Cheers.