Broken Apart Ch. 11: Boiling

Ruby opened up her eyes, and snapped awake. She looked over at the clock, and saw that she had only slept for two more hours. Ruby let out a small sigh of relief, and sat up. She picked up her scythe, and sprung it out. She carefully looked over the mechanics, and pulled out her cleaning kit. A morning ritual of hers had always been to care for Crescent Rose, and the ritual had only become more elaborate after RWBY broke apart. Now there were fewer things to distract her throughout the day.

But right now, Ruby was by herself. Weiss was off doing who knows what with Tauran, Lyria, and Sun, Blake and Yang were elsewhere, and Ruby was left by herself. But Ruby couldn't deny one fact, she was having fun.

Even though Ruby didn't have faith {despite what Weiss had told her} that either Weiss or Blake would come back to team RWBY, she still enjoyed the time that she was spending with them. Her and Yang would have been the thing that she would have preferred six years ago, but now it was different. Now Ruby was more mature, more confident, had more friends, even taller {she managed to sneak past Weiss in that category}, and Ruby missed them.

Sure she had Yang still, but it wasn't the same as before. Ruby loved Blake and Weiss like sisters, adopted family of sorts. Six years of forced bonding brought out the best and worst in people, and they had always stuck together. Despite what Ruby knew about Blake and Weiss, she wanted to believe that they were going to stay with her and Yang. For a moment, she thought they would.

But they moved on, just like Ruby feared. She became the leader of a duo and not a team. But it was time to move on in Weiss and Blake's mind, and some unfortunate circumstances brought them closer together for now. Ruby would cherish that time, but she wasn't going to get overly involved. It would hurt less after they left this way.

Ruby finished up maintenance, and then closed her weapon. Maybe some research, Ruby thought. I can try and find out what Torchwick's been up to. Or I can go ahead and try and find Blake and Yang. Or maybe I can research alone. I feel as though I may be able to get more done that way. Ruby didn't even get a chance to decide. She heard her scroll go off, and picked it up.

Alex Fraturnai is dead, knife this time. Confirmed blades that Distrio Columbi uses.

Ruby set down her scroll and took a deep breath in. Alex Fraturnai was a police officer that had the unfortunate {or fortunate depending on how you viewed it} luck of being the one officer to tackle Cinder while she was occupied with RWBY. He didn't last long, and he suffered major burns, but it gave RWBY the chance to take her down. He was really the reason that Cinder had lived through that day. Now he had paid the price, leaving one major piece of each killing and arrest gone. All that was going through Ruby's mind was one thing. We're next.

Ruby shook the thoughts from her mind, and started to type out a message on her scroll to everyone their. As soon as she hit send, the door was thrown open angrily. Yang came storming into the room, and looked over at Ruby.

"Hey Yang," Ruby said. "What seems to be-?"

"Move," Yang said, her eyes showing a dangerous shade of red. Ruby got out of the bed, and stepped aside. Yang activated her semblance, and pounded on Weiss' bed. It caught flames, but that didn't deter Yang. She kept hitting it, and started to yell out angrily. After she had finished, Yang stepped away from the bed, and glared at Ruby. "They need a new bed in here," Yang growled.

"I-I-I'll go tell them," Ruby said. She ran off, and fetched a servant. She briefly explained the circumstances, and was assured that they'd move a bed in. Except that Ruby and Yang would have to leave. They picked an empty guest room {Yang was very insistent on one over the other} and sat down on the beds.

"So uh," Ruby said slowly. "What was that about?"

"Blake," Yang replied.

"Do you wanna talk a little bit more?" Ruby asked.

"Yeah," Yang replied. "I blew off steam back there, and I also blew off some steam outside. I don't think that the security guards were very pleased with how much I destroyed their walls. So I came back here, and settled for the bed. I feel better now." Ruby gestured for Yang to get on with it, and the blonde sighed.

"Blake and I spoke while you were asleep," Yang began. "And then she revealed to me that she wanted to join up with the Ember Sisters." Yang paused, but say that Ruby was only patiently waiting on Yang to finish. "Then she told me why. She said that she wanted only to be with us because it was safer. After Cinder and Torchwick were dealt with, she would leave and rejoin the New Faunus Rights."

"And?" Ruby asked. "I understand why this would upset you, but not make you this enraged."

"Blake told me that she hated her job," Yang continued. "She told me that she would give nothing more then to have RWBY together because we can make a difference. Then she told me that she wanted to leave, join, and leave us."

"And?" Ruby continued.

"I gave her a nice and long speech that can be summed up pretty easily. Blake's delusional and a bitch because that's how she was raised to be. False causes make her love, and truth makes her gag. She has a life in front of her that she's determined to live, no matter how many choices she has laid out in front of her." Ruby nodded, and leaned back in her bed.

"I know," Ruby said simply. "Six years with Blake, and I learned that she never had a goal that wasn't influenced by pride." Yang stopped for a moment, surprised that Ruby sounded so mature. It was easy to forget sometimes that Ruby was no longer that sweet girl that Yang had grown to protect those six years ago, but she was a mature leader now. Rarely did Ruby choose to display it, but it was there all the same.

"It's frustrating," Yang continued. "Blake listed all of the reasons that she should stay with us, and then proceeded to list bullshit why she shouldn't."

"Blake is blind and Weiss lacks control of her situation," Ruby said slowly. "But both girls fell ill with pride, and now they've been taken away from us."

"Dammit Ruby, I'm supposed to be the one doing this," Yang grumbled.

"I've decided to give you a break after six years," Ruby said teasingly. "Plus, I've grown up a fair amount. I'm taller then Weiss now."

"And stronger then Blake," Yang continued. "Six years later, and it's not getting any easier to acknowledge that my baby sister is all grown up."

"Six years didn't do you good there," Ruby agreed. "And it won't do you good now. Blake's not coming back, and Weiss' father won't let her come back. We're here for our job, and it involves protecting Weiss." Yang sighed, and looked over at Ruby.

"I'll be damned if I let them walk that easily," Yang grinned.

"As I would hope you would," Ruby replied. "But we need to prepare for the worst." Yang just groaned, and leaned back in her bed.

Distrio

The sniper carefully wiped off his rifle, and ate one of the pieces of food he had brought with him. It was a simple dried meat, for he needed nothing more then that. He had a party of 10 men along with him. BB was one of them, and there were some others. All of them were highly regarded in combat situations. He had no desire to simply let them go in against the group he was looking at.

There were a lot of people, including some highly regarded fighters of their own. Those Distrio had marked down their exact descriptions. He had already picked them out, and he had picked out all of those who were isolated.

What's your stance on Faunus Rights? Cinder had asked. What a warped sense of humor she had. His task was more then just killing those who supported Faunus Rights. There were a fair amount of them, more then just the 11 of them could handle. That meant that Distrio had to deal with a good amount before things got too out of hand.

"Are you gonna shoot?" BB asked him quietly.

"Perhaps if you were as cautious as I am, you wouldn't have been caught," Distrio hissed. BB backed away, and Distrio looked back down his sights. He slowly found all of the isolated targets, and fired off one round at a time. After all of the targets dropped, Distrio looked back at everyone else.

"Now I'll start shooting liberally," Distrio said. "After someone turns their head in surprise, you 10 will come in from the other direction. Are we clear?" Everyone grumbled a yes, and Distrio immediately fired off a round. He followed it up with two more rounds, and then all of the people in the camp turned their heads.

"Go," Distrio ordered. All 10 of the people with him ran at the camp, and Distrio kept up a steady stream of sniper rounds.

Schnee Manor: Weiss

The heiress calmly walked into her home, and sighed. The walk hadn't really done what she had hoped it would, but it did allow her time to think. Time to further recognize the situation that she was in. Her father was the only real obstacle in her way. Well, her parents as a whole. But Weiss was fully aware that her mother could care less what her fate was. Weiss could have been killed for all she cared. Her father wanted her to take over the company, and it was no secret that he wanted Weiss as far away from the huntress life as possible.

You did what? Her father had asked.

I applied for Beacon, Weiss had replied. I got accepted, and I'm going.

That move would have gotten her killed if Weiss had siblings. But she had grown up with no siblings, and widely with no parents. Hiding an application to Beacon was easy. After Beacon, she stayed apart of the team. After two years, Weiss hungered for some form of power. She identified the company as a way to gain it, and so she returned home. She thought that after six years of minimal contact, her parents would welcome her. Instead, they left her with tutors and held her hostage.

Now Weiss was trying to get away from them, but there was no letter that could change where she goes now. Her own pride lead her to believe that she would be able to take over the company and move thrive. Instead, she was stuck taking walks with three bodyguards with her at all times. Weiss groaned, and went to walk towards her room.

She noticed that there were several servants carrying a bed into her room, and she angrily walked forward.

"What's going on?" Weiss asked.

"The second bed in your room got trashed," one of them said. "We're putting in another."

"How?" Weiss asked.

"Ask the Ember Sisters," another one added in. "They were the last ones in here."

Fucking Yang, Weiss thought. Her front was completely calm because Weiss was the dignitary, but she wanted to beat Yang to death.

Weiss swiftly got the location of Ruby and Yang, and walked over to their room. She opened up the door, and walked into the room.

"Yang, Ruby," Weiss said.

"Weiss, Lyria, Tauran, and Sun," Ruby replied with a smile. "What do you need?"

"What happened to my bed?" Weiss asked.

"Oh," Yang said. "Right. You see, I was mad and they kicked me out of the wall so then-."

"Stop!" Weiss said. "Mad about what?"

"Blake," Yang replied. "She was being difficult, and I was pretty pissed."

"How?" Weiss asked, suddenly more willing to believe that Blake had made Yang angry. As close as those two were, Blake's mysterious nature often left the blonde fuming.

"No reason," Ruby said, placing her hand on her sister's chest. "Well, nothing out of the ordinary."

"You're lying," Weiss replied.

"Weiss, I swear to you, I am not lying," Ruby said calmly. "Now, if you would please believe me and let my sister and I talk, that'd be really appreciated." Weiss kept up her stare, but Ruby didn't waver. Either the girl was telling the truth, or a much better liar.

"Fine," Weiss said. "I'll be in the library if you need me."

"Can you send up some cookies?" Ruby asked.

"And some vodka?" Yang added in. "A girl has her priorities."

"You two are the death of me," Weiss grumbled. "Fine."

"Thank you," both of the sisters side. The door closed behind Weiss, and Yang raised her eyebrow at Ruby.

"If we tell Weiss, who knows what she'll do?" Ruby asked. "I'm not going to take that risk. Not right now, anyways."

End: Questions, comments, follows, favorites, and feedback is appreciated.