The sunlight sluggishly made its way further and further into the small room, eventually hitting the eyes of the sleeping girl. With a flash of rose petals and a rustle of sheets, the curtains were drawn harshly together. Ruby had made her way back under the covers before the two curtains had so much as touched, if she was quick enough she may not have to fully wake up. Ruby sat desperately on the precipice of sleep, trying to take the final plunge. This inn bed was the source of her first good night's rest in over a month, and she wouldn't let the sun ruin it. Unfortunately, there were forces more insistent and less easily quelled than the sun to wake her up.
"RUBY!" Nora bellowed as she burst into the room, "Get up! We need to leave!" Ruby pulled her pillow over her head, but it did little to dampen the force of the redhead's voice.
"Just five more minutes?"
"Come one Ruby, you already missed breakfast a-" Nora was cut off as Ruby practically shot out of bed.
"What?! I can't be too late I-" Ruby stopped as she was met at the door by Ren holding a large stack of pancakes.
"I figured you would want something so I grabbed these," Ren said calmly as Ruby snatched them from his hand , "it looks like I made the right decision."
"Tanks, Wen!" Ruby said through a mouthful of pancakes. Nora paced around the room as she waited for Ruby to finish and change into her hood; Ren stood calmly by the doorway. Ruby finally took a breathe as she swallowed the last of her breakfast. "Where's Jaune?"
"He's out front, waiting. He's been ready to go practically since dawn," Ruby frowned slightly at the information. Ever since the fall of Beacon, Jaune had changed drastically. The goofy blonde she had known at school had almost evaporated completely. He was always the first of their party awake now, and he talked almost as little as Ren. He was entirely focused on the mission at hand; that wasn't necessarily bad thing, but Ruby missed her friend from Beacon. However, there was no chance of seeing that Jaune again until Pyrrha's killer was no longer walking free. Ruby sighed sadly at the thought.
With a shower of rose petals Ruby changed into her hood, Crescent Rose sitting familiarly on her back. She grabbed her small pack as she, Nora, and Ren headed down to the first floor of the inn. The stairs creaking beneath them cut through the silence that otherwise permeated the inn. In the entry room, they found a solitary faunus drying dishes. When he noticed them, he set down the cup he had been drying and went to ring them up.
"That'll be 90 lien." Ruby scraped through her con purse and found 70, Ren and Nora had to dig through their own and eventually found the other twenty. Sheepishly, Ruby handed over the money to the patient faunus. "Have a nice day," the faunus muttered as he opened up the cash register, "and stay safe out there, times are changing."
"Thanks!" Ruby smiled at the man, "you have a good day too!" With that the trio strolled out the front door, meeting the stoic blonde waiting out front. Silently, they began to walk down the deserted road, the near complete silence muted even further by a fresh snowfall. The woods around them were eerily quiet, the only animal in sight a solitary crow flying in the distance.
Their journey had finally brought them to the very edge of Mistral, where even the great population centers were about the size of a medium town in Vale. Mistral was almost exclusively wilderness, the inn they had found had been a true blessing. Even though it had cost them the last of their money, it was probably going to be the last place they saw for awhile anyway. They had made it to Mistral, but it was still a long way to Haven. Even then, they had no way of knowing where they would go after that. They could look for clues there, but either than that they were simply searching blindly for some hint of their enemy.
They walked for a few hours, Nora and Ruby chatting away while Jaune and Ren enjoyed the day's unusual silence. Nora and Ruby trailed off as they noticed a black mass making its way rapidly towards them. The mass eventually separated itself into a small pack of beowulf's running to meet them.
"I'll take this one," Jaune sighed as he unsheathed Crocea Mors. He expanded his shield as the first beowulf launched itself at him. Without so much as moving, Jaune unseamed the beowulf that exploded into dust before landing. The second and third were a tad more wary as they approached the knight, earning them a few more seconds of life before Jaune removed their heads. This left his back momentarily exposed to the two remaining beasts, allowing them to smack him away. Jaune ducked into a roll, landing relatively unharmed. He turned back as the two remaining grimm launched their second assault. One's paw met his shield and stopped dead, allowing Jaune the opportunity to sink his blade into the chest of the shocked Grimm. The other slashed ineffectively at Jaune, whose aura absorbed the entirety of the blow with little issue. With a quick backhanded strike, Jaune ended the final monster and sheathed Crocea Mors.
Ruby was impressed with Jaune's improvement. He had had very few opportunities to fight on their mission so far, Nora having taken the role of Grimm exterminator early on. When anything large had shown up, they would rapidly pick it apart as a team. This was really the first time Ruby had seen Jaune fight alone since their early days at Beacon, and she had to say that it was a marked improvement. While it had only been a couple of Beowolves, she wasn't sure the Jaune she had first met at Beacon could have handled one. Now here he was, dispatching a group of them with really no trouble. And while she would never bring it up, she could almost see Pyrrha in his movements; she had taught Jaune well.
"Alright, let's keep moving," Jaune's face remained unmoving, his victory making no noticeable impact on his psyche. The group returned to their travels, the soft snowfall rapidly hiding that they had ever been there at all.
Ruby awoke with a start, her bedroll wrapped tightly around her. Their fire had burned low, white coals and a soft glow the only things remaining. Ruby's eyes slowly adjusted to the low light. When she could finally see, she noticed Jaune sitting guard on a nearby stump. Crawling from the warm embrace of her bedroll, she strolled over to him silently.
"Hey," she whispered, "It's about time to change shifts. Go get some sleep."
"I'm fine," Jaune said without turning, "Go back to bed Ruby."
"You need sleep too Jaune, it's fine."
"No seriously Ruby, it's okay. I don't sleep much anyway." Instead of going back to her bedroll, Ruby scooched Jaune over and sat next to him.. They sat in silence for what felt like hours, but in reality it was a few minutes.
"You still see her?" Ruby asked quietly. Jaune stiffened imperceptibly next to her, then let out a defeated sigh.
" Yeah. It's getting worse. Even if I can't see her, I hear her screaming for help whenever I sleep."
"It's not your fault, Jaune."
"Yeah, that's what everyone keeps saying," he muttered bitterly, " but I always held her back. If I had just blocked one arrow none of this would have happened. Ozpin would've put Cinder in the ground and Pyrrha would be fine." Ruby was silent for a moment. Jaune had gone into great detail on what had happened underneath Beacon, and no matter how often his friends reassured him he still blamed himself for it all.
"Jaune," Ruby began, "What ifs are pointless. A lot of things would be different if we were smarter or stronger or faster. Yang could still have an arm, Blake would be here," Ruby's eyes began to water, "If i had been fast I could have saved Penny. I could have saved Pyrrha." Jaune whipped around to console the crying girl.
"Ruby, don't be ridiculous! None of that was your fault!" Ruby smiled through her tears.
"I know Jaune, and the same goes for you. It wasn't our fault those things happened, but we need to get stronger so that when the time comes again we will have a chance to change the outcome. That's all we can do." Ruby hugged her blonde friend tightly and smiled.
"Maybe you're right. Still don't want to sleep though."
"That's fine," Ruby and Jaune sat stoically for a few moments before another thought popped into her head, "Jaune?"
"Yeah?"
"I know you used to spar a lot with Pyrrha," she paused for a moment to formulate her question, " and I was wondering, if you're okay with it, well I could really use a sparring partner if you're up for it."
Jaune thought for a moment before smiling and saying his opinion on the matter. "That'd be great Ruby, I feel like I've been getting a little rusty. We'll start tomorrow, but as for tonight go ahead and get some sleep. We need to start moving early."
"Alright Jaune, goodnight."
"Goodnight, Ruby."
- Author's Note -
Hey guys! Just thought I would give you all a little update on RNJR, and I didn't want to wait until Yang showed up. Next few chapter will be from the perspectives of some less used characters, so I'm pretty excited. The team should be reunited soonish though, so be excited for that!