I dream of giving birth to a child who will ask, "Mother, what was war?"
~Eve Merriam
Chapter 17-
For the next week Ruby didn't sleep, she couldn't sleep without Neo there. She trained constantly and at night would sit in the library reading or creating plans for something the others were unable to understand. In one of her lessons however it was clear something was up.
"Today I'm going to keep it simple, I want to impose something on you seeing that the Atlas military has decided to stay in Vale for the foreseeable future." Aria said aloud, gathering the students around a table with grey webbing on top.
"This is standard webbing that all soldiers wear, with me is Captain Naomi who is playing model for me." Aria said, pointing to the tall woman next to the table.
"Every single soldier has webbing when they go into combat, I myself use pouches in a similar way. Every soldier has their webbing laid out the same, this is so if one were to fall then other soldiers would know where their ammo was, first aid and so on." Aria said.
"The front two pouches on either side of the waist contain ammo for their weapons, after that is grenades. On the two pouches sitting on the chest is first aid materials while another pouch I have contains a high beam, long range distress beacon." Aria informed them as Naomi showed them the different pouches and talking through them in more detail.
When they had finished explaining everything Aria then said, "Alright that's all I wanted to add, we're going to do hand to hand drills." Aria stated but before the students could move Ruby seemed to be struggling as she held her hand against the desk.
Crouching down Aria and Naomi, who was close enough to hear Ruby struggle to breathe correctly but barely thirty seconds later Ruby seemed to recover and stand back up straight. "Come on." Aria stated.
After that single event class continued on as normal but Blake had noticed Ruby's struggle to breathe but she didn't know what caused it, it didn't help either that she saw Ruby for most nights in the library.
Blake saw Ruby in the library most nights, wide awake either with a book in hand or on her scroll. When she saw her for almost an entire week each night in the library Blake started to grow worried about the woman and although she couldn't see her face she knew she would be tired as well.
In the end the person they least expected to care decided to do something, Weiss had gone to Ruby's room in an effort to talk to the woman to get her to calm down with her training and to attempt to sleep.
Knocking lightly on the door Weiss heard no answer so tried the door, finding it unlocked she slowly opened it to find a visible Aria standing in front of Ruby, the pair arguing rather loudly.
"You need to sleep!" Aria shouted at Ruby.
"I'm fine Aria, why don't you go exploring?" Ruby said calmly.
"No! You haven't slept since Neo left. You need to sleep, and rest! Not constantly train, you'll exhaust yourself again." Aria replied back hotly.
"I'm fine Aria, I know my limits." Ruby replied back.
"No you don't. You forget I know your health. You're close to Aura exhaustion. You know you can't do it again, it'll only accelerate…" Aria explained.
"I know Aria. You don't need to remind me of that." Ruby said coldly.
"Neo said to contact her if you were pushing yourself too hard, I will do it." Aria threatened.
"Don't. Neo has enough to worry about." Ruby said.
"Then go and sleep, or I will call Neo." Aria said, making sure Ruby knew what would happen.
"We have a guest." Ruby said turning to see a sheepish looking Weiss standing by the door, feeling out of place.
"What's wrong Weiss?" Ruby asked while Aria vanished.
"I uh, I wanted to say that you've been pushing us and yourself too hard." Weiss said, gaining back her confidence.
Ruby just laughed humourlessly at Weiss, "Seems everyone's worried about me. I'm fine Weiss, don't worry about me." Ruby replied.
"But you're not. I can see how tired you are already, when was the last time you slept?" Weiss stated.
"About a week and a half ago, but I'm fine. I can go for a long time without sleep." Ruby said.
"Just because you can doesn't mean you should. You need to sleep, there's nothing you can do if you're too tired." Weiss said.
"I'm fine." Ruby said once more, "You can show yourself out, I've got to go." Ruby said, picking up her weapons and leaving the room.
Weiss watched as Ruby left the room and was about to leave herself when she heard Aria speak behind her.
"She won't rest without Neo here, we need to force her too before she collapses again." Aria stated.
"How do we do that though? It seems like she won't stop for anything." Weiss said, turning to look at Aria.
"I don't really know, Neo's the only person I know who can get Ruby to stop. But we have to do something." Aria said.
Weiss thought for a full minute before she thought of an idea of what she could do to help Ruby sleep and to hopefully rest long enough, "I have an idea." Weiss said, rushing out of the room.
Ruby was currently in the schools arena with a sword in one hand and a pistol in the other as she practised against combat androids.
Ducking underneath the blade of one while parrying the blade of the next, Ruby fired at the two hitting them directly in the head shutting them down for a few seconds before they reactivated.
But Ruby was already moving onto a group of three all rushing her with their swords. Ruby used her semblance to block each strike before hitting them to shut them down.
Mizu Schnee came into the room and stood on the edge of the arena as she watched Ruby practise with the androids, they were some of the best in the world where they had an adaptive programme that allowed them to fight as almost real people against someone, meaning they were great for training.
They could be given any weapon the user chose to, and it seemed Ruby had chosen swords to practise against while using her own.
Mizu was happy to watch the fighting, enjoying how Ruby seemed to dance instead of the brute force style most people had now but it seemed Ruby understood that fighting itself was a dance, but it was a dance of death no matter what.
She changed her attention to the androids which was when she noticed the normally blunt blades with the tips not able to physically hurt someone was not replaced with sharp edges and a pointed, sharp tip meaning Ruby was in danger and she could already see a point where Ruby had been cut.
"Shut down!" Mizu shouted, entering into the arena. When they didn't stop moving she shouted again, "Shut down training!" Mizu shouted out but one of them seemed to change their focus towards the woman instead of Ruby.
Ruby spotted the android heading towards Mizu and opened fire with her pistol while she ran to a button on the side of the arena to shut them all down.
Ruby reached the button before the android could harm Mizu but this only invoked a different kind of wrath heading her way.
"What the hell were you thinking? The training androids are never allowed to have sharp weapons nor can they not be disabled using voice commands. I should have been able to disable them easily." Mizu shouted at Ruby, grabbing the woman's arm and dragging her away from the arena.
"I was fine, I could easily get to the shutdown button and I was safe with them. Training with blunt edges takes away the risk." Ruby explained trying to get free of Mizu's surprisingly strong grip.
"Clearly you weren't, you got hit by one. And don't try to get free I'm dragging you back to your room." Mizu said harshly to the slightly taller woman.
"I wasn't paying attention, I miscalculated an attack which meant I got hit." Ruby explained, stopping her struggling and walked alongside Mizu dragging her back to her room.
"Why hasn't your Aura healed it yet?" Mizu asked accusingly.
When Ruby stayed silent Mizu just sighed out, "That's what I thought. Your Aura hasn't properly recharged has it? You've been constantly awake and training and whatever else you've been doing, you've been drawing on your Aura to sustain you haven't you?" Mizu said softly, her tone not accusing but worried.
Once more Ruby stayed silent and upon reaching her room Mizu released Ruby and said, "Sit on the bed and strip down." Mizu said but she saw Ruby's reluctance, "I've got two daughters, I've already seen it all." She said, trying to ease Ruby's worry a little.
Ruby just nodded her head as she begun taking her cloak and clothes off until she only had her underwear on.
Mizu went into the wardrobe in the room, retrieving the first aid kit inside and opened it up on the bed. She was shocked to find the first aid kit fully stocked up with everything one might need but also the fact that there was a large amount of Aura syringes inside.
"Why have you got so many of them?" Mizu asked as she took out some anti-septic and bandages.
"We have a need for them. My Aura levels go quite low very often so I need these to help me." Ruby explained.
Taking the anti-septic wipes Mizu went about cleaning Ruby's cut who showed no emotion as she gently cleaned the blood away. "Have you seen a doctor? Your Aura levels shouldn't go down as often as they clearly do." She stated.
"I have." Ruby said bluntly but her tone showed the topic was not up for discussion.
Mizu remained silent as she wrapped Ruby's arm in a bandage and tied it off tightly to make sure it wouldn't fall off, "I'm not giving you an injection so that'll have to heal on its own." Mizu stated as she packed the kit away and put it back where she found it.
She was surprised to find that the wound hadn't already healed, which only reinforced what her daughter had told her about Ruby's Aura exhaustion.
After doing this she laid down on the bed next to Ruby, pulling the woman with her and leaned her against her own chest, "Now why don't you tell me why I've had both my daughters and their team members come to me about you training them extremely hard and the fact you haven't slept in a week and a half?" Mizu asked kindly, her tone soft and motherly.
"It's just that, I haven't slept since Neo left and been pushing my students to get better." Ruby said plainly.
"Really? Is it because Weiss and her team went after Roman and the White Fang that you're punishing them for doing it?" Mizu asked, once more her voice was never angry but held a motherly tone Ruby had not heard in years.
"Of course not, I'm annoyed that they did that, angry even but I wouldn't punish them like that. I just want them to get better." Ruby said.
"Well I can understand that however you've been pushing them too hard, they've barely been able to stay upright when leaving the class." Mizu informed her.
"I'll have to work on their endurance then." Ruby stated.
"Maybe. But what about yourself? You've been pushing yourself too hard, it's clear that your Aura levels are dangerously low once more. I've even had Aria speaking to me. And Blake noticed the other day, you couldn't breathe properly for about thirty seconds." Mizu said.
"I'm sorry I worried Aria and you, but I'm fine. Really. And I get short of breath sometimes." Ruby attempted to say.
"You're not, we both know it so why don't you save that little lie for someone else?" Mizu gently suggested.
"But I am fine, I need to go to the library to work on something." Ruby said, attempting to get out of it but when she attempted to stand up Mizu only just pulled her back down.
"Oh no, you're staying right here. I don't care what you do but you are not leaving this bed. You are going to rest." Mizu said firmly her tone brokering no argument.
Rather than argue with the woman as she knew she would lose easily, Ruby just pulled out her scroll and a book she was reading earlier that day.
Mizu smiled softly as she found that Ruby didn't bother to argue back and she didn't say anything when Mizu removed her headphones and started to gently stroke her hair.
After only a few minutes Mizu noticed Ruby's breathing slowing down and her scroll had fallen out of her hand and onto the bed.
Mizu didn't stop stroking Ruby's ears or her hair but slowly she started to cry silently, not wanting to wake Ruby from clearly the first time she had gotten sleep in so long.
She allowed herself to cry over what she had lost, if she hadn't been so weak to her father's wishes than maybe the world would be different, Summer would still be alive and by her side. She would have raised Ruby as she should have and not allowed all of this to happen. Maybe the Faunus would have gotten equal rights and all this needless death could have been avoided, so many what if scenarios were running through her brain she didn't hear the door open.
Nor did she realise when her daughter, Winter come and knee down next to the two women on the bed where she noticed her mother crying, "Mother what's wrong? Why are you crying?" Winter asked, keeping her voice soft as to not wake Ruby.
"It's nothing sweetie, I'm fine." Mizu said.
"Mother I know it's something to do with Ruby, I've seen how you look at her. I remember when she revealed she was a wolf Faunus to us and how you seemed lost in memory. And now you're crying with Ruby in your arms, you can tell me anything." Winter said, attempting to comfort her mother.
Mizu didn't know what made her tell her daughter, nor could she recall. Maybe it was because here was the daughter she left alone in the world, maybe it was because she just felt weak at that moment and having it all pent up for too long she just needed someone to tell.
"Before I married your father, I was training to be a Huntress with a team, it was Qrow who you met, Raven and a woman called Summer. Summer was amazing, she had a skill with a sword that barely anyone could ever match and a speed that was unbelievably at the time. She was the leader of our team through those four years in school and a further two years afterwards. And she was my best friend." Mizu started to say, her voice full of love.
"After about a year into school Summer revealed her Faunus heritage, although reluctant as I was a Schnee and we had a certain reputation with Faunus, even back then. But when she discovered I was nothing like that she admitted it. We later discovered Raven already knew but she never told us why." Mizu revealed, as Winter listened eagerly.
"After she revealed her secret it went on normally for a couple months before we started dating each other, secretly of course. Your grandfather would have killed me if he found out so we kept it secret from even out team, however they suspected about it." Mizu explained.
"So what happened?" Winter asked, seeing her mother stop.
"Life happened. We were together for just under five years when I broke it off because your grandfather had set me up with the man I was to marry. Summer wasn't happy with this, she was getting ready to storm to my Grandfathers house and demand my hand in marriage instead but I talked her out of it, we decided, although reluctant as she was to break it off but she wanted a child with me." Mizu said sadly.
"How's that possible? Two women can't have a child can they?" Winter asked.
"Dust, it's a marvellous thing and I was able to create a method to use my egg and hers to create a baby, I never made it known I knew how to do this or told anyone but Summer. I offered to support her, every week I would send money into her account but she had just vanished from the face of the planet, I didn't even know the pregnancy was successful or not." Mizu said, growing upset at remembering the events.
"I knew Summer wasn't happy at what I did, the fact that I chose my company over her made her so angry and upset, so she vanished and I never had any contact with her or anyone else I knew from my Huntress days." Mizu said, biting back a sob.
"Ruby was her daughter wasn't she? The last wolf Faunus." Winter stated.
"She is, Qrow confirmed it for me. I also discovered from Neo that Ruby has a large amount of money she's never touched from her mother, it's the money I sent she left it all to her." Mizu said.
"Does she know?" Winter asked.
"No, every time I work up the courage to tell her something gets in the way or something's happened so I can't tell her. And I just don't know what to say, or predict how she would react to it, I know she's been searching for her father but has drawn up blanks." Mizu said.
"Did you ever try and look for Summer?" Winter asked.
"I tried, as hard as I could. I thought that maybe if I take over the company and stop all the slave labour and Faunus harming that maybe I could find her again and marry her, but that's impossible now." Mizu said sadly, tears falling down her face constantly.
Winter leaned over Ruby, hugging her mother to offer some sort of comfort to her as she said, "You need to tell Ruby, sooner rather than later. I think somethings going to happen, something big. They are evasive over certain things, like Ruby's tattoos. I was speaking to Blake about it and they avoided some of her questions over them." Winter informed her.
"Blake? Is there something going on?" Mizu asked teasingly, trying to cheer herself up a little.
"We're just friends, we talk. She's rather nice and easy to talk to." Winter replied calmly.
"Well I wouldn't let something like that go. I saw you both at the dance as well." Mizu said smiling slightly, teasing her daughter.
"Going back to our topic, you need to talk to Ruby before something else happens, you saw what she was like after saving Blake." Winter stated.
"I know, and I will when I can, I promise." Mizu said, "You're taking this all rather calmly." She pointed out.
Winter just shrugged her shoulders, "I know you don't love father, you barely tolerate him on a good day and well I've noticed since meeting Ruby that somethings been off." Winter pointed out.
"I guess I have been a little bit. But for now I'm going to enjoy just holding Ruby as she sleeps." Mizu said with a smile.
Winter stayed for a little longer talking to her mother about the school and some of the events coming up in the school, most notably the tournament that wasn't very far away and what they would be doing for it.
After about an hour and with Mizu growing tired, Winter left the room to go to her own to sleep while leaving the two women alone.
A/N
Not much to say, chapters slightly longer than normal but a lot has been covered in this one. We see a little more of Winter, Ruby and Mizu.
Oh and the webbing part was something that I'm pretty sure is true, read it in a book written by an ex Green Beret and well I wanted to use it.
Main thing I want to say is Rooster Teeth are doing their Extra Life stream at the moment, and it's been amazing. The RWBY stuff has already been done and shown, alongside a trailer for next week. We see Winter and Qrow alongside their fight. Oh and Winter is a duel wielder with two rapiers it seems and well we've seen Qrow's one.
That's it I guess, go and check out the stream and you can buy the limited edition poster which I've done or donate directly. Or both.
Also while I'm awake for a silly amount of time tonight I might look at writing a one shot with fairly adult themes after a picture I saw of Ruby with bunny ears and a certain kind of costume. ;) Still debating it.
Until next time. ^_^