Chapter 27-
"She's gone with Naomi, Dr Church and another woman and a team of Atlas special forces to Patch." Aria informed them.
"Why has she gone there?" Winter asked.
"Because she was told that there was a present left for her and Naomi had the coordinates of something left for her. She went to find out what it was." Aria informed the pair.
"Where is she now?" Neo asked.
"Patch, going past Signal Academy and about five minutes away from the location." Aria told her mother.
"I'm going to the docks." Neo stated, leaving the room with Winter and Aria close behind.
"Alright almost to the coordinates. Remember the plan?" Naomi called out, looking back to see Ruby in her wheelchair near one of the side doors.
"Got it Naomi, we get on the ground and you guide us to the coordinates." A woman said, she had bright green eyes and her brown hair tied into a bun with freckles over her cheeks. Her British accent evident in her voice. (Yeah I know, no such thing as British in RWBY. Sue me.)
"Ruby, care to tell Evie and her team about the area?" Naomi asked.
"There are several Grimm nests near the area, so you can't be on the ground too long in case they see you." Ruby told them.
"Got it, we'll be quick. Doc, you good?" The woman, Evie asked.
"I'll be fine. Remember Ruby, stay in the chair. While you've been improving you're still not back to your old strength with your legs." Doctor Church stated.
Ruby just nodded her head as she rolled herself to the side door as Evie helped to secure her so she wouldn't fall out.
"Thank you. For all of this." Ruby whispered to the woman.
"Anything for a friend of Naomi, plus I'm a fan of your work." The woman replied, smiling at her.
Upon meeting the woman Ruby had already looked her over, she had a cane weapon similar to Neo's but hers had another blade at the bottom as well. On her wrists she had two gauntlets which had hidden blades, and a rope launcher with a hook on the end. Like Ruby she also carried throwing knives, and had a skill that rivalled Ruby with the weapons and she carried a revolver pistol as well.
She had a tight outfit that fit her form well but different mixture of tops, corset, and a jacket with a hood and a cloak. Also a skirt but she wore trousers with them and boots. All in a dark blue and red colour scheme.
"When we get back, how about I set you up with some stuff?" She offered.
"That would be great, thank you. I'd love to see more of those gauntlets. Maybe I can help you with your throwing knives as well." Ruby said.
"It's a deal. Now to the important part." Evie said, smiling at the younger woman before walking to the two other members of her team.
"Alright, remember the drill. We get out and Naomi directs us to the point. Diamond formation to protect the doc and keep an ear out for Grimm." Evie ordered as she grabbed a SMG.
Her team consisted of two other women, one of them having long red hair tied into a long ponytail, carrying a weapon that seemed to melt through anything. Her armour itself was white with a jet pack on the back.
The third woman seemed to be faceless as the helmet she wore hid her face and the black armour hid most things but the rifle in her hands told a lot to Ruby. The woman was quiet and seemed to keep to herself throughout the entire journey.
It was surprising to Ruby that this was an elite team of the Atlas military as Naomi introduced Evie as a General, the second in command of the entire military presence from Atlas in Vale. Although this itself wasn't well known, especially her rank.
"Alright, coming in now." Naomi called out as she came in low and opened the back ramp, allowing the four women out immediately before going back up above them with the back ramp closing and side door opening, allowing Ruby to look out.
Ruby brought Crescent Rose in its sniper form to her shoulder while she kept watch above the ground team.
"Alright, you're about fifty metres away. Head north until I say stop." Naomi said over the radio.
"Stop. Go east for about ten metres. Ok you're almost on top of it you should see something." Naomi stated.
"Lots of snow, wait. Doc, what do you see?" Evie said. "Oh shit we've got blood here. Wait out." Evie said.
"I see some Beowolves in the trees to the west, they're moving around the edge. No clear shot." Ruby stated without emotion as she tried to line up a shot.
"Adjusting position. Ground team advise." Naomi called out, moving the aircraft around to give Ruby a clear shot.
"We've found something. Not a lot, just some paper and a bloodied cloak. Doc's got some samples of the blood and we've got the paper and cloak. Moving to extract. What's the status of the Grimm?" Evie asked.
The answer to her question was a booming shot from Ruby's sniper, hitting a Beowolf in the skull. "Keep me west facing and pick them up." Ruby ordered, having quickly chambered a new round and firing again in barely a second.
Ruby kept up a steady stream of fire as she adjusted for the movement of the Bullhead but as they got closer to the ground they seemed to get braver as they started to charge out of the treeline.
"Fighting retreat!" Evie shouted out, crouching down to fire at the advancing Grimm.
The other two team members also took a knee while the doctor rushed towards the aircraft, not being a fighter herself but rather a doctor.
With the three women leapfrogging each other, two of them providing cover fire while the last one ran back a few metres before taking another knee to cover the next one.
Ruby kept up her steady fire power from her sniper, changing magazines multiply times but the three soldiers all got inside alongside the doctor without injury and as the lead Beowolf reached the aircraft landing spot, they were already in the air.
The doors all closed and Ruby detached herself from the ropes securing her wheelchair so she didn't fall out the side of the aircraft.
Rolling herself back towards the others, she saw Church holding something in her hands but as Ruby approached she attempted to hide it from Ruby.
"What did you find?" Ruby asked.
Church's eyes darted towards the cockpit but as she couldn't see Naomi, who was concentrating on flying so she looked towards Evie trying to work out what to do.
"Allison. What did you find?" Ruby asked, using the doctor's given name.
"How did you know that name?" The woman was surprised Ruby knew her given name.
"Background check. I did it after the first day I met you. I already knew some of your history and I learnt your given name through it." Ruby stated, "Now what did you find?" She asked more firmly.
Reluctantly Allison handed over the items they had found. The main item was a pure white cloak, Ruby took the cloak carefully, almost afraid that it would shatter as she touched it. The hood part had some dried blood on it but Ruby knew exactly whose cloak it was.
Next she took a piece of torn paper from Allison, which only had her mother's name, Summer Rose written on the top and a kill/capture order on it but the person who ordered it was torn off with only an S at the top of the paper being visible.
The last thing that Allison had was hidden behind her back, not wanting to show Ruby and she looked towards Evie again for help.
"She deserves to know. Show her." Evie replied.
Once more Allison was reluctant to show Ruby and it became clear why as she showed Ruby a severed wolf ear, they were similar to Ruby's own wolf ears that were flattened against her head but instead of a red tip these had a white tip.
Ruby didn't even touch the ear as she, without conscious thought pushed with her legs back until she hit the wall, but this didn't stop her as she tried to get away from it even further going to the point that she fell from her chair and crawled backwards along the floor to get away.
"No…no…it can't be true…there's no way." Ruby mumbled to herself as she backed away from the evidence that her mother was dead.
Allison quickly stored the ear in a small bag, before getting low onto the floor with open arms towards Ruby. "Ruby, it's alright." She tried to say comfortingly but it had no effect on the woman as she half crawled, half walked into the co-pilot seat and locking the door shut closed.
"Doc, let her go. You've just shown her evidence towards her mother really being dead." Evie said.
"But…" Allison tried to reply but failed as Evie cut her off with a look. "How do you know so much?" Allison than asked, knowing that Ruby never opened up to her at all.
"Naomi told me about her concerns over Ruby, especially about her hope that Ruby had that her mother was still alive. And well we've just given her evidence that suggests her mother could be dead, it's anything short of a body." Evie stated, checking over her weapons.
"What do we do?" Allison asked, unsure how she could help Ruby.
"Nothing. Ruby has her own coping mechanisms. We've just got to be patient." Evie stated.
It didn't take long to get back to the school and the dock and Ruby was the first out of the aircraft and practically vanished.
They all started to walk down and saw Neo approaching them but none of them were able to speak as Naomi intercepted her first and after a brief few words Neo had teleported away, presumably to Ruby.
Neo was rushing through the school, and all the spots she knew Ruby would go to when she wanted to be alone or just vanish but then she realised she had been thinking about it wrong.
Stopping her random teleporting she chose a different tactic, she knew Ruby didn't want to be alone but she also didn't want to be seen by anyone at the same time.
She had a couple options here, there was the cafeteria which was busy throughout the day but then at the same time Ruby also fought to get out her emotions.
"Aria check if Glynda has a class running, or any combat class on today." Neo asked as she ran towards the combat halls.
"No classes are running but some students are training in the hall and private rooms. Also some reports of a training room being active but no one inside." Aria informed her.
"Thank you Aria, shutdown that room for me, please." Neo asked as she teleported away.
She saw the crowd gathering around the monitor displaying what was going on inside one of the training rooms. Neo spotted Ruby's obvious red cloak on the monitor and her dancing around the androids she was fighting against, however she stumbled at points as she wasn't used to walking on her legs for so long.
Neo was about to shout at them all to get out of the way and leave the area but someone else beat her to it.
"I'm pretty sure you all have something better to do than stare at a student training." Glynda Goodwitch shouted to the gathered students, "If you find yourself having nothing to do I'm sure I can arrange for you to have work to do." She stated, which quickly and easily dispersed the students watching Ruby.
"Thank you." Neo said.
"Just get in there before she destroys my training rooms." Glynda said, but her voice was gentle and soft.
Neo nodded in return as she opened the door and quietly entered the room. She simply watched Ruby fight, her normally beautiful dance she did while fighting was now sluggish and each move seemed like she had heavy weights tied to her.
She would stumble and fall over a lot, but would quickly return to her feet to carry on attacking it even though she'd fall down again.
Neo deactivated the fighting when she saw Ruby start to flag and grow weaker, so she shut it down and went to Ruby, "You know, last time I was the one exhausted and could barely stand, I kept going as well. But I remember someone stepping in to stop me from going too far." Neo said softly, hugging Ruby while at the same time bringing her to sit in her lap.
"I…wonder…who…that…was." Ruby said, breathless.
"Well she is a beautiful woman who defies all odds, even death. She is a strong and powerful woman, who is the best fighter I've ever seen. But she is also someone extremely bad at sharing her own feelings." Neo said softly.
Ruby remained silent, catching her breath instead of talking with Neo but also thinking over her words.
"Naomi told me what was found. Do you want to talk about it?" Neo asked.
"Could we go back to our room?" Ruby asked in reply.
A/N
So another chapter down, a little earlier this time because I wanted to post it. Anyway I've been busy writing out one story which is going quite well, though I'm just doing a time skip and learning about pregnancy lol.
Had a fun week this week as I went to A&E for myself for the first time ever. Managed to catch my finger on a beer cellar outdoor unit, not fun at all though I freaked out my GP by showing them my finger lol. Anyway nothing major just some steri strips or butterfly stiches.
Not much else I can think of at the moment, I might go weekly depending how it goes with my other story which will be called Not Alone. Unrelated note, but after that story I'm up in the air on what to write as I'm jumping around a fair bit. Suggestions are welcome for ideas, anyway until next time.