When Weiss walked into the medical wing, she was determined to see Ruby. Walking through the halls she knew that it would be a matter of time before she found what she was looking for. Eventually she came upon the room where Ruby Rose was resting. Inside, she saw Ruby talking with her sister Yang about something, though she couldn't make out what they were saying. Weiss took a deep breath in to steel her resolve and then opened the door.
Upon hearing the door open, Ruby and Yang turned their attention to Weiss. "Hey Weiss. It's great to see you," Ruby said. "How are you doing?"
Weiss walked closer to the sisters and nodded. "I'm doing well right now, though I should be asking you this question." Weiss felt a bit nervous for some reason, the events of the night before playing clearly in her mind. Looking out the window she noticed that the sun was starting to set, and that the people would be all returning to their homes soon. It gave Weiss the peace of mind to know that she wouldn't be bothered while she was with Ruby, provided that Yang leave or behave herself.
"Couple of bumps and scratches here and there, nothing too major though," Ruby stated. "I should be good to go by tomorrow, if you're wondering."
"That's good to hear," Weiss said to Ruby. She wasn't going to say it, but she was hoping that Yang would leave and give the two of them some privacy.
"Hey Yang, can you give me and Weiss a moment alone? I think there are some things that we need to talk about," Ruby said to her sister.
Yang took a deep breath before nodding. She had to start being nice to Weiss so that Ruby could help her become a better person. "Ok, just let me know if you need anything, ok Rubes?" She walked over to Ruby and rubbed the top of her head. Ruby flailed her arms in an attempt to stop Yang, though it did nothing. "He he he, see ya sis."
Yang walked out of the room and shut the door behind her. The quiet that sat there between Ruby and Weiss felt a bit tense, and neither of the girls knew what to say to each other. After a few minutes of awkward silence and avoiding each others' gaze, Ruby finally spoke up. "So, Weiss, how are you doing?"
Weiss looked over to Ruby. She had a million thoughts run through her head, and she didn't know where to begin. "I'm fine." Weiss felt like she was saying that to herself more than she was to Ruby.
"You don't look like you're fine though," Ruby mentioned to Weiss. "You look like you have something to say."
Weiss sighed. She felt exhausted from all of these emotions that were running through her. Knowing that they wouldn't be going away any time soon, Weiss decided to say something to Ruby instead. "Do you, remember what happened last night between us?"
Ruby took a moment to think over the memories of that night. The feeling of worry that Weiss had, the moment where Weiss let her emotions get the better of her for a second, the kiss that never happened between them. "I do remember. Why do you ask?"
Weiss walked over to the window and stared out into the sunset. "It's because I'm wondering what all of that meant. What we talked about, what we did together." Weiss shut her eyes and let her head lower. "What we didn't do." Weiss mumbled out that last part, but Ruby still heard it.
"You mean when you and I almost, you know, kissed?"
Weiss' body sagged down when she heard that. "It's been on my mind all day, and it was all I could think about when I tried to sleep last night. Honestly, I don't know why that nearly happened, but something about it felt nice. When we were in that moment, I felt like everything was going to be great. I felt like I was truly on top of the world, yet I don't know why I felt that way, because all I've ever known is pain, suffering, expectations, and perfection." She turned to face Ruby, looking right into her silver eyes. "I don't know what to do about this and quite frankly, I'm afraid of what might come from this."
Ruby got out of the bed she was sitting on, and walked over to Weiss. She wrapped her arm around her shoulder and gave Weiss a smile. "If people were to ask me how I felt about you, I would tell that you're the strongest person I've ever met. Not from a physical standpoint though, that goes to my sister," Ruby said, hoping to get Weiss to laugh. When it didn't work she continued. "You want to know why you're the strongest person I've ever me?"
"I do want to know," Weiss said.
Ruby wrapped her other arm around Weiss' shoulder, and pulled the girl into a hug. "It's because you've been through so much in your life, yet here you are now standing tall despite what happened to you before. You overcame all of that and have the chance to prove to the world that you have a place. That's what I love about you, your willpower, your determination and inner strength, your stubbornness, your pride in the skills you have, your beauty, your willingness to stand in the face of adversity, I could go on and on if I wanted to."
Ruby moved so that she was looking at Weiss' eyes. Weiss had wrapped her arms around Ruby's waist and Ruby left her arms around her neck loosely. "You standing here now is proof of your inner strength. You over came so much and that shows you just what you are capable of."
Weiss slipped out of Ruby's grip and walked a few steps away. "You're wrong Ruby."
"What?" Ruby looked confused as she watched Weiss.
"I haven't overcome what had happened to me. Who knows if I ever will even," Weiss said. She felt something touch her arm and she looked down to see Ruby's hand gently placed there. "There are some things that I haven't told you or anyone else, things that could change your opinion of me. I don't let people get close to me for a reason. All of the scientists that ran tests on me, I never cared for them even though they tried to get to know me and be my friends."
"I doubt that would change my opinion of you," Ruby said.
"Don't be surprised if I don't want to talk about it though," Weiss said back. "It's better if no one know about it anyway." Weiss turned to look at Ruby. "I will admit that I do care about you in some way more than just being friends I guess."
"And I feel the same about you," Ruby said back.
Weiss felt something on her leg vibrate, an indication of what she has to live with. "Why now of all times," mumbled to herself. "I need to go Ruby. I hope you feel better." Weiss said as she walked out of the room, not giving Ruby any time to respond to her.
The next day, Ruby was let out of the hospital. She gathered her team together told them that they were going to meet with the King. Arriving at the throne room, Ruby and company walked off to the side to meet with him, as well as Ren and Nora. "Thank you for coming on such short notice," King Port said as they arrived. "We have a lot of work to do and not much time to do that in. So I will try to make this as quick as possible."
"We follow your lead my lord," Ruby said back to him as she took her place around a map that was laid out for them.
"Before we begin, you should all take the time to introduce yourselves to each other. It would be wise to learn about who you are working with," The King said.
"Well then, my name is Ruby Rose, and I am a member of the Huntsman," Ruby said to Ren and Nora. She gestured to each of her companions as she called their name. "This is Yang Xiao Long, Pyrrha Nikos, Jaune Arc, Sun Wukong, Blake Belladonna, and Weiss Schnee. I do not wish to drag this out any longer than it needs to, so this is what we can give you for now."
"Very well then, we can always ask for more details later," Ren stated to Ruby. "I'm Lie Ren, Chief Scout for the Atlas Military, and this is Captain Nora Valkyrie."
"It's an honor to serve with you," Pyrrha said to Ren and Nora.
"And it shall be an honor to us as well Miss Nikos," The King said back to her. "Now onto the task at hand." He gestured to the map in front of them. "As you know, we recently learned of the location of a White Fang occupied Stronghold not too far from a few of the smaller settlements in Atlas. thanks to Ren, we know that this stronghold creates a grave threat to my people and needs to be defeated." The King declared.
"Taking this stronghold out doesn't look to easy though," Blake said while she was observing the map. "It looks like the stronghold is surrounded by the forest. The White Fang would definitely have set up traps to protect itself from the military, and the Grimm."
"That would certainly complicate the matter," The King said. He stroked his mustache, thinking of a plan that could work.
"What if we split up into two teams?" Ruby suggested. "We could have one team draw all of the attention towards them, so that a second team could slip in and take the stronghold down."
"Hmh, that seems like a risky decision. It would put quite a bit of pressure on the distraction group. The odds are that they would most likely take heavy losses if they were overwhelmed," King Port said.
"I'm down for it."
Ruby looked over to her sister, who spoke up. She was volunteering for the group that would be caught in the line of fire. "Yang are you sure about that?" Ruby asked.
"Yeah, I mean, it's the only idea that works so far. Even if we were to sit here and think of other ideas, we don't have the time to do so," Yang said. "So this idea works, and I know what I would be best suited for."
"I'll join Yang as well. I'm not really that stealthy so it works better for me," Nora said.
"If Nora is going to work with the distraction group, then I'll work with the infiltration group," Ren said after her. "I'm better in that field, and it would be wise to put one of us in each group. We both know the lay of the land and we would help guide you to the stronghold."
"Well then it's settled," The King declared emphatically. "You shall split up into two groups and fight the White Fang forces. Ruby, I give you the choice of who you send in each group. I bid you all farewell, and good luck on your noble quest." The King then took his leave to allow Ruby the chance to plan out the rest of the teams.
It wasn't an easy choice. She knew that Blake would be best suited to go with her, but she wanted to bring at least one other person with her as well. Between Weiss, Pyrrha, Jaune and Sun, there were so many things to consider. "Blake, Pyrrha, the two of you are with me and Ren in the infiltration team. Weiss, Jaune, Sun, you three with go with Yang and Nora to help with the distraction."
"Um, Ruby, are you sure about this?" Jaune asked.
"I'm with Jaune on this one, are you sure that this is the best decision? Maybe you should let me go with Jaune and take either Weiss or Sun with you," Pyrrha said.
"As much as I would like to, you fit the category best Pyrrha. Weiss is staying with Yang because she can heal you guys if you get hurt, and she has those barriers that she can throw up if you need it. Jaune and Sun are not the stealthiest of people and that is very important to this task, which leaves only you Pyrrha," Ruby responded. "It's not the ideal situation, but it's what we have to work with."
Pyrrha let out a deep breath and nodded. "If that's what you think is best, then I'll stand by your decision," Pyrrha said.
"If this is our plan, we should gather our gear and prepare to leave," Ren cut in.
Ruby sighed. "Right. Everyone grab what you need and we'll meet back here in a half an hour," Ruby started to walk over to grab her own gear. "I just hope that this doesn't end badly."
AN: So I'm going to say this now. Thanks to school this hasn't gone through the usual edit yet. I do plan on getting this edited when my editor has the chance to do so of course, college tends to cause our lives to be hectic after all. That being said, I'll mention when this gets edited so that you can re-read the chapter if you read it before it gets edited.
Anyway, I don't really have much to say about this other than I have the entire act planned out. Each individual chapter though is still in the works story wise, but the overall summary of the chapters is set. I can honestly say, I really can't wait for this story to get towards the later chapters because of it.
So, thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed the chapter.