Their journey back went quicker than Ruby hoped it would. Pyrrha's injury didn't slow them down too much and Ruby was thankful for that. Ruby felt very excited at the possibility of having a few days to rest for once. The last moment of reprieve that they had was before they set foot in Menagerie, and ever since then they've been moving constantly and rarely got a chance to rest their tired bodies. To say that Ruby was looking forward to the short break that they were bound to have on their journey back to Vale was an understatement.
As they were about to come upon the gates, they saw Yang and the group that went with her. Upon seeing them, Ruby called out to them. Seeing them turn their heads towards the sound of her voice, Ruby was glad to see that they all looked relatively unharmed. Ruby, Pyrrha, Blake and Ren walked over to them and they began to talk about what had occurred from both sides.
"You guys look well off, did you guys not run into that much trouble?" Ruby asked.
Yang shrugged. "Eh, we had to deal with some Grimm, and then a White Fang ambush immediately afterwards. Would've been worse off if Weiss here didn't keep us upright with those healing powers of hers," Yang said as she pointed over to the white haired girl in question. "Aside from her being exhausted after the fight and us having to help keep her upright on the walk back, we got out of there pretty much unharmed. A few of Nora's soldiers got hurt, but no casualties on our end."
Ruby nodded and looked over to Weiss. She could tell that Weiss was feeling exhausted because her face seemed to be a bit pink. "That sounds great," She said before turning her attention back to Yang. "We managed to clear out the stronghold, but the man in charge took off before we could bring him down. Pyrrha had a bullet graze her leg towards the end of the fight, but it didn't look to bad of a hit."
Upon hearing that, Weiss gingerly walked over. Ruby could tell from the short walk over that Weiss was still feeling exhausted. "Let me take a look at the leg Pyrrha," Weiss said as she motioned for Pyrrha to sit on a nearby boulder. Pyrrha looked to argue that point, and Ruby would have agreed with her, but Weiss wasn't going to let her fight back on the issue.
"Very well then," Pyrrha said as she sat down and removed the cloth covering the wound. It looked grim on the outside, but Weiss could tell that it wasn't as serious as it looked. "It just brushed against the upper layer of my thigh, so there doesn't look to be too much damage done."
As Weiss worked on Pyrrha's leg, Ruby and Yang continued their conversation, with Nora and Ren standing with them while they talked. "I gotta hand it to you Yang, you guys certainly did a good job of keeping everything out of our way. We didn't run into a single enemy on the way over, and we even passed through a Beowolf nest," Ruby said.
Yang looked startled by that for a second. "Wait really? You passed through a Beowolf nest and there was nothing in there?" She asked.
"Um, yeah why?"
Yang looked over to Weiss, who was working to seal Pyrrha's wound. "Weiss said she heard a group of Grimm in your path and told me to draw them towards us. I didn't believe her at first but did it anyway," Yang said. "I guess that means she was right after all huh."
Ruby threw her arm over Yang's shoulder. "Yeah, Weiss was right about that, but that doesn't matter now. What does matter is that you guys held off everything that was thrown at you and come back in one piece. Be happy about that."
"Plus I mean, it was really fun during the fight, as if it wouldn't be," Nora cut in.
Yang nodded her head and closed her eyes. "You're right, though I do need to apologize to Weiss for the way I acted about that," Yang said.
"Then just go over to her and say it. I'm sure she'll accept it if you say something," Ruby said.
Yang sighed as she shrugged Ruby's arm off of her shoulder. She walked over to Weiss just as she was finishing with Pyrrha's leg. "There' you go, leg's taken care of," Weiss said to Pyrrha. She tried to stand up but when she did, she became light headed and nearly fell over. Fortunately for her, Yang was right there to help keep her upright.
"Easy there princess, you've exerted yourself enough today," Yang said once she had a firm grip on her. Setting Weiss down on the boulder Pyrrha was just on, Yang took a deep breath as she prepared to speak her apology. "Weiss, I wanted to say that I'm sorry for the way I was acting earlier. I didn't believe you when you said that there was Grimm in Ruby's path, but you were right. I will admit that I was wrong about that and that you were right after all, and for that I'm sorry."
Weiss sat there for a few moments, silently taking in the words that Yang uttered mere seconds before. "Ok, apology accepted," Weiss said.
Yang once again looked surprised. "Wait, really, that easily? I figured you would've made it harder for me to get that," She said to Weiss.
"I'm not incapable of being reasonable, thank you very much. You apologized for what you did and I forgive you for that, nothing else to it," Weiss said. "I don't see how this should be a big deal at all, or why you even apologized in the first place, though I won't question it."
"Well I guess that's about as good as it can get I guess," Yang said.
"Of course it is. Now send that Jaune fellow over here, I need to say something to him," Weiss said. Yang gestured to Jaune to come over and when he arrived Yang left the two of them alone.
"Can I help you with something, Weiss?" Jaune asked.
Weiss took a moment to clear her throat. "Jaune, I would like to apologize for some remarks that I've made towards you yesterday, regarding your skill level. I was wrong about some parts of it and I should not have reacted as harshly as I did, seeing as how my words hurt you in some way. Despite being cold at times, I realize that I was wrong, based off of what I saw today. I still stand by what I said about you having much to improve on, but I guess it is possible for you to become stronger, with time of course. In short, I wish to apologize for what I said."
Jaune stood next to Weiss and placed a hand on her shoulder. "You have nothing to be sorry about Weiss. Honestly, I know that you said all that because of how you were brought up. It made you a cold perfectionist that doesn't understand what it's like outside of what you have experienced. None of us are able to comprehend what you went through, but I wouldn't tell you to change because of that. Yeah you have some things to work on, just like I do, but just like me, you are capable of learning. Like me though, you have people here who want to help, just gotta let us in to do so."
"I appreciate that then Jaune. For now though, it'll just be a few steps at a time. Don't expect anything to change right away, I still have a long way to go before I trust everyone here, even Ruby," Weiss looked over to Ruby. The Huntress looked over at her and smiled.
"Alright then, I can't wait to see that then," Jaune walked over to Pyrrha to check on her and make sure that she was ok.
Before Weiss could do anything else, Ruby walked over to her. "You gonna be ok to head out soon?"
"I should be fine, don't worry about me," Weiss said back to her.
Ruby shook her head. "Of course I'm going to worry about you, since we both care so much about each other." Ruby hugged Weiss, earning a slight blush over the already reddened face of the white haired girl.
"We should get going then if you're asking about it," Weiss said as she stood up and walked a few paces away.
Ruby got the hint that Weiss just wanted to be left alone for a little bit. "Ok then," Ruby said. She got up and walked past Weiss, whispering into her ear as she passed her. "Maybe we'll talk later then."
Weiss looked at Ruby while she continued on, informing everyone that they were about to leave again. Before she knew it, a pang of sadness struck through her heart and she felt alone.
Arriving back at the city of Vacuo, Ruby and company were greeted with a heroes welcome. Some of the citizens gathered at the gates and cheered upon their return. Ruby smiled as she walked into the city. It was moments like this where she truly enjoyed her job the most. Moments where the people she was trying to help showed just how happy and safe they felt because of her hard work. It made it all worthwhile in the end.
"What's a Faunus doing with them?"
And then there was always one person who would kill the mood somehow. Ruby looked to see who it was that was sounding angry for a moment. Somehow he realized that Sun was a Faunus and believe that he shouldn't be there. Somehow people caught on to that and the cheers started to turn into cries of anger.
"The Faunus are just going to go to the White Fang in the end."
"My village was destroyed by Faunus."
"The White Fang killed my daughter and the Faunus are no better."
Sensing a problem brewing, Ruby turned to Yang. "Give me a boost onto your shoulders," Ruby said. Yang knelt down and Ruby stood on her shoulders. "Pyrrha, can you keep me balanced?"
"Done," Pyrrha responded.
When Ruby was up above the rest of her companions she called out to everyone. "People of Vacuo, I know that you have concerns about the fact that we travel with those of Faunus heritage. I can assure you that they would never do any harm to any of you. I understand your concerns about the White Fang but these kind of remarks only escalate the violence. Most of the Faunus hate the White Fang as much as you do, so why must you spread hate?"
Everyone remained silent while Ruby spoke, taking in every word she said. After a few moments, someone in the crowd shouted again. "A Faunus saved my life once, and I can never repay him for his kind actions."
"I was given shelter from a terrible storm by a Faunus."
"My best friend is a Faunus."
The cheers started again and Ruby jumped down off of Yang. "Let's get going, we made a difference here so now we should get back to the King," Ruby said.
"Just be aware there's going to be a feast tonight," Nora said as they walked back up to the throne.
"Really a feast?" Yang asked. "Will there be ale?"
Nora laughed at the question. "Did you ever believe that there wouldn't be any? You're in Vacuo, the capital city of Atlas. When there is cause for a feast, we make sure to make it the best damn feast in all the lands."
Yang grinned and let her hands rest behind her head. "Oh yeah, this should be fun then."
AN: So this first little part of the story is finished, and now we're going to move onto bigger things. So the gang is going to head back to Vale after a nice little celebration up in Atlas. Of course there's going to be some instances of drunk Yang because, why not.
Anyway, thanks for reading this chapter, and I hope you enjoyed it.