After departing from Haven, Ruby and company quickly made their way over to the train that would take them to Isen. From there, it was a somewhat short walk over to Daggerhorn, but for some it couldn't be long enough. Ruby and Yang were still fighting their own personal battles within themselves, ones that would control the emotions they felt during this part of their quest. While Yang was in tighter control of her emotions than Ruby was, she still felt like everything could come apart in an instant.
Everyone could tell that this was a delicate matter, knowing that they were going to the ruins of Ruby and Yang's home. They watched as the two girls did what they could to hold themselves together for everyone else' sake, but even they realized that it wasn't really working that well. Ruby looked extremely conflicted, she seemed like everything was crashing down around her unlike how she normally was cheerful and bubbly. She was fortunate that she had Weiss looking out for her right now, else the red haired huntress would probably have broken down many times by that point. Weiss of course was just glad that she could help heal Ruby's wounds.
Yang was fortunately faring better in keeping herself in check. She still had moments where she needed some comfort, but those were fewer than Ruby. Even so, Blake was there to step up and aid the blonde brawler whenever she needed it. Yang could see what everyone else was thinking though, she saw the looks that they gave her and Ruby. She could tell that they were worried about them, that they wondered if it was hopeless to try and help them. Yang of course, could do nothing about it, nothing was going to alleviate those concerns that they had. She just had to accept that things were going to be tense for a few days until their search was over.
As they sat aboard the train, Yang saw that Ruby was sitting with Weiss away from the rest of the group. She had to admit, if Weiss wasn't around, or if she wasn't as friendly to Ruby as she was now, she just knew that Ruby wouldn't be doing as well as she was. She knew that Ruby wasn't doing that great to begin with, but Yang knew that every little bit helped, and Weiss was definitely helping her.
Yang looked to her left to see that Blake, Jaune and Pyrrha were approaching her, looking like they wanted to talk. Ren and Nora were asleep on another part of the train, and Sun was training for some reason. Turning to face the three who approached her, Yang wondered what they wanted to talk about.
"Everything ok with Ruby?" Blake asked.
"As good as they could be, given what's going on," Yang responded. "I still can't believe that we're going back to Daggerhorn."
"You sound like you don't want to go there," Pyrrha said.
Yang sighed. "It's not that I don't want to go there, it's just that," Yang paused to come up with what she wanted to say that truly conveyed how she felt. "I'm worried that Ruby will end up getting hurt somehow while we're there. Not physically though, I know that's not going to happen, but emotionally, this is something that could hurt her."
"Yang," Blake said, placing a hand on her shoulder. "I can't promise you that everything will be alright, that Ruby won't get hurt." Blake knew Yang wouldn't like to hear that, but she knew that the brawler needed to hear it instead. "But even if she does get hurt, whether physically or emotionally, you know that it won't be forever. The pain she would have would fade with time, and since we'd all be there for her, that would help her remember that despite that pain, she still has loved ones around her to give her the strength that she needs to overcome that pain."
Yang had to admit that Blake's words held true. "I know, but something tells me that I should be the one to handle this. I feel like I need to do this, more than anyone else," Yang said in response to Blake.
"We're here if you want us to help, Yang, you know that," Pyrrha said next.
"Really guys, I appreciate the love and concern, but this is something that I have to do for Ruby alone, as her sister," Yang said. "It may seem like I'm trying to push you guys away, but really, you guys just being around and reminding Ruby and myself that you're here is the best thing possible to help."
Pyrrha and Jaune looked at each other, Pyrrha nodding to Jaune silently. Jaune turned to look at Yang again and let out a long sigh. "If you say so," Jaune said as he turned to walk away with Pyrrha. "Just don't be afraid to ask for help if you need it. Even the strongest people need some help every now and then."
Only Blake remained behind with Yang, wrapping the girl up in her arms. "Just don't keep us out ok?" Blake asked. She looked up to see Yang nod, her gaze fixed upon Ruby and Weiss, the latter of whom wrapping the former up in a hug and stroking her hair. Yang really was glad that Weiss was around after all.
The walk from where the train dropped them off, to the ruined city of Daggerhorn was uncomfortably quiet. No one wanted to say anything to each other because of Ruby and Yang's state, and Yang could tell that they were trying to avoid upsetting them somehow. It really hurt her that she was partially responsible for the extreme silence brought onto them, but she couldn't do much about it.
After a days worth of walking, they finally reached their goal, the ruins of Daggerhorn lay before them. Yang and Ruby stood in front of everyone else, they just stared out at the ruins of what was left. The sun was coming close to setting and it gave the ruins a peaceful look to them. Moss had started to grow on the sides of buildings, cobwebs hung from porches and doorways. Daggerhorn definitely looked as if it hadn't been occupied in a very long time.
"Well Ruby, we're finally here," Yang whispered to her sister. "We're home."
Before they could walk down into the city, Weiss, Blake and Sun all heard something approaching. They turned towards where the noise came from, up into the skies where they heard the cry. "Everything alright there Blake?" Yang asked when she noticed their companions were looking upwards.
"It's probably just a stray Nevermore, but we should be careful about it," Blake responded back.
"It's much worse than that," Weiss said, grave concern in her eyes. "It's the dragon." Right as Weiss said that, the dragon flew overhead of them and towards the village. It passed over the village and landed on a mountain that the village was at the base of.
"Dammit, somehow I knew this wouldn't be easy," Ren said once the dragon had landed. Everyone turned to him so he could explain. "After Ozpin gave us our assignment, I knew that something wasn't right. That dragon shouldn't be here unless it knew about what Summer's gift was. Ruby, you may not like this, but we can't stay here for long, we have to find what we're after and get out with haste."
"God dammit, Ren, don't you realize that this is hard enough on her alre-" Yang started to say before being cut off.
"He's right." Yang looked over to see that Ruby was agreeing with him. "The dragon is too strong to take on right now, and if it knows about my mother's gift to me, then we need to find it before it does." Yang could just tell that it hurt for Ruby to say that, but it was the truth. "Still, I do wish I had more time here, maybe after this is all over I'll come back and give myself more time to spend here."
Weiss walked over and placed her hand on Ruby's shoulder. "Well if you go then I'll be there with you," Weiss said. "For now though, we should get inside the village and find out where your mother hid the gift."
Ruby shrugged off Weiss' arm and turned to walk into the village. Everyone followed her, but they could tell it was painful for her to go through. They snuck in under the cover of the night after the sun had fully set. It was easier for some to hide than others, Blake and Ren having an easy time moving through swiftly, whereas Yang, Nora and Jaune were finding it harder and harder to get through the village unnoticed.
They wandered for what felt like a long time, following Ruby as she led them through the city towards where they were going to begin. Weiss was growing tired of this, she wanted to find this thing before they were spotted. Her body however, was definitely going to have other plans in mind. Feeling a vibration on her leg, Weiss started to go into a panic.
"No no no not now," She whispered as best she could. Still her comrades heard her cries and turned to see what was the matter.
"Weiss, what's wrong?" Blake asked.
"I need to inject the white dust into my body again," Weiss said. "We have to take a moment to do that in a safe place."
"We don't have the time to do that," Ren said. "How long could you wait before you absolutely needed it?"
"I've only ever let it go up to an hour after I felt the vibrations," Weiss said. "At that point, the pain was too much for me to handle and I had to do it."
"Then that means we have an hour to search this place," Ren said. "It may sound cold but we don't have much of a choice right now."
"And what happens when the time starts to go by and all I can do is cry out in pain while I'm writhing on the floor for the world to see and hear," Weiss said back to him.
Ren had to admit that he didn't realize how bad it could get, though he truly didn't know. "Fine, then we should find a place to do this quick," Ren said. He hated to sound like the bad guy right now, but when everything was on the line like it was, he wanted to complete their task as quick as possible. "Ruby, do you kn ow where we can go to hide for a bit while Weiss takes care of this?"
Ruby was already looking inside of a building, and gesturing for everyone to follow her inside. When Yang saw what the building was, she froze up for a second, before following Ruby inside. Everyone else soon followed and climbed on into what appeared to be an old home. Once they were inside, Weiss began her task of injecting the dust into her body.
It took a few minutes to complete in the dark, but Weiss managed to do this and inject the dust before she started to feel the pain course through her body. Once she was done, she finally got to look around at where they were. She saw an old home, partially burnt, yet mostly still intact. Paintings and portraits along the walls told of a family that used to live here, all of the pictures looking somewhat familiar. It took her a second to put two and two together, but eventually she realized what it was. Turning to look at Ruby, she saw that the girl was surprisingly calm for once.
"We made it guys, we made it home."
AN: Not gonna lie, took a bit longer to write the second half of this chapter than I would like. I blame TBB for getting me to watch Kill la Kill, so there. Anyway, I don't have much to say, other than don't be mad at Ren for pushing everyone to moving fast. He's just trying to make sure that everyone comes out of there alive is all.
Anyway, love you guys, hope you enjoyed the chapter, and thanks for reading.