Golden sunshine slowly filtered in through the window of Ruby's bedroom, signalling the start of a new day. A new day which, Ruby decided, she really didn't want to get up and face.
She did of course have some great reasons for this, for starters, it was unfairly comfortable in her bed right now. This was largely due to the presence of Cinder, who was curled right up against her, still slumbering away with a peaceful expression plastered across her face. Ruby had never anticipated how nice it would feel to sleep like this, together with someone she… cared about, sharing warmth and enjoying their gentle touch. It was just something that had never been on her radar before, but now that she was used to it she really couldn't stand the idea of going back to sleeping alone.
On a more serious note, though, she didn't want to get up because her new weapon was almost done. That might sound a little strange, of course she was incredibly excited about her new baby, about finally getting to put it into action, but well… the fact that it was nearly done also meant that her time here on Patch was nearly done, and she'd soon forced to confront the troubles she could sense looming on the horizon. To confront everyone over in Vacuo.
In fact, she probably should already have started sorting out exactly how they were going to get over there. That was something she'd been repeatedly putting off for the last few days, but as it turns out when you keep insisting that something will be a problem for future you, eventually future you becomes present you. She had to put her foot down eventually, and last night she'd resolved herself to sort it out today. Thus, another great reason for her to not get up.
At bare minimum, she decided, she'd stay in bed until Cinder was awake. Waking her up just felt too cruel, especially considering how unfairly cute she looked right now, so content and relaxed. Plus, as Ruby had noticed very early in their journey together, Cinder often didn't seem to sleep very well. That had gotten better over time, and better still since they entered into this little sleeping arrangement, but all the same she deserved every bit of peaceful rest that she could get.
Without really being aware of what she was doing, too focused on the myriad thoughts bouncing around in her head to pay attention to reality, Ruby began slowly stroking Cinder's hair. Cinder stirred a little at the contact, and for a moment Ruby worried that she might have accidentally woken her up, but ultimately she just nuzzled a little closer to Ruby's chest and let out a happy sigh.
Times like these were precious, Ruby decided. Maybe it was wrong to keep indulging her frustratingly hard to ignore crush, but… well she couldn't deny how nice it all felt. Better to save the worrying for some other time, and for now just focus on enjoying herself, and helping Cinder to enjoy herself too. After all, who knows how much longer they'd be able to stay like this?
Ruby kept her hood pulled up as she and Cinder strolled along the streets of Vale. It felt perhaps a bit ironic that she was the one more concerned about being seen by people out of the two of them when you considered what Cinder had been up to last time she'd been here, but well, it was what it was. Maybe concerned wasn't the right word, it wasn't as if anything particularly bad would happen if she got recognised, not like she'd committed a crime or anything, but honestly she just really didn't want to deal with all the attention. It'd gotten a lot easier to deal with over time but the spectre of her old friend, social anxiety, still had a tendency to rear its ugly head, and parading around the streets as 'that girl from the Atlas CCT broadcast!' felt like she'd just be asking for it.
Retroactively, she decided to add all this to her list of reasons why she hadn't wanted to get up this morning, although maybe it should just be a kinda sub-heading to the "not wanting to sort out their Vacuo trip" reason. Because, ultimately, that was why she and Cinder had made their way over to Vale for the day. At present, there were some pretty heavy restrictions on air traffic within the kingdom, meaning that getting the transport they needed wasn't going to be as simple as just booking a ticket. Luckily, Ruby had a pretty good idea about who she could speak to to figure it all out, namely, Professor Goodwitch.
Glynda (Wow, it feels really weird just calling her that, abort) had become a pretty important figure in Vale since the fall, more or less assuming all of Ozpin's former responsibilities, and on top of that being placed in charge of the coordination of all the huntsmen and huntresses in the kingdom. Ruby could only assume, therefore, that she would have the authority to commandeer an airship for them to use, or something along those lines at the very least. Shouldn't take too much convincing either, given that she'd been a member of Ozpin's inner circle for a long time, she would know better than anyone the importance of their mission.
Yep, going to Professor Goodwitch was definitely the right call.
As a plus from all this, going into Vale gave the two of them an opportunity to stock up a little on stuff that they couldn't easily get over on Patch. For Cinder, this took the form of several rolls of fabric, as well as a selection of other assorted materials that she had decided on for the new outfits she was making the both of them. It was honestly pretty exciting seeing her carrying all that stuff around now, anticipating what it might end up looking like. Cinder had actually tried to show her the designs she came up with that morning, but Ruby decided not to look, enjoying the idea of being surprised just a little too much.
For Ruby meanwhile, stocking up mainly meant ammunition for her beautiful new weapon, both just some run of the mill bullets and a few more specialised dust rounds to give it that extra kick. Speaking of dust, she'd baulked at the price it was selling for when she saw it, apparently between no more imports from Atlas and general trade difficulties with the other kingdoms thanks to the increases in grimm attacks lately, there wasn't all that much to go around in Vale. Ultimately though she didn't have much choice but to pay up, even if it made her wallet cry.
On the bright side, the shopkeeper didn't make any comment about her presence when she did go to pay, although he clearly recognised her. That might not have been because of the broadcast though; she'd never really spoken to him before but she actually knew him from way back before she'd even started at Beacon. Sort of, she didn't particularly know anything about him, but she'd visited his store quite a lot at the very least. It honestly made her really happy to know that he'd made it through the fall, and everything that followed, okay.
A funny thought occurred to her, then, as she and Cinder walked out of the dust shop. She looked across these familiar streets, familiar buildings, and eventually settled her gaze on a very familiar rooftop.
"Hey," she looked over to Cinder, "Do you know what's special about this place?"
Cinder startled when Ruby spoke, the words pulling her out of whatever thoughts she'd been lost in. As soon as she processed the question, she took her own turn to look around the area. Ruby could practically see the light of recognition dawn in her eye after a few seconds. "Oh, is this where we first met?"
Ruby couldn't help but giggle a little. "Yep, although it wasn't much of a meeting. First time we saw each other, maybe, but I couldn't actually see that much of you either." Memories danced in her mind's eye as they spoke, Roman Torchwick robbing the store, her beating up his goons and giving chase to an airship where a mysterious woman shrouded in shadows waited.
"First time you got in my way," Cinder offered, an affectionate warmth clear in her eye.
"The first of many," Ruby agreed. A part of her wondered what her life might've been like if she hadn't been in that place at that exact moment. No fast pass to Beacon, no being placed at the forefront of this whole war for humanity's survival. A much simpler, safer life. She was glad that things had turned out the way they did. Even if her life had been hard, even if she'd struggled, she'd done a lot of good; not least of all for the woman standing at her side right now. She didn't even want to think about a life where she didn't accomplish all that.
Finding Professor Goodwitch was, thankfully, a relatively easy task. Her primary responsibility right now was handling the situation at Beacon, keeping the grimm that still infested the academy from leaking out into the rest of the city, and so all Ruby and Cinder really needed to do was walk in that general direction until they reached the barricades that huntsmen teams had set up around the perimeter of the still dangerous areas. From there, they found a huntress in the midst of a patrol along that perimeter, and were able to get directions to the little command centre that the professor was operating out of.
Annoyingly, the huntress recognised Ruby almost immediately, and began to bombard her with questions as soon as the initial shock wore off. On the bright side, she was relatively easy to brush off, or at least was after Cinder shot her a particularly murderous look. It was nice to have that kind of support, even if Ruby did feel a little bad for the poor girl.
The walk from there to Professor Goodwitch's command centre, which turned out to be a handful of tents set up in a small park a short distance away from the barricades, was a peaceful one. This whole area was still evacuated, the council not wanting to move civilians back in just yet on the off chance grimm broke through the defences, so there was no real risk of being recognised out here. Even without that threat however, the whole situation made Ruby's stomach churn bad enough that she honestly would have preferred being surrounded by throngs of people.
This area was a residential district, formerly, and now all these homes lay abandoned for the foreseeable future. So many lives thrown into chaos, families leaving everything they had behind in the panic of evacuation. She wondered where they were even housing all of the people that had once lived here, hopefully in all the time that had passed the council had been able to come up with some kind of solution, but a large part of her worried that they might all still just be crammed together into some 'temporary' camp, all desperately hoping that they might be able to return even as month after month dragged by.
She thought about striking up a conversation with Cinder, trying to find something to take her mind off of things, but when she looked over she saw the same sickening melancholy she was feeling reflected in Cinder's lone eye. That… made sense. She could only imagine what must be running through her partner's head right now. Rather than words, she opted to just take Cinder's hand into her own, letting them both find comfort in that small bit of contact.
Cinder gave her a small, shy smile at that, but similarly refrained from speaking any of her thoughts aloud. They walked silently together, and eventually reached their destination.
One bright side of her newfound fame, when they did reach the encampment it was pretty easy for Ruby to convince the people there that she really did need to speak to Professor Goodwitch like, right now. And so, the pair were waved inside and pointed towards her office/tent without any real protest.
Surprise was the first emotion that passed over Professor Goodwitch's face when Ruby stepped inside. That was then closely followed by what looked to Ruby to be a hint of relief, and that after that some feigned indignation. "Ms. Rose, I hope you realise that your little stunt on the CCT put me in a very difficult situation," yes, it was definitely feigned, she was doing her level best to pretend to be annoyed but underneath it Ruby could tell that she was happy to see her. Unfortunately, whatever the Professor was going to say next was cut off the moment that Cinder stepped in behind Ruby.
There was just enough time for the thought, 'oh yeah, Uncle Qrow would definitely have told her about Cinder being behind the fall of Beacon, wouldn't he?' to run through Ruby's head before the light of recognition dawned in Professor Goodwitch's eyes. Without wasting any time, her hand shot down to her weapon, the Disciplinarian, where it hung by her waist. Cinder, likely on instinct as much as anything conscious, settled into a combat stance the second she in turn registered what was happening, but luckily for everyone present Ruby happened to be the fastest in the room.
In a burst of petals, Ruby appeared at the Professor's side and grabbed hold of her arm, keeping her from attacking Cinder. "Wait wait wait wait wait," Ruby blurted out, fighting off the shot of panic that raced through her, "It's all okay, just give me a second to explain."
Professor Goodwitch seemed as shocked at Ruby being able to stop her as at anything else (Ruby couldn't help but feel a little pride at that, she'd come a long way since her time as a student), but all the same ceased her attempted attack. "Alright then," she spoke slowly after taking a moment to process everything that had just happened, "I'm sure you can understand that this is more than a little surprising, Ms. Rose, so if you could shed at least a little light on what you're doing here, and with Cinder Fall of all people, that would be appreciated."
"Right, yeah," Ruby's mind felt more than a little frazzled after that bit of excitement, and she struggled to get her thoughts in order, "Sorry, guess I should've thought this through a little more." She released the Professor's arm, and took a step back, letting out a little sigh of relief. "Uh, so, a lot's happened. I guess you already knew that from that CCT broadcast… sorry for naming you in that, by the way, but we all just really needed people who could confirm what we were saying, otherwise there was no way anyone would come to help us."
"Ah," Goodwitch at the very least seemed satisfied that Cinder wasn't an immediate threat to her, a touch of tension draining out of her body as Ruby spoke, "It was a bit of a shock, but I suppose I understand. It can't have been an easy decision to let that all out." She paused, and then a hint of shame seemed to enter her voice. "I'm sure you already know, but despite my best efforts to convince them, the Vale council refused to send any forces up to Atlas to help. What… ended up happening? Did Vacuo or Mistral…?"
Ruby shook her head, doing her best to hide the disappointment she felt at the memory. "No, no-one came. We knew it was a long shot, though, the message was as much to warn everyone else about what might be coming as to get help. Atlas fell, but we were able to organise a large-scale evacuation. I… got separated from everyone else, though, and Cinder ended up betraying Salem to help me. She's on our side now, and we've been travelling together ever since."
"Atlas… fell? Then the whole kingdom was just… destroyed?"
Ruby nodded. She could still remember what it felt like, taking in that destruction for the first time; the ruins stretching out, on and on, as Cinder and her flew by. It made what had happened to Vale look like nothing, made her feel sick to her stomach to know that as hard as she'd fought she hadn't been able to stop it. "There's more or less only rubble left."
Professor Goodwitch just blinked slowly. "I…" her voice trailed off aimlessly, it was clear that even with her knowledge of Salem, she'd never thought that an entire kingdom could just be wiped off the map like that. She silently opened and closed her mouth a few times, as if struggling to find any words that she could say, until eventually some came to her. "Do you know what happened to James?"
It took Ruby a few moments to figure out how to respond to that. She didn't exactly know the extent of it, but she had the impression that they, well, all of Ozpin's inner circle really, had known one another for a long time. Had been close. "Well… I'm sure you heard what I said during the broadcast, about what he was doing." She waited for Professor Goodwitch to nod before forcing herself to continue, "Things kept going downhill, and we ended up fighting against him directly. We beat him, and then were able to take him prisoner, so he should be with the rest of the refugees now in-"
"No, he died," For the first time since entering the tent, Cinder spoke up.
Ruby couldn't help the surprise that broke out on her face, looking back to Cinder with wide eyes even as the Professor did the same. "He did?" she asked, slowly and uncertainly.
Cinder seemed to be regretting her decision to speak now, shrinking a little under the gaze of the other two women. "Well… yes. I don't know exactly what happened, but he was still on Atlas when it hit the ground. I saw him just before I flew away."
That… was news to Ruby. But then, there'd been so much chaos during the evacuation, and she'd been an unconscious prisoner by the end of it, she couldn't exactly doubt what Cinder was telling her. Still, it was… strange to think that he'd just been dead all this time without her even knowing. Was it wrong to feel a little relieved that there was one less thing for her to have to deal with? Probably, but by the end there'd just been no reasoning with the man, it almost seemed like this was the only way it could ever have really ended.
Her thoughts were interrupted by Professor Goodwitch sighing, long and low. "Right, I… right." She seemed so small in that moment, her shoulders slumped, breaths shaky, perhaps the smallest hint of tears welling up in her eyes. And then it was all gone, she straightened up as if nothing had happened, expression moving back to the same old slightly disappointed stern glare, nothing to indicate the grief that was surely roiling below the surface. "Well, I assume you didn't come all this way just to fill me in. So, what is it that you need?"
The sudden shift was surprising, but at the same time Ruby could understand wanting to just bury all those feelings away, to not show them to anyone else. "Oh yeah, well, I mentioned that I got separated from everyone during the evacuation. They all went to Vacuo, and that's also where Salem will attack next, so that's where me and Cinder need to go. We were hoping you could help us with transport."
"For the record," the Professor's eyes flicked over to Cinder, then back to Ruby, "I'm still not entirely sure how to feel about that. But I suppose I'll just have to take your word for it when you say that she's on our side."
Ruby nodded, keeping her expression resolute. "You will, and she is."
Goodwitch raised an eyebrow. "Right, well. As for getting to Vacuo… I think that shouldn't be too hard to arrange. In one week's time, there'll be a trade convoy headed there. In a way, it's actually fortuitous that you're here, these convoys need huntresses to protect them from the grimm, but we're undermanned in the kingdom as it is. You can go along, protect it on the way over, then when you arrive you can stay there and the convoy can hire new guards for the trip back. Does that sound good?"
"Yeah, that sounds great!" A small grin broke out on Ruby's face. It was nice to have things go relatively smoothly, for once, and having an excuse to spend another week back at Patch was very welcome. All the same, it took a little effort for her to fight down the anxiety she felt at the thought of the coming reunion; and even more effort to contain the disgust she felt at herself for being relieved that it would be a little longer yet. Everyone over in Vacuo must be so worried about her, so desperate to know if she was okay, and here she was feeling happy that she wouldn't see them just yet.
Cinder's hand gently settling on the small of her back pulled Ruby's attention away from her spiralling thoughts and back to the present. Concern was plain on Cinder's face when Ruby looked to her, and so she met it with the most reassuring smile she could manage. It would be okay, she reminded herself, they'd bear whatever burdens came their way together. After a few moments, Cinder smiled back.
Professor Goodwitch was staring at them strangely when Ruby faced her once more. Wonder what that was about. "Well," Ruby spoke up again, once it became clear the Professor wasn't going to say anything, "I guess if that's all, I'll just give you my scroll number, and you can contact us when you sort all the details out?"
That pulled Goodwitch out of whatever state of surprise she'd become locked in. "Oh, uh, right. Before you leave, though, there was one other thing I wanted to ask."
Hm, hopefully not something else about Atlas, those memories weren't the most pleasant to revisit. "Oh, sure, what is it?"
"I… hate to ask for your help when you have your own problems, but I mentioned before that we were undermanned," she paused for a good few moments, adjusted her glasses, and then continued, "That's been a problem for some time, but it's only grown worse recently."
Ah, not asking for information, then. "We'd be happy to lend a hand however we can while we're here," Ruby offered. Truth be told, it might be nice to have a little regular huntress work to keep herself occupied with over the week.
"Good, because in the past month a single, unusual grimm has been responsible for the deaths of at least seven huntsmen and huntresses." As the Professor spoke, she stared directly into Ruby's eyes. "And the two of you might be our best chance at killing it without losing anyone else."
