AUTHOR'S NOTES: Chapter 4. This is a very talky chapter, but it sets up the rest of the story, so it needed to happen. There's plenty of action down the road, but we have to get there first.

This chapter does address something V9 didn't (understandably, as Team RWBY was just trying to get out of the Ever After alive)-is there punishment awaiting the heroines when they get home? Ironwood did order their arrest, and while I'm pretty sure their actions cleared their name (and let's face it, rarely do protagonists who break the law get punished), there's still probably some Atlesians and Vacuoans who are not pleased with them, and would prefer Team RWBY stay "dead."

But this is another story...

Wioska Myszy, Poland

9 September 2001

"Ruby? Wake up, Ruby."

Ruby's eyes fluttered and she slowly came awake as Little shook her. She blinked and yawned. "Mnnh…what time is it?"

"I think it's around 11ish." The teenaged mouse Faunus smiled down at her.

Damn, I slept for nine hours. Probably needed it. Ruby got out of the chair. Her back reminded her that she had slept in it. Ow. She looked down and saw Penny's Desert Eagle, and covered her eyes. Geez, Ruby. Acting like you're going to kill yourself? What are you, 17? C'mon, stupid. Put on your big girl panties and figure a way out of this. They're not going to court-martial us! Ironwood's dead! Arashikaze thinks we're awesome. Hell, we managed to get the evac convoy out…right? She noticed her reflection in the window. For a moment, Summer Rose seemed to stare back at her, from old pictures her father had; Ruby herself only had hazy memories of her mother. She looked older, like her mother. Well, Mom, you didn't quit. Neither will I.

Ruby wrapped the Desert Eagle in its towel and headed down into the bunker. She missed the sunlight. Before she went into the makeshift hospital, she noticed Jan, checking the Geiger counter in random spots around the large room. "Jan, everything okay?"

He nodded. "Okay." He pointed to the gauge. Ruby wasn't exactly sure how to read it, but it was well below any warning labels.

"That's good." Ruby threw back the cover and was instantly swept up into a rib-bending hug, courtesy of her sister. "Ruby!" Yang kissed her forehead. "How's my favorite sister this morning?"

Part of Ruby wanted to tell Yang to shove it sideways; it was not the time or place for Yang's boneheaded ebuillence. She fought that down: Yang was just trying to be her big sister. "Yuck. I'm okay." She suddenly realized that Yang was up and around, without an IV in her arm. Like Ruby, she wore homespun clothes; with her golden hair somewhat clean, it made her look like the quintessential farmer's daughter. The fact that the shirt was too small and caused Yang's impressive bust to balloon upwards helped that image, which did nothing for Ruby's mood.

"Good morning, Ruby." Blake was still in the bed, but she was dressed and the IV was out. There was a book in her lap, and Ruby smiled. If Blake was reading, then all was right with the world.

"Weiss?" Ruby walked over to her friend. Weiss was still in her bed, with covers placed over her, and an IV. She didn't look as chipper as the others. She was propped up with pillows, her eyes sunken and her skin paler than usual—which for Weiss was almost translucent. Her nose was red. "Hey, Rudy." Weiss weakly pointed at her nose. "Sinusd infection."

"We get radiation sickness, Weissy gets a cold." Yang shook her head. "There's no justice in the world, I tell ya."

Dr. Strazinski also came in. "Good morning, Miss Rose." There was something about the way he spoke that reminded Ruby of Ozpin. "How are you feeling?"

"Tired," Ruby replied. "I slept in a chair all night. My back aches."

"I can find you some aspirin. We have plenty of that, at least."

"I'm okay." She inclined her head towards her friends. "How are they?"

"'They' are right here," Yang interrupted.

Strazinski smiled. "I think they'll be all right, barring a relapse. They do need to rest for another 48 hours, but I think Blake and Yang can be moved up to solid food today." He stopped by Blake and pulled out a penlight. Blake opened her eyes wide for him, and he checked her pupils. "Good. I think your concussion symptoms have cleared, Miss Belladonna. I want you to stay off your feet for another day, at least. That broken leg of yours is healing." He turned to Weiss. "And how are you, Miss Schnee?"

"Ughddh." Weiss found some tissue and blew her nose. "That's better." He checked her vitals, nodded, told her to rest, and then bent close to Ruby. "There's going to be a meeting later. Mr. Peddler went out to find fuel for his vehicle, but he'll be back. All of us have to make some decisions." He went back out of the room.

Ruby sat down on the bed at Blake's feet. Yang sat next to her. "What's in the towel, Rubes?"

She handed it to her sister, who unwrapped it. "It's Penny's. I'm almost sure of it. You don't find Desert Eagles randomly in Polish forests."

Yang held it up to the light. "Yeah, this looks like hers. Where did you find it?"

"About halfway to where we found Weiss." Ruby sighed. "She's gone, isn't she?"

All of them looked towards Weiss. She did not look back. "I only heard snippets," Weiss said. "I was trying to keep Cinder from shooting me down, then I was gliding in. Dere wasn'd…dammid…" She blew her nose again. "There wasn't…I heard her say something about being hit, and asking…" She stopped again, but not to blow her nose. It was to fight back tears. "She wanted Pyrrha to strafe her. Penny was hurt, and she was afraid that Salem would get her, so…"

Yang reached forward and took Weiss' hand. "Weiss, you don't have to say anything more."

"I want to hear it," Ruby insisted.

"There's more than that." Weiss blew her nose a third time. "Pyrrha wouldn't do it, so Penny called down the Maiden on herself. The shockwave blew me off the road and knocked me out for a bit."

Blake nodded. "That's what slammed me into the tree." She stared at the pistol. "That thing shouldn't exist."

"I don't know, Blake," Yang said. "I almost got flattened by a Centinel turret. Picked it up and threw that thing all the way into that lake with me and Ember. Maybe it tossed the Deagle too."

"There's more." Weiss tried to sit up, and Yang helped her get some water. "Marrow got knocked down too, by the shockwave. He was able to bail out, and got me out of what was left of Myrtenaster. We made that quick shelter to stay out of the black rain, but then troops showed up…Salem's troops." She left off to dab at her nose.

Ruby remembered the tire tracks. "Jinxy and me saw some tracks."

"It was a BTR. They were about to find us, and then…." Weiss shook her head. "Marrow ran out there. They took him prisoner. They didn't even look for me. He pulled them away." She sniffled and looked at Ruby. "Why? Why did he do that? I mean…he liked me, but still…"

"Shit," Yang breathed. "If they took him back to Salem…" She wiped Weiss' face. "We have to find him."

"Yang, be realistic," Blake said, adjusting her leg. "I like the guy too, but he could be halfway to Siberia by now."

"That's what they said about Oscar!"

"But that was different," Blake told her. "Then we had all of us, Arashikaze, and Delta Force. Right now, we've probably been declared MIA."

"I saw Pyrrha and Ren yesterday," Ruby said in a low voice. "I fired flares, but they were too high. I know it was them—a F-22 and a J-10." Her earlier optimism suddenly crashed down again.

"MIA, nothing." Yang put her head in her hands. "You guys thought I was dead. Probably everyone else does too. They're going to declare me KIA." She sat up. "Gonna be hard on Dad. We've got to get a message out. Ruby, do these folks have a radio?"

"Nope. Cell phone service is out too, and the landlines were blown down. My survival radio was smashed, yours are gone...Jinxy said Weiss' might work, but there's a lot of radiation throwing them off." Ruby got up. "We're on our own."

Yang got to her feet as well. "Well, fuck that. This Jinxy guy has a vehicle, right?" She thumbed generally west. "We load that puppy up and head on down the highway. Assuming it's not blocked, we could reach the Oder in a few hours, and then it's home, champagne and blowjobs for everyone."

"Yang, Dr. Strazinski said we needed to wait a few days—" Blake began.

"Okay, fine—we can wait a day or two for Weiss to feel better and make sure you can walk again. Then we blow this popsicle stand." She grinned at Ruby. "Sound like a plan?"

"Yeah," Ruby agreed. "But there's something I wanted to talk to you about." She looked at her shoes. "Um…I don't know if anyone told you, but Ironwood's dead. I guess he got shot down somehow."

The other three were shocked. "But…that doesn't make sense," Weiss said into the silence. "Was he even up?"

"I don't know," Ruby replied, "but it's official…according to Jinxy, anyway. He heard it on AFN, and I don't know why he'd lie about that."

"Shit…" Yang sat down again. "I hated the guy, but…damn. Anyone else?"

"I don't know…but that's not all I wanted to tell you." Ruby took a deep breath. "I don't know if Ironwood getting killed is going to change things. We still disobeyed a direct order—"

"A bullshit order!" Yang snapped.

Ruby continued, ignoring her sister. "We disobeyed a direct order, we basically stole—and destroyed—government property, I instigated a mutiny, and there's probably a couple of dozen other charges we don't know about. We go back home, there's a good chance we get arrested and go to prison. I mean, yeah, maybe everything we've done since gets us off the hook, and maybe Arashikaze goes to bat for us, but…our careers are over now."

Another stretch of silence. "They wouldn't do that," Yang insisted quietly.

"They could, Yang," Blake said. "Ironwood entered that into our official records."

"You mean to tell me that just because we told him to take his stupid fucking evacuation order and shove it up his iron ass, they're sending us to Leavenworth? After what we did?" Yang threw her arms up in the air in frustration. "For fuck's sake, Blake! I jumped into Warsaw with fucking Delta Force and punched Salem in the tits! They should give me the fucking Medal of Honor for that shit! And Ruby and you and Weiss killed that Hound bastard and organized the evac!"

"And they'll take that into account," Blake agreed. "But Yang, we did do those other things. The military might not see it in the same way." She shrugged. "Or you're right, they'll sweep it under the rug and decorate us, and hang the whole thing on Ironwood."

"Better a dead hero than a live liability," Weiss pointed out. "There's even the possibility that they'll declare us all KIA for that very reason. The heroic Ruby Flight, wiped out to a man—or woman, in our case—and all is forgiven. Then we suddenly show up crossing the Oder River, and we're not dead heroes anymore." She considered it. "Though if we're dead heroes that are suddenly alive, I suppose court-martialing us will be counterintuitive."

"This is my fault," Ruby said, silencing all of them.

"Ruby, stop," Yang told her. "We all chose. Me and Blake lied to him about Robyn. Ironwood was an asshole. Sometimes you have to stand up and say no."

"Even when it leads us here?" Ruby pointed to the floor. "And what about Penny?"

"Ruby, enough," Weiss ordered. "Penny made her choice. That was not your fault."

"And we all agreed to follow you," Blake added. "And we still are." She nodded to Yang. "Let's do what Yang said. Once we're able to travel, we load up, pay this Jinxy person whatever they want, and then we go. We cross the Oder, and we're home. Then we can sort all this out there."

Ruby wanted to point out that they were following Yang with that plan, not her, but that sounded like a stupid thing to say. Yang was right, for one thing. I have to trust them, she told herself. C'mon, Ruby, remember what you learned in officers' school! Trust your subordinates!

But what if they don't trust me?

Ruby shook that off. Like Blake said, there would be time later. She was about to agree with her sister when the partition was opened, admitting Jinxy, Jan and Little. Little looked very worried, Jan looked tired, and Jinxy—Ruby couldn't read his expression.

"I got a little good news and a lot of bad," Jinxy said. "Which do you want first?"

"The good news?" Blake ventured.

"Well, unfortunately Miss Belladonna, you're getting the bad." Jinxy took a breath. "So I went up the road apiece and talked with some folks I know. NATO has closed the roads across the Oder. Apparently they're getting ready to blow the bridges. They're not letting any more refugees over that way."

Yang collapsed on the bed, barely missing Blake's injured leg. "Fucking fantastic."

"Ayuh, ayuh. The scrid of good news is that the evacuation was successful. They got all the refugees out that NATO could get out. Doesn't do you no good, but that's something, anyway."

Ruby smiled. That was something, at least. The evacuation plan had succeeded. She glanced at Jan. "What about the village here?"

Jan shrugged. "None of us were leaving anyway."

"Wait, none of you?" Yang asked, sitting up.

"Why should we? This is our land. We fought for it. First Germans, then Russians try to take it away. We remain." Jan's voice was defiant, proud.

"But the radiation," Ruby said. "Won't it kill the grain?"

"You'd have to remove a foot of topsoil," Weiss added. "Especially with the rain. You could starve before that happens."

"Then we starve," Jan shot back. "Our land. We're not leaving." He angrily turned his back and went through the partition. Little hesitated, took a step, then stopped.

Jinxy sighed. "Can't blame him. Well, I can—if they can't get in a harvest, then they're gonna be in trouble. But hell, people from Maine settled there even though the land's full of rocks. They stayed, even though I hear they starved sometimes." He looked somber. "I was adopted, and my papa, he said that after the war, it got tough. It was tough even with-" Jinxy stopped then smiled wanly. "Well. Who cares about all that. Anyhow, the other scrid of good news is that there's still a way out—if you've got the balls to try it." He turned a little red and cleared his throat. "Uh, begging your pardon, ma'ams."

Ruby actually laughed a little at that. "Which way?"

"Czech Republic. They've closed their borders, but there's still a way across. We drive south apiece, cross the mountains near Nysa, then head west. Figure a week at most, and you're back home." Jinxy grinned. "Now I'm not gonna lie to you. I'll take the rest of those gold coins you got as payment—gas is higher than the nuts on a giraffe just now, because everyone's hoarding—but I'm gonna want more when we get to Prague." He looked at Weiss when he said it.

Weiss nodded. "Andt you'll have id, Mr. Peddler." She reached for the tissue again. "Dammid."

"Sounds fairly simple," Yang said. "Why asking if we've got the figurative balls, which we do?"

"Well, Miss Xiao Long, the Nysa route does help us clear the radiation zone quicker, and there hasn't been any GRIMM that way—at least none that will bother with a single Humvee. But that area's the Wild West—or East, I suppose. The Czech government only controls about half their territory, and that's not the half we're going to. East of Pardubice or so, about where the Slovakia part of Czechoslovakia used to be, they don't control it. You've got citystates, warlord fiefdoms, air pirate gangs, you name it. Some of them are okay, but most of them will kill you for the gold in your teeth. NATO doesn't have the means or the will to clean 'em out. I expect this Salem chick doesn't care enough to. Not like it is in the Remnant, or in Western Europe."

"Then why go that way at all?" Blake drew a line in the air with her finger. "Why not just go straight south, cross the mountains north of Pardubice?"

Jinxy opened his mouth to say something, but Weiss spoke up first. "I like that better. In fact, we wouldn't even need to go that far." She sat up as much as she could. "My family's mansion at Zagan. We could go there. There's a radio there, and Mother left a caretaker staff. They can make a phone call, and we get on a helicopter." She smiled at Jinxy. "And you get the reward that much sooner."

"That sounds pretty nice, Miss Schnee, but it's not gonna happen. I wish it could, believe me." Jinxy took a breath. "I didn't want to tell you, but that's what else I heard from my friend. I did some checking, and got it confirmed—don't want you to think I'm lying." He didn't look at her when he said it. "The manor's gone. It's burned to the ground."

Weiss blinked. "But…that's impossible. We were…we were just there a few days ago. It was fine."

Jinxy nodded sadly. "I'm sure it was, Miss Schnee. But it's gone now. I don't know what—accidental fire, maybe, or the locals just took advantage of you being gone and burned it. The Schnees ain't that popular around here. Not because of you," Jinxy hastened to say, "but because of your papa."

"We never mistreated the staff!" Weiss insisted.

"Your daddy did." Jinxy sighed. "Anyhow…if you want to leave for Nysa, I'm happy to take you there in a few days. The Pardubice route isn't gonna work either—like I said, the Czechs closed their borders. Once we get across the mountains, we can hook around to the Czech border—that part ain't been closed, God knows why; a lot of money changing hands, I suppose. I'm known in those parts, so they shouldn't give me any trouble—and if they do, just flash your ID cards and they'll let you through, I'm sure. If nothing else, the border guards make a phone call, and your rescue forces come and get you. We'll worry about price then." He spread his hands. "I'm sorry, Miss Schnee. Just on first blush, I know you're nothing like your papa, but…some people just nurse grudges. Let me know, and I'll talk to the doctor for when you can travel." He turned and left. Little smiled, tried to look reassuring, and followed him.

All of them stared at Weiss. Blake was the first to speak. "I'm sorry. That was your home."

"Klein was there," Weiss said softly. "I hope he got out. They wouldn't kill him. Not Klein."

"I'm sure he got out," Yang said. She went over and hugged Weiss. "Besides, Klein was like some kind of secret agent, the way he was moving around. Didn't you guys tell me he gunned down one of the Hound's team? Klein's fine." Weiss gently pushed Yang away.

"Don't worry," Ruby said, trying to cheer Weiss up. "We'll go with Jinxy and we'll get home." The other girl said nothing. "Weiss?"

"It's not so much the lodge…I mean, there's still Herrencheimsee, our big castle, right? It's just…" Weiss wiped her eyes. "Memories…but Klein, especially." She lay back down on her pillow. "It's just like Beacon, all over again."

"We did the best we could." The words felt hollow, Ruby thought.

"But it wasn't enough!" Suddenly there was venom in Weiss' speech. "We hatched a crazy plan that put everyone, whole nations at risk, and yes, we got out the refugees—most of them—but we still lost! Poland's gone, just a no man's land where the people we couldn't save will starve to death or die of radiation poisoning, and Salem's just biding her time—again! We didn't even keep JINN! Penny's dead, Ironwood's dead, Marrow's probably dead or wishing he was, and we're relying on a junk salesman to get us out—assuming they don't court-martial us when we get back—"

"Weiss!" Blake exclaimed. The former heiress turned to her, tears in her eyes. "Stop. Just stop. We have to keep moving forward."

Weiss screwed her eyes shut, took a deep shuddering breath, and gave them a nod. "Of course…you're right. I'm sorry. I'm sorry I said that. It was just too much. I'm just…so very tired."

"We all are." Ruby knew she still needed to tell her flight about Neo, but all of a sudden, she didn't want to talk to them or anyone else. "Get some sleep." She turned around, and before Yang could stop her, Ruby walked out.