Chapter 5

Day 1: Late Morning

"RUBY! NO!" Weiss screamed; panic for her partner's safety overpowered all other thoughts in her head. She tried to stand, to strike down the lunatic impaling her girlfriend; but Tyrian planted his boot firmly on her chest, slamming her back into the snow. Ruby stared up at the monster towering over her, Weiss could see the fear and confusion in her eyes.

"Oh don't worry," he told Weiss cruelly, "You'll have your turn soon enough. As I said, Little Red owes me a debt." he laughed mockingly, "Looks like you get a front row seat for all the pain I'm about to put her through."

He leaned his head down, his golden eyes boring straight into Ruby's silver ones. Weiss could see tears beginning to form in Ruby's eyes. Tyrian licked his lips, savoring her fear. Ruby flinched as his tail, still in her gut, twitched slightly. "Oh don't worry, I haven't poisoned you...yet." Again, his cruel laughter rang out, "Though it's only a matter of time. I'm going to make sure you die the most excruciating death you possibly can."

Weiss futilely pulled at the boot still pinning her to the ground, her aura was still weak and she couldn't get any leverage. "Take me!" she shouted in desperation, "Take me and let her go, I've been just as much of a pain in Salem's side as she has!"

"You think this is about Salem?" he snarled at Weiss, "This is about revenge." On the last word, he turned back to Ruby and rotated his stinger inside her.

Weiss' heart seized as Ruby's mouth opened in an almost silent scream of pain. Adrenaline surged through Weiss' body and with a mighty cry, she heaved Tyrian's boot off of her chest and sprang to her feet.

But Tyrian's foot snapped out, catching her right in the head. She tumbled several feet, stars swimming in her vision. She felt weak, she barely had the energy to look up as her partner cried out to her.

"Weiss!" Ruby frantically called, stretching her hand out, trying to bridge the impossibly large gap between them; instinctively, Weiss reached towards her partner as well. Ruby turned and glared at the madman still towering over her, "Leave her alone! I'm the one you're after!"

He cocked his head at her quizzically, and then looked between her and Weiss for a few moments. Suddenly, a realization struck and a manic smile slowly spread across his face. "Oh that is just precious!" he mocked, "You two are in looooove!" he broke into gleeful laughter. "Oh that changes everything!" he laughed again and pulled his stinger out of Ruby's stomach.

Ruby gasped in pain, quickly applying pressure to the wound, some blood seeping out between her fingers. He stepped away from her, strutting dramatically, "I've decided I'm not going to kill you!" he said, gesturing expansively, "Either of you! I'm going to take you…" he looked pointedly at Ruby, "To Mistress Salem!" Her eyes widened.

"But first!" he turned towards Weiss, "I'm going to inject you..." his tail bobbed behind him, "I have to admit, Watts really outdid himself with this venom; the most excruciating pain you'll ever feel, or so I've been told." He turned back to Ruby, "I'm going to poison your little white-haired girlfriend over here, so while you're being bent to my mistress's will, you'll be able to hear her screaming in agony!"

His tail waved behind him, a long needle extending from the tip. "And then, when Salem is finished with you," Ruby managed to get to her hands and knees, looking up at the madman, "Then I'll make you kill her."

Ruby looked at him in horror, "No!" she screamed, "I'd never hurt her! I lov-"

"You won't have a choice!" he crowed, "And after you're done with her, I'll make you kill the rest of your friends and family! And anyone else in Atlas that needs to go!" He slowly walked towards Weiss as she desperately tried to get to her feet, she had no idea what he was talking about but she wouldn't allow him to take Ruby; she'd bite and scratch if she had to, she just had to stand. She managed to get to her knees, but another kick from the faunus sent her back down again. "Let's get this started, shall we Miss Schnee?" He sneered, looming over her.

Still reeling from the repeated blows, she couldn't muster any kind of response other than to defiantly glare at him.

He smiled wildly and lunged towards her. Weiss heard Ruby cry out in exertion, there was a burst of rose petals right in front of her, as Ruby slammed her boots into his stinger, knocking it away from Weiss with just inches to spare. Rage blossomed on Tyrian's face and the tail snapped back around, almost with a mind of its own, lashing out again out again, this time at Ruby.

Weiss' eyes widened in horror as the stinger impacted Ruby's abdomen with a sickening thunk, and dispensed it's sickly purple payload with a hiss.

Rage blazed in Tyrian's eyes as he realized what he had done. He flicked his tail, roughly tossing Ruby into a snowdrift. "Fine." he growled, "You'll both die in agony then…" he began advancing towards Weiss, the blades deploying from his gauntlets.

"Tyrian." said Watts, limping into Weiss' view, "We don't have time for you to play with them anymore. We still have a lot of work to do to prepare for tonight." Tyrian huffed in exasperation. "Kill the Schnee," the doctor said, gesturing towards where Weiss was lying prone, "but don't go too overboard, she had to be recognizable. I still need to take some photos to show to Daddy Jacques."

Tyrian still looked angry at being interrupted, "Oh come on, man," Watts said, rolling his eyes, "It's not like Rose can go anywhere with those injuries. We can come back tonight, and if she's still alive we can take her to Salem then."

The faunus sighed, "Oh fine." He aimed the barrel of his weapon right at Weiss. She heard a whimper of pain from where Ruby lay. She twisted towards the sound, she could see Ruby clutching at her stomach, blood and purple venom coating her uncontrollably shaking hands. A convulsion ran the length of her body, she threw her head back and a tortured wail of agony tore from Ruby's throat.

Her partner's scream removed any coherent thought from Weiss' head. Her despair was quickly swept away in the torrent of boiling rage that crashed through her mind. NOBODY makes Ruby, HER Ruby, scream like that. She became aware of an animalistic, rage-filled howl that she was fairly certain was coming out of her mouth. Tyrian was staring at her with a startled expression.

She felt something inside her, something inside her soul, clawing to get out. She slammed her bleeding palm down on the ice and the largest summoning glyph she'd ever created spawned underneath all four of them. Watts scrambled backwards as fast as he could, managing to get clear of the glyph. Tyrian began to back away from her, but she wasn't about to let him go anywhere.

A giant sword slashed out of the glyph, slicing his mechanical tail cleanly in two, the tip thudding to the ground. He looked down in disbelief at his severed tail, then up as the Arma Gigas drew itself up to its full height, the expressionless helmet somehow radiating the boundless rage pouring out of Weiss.

Weiss saw Watts furiously typing on his scroll, but he wasn't the target of her rage. The round form of her Boarbatusk slammed into Tyrian's legs, knocking him down to the ground as it rapidly turned around for another pass. Weiss was somewhat startled as bright, shining wings erupted on either side of her, a white Nevermore emerging under her. It rose into the air with her situated on her back, a small part of her mind briefly wondered at the fact that she had three summons active at one time and how, according to everything she knew about her semblance, that was theoretically impossible, but she elected to push that aside for the moment in favor of rescuing Ruby.

Tyrian barely dodged a swipe from the armored giant as the nevermore dipped back down to the ground, scooping Ruby up in one of it's massive talons, she moaned as it jostled her while launching itself back into the sky, the massive, white bird began to fly them back towards the downed Manta.

Weiss looked down over the battlefield and saw Watts sprint back onto the glyph. He fired his revolver, dissipating the Boarbatusk that had just put him in it's sights. He dashed over and picked up the severed tail and helped Tyrian to his feet while firing a few rounds at the giant knight striding towards them. She also saw a rapidly approaching, two person aircraft that they'd no doubt stashed nearby. A precise shot from Watts hit the giant in the knee, causing it to stagger.

Watts pushed Tyrian towards the now open door of the craft, but the Faunus whirled around, rage still on his face, looking at the retreating forms of the two girls. "Leave them!" the doctor shouted at him, "I can easily fix the tail and they're running on fumes! After tonight we can come back and finish off what's left of them. Besides…" he continued, his voice more subdued and ashamed, "Neither of us are in any shape to fight...whatever the hell that is." he said, gesturing at the approaching knight.

With one last glower, Tyrian huffed and shouldered past Watts and into the craft. The doctor quickly jumped in after him and they began to speed away back towards Mantle.

"Oh no you don't..." Weiss snarled to herself, sparing a glance down at Ruby's limp, dangling form, feeling a fresh wave of anger surge through her, "I'm not finished with you yet." she growled as the Nevermore began to descend towards the crash site. Another of her monsters sprang from the glyph. Her Queen Lancer threw itself into the air and quickly began to give chase, rapidly gaining on the retreating craft.

The giant insect stabbed its razor sharp forelegs into the back of the hull; the engine coughed and began belching smoke. The lancer reared back to strike again, to wipe out the two who hurt the person Weiss cared about most. Her smirk of triumph was short-lived as she suddenly felt her aura reserves run dry. The massive glyph vanished, as did her summoned monsters.

Weiss gasped as the two girls plummeted fifteen feet to the ground; Weiss managed to tuck and roll, dissipating the impact. She sprang up, staring after the craft; it was still smoking, but steadily making its way back to civilization. Weiss could still feel her pulse behind her eyes as her rage and adrenaline high began to ebb, replaced by disappointment. She realized just how hard she was breathing and other sounds began to creep into her awareness; she heard the crunching of snow accompanied by quiet groaning.

"Ruby!" she gasped, whipping around. Ruby lay on her side in the snow, clutching her stomach. Where Weiss had managed to soften her landing, Ruby had hit hard, taking the full force of the impact. Weiss quickly sprinted to where Ruby lay.

Ruby was just beginning to maneuver herself up to her hands and knees when Weiss skidded to a stop next to her. She helped Ruby up to a kneeling position, and saw a small trickle of blood mixed with purple liquid dripping down her corset. Weiss began to fuss over her injured partner, words pouring out of her in a torrent.

"Oh Gods, Ruby are you ok? Do you have any broken bones? Let me see your wound. How do you feel?"

"Uh, Weiss?"

"I'm so sorry Ruby, I shouldn't have just sat there. I should have done something. I'm a terrible partner. "

"Weiiissss…"

"He had his gun on me but I should still have-"

"Weiss!"

"-Done something. It's all my fault and I-"

"WEISS!" Ruby shouted firmly, lurching forward and grabbing the babbling girl's cheeks. Weiss' eyes went wide, the stream of words finally coming to a stop.

"It's not your fault." Ruby said gently, moving her hands down to Weiss' shoulders, "and you're not a terrible partner." she smiled at her, "You promised me that you'd be the best partner ever and haven't broken that promise yet!"

Weiss felt an intense rush of affection for Ruby, even when she was in massive amounts of pain she still went out of her way to make her feel better.

"The only people at fault here," the younger girl continued, "Are Tyrian and myself." Weiss opened her mouth to argue Ruby blaming herself but the younger girl held up a finger quieting her, "I took those hits to protect you, and I'd do it again in a heartbeat." She gently stroked Weiss' cheek, " I know you'd do the same for me."

Weiss gave a small smile but still looked a little downcast, "What's done is done." Ruby said leaning in and gave Weiss a gentle peck on the cheek, "And now we have to deal with it. Speaking of…" Ruby looked over the wreckage of their ride, "I don't think we'll be flying back…" her gaze turned towards the column of smoke rising from the outpost a half mile away. "Ok," Ruby said decisively, "First thing's first. We need to take care of our wounds." she stared at Weiss' hand, which was gently dripping blood into the snow, "Then we'll check the outpost for survivors."

Weiss nodded in agreement and rose to her feet, Ruby attempted to stand, but her legs wobbled and she dropped back down into the snow, looking embarrassed at her weakness. "Hold on." Weiss said before dashing out onto the snow to retrieve their weapons. She sheathed Myrtenaster on her belt and retrieved Crescent Rose from where it lay. She handed the weapon back to Ruby, who gratefully took it before deploying it and using it to leverage herself to her feet.

"By the way," Ruby asked, as they made their way towards the crashed ship, "what happened? I remember being injected and then…" she winced as a spasm went through her body, "everything was kinda just a haze of pain."

"Um." Weiss was having trouble recalling what happened herself, being in a blind rage at the time. "You screamed in pain and I…" she swallowed, "I snapped, managed to bring out three of my summons at once and chased them off."

"Three? Wow…" Ruby said quietly, "That sounds really badass!" A grin spread across her face, "I'm sad I missed it!"

"Honestly," Weiss replied, her voice subdued, "I'm glad you didn't get to see that. Being that angry was...kind of scary…"

"That's fair." Ruby replied, bumping her shoulder against Weiss', "but don't forget, that anger saved our lives!"

Weiss smiled at her and nodded as they trudged the last dozen feet to the crashed ship. Ruby sat down and leaned against the hull as Weiss climbed inside the tilted ship and rummaged around, looking for first-aid kits. She managed to find two relatively undamaged kits with a variety of medical supplies including more gauze, bandages and disinfectant than you could ever use, as well as several vials of a strong painkiller and an injector to dispense it.

Ruby lay down in the snow and gingerly pulled her corset up, wincing as it pulled away from the wounds in her stomach. Weiss couldn't help but inhale sharply, the wounds looked nasty. One of them, just above her navel, was leaking blood, a small trickle going down her side; the other was a few inches below it on Ruby's left side, that one was bleeding more freely and also oozing purple puss. Something about the wounds nagged at Weiss.

She checked her scroll, noting that Ruby's aura levels were slowly climbing from zero back into the red; they were still very low, but ought to be enough for some healing. However, the wounds showed no signs of any kind of healing.

"It's the venom." Ruby said, as if reading her mind, "it's similar to his semblance, it disrupts the aura around the wound, preventing it from closing up."

Getting an idea, Weiss began rapidly rummaging through the kits, desperately trying to find something. Ruby looked at her quizzically. She sighed heavily, "Of course there's no anti-venom in here, that would make things too easy…"

Ruby put a hand on her arm, "One thing at a time ok?" she said encouragingly, "lets get your hand wrapped up first, you're bleeding all over everything!"

Weiss looked at her hand as if seeing the horizontal gash for the first time. At the moment, her aura was almost nonexistent but would be returning to levels capable of healing soon, but the wound on her palm needed to be bandaged in the meantime. Weiss winced as she splashed disinfectant on it.

"Was I imagining things," Ruby said, applying a pad of gauze to the cut, "or did I see you spit in Tyrian's face?"

"…You did." Weiss replied, after a short pause, her cheeks flushing with embarrassment.

Ruby laughed goodnaturedly, taping the gauze in place, "That's so…utterly uncouth of you!" She said imitating a high-class Atlesian accent.

Weiss smiled, flexing her hand under the bandage, testing its mobility, "What can I say? Your sister's oafish behavior is rubbing off on me." This caused Ruby to laugh and then wince, holding her stomach in pain. "Your turn," Weiss said, she began pulling more gauze and bandages out of the kits. "So," she said, trying to distract Ruby from the wounds, "you seem to know an awful lot about this poison."

"Ackshuly, it's venom." Ruby corrected playfully, prompting Weiss to roll her eyes while she opened several packets of gauze, "and yeah, doctors were able to study the venom when they brought in uncle Qrow when he was attacked by Tyrian. I figured since Tyrian vowed to hunt me down, I should know everything I can about him and his abilities."

"That's fair." Weiss nodded. She opened the bottle of antiseptic, "Ok this is going to hurt, grab my hand." Ruby did, she took a deep breath and nodded to Weiss. She poured some into both of the quarter sized wounds; she almost cried out herself as Ruby's hand clamped down on hers with a strength she didn't know the younger girl possessed. The stinging pain started to pass and Ruby relaxed, Weiss set about dressing the wounds with plenty of tape and gauze.

Ruby gingerly pulled her corset back down; she took a deep breath and moved to a kneeling position, then stood up with Weiss' help.

"Ok," she said, taking a moment to steady herself, "I'm still feeling ok, let's get to the outpost while I still have the strength to walk."

Weiss frowned, "Ruby, you have to rest."

"Weiss, I still have poison in me one way or the other," she said, shaking her head, a determined look on her face, "and we still have a mission to complete."

Weiss sighed and nodded, knowing there was no way to change her mind once she got like this.

They set out over the low hills, Ruby still using Crescent Rose to walk. They were covering the mile to the base at a good pace despite Ruby's injuries.

"Hey," Ruby said after a few minutes of walking, "What was all that back there about 'let her go and take me!'?" she asked, "Are you really that ready to lay down your life for mine?"

Weiss looked down at her feet, her cheeks getting warm, "Ruby… I care about you so much...I just...I-" she swallowed, "I wasn't thinking, I saw a world without you in it and I was willing to do anything to prevent that." she gave Ruby a warm smile, "I'd do anything to protect you."

Ruby smiled right back, a few tears of happiness gathering in her eyes.

"And wait a second!" Weiss said with a little indignation, "Didn't you say 'Leave her alone! I'm the one you want!' shortly afterwards? You seem just as eager to lay down yours!"

Ruby smiled softly, leaning on her scythe, pausing a moment to rest, "I guess we both think alike!" she gently grabbed Weiss' hand and kissed it, "My life without you in it wouldn't be worth living."

Weiss gazed at Ruby for a few moments, she felt such affection for her partner she couldn't put it into words. Well, she could, but she was saving those words for a special occasion, and being stranded in the middle of the tundra was not where she wanted to tell Ruby how she felt.

"Come on Ruby," Weiss said, giving her a teasing smile, "We can be sickeningly sappy later; as you said, we have a mission to complete!"

They trekked the last few hundred meters towards the towering column of smoke, their happy expressions falling as they crested the hill, revealing the devastation.

All that was left of the base was scattered pieces. Whatever the two agents of Salem had used, the explosives had reduced the structure to scattered rubble. The two of them combed through the wreckage, trying to find any signs of life or a radio to call Atlas with.

They saw human remains scattered all over the site, but only one body intact enough to make out any details. They found that the corpse had been shot in the head prior to the explosion and fire and had to move away quickly before the sight and smell made them lose control of their stomachs.

Ruby gazed over the destruction, a look of misery and guilt on her face. Weiss came up beside her, slipping her hand into Ruby's, "Come on," she said quietly, "We can't help them anymore."

"They died just to lure us here." a tear rolled down her cheek, "I feel...responsible."

Weiss shook her head, "We can't control what our enemies do. We couldn't help these people; but when we get back, we can make sure they can't do what they did to these people again...what they did to you…"

Ruby nodded and sighed and turned away from the destruction, she looked pale and tired. "You're right. Let's get back to the Manta and make a plan." she began to walk back down the hill.

'She looks so weak…', Weiss thought, "Ruby wait, I'll get us back faster, sit down right there." Ruby sat and folded Crescent Rose, Weiss sat directly behind her, pulling Ruby to her chest. She spawned a long trail of glyphs and she slid them across the snow, all the way back to the crashed manta.

They sat and leaned back against the craft. Both uttering deep sighs. "So what do we do now?" Weiss asked.

Ruby sighed, giving a slight cough, "Well, I'm not sure the snowmobile has enough fuel to get us to Atlas, and walking back isn't an option", Ruby replied, "We're easily a hundred miles out from Atlas." she sighed, "BUT we also can't stay here, because Tyrian and Watts are going to come back tonight and finish us off. We have no radio to call for help and no service on our scrolls…" she put her head in her hands, the pain and despair becoming too much.

Weiss gently grabbed Ruby's hand, "We're not entirely stranded," she reminded her, "they have to know that our craft is missing, they'll likely be sending out search parties once they realize that the manta hasn't checked in." Ruby looked up from her hands, "Also," Weiss continued, "We were supposed to be picked up from here tomorrow, so we just have to last until morning, at the very latest." Ruby gave a small smile and a sniffle. Weiss wrapped her arms around Ruby, "We'll make it through this Ruby."

The younger girl nodded, "We have to get as far from here as we can then. So Tyrian and Watts can't find us if they come back for us." she began to lever herself up to her feet, "We gotta gather supplies and get that snowmobile in working order." she began to climb into the Manta.

"Ruby, sit down and rest. I'll take care of everything."

"Weiss I'm fine, it's just-"

"RUBY!" Weiss yelled, losing her patience with her leader's unrelenting stubbornness, "SIT DOWN!"

"Weiss, stop fussing-"

"FUSSING!?" Weiss practically screamed. Ruby jerked back, startled at the force of Weiss' outburst. "Ruby, you got stabbed! TWICE! And you're poisoned!"

"Weiss, I'm not an invalid!" Ruby shouted indignantly, "I can't just sit and do nothing! If I sit, I'll have time to think about..." she gestured vaguely at her stomach, "And if I think about that i'll…" her eyes began to glisten with tears, she coughed slightly into her hand.

Weiss' face softened, "What are you so scared of Ruby?" she asked, "Is about all that stuff he was rambling on about?" Ruby nodded. "They can't make you do anything you don't want to."

"That's just the thing Weiss, I think they can." Ruby replied quietly, "They told me...They threatened...They…" she lightly pounded a fist in the snow, "Look, I'm still trying to process what Tyrian said myself." she saw the worried look on Weiss' face, "I'll tell you tomorrow on the ride back ok?"

Weiss nodded, "But you still have to sit down and rest." she said firmly. Ruby opened her mouth to protest, but Weiss put up a finger, quieting her, "I understand your frustration Ruby, I really do. But the more you move the worse your condition could get." she set a hand on Ruby's shoulder, "I'm trying to keep you alive until tomorrow morning. So just sit down and I'll give you supplies to organize."

Ruby still looked frustrated, "Please," Weiss asked, giving her a look she knew melted Ruby's heart, "Do it for me."

Ruby snorted, and gave her a small smile, "Fine, you win this round." she acquiesced, sitting back down in the snow, "But don't think I don't see you manipulating me with my one weakness there."

"Weakness?" Weiss asked innocently, cocking an eyebrow at her.

"Yeah," Ruby replied with a smirk, "Cute girlfriends with adorable puppy dog eyes."

Weiss smiled at the compliment and began to climb back into the Manta, "I'll check everything out and you can start putting supplies together as I bring them out."

Over the next two hours, they took inventory and fleshed out their plan to escape the crash site for the night. Weiss discovered that while the snowmobile was broken beyond repair, the metal sled that attached to it was still usable to an extent, so she hauled it out into the snow. With a little effort, and some adorable pouting, Ruby managed to convince Weiss to let her work on the sled while the older girl was in the cargo hold scavenging supplies. Using Crescent Rose, she cut a significant portion of the trailer off and bent the front of it up to brace their feet up against. What was left was a small, toboggan-like sled with metal runners on the bottom, it had just enough room to fit two people plus some supplies. Using seatbelts cut from the craft, Ruby fashioned a rope and attached it to the front so the sled could be pulled. She tried pulling it when Weiss wasn't looking, and found it surprisingly lightweight. They had discussed using Weiss' glyphs to get them home faster, but realized that it would burn through her aura too quickly and they needed that for keeping warm in the freezing cold of the snow plain.

"Oh well that's convenient," Weiss' voice rang out from inside the ship, prompting Ruby to quickly sit down, not wanting to incur Weiss' wrath for over-exerting herself, "I found a survival tent! And it's got a good cold rating!" The folded up tent landed at Ruby's feet and she added it to their growing pile of supplies.

Scavenging in the craft had been surprisingly fruitful for Weiss. As well as a survival tent, she'd managed to find a sleeping bag that would hypothetically be large enough for both of them. Unfortunately, the only food that hadn't been destroyed or inaccessibly buried were some military rations, but that would last them several days. Fortunately for them, there was a near treasure trove of other supplies including many dust-powered fire starters which, along with the large amounts of dead trees they saw scattering the plain, would make starting a fire easy that night. There was dust and ammo of all different types, enough to restock both of their weapons. Weiss even found a metal pot that could be used to boil snow for drinking water.

Weiss found a large duffle-bag and Ruby loaded all their new supplies into it. She sat down at the back of the sled holding the bag in her lap. Weiss sat down in the front and drew Myrtenaster from her belt.

"Are you ready?" she asked the younger girl.

"She smiled brightly, "As ready as I'll ever-" suddenly an explosive coughing fit rocked Ruby back. She quickly slapped a hand over her mouth to avoid coughing on Weiss. The white-haired girl gently rubbed her back as she coughed. After a minute, the fit subsided and Ruby brought her hand away from her mouth. They both stared at it in horror as it came away coated with purple liquid. Ruby wiped her hand on the snow and winced, holding her stomach.

Weiss dug in one of her belt pouches and pulled out the injector they'd found, pressed it to Ruby's arm and pulled the trigger, dispensing a measured dose of painkiller into Ruby's bloodstream. After a moment, Ruby visibly relaxed as the medication took effect.

"I figured we'd probably need it," Weiss said sadly, stowing it back in her pouch, "so I kept it handy." she looked at Ruby sadly, as the younger girl breathed heavily, recovering from the fit, "take your time Ruby, we'll go when you're ready."

Ruby nodded, taking a deep breath, "Ok," she said quietly, forcing a smile on her face, "I'm ready!"

Weiss nodded and faced front, unsheathing her sword. She drew her fingers down the blade and pointed into the distance. Gravity-dust infused glyphs spawned in a direction perpendicular to the route back to Atlas. Deploying Crescent Rose and using it as a pole, Ruby pushed the sled onto the first glyph; with a jerk the sled was rocketed along the glyph trail.

The gleeful screams of the two girls echoed across the tundra as they zoomed along, just above the surface of the snow. As the sled slowly slid to a stop, the two girls continued laughing, Weiss leaning playfully against Ruby as she wiped a couple tears from her eyes.

"Well hopefully that'll throw them off our trail." Weiss said, surveying their trail, or rather in this case, their lack of a trail

"Yep!" Ruby confirmed, also peering back, "No marks, so they can't tell where we went!"

"Well," Weiss said, standing up and stretching, "We'd best get moving, it's a long way home."

Ruby snorted, "Home…" she murmured.

"What's wrong with home?" Weiss asked, giving her a funny look.

"Nothing!" Ruby replied, "It's just…" she paused, a thoughtful look on her face, "Home hasn't really been a solid concept for me for months, maybe even years now. Basically since I left Patch and went to Beacon." A small spasm of pain went through her body and she grimaced until it passed. She looked back up at Weiss, her smile quickly reappearing, "You know...at the risk of sounding sappy, these days, my home is wherever I'm with you."

Ruby could practically see Weiss' heart melt. The white haired girl dropped to her knees in the snow, right next to the sled. She grabbed Ruby's hands, her thumbs caressing the tops of Ruby's. Weiss' mouth opened and closed a few times as if she was trying to say something but, after a few moments, enveloped her ailing partner in a tender hug which was gratefully returned.

"I feel the same way, Ruby." she whispered in her partner's ear. She stood and smiled, wiping a happy tear from her eye and receiving one of Ruby's dazzling grins in return.

Weiss stepped to the front of the sled and began pulling, setting a course towards the floating city in the distance. She didn't let Ruby see her smile slowly fall, her lips becoming a grim line. The only sounds for a long while were the wind blowing across the tundra, the crunch of snow under her boots, and the soft gunts of pain coming from the sled behind her.

A/N: No dramatic cliffhanger this time but I hope you enjoyed the chapter! I've also changed the title of the series this fic is part of from 'Battle hardened' (that was always a placeholder) to 'Where the Heart is' as I felt it fit the theme of the fics a bit better. I've had the idea for this fic bouncing around my head for a long time but the title is inspired by a song, If you're interested check out 'Long Way Home' by Tritonal, it's an EDM song that I like a lot. I recently sketched out my plans for this fic and I've already got it out to 20 chapters, and I'm not finished planning yet, so hang on to your hats folks. As always, a shoutout to my wonderful fiancé and editor V. let me know what you thought and I'll see you next update! thanks for reading!