Chapter 6

Day 1: Evening

Several hours and many miles later, the two women came across a small snow covered hill. Leaving Ruby to watch the sled, Weiss climbed to the top; looking back the way they came, Weiss could clearly make out their crashed Manta off in the distance. She slid back down the slope, "We can camp up there for the night, it's got a perfect view of the surrounding area so we can see if anyone is coming." Ruby tiredly nodded and the two began to haul the sled up the hill.

Ruby plopped down into the snow upon reaching the top, her already waning strength nearly depleted by helping Weiss haul the sled up the steep incline.

"Ok…" Weiss huffed, letting a tired breath out, "We'll be able to see our ride when it arrives in the morning. Though I'm honestly surprised that we haven't seen anyone looking for us already."

Ruby shrugged tiredly, "The General said that the amount of airships was extremely limited…they probably don't have the resources to look for us right now…" Weiss nodded, walking up to the sled and pulling their bag of supplies off of it. Ruby hauled herself to her feet, and picked up the folded tent, "I'll get the tent, you can start unloading the rest of the supplies."

Weiss frowned but nodded. Ruby picked a spot and unfolded the tent. She began trying to drive a stake into the ground, but she quickly realized that she just didn't have the strength to get the job done. As she struggled, she felt Weiss' hand gently touch her shoulder; she let the stake fall from her hand and weakly pounded a fist in the snow, "I just- I…" a frustrated tear dripped down her cheek, "I feel so useless."

"You're not useless, Ruby," Weiss said comfortingly, giving her a hug from behind, "You're one of the strongest people I know, but you can't do everything, especially not when you're hurt this bad." Weiss tilted Ruby's head back and gently placed a kiss on her forehead. "Let me set up the tent, you rest for a few minutes and then maybe get a fire going?"

Ruby sighed and nodded, getting out of Weiss' way. She found a seat on the sled, and wiped the sweat off her brow. She felt so, so tired. 'This is bad.' she thought as she watched Wiess easily drive the stake she had been struggling with into the ground, 'I'm this worn out after such a short climb, this is progressing faster than I thought it would.' A surge of pain radiated through her body and she bit her sleeve to keep from crying out. 'There's no sense in worrying Weiss when I don't have to. There's nothing she can do anyway, I can't take another dose of painkiller for a couple hours…"

She exhaled loudly and hauled herself up to her feet, 'Come on Ruby, get it together.' With a grunt,she picked up the bundle of firewood they'd managed to collect throughout the day, 'Put on a brave face for Weiss.'

She picked a good spot for the fire, and built up a snow barrier that would shield the fire from the wind and keep it hidden from any passing aircraft. Using her survival training, she constructed a small fire pit using some rocks. She stacked the wood, and with the help of a dust-powered firestarter she got a small fire going.

Ruby heard the zip of the tent flap as Weiss finished putting it together. Weiss turned and saw Ruby's handywork and nodded approvingly. "I think I hid it well enough," Ruby said shrugging, "but there's a possibility they might still see it."

Weiss also shrugged, "It's a chance we'll have to take. Besides, this way we'll be warm and have drinkable water to wash this 'food' down with." She passed Ruby two ration packets. The rations were, by definition, edible; but the words 'tasty' and 'enjoyable' were never used in a sentence related to them.

"Oooh, Miss Schnee!" Ruby said with a smile, putting on a mock Atlesian accent, "Is your refined pallet not used to this commoner's food?"

"Commoner's food?" Weiss scoffed, smirking at Ruby's good natured jab, "Please, I wouldn't feed this to Zwei, much less another person. Unfortunately we don't have much of a choice at the moment." she sighed. Weiss put the supplies they wouldn't need for the night back in the duffle bag and put it in the tent, she also tied the sled to the tent so it wouldn't slide away. She glanced back at her partner who was setting up the pot to melt snow for drinking water.

'She's trying so hard to hold it together.' Weiss thought, she knew that Ruby was hurting very badly, despite the painkillers. She could see Ruby trying to hide the spasms of pain that ran through her body, but Weiss could still notice. She wanted to help relieve her pain but there was nothing she could do at the moment. She sat down next to Ruby as the younger girl placed the pot filled with snow over the fire.

Ruby passed her a ration pack and they both pulled the tabs on the outside of the packaging. The packet expanded, the chemical reaction inside beginning to heat their food. They set the packaging down, and gazed out across the tundra; the sun was just starting to dip below the horizon and an icy wind began to blow through camp. Weiss shivered despite being close to the fire and all the layers she wore.

"Come here." Ruby said, opening her cloak. Weiss scooted closer and Ruby wrapped the cloak around both of them. Weiss saw something shiny on the inside of the cloak and looked at it quizzically. "Snap-on, heat-reflective lining." Ruby explained, "Courtesy of Pietro."

Weiss smiled, "He thinks of everything doesn't he?"

Ruby nodded and scootched a little closer to Weiss, so they could better wrap the cloak around themselves.

Both packets emitted a DING indicating that they were finished heating. The two girls carefully opened them and began to dig in. The Atleasian military, instead of having several separate components to the meal kit, had instead opted to have one nutrient rich block of sustenance, flavored with various spices to make it somewhat palatable. It wasn't much to look at but it would keep you going in an emergency.

"Well," Ruby said after a few moments, "It's got nothing on Ren's cooking but this is way better than I remember it being."

Weiss raised her eyebrows as she put another spoonful in her mouth, "I think it's because we haven't eaten since breakfast, but I agree." The snow in the pot had melted at this point, so they refilled their nearly empty canteens.

They continued eating as the sky got dark. "Huh…" Ruby said looking up, "she was right."

"Who was right?" Weiss asked following Ruby's gaze. A dancing, green band of light was just starting to be visible in the night sky, right over their heads.

"Penny." Ruby replied, "she said that the aurora would be spectacular tonight." she sighed, wishing that they were spending time with the robotic girl rather than stuck here in the freezing cold. She checked her scroll, "The rally would be starting soon. It's a shame we have to miss it, I would have liked to see Robyn win."

Weiss frowned into the last few bites of her food, "About that… I don't think that she's going to win tonight."

Ruby looked at her, confused, "Why not? You saw her poll numbers. An overwhelming number of people in mantle were going to vote for her."

Weiss sighed, "Watts said something while we were fighting. Something alluding to the fact that they're helping my father to win the election."

Ruby gasped, "What does Salem want your dad to win? What would she gain?"

Weiss shrugged, "Chaos? Someone to do her bidding? All of the above?" She sighed.

"That's bad." Ruby said, "Do you think he would-" she was interrupted as a nasty coughing fit erupted from her throat. Weiss gently rubbed her back, wishing that she could do something more to ease Ruby's pain. After a few moments the coughing subsided; Ruby spat, and a wad of purple liquid mixed with blood splattered in the snow by her feet. Weiss injected her with another dose of painkiller. It was an hour early, but Ruby clearly needed it from the way she was holding her stomach.

"Anyway," Ruby said, wiping her mouth on the back of her glove, "Do you think he would actually accept their help? I know he's an asshole but would even he do that?" Weiss' eyebrows shot up, surprised at her partner's profanity, "What? He hit you." Ruby said with a trace of bitterness in her voice, "He's lucky that the only thing I've done to him is call him names…"

A small snort of laughter escaped Weiss, "Fair enough." she said, her frown returning quickly, "I want to say that he wouldn't…but my whole being is saying that he'd do whatever it took to win." She glanced over at Ruby and saw some of the tension leave her shoulders as the pain medication took effect.

Despite it only being six in the evening Weiss felt her eyes start to sag, the day's fatigue catching up with her; she was unable to stifle a massive yawn.

Ruby gave her a soft smile, "I'll take the first watch." she said quietly, "You spent the whole day walking!" Weiss opened her mouth to argue, "No buts!" Ruby interrupted firmly, "Go to sleep. I'll wake you in six hours."

Weiss nodded, knowing there was no way she would be able to stay up for another six hours. She rose and stood in front of Ruby, "If anything goes wrong, you wake me up, especially if you think Watts and Tyrian are looking for us."

Ruby gave her a mock salute, "Aye, Captain Schnee!"

Weiss leaned down and kissed Ruby on the lips with an affectionate "Dolt…"

"Yeah," Ruby chuckled, "but I'm your dolt."

"Always." Weiss replied quietly, She saw Ruby smile, then turn away, looking at the night sky. She zipped herself into the surprisingly warm tent.

Weiss quietly climbed into the sleeping bag and was almost instantly asleep, the sheer exhaustion of the day overwhelming her. Her sleep was light however, and she was woken a few times by Ruby coughing quietly outside the tent; and a few other times when she heard some clinking and brushing as Ruby cleaned and performed maintenance on Crescent Rose, but she was quickly back asleep after each of these interruptions.

She felt a gentle tapping on her shoulder, "Weiss… Weiss, wake up."

"Is it time already?" she sleepily murmured.

"Not yet, but something is happening outside…" Weiss sat bolt upright, instantly awake, Ruby made a calming gesture, "We're not in danger, but I definitely think you should see this."

Weiss followed Ruby out of the tent, she pointed at the sky and Weiss followed her gaze. Silhouetted against the bright aurora, she could see flocks of flying Grimm soaring overhead. Another gesture from Ruby brought Weiss' attention to the tundra, and she saw more silhouettes of Grimm making their way across the snowpack.

"They're all going in the same direction." Weiss said, horror dawning on her face, "They're all headed towards Mantle."

Ruby nodded, "There's more." she said, drawing Weiss' attention to the edge of their camp, where she saw Crescent Rose, the tip of its blade embedded in the ground, the barrel pointing towards the distant city. Weiss peered through the scope, showing a blurry section of Mantle's protective wall. She couldn't make out a lot of detail, but there seemed to be a large hole through which blurry dark shapes were moving; she could also see small, quick pinpricks of light flashing at the top of the wall.

"Weapons fire." Weiss stated.

"Yup…" Ruby confirmed sadly, "Something big happened in Mantle."

Weiss frowned, "Have any Grimm come close to us?"

Ruby shook her head, "No, whatever happened there is drawing them in like a magnet. I mean I'm pretty miserable and they haven't even glanced our way, it must be pretty bad in there…I wonder what happened."

Weiss shook her head bitterly, "This has Tyrian and Watts written all over it."

The two stared at Mantle for a few moments. "Why did they want you dead Weiss?" Ruby asked quietly.

Weiss sighed, "I...I don't really want to get into it tonight. I'll tell you tomorrow….after you tell me why Tyrian wanted to bring you in front of Salem."

Ruby nodded, "Fair. Now go back to sleep, You've got a few more hours till your shift." She kissed Weiss on the cheek.

Weiss nodded, gently returning the kiss and crawling back into the tent. Thankfully her exhaustion overwhelmed her and she was quickly asleep once again. After a few more hours of fairly restful sleep, her alarm went off indicating that it was midnight. Weiss unzipped the tent and sat next to Ruby on the rock.

Ruby was gazing up and the now very bright aurora. "Did I miss anything?" Weiss asked.

Ruby tiredly shook her head, "Still a few Grimm out on the tundra but they're staying well clear. No airships either."

"Ok." Weiss said, nodding. She patted Ruby's hand, "Get some sleep, you look so tired."

Ruby smiled and nodded, handing Weiss the thermal lining to use as a blanket; she set the alarm on her scroll, gave Weiss a peck on the lips and zipped herself into the tent.

Weiss sighed and made herself comfy on the rock. She pulled out her portable maintenance kit, tossed another log on the fire, and got to work on Myrtenaster. She made sure to keep an eye on the surrounding area as she cleaned her weapon, listening intently for any signs of disturbance. The only sounds she heard other than the wind, was the movements of distant Grimm in the snow. The night was almost painfully quiet, there were no airships, no massive hordes of Grimm; even the tent was mercifully quiet, Weiss hoped Ruby was able to find some peace in the oblivion of sleep.

Eventually she ran out of things to clean on her rapier; she refilled the dust chambers and put her kit away. She sighed, she still had several hours to kill with nothing but the company of her own thoughts, processing Watts' words. She gazed up at the twinkling aurora overhead and settled in for the last few hours of her watch.

Not a lot of excitement in this chapter, mostly set up for future chapters. This is the end of Day 1! Chapter 7 marks the beginning of Day 2 and it'll be a bit of a change from what's been posted so far. See you guys next time!