Rwby: A Thorn in my Heart

Chapter 4: A Chaotic Cruise Trip

Ruby was at the front of the ship, the cool wind feeling refreshing as it blew on her skin. She could smell the sea, despite the many sharks, poisonous snakes, and dangerous water grimm that plagued it, she could feel the soothing presence of nature envelop her as each wave cradled the large ship taking her to Blake's home for a much needed vacation…. As well as a wave of nausea strike her stomach.

"Oh my god I'm gonna be sick!" Ruby groaned, her face turning green before retching her breakfast over the ship. Ruby couldn't help it though, she normally didn't get seasick or motion sick, but her pregnancy had occasionally given her stomach problems and vertigo. "Man, now I really get how vomit boy felt during my first day at Beacon" she chuckled before another wave of nausea overtook her. Thorn was waving his arms and legs while being carried on baby harness, being uncomfortable with the sudden stirring motions, but also worried his mother's vomit would touch him. Seeing this, Sun couldn't help but joke to Ruby at her expense,

"Your sons going, "eeeeeeeeewwwwww" he said while mockingly waving his hands giving small skips and jumps. He felt an extreme urge to collapse on the ground laughing after seeing Ruby's green face turn to pink with embarrassment before she became frantic and took Thorn out of his carrier and darted her head around him comically to see if he was messy from her barfing at all.

"Man I hope not! I just gave him his bath." She said with a panic.

Suddenly, Sun felt a sharp sudden pain in his arm. Blake had just punched him and gave him a glare that clearly showed displeasure. Sun raised his arms in defense, despite the pain his left one still felt. "Hey, hey, what was that for?!" he said, fear in his voice as he tried to keep things peaceful with the angry cat girl. She took his ear and yanked away out of Ruby's earshot.

"Having fun with her right?" she said with a smile, but her glare still present showcasing she still wasn't happy with him.

"Uhhh… y-yes" he said meekly.

"Well, so were those bullies who gossiped and sneered at her expense too!" she nearly yelled while pointing at Ruby, patting thorn on the back to get him to burp. The sight of the young mother made Sun remember the true goal of this mission, to avoid said bullies. A deep sense of shame filled suns heart. He thought he was helping Ruby by lightening the mood with a joke, but he might have just made her re-live her pain just now. He turned to Blake and gave her a small smile, "Man girl, you sure can read the room unlike me." He said with regret.

His remorse helped quell the anger in Blake who took him to the other end of the ship to give Ruby some alone time with her son. They sat down at a table and asked a goat Faunus waiter for some tea. She and Sun were tempted to order some seafood that would fit the ambiance, but learned from experience travelling by sea it was risky to eat a full meal, less they suffer sluggish or nauseas behavior like Ruby.

"Really, I'm sorry about before, I just thought I could cheer Ruby up" Sun said before sipping his tea with a guilty frown.

"Don't sweat it anymore, I get its just your character trait" she said with a short smile. She knew Sun could be careless but never intentionally hurtful.

"Trait?" he said confused. "Sorry, I got into a habit of assigning a characteristic to people I get to know about, for you that's earnest". She explained.

"Oh, so what are your other friends traits?" Sun asked, eager to hear more about this.

"Well, I see Yang and think strength, Weiss is willpower, Jaune is humble, Neo is empathy, Adam is wisdom, Pyrrah is determination, Nora is joy, Ren is… well he's a smart, collected, and calm guy so he's a little harder to read." She nervously stated. She then turned over to Ruby feeding Thorn with a bottle while singing a lullaby. "I see her and think, this girl is the embodiment of purity". She lovingly stated with a smile, before sun noticed a frown formed. His heart sank as he was shocked by what Blake said next, "But after what Timber did to her I'm scared her purity may be tainted." She said as her cat ears went down. "What do you mean tainted?" Sun said confused. "Well, she collapsed from a mental breakdown a few days ago. Worse part is, that wasn't the first time."

Blake said, tears beginning to sting her eyes as she remembers the day she learned Ruby was pregnant, the shock still in her heart when seeing her leader passed out in Yang's lap with tears in her eyes. She and Weiss's eyes wide open with their hands covering their mouths after seeing this and Yang pointing to the pregnancy test wand showing a plus sign. "When I first met her, Ruby was like an angel, unmarred by peoples cruelty, but that bastard Timber might have clipped her wings after he forced that reality inside her!" she said with bitterness. Sun gently placed his hand on hers and began to try and think of something to say, before the ship began to rumble violently.

Suddenly, before they could collect themselves and try and figure out what just happened, Raven came rushing to them, "Brace yourselves its not over yet!" she screamed before the ship shook like an earthquake and nearly tipped over to the right. As everyone was pressed against the wall of the ship, including Ruby as she cradled Thorn to her chest as he cried, the cause erupted from the sea and inadvertently set the ship back upright. It was a giant Sea Dragon Grimm, in the shape of a Chinese dragon. Its eyes glowed bright as it licked its lips seeing its prey squirm on the boat, trying to recollect themselves. Their panic and confusion were some of the many negative emotions the Grimm were attracted to and feasted on.

The beast began to charge up an energy beam from its mouth, Blake looked on in shock as she realized the motions caused Raven to hit her head and get knocked out. Sun was still dizzy and not in any position to dodge. She felt frozen in place, she was battling an inner dilemma that rocked her soul, "Who do I save? Can I even save either of them? "Do I just run?" these were the moral questions that ripped her apart from within, she couldn't think of anything at the moment.

Luckily, a large gunshot sound ripped through the air like lightning that jolted her out of her trance. The shot blasted the energy beam at the dragon's mouth and exploded causing the beast to fall back into the sea in pain, smoke erupting from its mouth as it screeched. Blake turned to see Ruby covering her son's puppy ears with one arm while her other one shot crescent rose's rifle. Thorn began to whimper before going into a loud crying fit. His hearing was more sensitive because he had a pair of human and faunus ears so even though his mother covered them it still hurt his ears badly to hear a close gunshot. Hearing him cry and realizing what she just did, Ruby felt a rush of panic arise from within.

"I just... hurt my little boy… again! she thought, her memory of Thorn in his incubation chamber after he was born flooded her mind. The day she realized her hatred of him, her vindictiveness of his conception had tormented the infant just like now.

"I.. I didn't mean.. to" she stuttered as she tried to comfort her son with light cradling, but his tears of pain caused hers to erupted as well as she failed to sooth him. Ruby's breathing grew heavy as her lungs felt like they were on fire. She soon began to hyperventilate, as she collapsed on her knees,

"I'm s-sowy, so s-so... Thor..." she babbled while sobbing frantically, begging thorn to forgive her in her panic. Blake heard her leaders broken apologies repeatedly and glanced at her with a look of terror for her health. Realizing Ruby and Thorn needed a medic, she motioned Sun,

"Common! We got to help them." she said, but Sun's jaw hung wide open, not even trying to help an unconscious Raven anymore. She glanced at the direction he was facing to realize what he really looking at. The dragon had reemerged and was glaring right at them, fully recovered due to the negativity around them. Cold sweat dripped from her face as she realized the danger they were in. Blake quickly took her sword from her sheath and conjured up some shadow clones to jump onto the dragon to distract it.

"Monkey boy hurry! Get Ruby and Raven out of here with your clones so we can finish this!" she screamed in his ear to snap him out of his trance. Sun felt pain sting his ear from this as a shock to his spine jolted him awake and he jumped in the air in surprise. He quickly did as he was told and conjured up sun clones of yellow energy. Unlike Blake's, these were physical copies and could help carry the two mothers and Thorn into the deeper parts of the ship. He slightly turned his head back to his clones to check on their progress and saw Ruby still in shock from seeing her crying son wailing in pain. He soon felt a sense of anger in his heart.

"Its all because of monsters like you that she had to suffer!" Sun roared as he charged towards the beast with his clones lending support.

His unusual burst of anger shocked Blake, before she smiled, as she knew this would help finally bring down the behemoth once and for all. The fight was intense, but with so many clones to fight, the dragon couldn't tell which was the real opponent for it to kill. This made it violently thrash around nearly topping over the ship again. Blake panicked a bit at this sight; she felt she was about to blow it when Ruby and the other passengers were counting on her. As she thought this, she noticed on the other side of the ship a device that would turn the tide of this battle. She motioned sun to move the dragon with their clones to the ship. Though thinking she was crazy at first, Sun soon saw what Blake was getting at.

Bittersweet Victory

A few minutes later…as the injured were being cared for on small beds in the ships infirmary in the basement, they could hear blasts coming from above. A man grasped his unconscious wife's hand and prayed for their safety. Thorn began to finally cease his crying as a nurse used her semblance to sooth his hurting ears. Though the semblance couldn't perform major surgeries or restore lost limbs, the nurse gave his worried mother a confident smile, assuring her the method was perfect for normal injuries. Sure enough, Thorn felt all the weight in his body float away like a feather as he smiled and nodded off into a deep sleep, another side effect of the treatment. Ruby smiled with relief that her son was okay and received a bit of the treatment on her forehead for extra relief. After this was done, Ruby and a recently awoken Raven decided to leave thorn in the Nurses hands as they returned to the top of the ship to help fight. Though she didn't have her gun, Auntie Raven had given her a spare blade she felt confident to wield thanks to training from Penny. God she missed her friends, but she knew Blake was right to leave them behind at Beacon until Raven used her portal to bring them to Blake's home where the populace wouldn't see many humans at once. The thought of people glaring at her again sent shivers down her body as she then remembered the bullies at Beacon, sweat dripping down her face from stress. Ruby then shook her head, No! Blake needed them now and she had to hurry and fight or something worse than what she went through could happen to her. They soon heard the dragon's cry and rushed to the top of the ship, only to smell gunpowder so bitter it roasted their nostrils senses. They saw a canon emitting smoke with Blake and Sun behind it, having covered their ears to avoid tinnitus. "What did you guys do?" Ruby asked, completely dumbfounded her friends could operate a cannon. "Well, we just blew up A FREAKING DRAGON'S HEAD!" Sun screamed with joy, pointing to the corpse of the sea dragon laying on the mountain cliff to their right, beginning to turn to ash.

"Yeah we can see that, the question is how?" Raven exclaimed wide-eyed. She then took a look at the canon above them, but didn't think they could access it. Only certain ship crew and the captain had access to the control keys to the weapon against grimm attacks and they were in the infirmary from the initial attack on the ship.

"We used Ruby's gun to charge the cannon. I remember you saying you got Nora to charge your bullets with her lightning semblance." Blake said with a bright smile towards her leader. "The canon on this ship isn't just powered by gunpowder, its lightning dust based too. We just connected the cannons wires with crescent rose to give it a little extra fire power."

Ruby looked to see her scythe gun connected to some wires while smoking heavily. It was definitely going to need some adjustments and a nice wax job, something she was going to bill these two for sure. How dare they hurt one of her babies like that? she thought, fighting an urge to tease and chuckle. she was brought out of this joking thought By a sudden and warm pat on the shoulder from Blake, whose smile made her feel a bit happy and uneasy at the same time to her own confusion. "It's thanks to crescent rose and you me and Sun could kill that dragon." Blake said with gratitude. Ruby felt awkward at first, but then felt a huge sense of warmth in her as the anxiety and stress she felt earlier evaporated like the dragon. She helped Blake and Sun up as the cat faunus handed her scythe back to her. But when Ruby grasped the scythe gun, a sharp pain overtook her hand. It was as if it was on fire as she collapsed and grasped it with a screech, tears stinging her eyes. "Ruby! What's wrong?! Everyone asked with a panic at the sight of their friend in pain. Ruby didn't respond right away, she was breathing heavily while looking at her weapon. "It was my fault." She thought to herself, the memory of her son crying in pain from her shooting earlier plagued her sight. As tears ran down her face, Ruby ran away downstairs while covering her eyes in shame. Everyone looked on in shock. They couldn't figure out what hurting her so badly she couldn't even touch her beloved scythe her uncle helped her make. Blake couldn't stand around any longer, she had to go check on her friend or her condition would deteriorate further. With an assuring nod from Raven, she headed to Ruby's room to check on her. Blake knocked on the door "Ruby, you in there?" she asked softly. Her ears went down as she received a response she never thought she'd get from Ruby, "Just leave me alone already!" the crimson reaper screamed. She was laying down on her bed, crying into her pillow. She hadn't felt such shame in herself since her rape and her helplessness to aide her team in the war while pregnant. How could she hurt her own son like that? As she pondered these dark memories, her head arose from her pillow in shock and anger as Blake opened the door to her room softly and entered despite her protests.

"I thought I said to leave me alone!" she yelled, her eyes red from crying and bloodshot from stress. Blake felt fear overtake her from all the screaming she was unaccustomed to, but shook her head. She knew she shouldn't leave Ruby now, she needed her whether she wanted it or not. "Go awa.." Ruby couldn't even finish the declaration before she was shocked into silence by a hug from the cat faunus. "I'm not going anywhere until you feel better." She said with tears in her closed eyes.

"Why are you so mad?! Please just talk to me for once" she tearfully begged. Ruby's anger gave way to a wave of unease, she felt a mix of pain, sadness, and warmth from within from the hug and question. "I… I'm just…" she stuttered, she just couldn't tell Blake what happened, how she felt like a failure of a mother. But Blake wouldn't release her grip hug on her, so she complied to hopefully end this weird sensation. "I hurt Thorn. My gun hurt his ears. My gun… how could I do that TO MY OWN SON!? I'M A HORRIBLE MOTHER!" she screamed while returning the hug crying. "I should just give up being a Huntress, how can I help anyone if I couldn't even protect my own baby?!" she cried.

Blake felt aghast, how could she believe something so untrue? "Ruby you are not a terrible mother!" she sternly said while finally easing her grip on her. She thought quickly what to say, she didn't want to point out Raven was much worse from Yang's tales to her back in Beacon, but withheld that action due to her reconciling with her partner. She thought of her own struggles with the White Fang, how she felt shame helping them hurt innocent people in the past. "You just had an accident, you made a mistake, but that happens all the time, I speak from experience" she explained in a way she thought wouldn't guilt trip Ruby. "My mom left me when I was a baby, she died in a battle that she shouldn't have been in but her last request was for Adam to keep me safe". She softly stated. Ruby was shocked to hear her friends sad past, wiping tears from her face. "All mothers have hard times and make mistakes with their kids, but that doesn't make them nor you a bad parent" she assured her leader.

"Ruby, don't give up on your dream, don't give up on Thorn like my mom gave up on herself, he still needs you, the world still needs its hero" she implored her leader. Every word she said was true, she always admired Ruby since getting to know her. Her purity and optimism always reminding her of the same happiness and hope she thought she had lost from the cruelty she experienced from bigoted humans. She gave her hope for a better life and she wanted to share that hope with Ruby now. Ruby wiped the last of her tears as she gave Blake a smile and a simple nod. They both got up from the bed and made way to the infirmary.

Infirmary

Raven awkwardly cradled Thorn as he cried in panic in his step-grandmothers arms. The nurse gave her instructions on how to hold an infant because Raven had awkwardly explained leaving Yang after only a couple days when she was born. The disappointing glare the nurse gave her from this sent a chill down Raven's spine. She suddenly realized what Ruby was feeling a month ago at beacon from those bullies. Glares were silent, but extremely painful like a dagger to the heart. Raven sat down on a small infirmary bed as she did her best to calm her screaming grandchild. She soon felt warmth in her stomach arise. She thought his crying was annoying, but couldn't help but think his puppy ears and tail wagging was adorable. She began to crack a smile before she was startled by his sudden cease of crying. "Did I do it right for once?" she said to herself quietly. "Sort of Auntie Raven" a familiar voice said from a distance. Raven looked up to see Ruby and Blake walking towards her with a smile as she began to blush in embarrassment. "Ah.. Ah. Oh just take your kid back already I'm sick of babysitting!" she said flustered and showing Thorn to his mother. The sight of her made his puppy ears perk up and wag his tail as he squealed with joy. Ruby eyes began to tear up as she ran towards him and grabbed him. She cradled him to her chest as she gave him a small kiss on the forehead, happy to reunite with him. "I'm sorry, but mama's back. She's not giving up ever again". She said warmly.