While Rayla and the others geared up for the mission ahead, Rayla showed just as much of a cold shoulder to the others as Ruby had.
Jaune was punched in the mouth when he said he was sorry for Cole's death, and Rayla told him that if he was sorry, he would have never done it.
Pyrrha received the death glare, but Ren and Nora were the only ones who got the silent treatment and were ignored altogether.
Ruby got all of Rayla's warmth and love, not caring whether or not the others heard them bond over Cole. They had to admit that they loved seeing the happy Ruby again after a year and a half of cold and ruthless looks.
"Ren, will Ruby ever forgive any of us?" Nora asked while helping him pack the provisions and drinks.Ren was just about finished with Rayla's bag when he zipped it up and said calmly, "Eventually, Nora, but she just needs time. Remember that it took us a long time to forgive Jaune for faking his transcripts; these are the consequences for decisions made in the past."
Nora tried to use her signature smile, but it faltered and became a halfway smile at his words. These days she and Ren felt that Ruby was in more pain than she should've been over something like Cole, but love was something she was new at, and she loved too hard.
They all grabbed their bags and began walking towards the exit. Jaune walked over to Rayla and said something that his team had been unable to make out. Thankfully, this time, Rayla just whispered angrily in his ear and left him frozen in place. The rest of his team rushed to his side when she'd whipped him across the face with a shadow that sent him stumbling into them.
"What the heck did you say to her this time?" Nora and Pyrrha let him go when he turned around with a shocked look, tears flowing freely from his eyes.
"I asked if there was anything I could do to earn their forgiveness, and she said that I'd have better luck getting my family to take me back," Jaune explained. Pyrrha gave a remorseful look and hugged him, but he didn't notice for almost ten minutes.When he finally got a hold on himself, he wiped his eyes and said, "Let's get this mission started before they leave us behind."
"Yeah, let's do this!" Nora exclaimed, following the others with a smile so forced it looked psychotic.
Ciri knew the whole story and had her opinions, but as far as she was concerned, they needed to be strong enough for this mission. She felt that if it meant letting a bit of difficulty seep into their road, so be it, but she still felt as their teacher she had to butt in.
"Just remember that this Rayla might not mean what she says, and you'll be okay," Ciri told them. She saw their glowing green cat eyes and gave a nod that it was the truth."Thank you, professor, but that's Cole's sister, and we're all responsible," Ren said but cut off short by Ciri.
"For nothing she's doing to you; hate breeds hate, break the cycle or it'll break you. As for this Rayla, I doubt it's really his sister. I was there when they died, and his sister had brown hair, not black."Pyrrha spoke up and glared at Rayla, "She has shadow control; maybe her semblance is a side effect."
"Miss Nikos, you have zero room to speak of side effects when you drank a tonic for my father's insomnia and ended up comatose, thinking you would be fine," Rayla retorted.
Jaune groaned and spoke up, "Regardless, I just want Weiss and Ruby's forgiveness now. If she's lying like you claim, then we can apprehend her."
"Umbra-kinetics can only be trapped by light, and only Weiss knows about it," Ciri chimed in, giving a wink as she slipped into the seat next to Ren, who piloted the craft. "Go spend your time with them, Mr. Ren."
With a hum and a nod, Ren left to be with Nora and immediately fell asleep on her shoulder.
Rayla muttered to herself before passing into a shadow and dropping in from the shadows on the ceiling just as Ruby stood up with her scythestaff and put it in her case for safekeeping.
"You should know that Weiss' father, Jacques Schnee?" Ruby started as she rested her face in her hands, struggling to find the right words. "He's kind of an asshole that treats family like it's business, and he believes he's the one who belongs on top."
Rayla smiled at her and put the cases on their sides and approached. "Ruby, we aren't going to Atlas on a diplomatic excursion. We're going to Atlas to get the heiress of the SDC for a dust crystal recovery mission… or at the very least, that's what we're letting them think."
Ruby gave her a questioning gaze and said, "You mean to tell me that you lied to the head of the SDC that we needed Weiss for dust crystal retrieval?" She deadpanned at the end and let out a dry chuckle. "That's both genius and stupid. I can't believe it."
She laughed at that and grabbed a bottle of Vacuian wine and two glasses, using her shadows to fill the glasses and gave one to Ruby, to which Ciri snatched.
"Not during a mission," Ciri warned.
"Can I ask you something, Ruby?" Rayla inquired, putting the glasses away and glaring at Ciri.
"Sure, what's up?" Ruby asked, taking a drink from a water bottle she found on the floor.
"What made you so invested with my brother in the first place?" This question got everyone's attention and caught Ruby off guard with how to answer her question with the right words.
"Uhm, well… I guess it had to do with the fact that he was honest and treated everyone the same until he got to know a few of us more personally," she said, smiling and pausing to grab the necklace. "But with me, I cared for him when he got beat up by Yang in a fight after he accidentally ran into me and fell on top of me."
Rayla took a few more sips of her drink before she said, "I kinda assumed that you were just a loving person and treated everyone like a friend, but you fell for him when you first met, didn't you?" She asked, smiling.
"Not really, I actually hated him in the beginning of his time because I was constantly outclassed by him, and he treated me like a kid for weeks before he actually got to go on missions with me. Since we needed backup, he was assigned to his own category since he refused to let Ozpin put him in a team."
"You and him were competitive on those missions, weren't you?" She asked, smirking widely.
Ruby paused mid-drink and swallowed before thinking it over but eventually had an answer. "Well, not exactly. He was assigned to me by Yang as my team's guard dog while we slept. And he took those moments so seriously he wouldn't let me stay up to talk with him, and I think I know why."
"So let me guess, your sister is super irrationally overprotective?" Rayla inferred and finished her glass, laughing when Ruby spit her water on herself.
"I'll just take that as a yes, then," Ruby huffed annoyed and glared out the window, watching the world pass by. "The last time we were alone together, he told me that he'd always be there for me… and that he saw me as family," she added quietly. Of course, Rayla didn't know what to say to that, how could she?
For a few hours, the ship was relatively quiet with the occasional question from Jaune towards the mission ahead. Surprisingly, Rayla actually answered the questions with detail and understanding of what needed to be done. Ruby looked at the fuel gauge and took the controls, flying it toward a depot.
"If you guys need to do anything, do it while you can because we aren't landing for a long while, got it?" Rayla asked, walking over to the fuel vendor and leaving the others to their own devices.
Ciri followed closely and watched from afar while holstering Cole's pistols she'd kept after Weiss gave them to her, claiming that she could make better use of them than her.
Ruby immediately went for the bathroom while JNPR helped get the nozzle in the ship to start fueling up the ship. While they waited for it to finish a few shady guys walked up to Pyrrha and the biggest one said, "hey baby, what's a dame like you doing in a place like this. It's a little remote for you isn't it?" her face paled as she put her hand over her mouth to keep her from puking and backed away when her vison was blocked by a back plate of white armor and long shoulder length blonde hair. Jaune stepped forward and got in the man's face staring him down but the guy's buddies got close just in case something happened.
"whatever you're thinking…rethink it" he said warningly inching towards his sword.
The man smirked and looked at his goons "rethink it. He wants me to rethink it fellas" he said and quickly threw a punch at him but failed when his fist hit xaio long's aura "ah, what the fu-" he exclaimed holding his wrist just before jaune punched him in the face with his armored glove sending him into his friends knocking them all over.
The two goons helped their leader "p and heard Pyrrha speak up "he warned you" before walking into the bullhead but stopped when he yelled "I'm not surprised a slut like you settled for a disgrace like him, I almost pity you; stupidity must be-" his statement was cut short when ren hit him with quick palm strikes in the stomach knocking him out cold while nora and jaune dealt with the others.
Finishing up Pyrrha looked over at jaune and watched him grab the three of them and dragged them over to an anchor, tied them up and walked over to her kissed her before walking into the bullhead.
Ruby came back and paused seeing three junkies covered in puke tied to a rusty anchor.
"why am I not surprised?" she sighed walking in the ship and saw the four of them quiet and clearly upset with themselves, "alright JNPR" she began as she walked over to them and sat down across from them. "what the hell happened out here?" she waited for five moments before she got an answer from ren of all people.
"one of them called Pyrrha a slut and jaune a disgrace. I put them down but I don't think they deserved it" Ruby looked them over and noticed how upset they were and it got worse when that happened, "jaune" she said trying to get his attention but he was too lost in his head to have heard her so she sighed and grabbed him by his wrist and led outside the door and said "this'll take a few minutes" to rayla before walking over to a few large wooden spools a few hundred feet away, sat him down and asked "feel like talking now?" but he just sat there so she stood up and stood in front of him until he looked up and got a powerful backhand to the face whipping his face to the side and saw her frowning at her.
"ow" is just about all she got making her upset and stared at him balling her fists "am I going to get an explanation or do I have to hit you again?" she asked crossing her arms over her chest.
"it doesn't matter to you so just let it go" he said hopping down and walked away, but as soon as he got a few feet away Ruby jumped up and spin kicked him in his chest sent him skidding to a stop five feet away on the floor. She straddled him and yelled "I am the one leading this mission, now what the hell is your damn problem?!" he glared at her and forced her off him. Everyone else watched from afar as she used her semblance to toss him across the lot, all of them winced when he hit the ship with an audible choking gasp.
"should we do something?" ren asked
"Let them fight it out," Rayla said as she grabbed a box of crackers. "This will go smoother if we let them do their thing."
Jaune slid down the side of the ship and groaned as he rose to his feet. He seethed as he spoke to Ruby, "You hate us for hurting your boy-toy. His sister wants nothing to do with us, and I'm no longer an Arc." He tossed his sword aside and walked toward Ruby.
"You ask me what my problem is?" He stopped a few feet from her and said, "Well, my problem is that other than schoolwork and missions, you don't want anything to do with us. So why should you care if we're not doing well? It's not like it matters because we aren't friends anymore. You made that perfectly clear back at Beacon."
As he tried to go back to the bullhead, Ruby knocked him to the ground with a spin kick to his chest. She straddled him, "he was a brother to me; you were supposed to be the same…what happened to the jaune I knew"
Ciri had witnessed the entire altercation and decided to step in. She used her powers to pull Ruby off Jaune and bound her to her spot, then helped Jaune to his feet.
"Okay, I'm done with your squabbles and bitching, Ms. Branwen," Ciri declared. "And you, Mr. Arc, you're going to take your team and go into the ship. I need a word with you and Rayla."
Ciri released Ruby and Jaune and marched them over to Rayla, who sat there eating popcorn and looking disappointed.
"It was getting so good too," Rayla pouted, but Ciri wasn't having it.
"Do you honestly think torturing them with their faults two years ago is the best way to make that ego of yours any bigger?" Ciri scolded Rayla. "I'm not in charge of this mission, but I'm still responsible for these students."
Ciri used Axii on Rayla, commanding her to go into the bullhead, shut up, and sit down. Rayla followed the order and sat down blankly. Afterward, Ciri explained the situation to the rest of the team.
"Sit down and get some rest while you can," Ciri instructed as she took the controls. "Atlas won't be for another day or two, and we have two more refueling spots to get to before then."
As the team settled in, Ruby found herself lost in thought, reflecting on the changing world and the issues they faced. Jaune and Pyrrha talked over snacks and soda, while Nora put braids in Ren's hair to keep it out of the way.
Meanwhile, in the back of the plane, Rayla fumed in anger, upset at how her mind had been manipulated by Ciri, interrupting her fun watching the students squabble.
Ciri decided to text Geralt, expressing her concerns about Rayla.
Ciri: [Look into Rayla Foster]
[I don't feel right about Ozpin's trust in her]
Geralt: [Give me a week, and I'll even give you her favorite restaurants]
[Remember your training, and you'll be fine]
Ciri: [I will. Be careful, too.]
[Do you want me to send hourly updates?]
Geralt: [That would be appreciated]
Ciri: [Well, two hours ago to now, she tried intimidating Ruby and JNPR, she watched JNPR assault three civilians and ate popcorn, she's uncaring that Ruby and Jaune fought before I stepped in, and she tried intimidating me, but I used Axii on her; she's pouting at the back of the plane]
Three minutes passed after she sent the update, so she decided to grab some provisions from her bag and a bottle of water while she waited.
Geralt: [Proud you calmed things down and handled being a professor, but don't use those powers often; the Wild Hunt might still be looking for you, so unless it's an emergency, don't teleport anywhere]
Ciri: [Will do. Ruby and JNPR are possibly getting comfortable for a few hours of flying, so I'll be flying the whole way]
Geralt: [Take care and rest up and use autopilot if you get tired]
With that, Ciri wolfed down her food, set an alarm for two and a half hours, and went to sleep.
To our dear readers, life often throws unexpected challenges and conflicts our way, just as it does for the characters in this story. Remember, it's in these moments that we discover our strength and the power of forgiveness. Thank you for joining us on this journey of growth and resilience.
Love one another, live better daily and eat well