"So we meet again," Ruby says cheerfully. She can't quite keep the grin off her face as Weiss stares back at her in disbelief. "Hi, Weiss. I guess this makes us partners."

When they'd been launched into the forest, Ruby hadn't bothered changing her trajectory from last time. After all, she'd ended up with Weiss as her partner then, and she sees no reason to change that now. They make a great team.

Weiss seems considerably less thrilled about this development than Ruby is. She doesn't try to run away this time though, so Ruby will take that as a win. "That does seem to be the case," Weiss finally replies, grimacing. "Let's get this over with, then. Do you have any idea where we're supposed to be going?"

"You could at least pretend to be excited," Ruby says, pretending to pout. "And no, I don't. I'm sure we can find our way there together through." Ruby's never had a good sense of direction, and even after traveling all of Remnant, that hasn't changed. She has no idea where they are relative to the place where they're supposed to pick up their chess pieces.

"So you're useless, then," Weiss huffs, whirling around and stalking off into the woods with a confidence that Ruby knows is fake. She can almost guarantee that Weiss just picked a random direction to storm off in. Her partner's sense of direction is just as bad as Ruby's own.

"Doesn't that make you useless, too?" Ruby asks, leisurely following after Weiss. She doesn't even have to try to hurry to keep up with the other girl. "Since you don't know where we're supposed to be going either."

"I know exactly where we're going!" Weiss looks like she just took a bite of something sour. "We're going to the-"

"The temple, yeah, I know, I was there too," Ruby chimes in. "But you don't know where that is, do you?"

"Oh, and you do?" Weiss retorts hotly. This is much more fun this time around, since Ruby isn't bothered by Weiss' snark and 'ice queen' facade. Plus, she knows exactly how to get under her partner's skin.

"Nope!" Ruby admits cheerfully. "But even though I'm useless, I've got an idea for how we can find out."

"And what's that?" Weiss asks, refusing to be impressed.

"I'm thinking that a bird's eye view should help us get our bearings," Ruby announces.

"And how are you planning on doing that?" Weiss puts her hands on her hips. "Don't tell me you're planning on nicely asking that Giant Nevermore to give us a lift."

"Of course not!" It's a bit unnerving how close Weiss is to how things went down the first time.

"What is your plan then?"

Well, we're in a forest," Ruby points out. "I figure we can climb a tree, get a better look around." She doesn't bother waiting for Weiss to reply before using her semblance to boost her up the first few branches of the nearest tree. It's a tall, sturdy thing, perfect for climbing. "Are you coming?" she calls down, glancing back at Weiss. "Last one to the top is a rotten Grimm!"

That does the trick, jolting Weiss into action. "Wait for me!"


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