Ruby Schnee
"-I want to have plans ready... just in case."
"In case of what?" This was stressing her out... of all conversations, this was approaching the top ten list of talks she didn't want to have.
"You know what." Weiss was being relentless about this, refusing to give a single bit of ground or falter even an inch... they were talking about this, and there was nothing Ruby could do to stop it...
"I... I have some plans ready... but it doesn't matter. They won't get that far." It was stupid to even suggest or think of it... there was no way that anyone could reach Vale. Mistral and Vacuo would have to play this war defensively, Vale and Atlas just had too much firepower for them to do otherwise.
"What if they do." Ruby's eyebrow twitched as Weiss pushed further, but the woman refused to turn and face her. Her gaze was focused on a new magic item that she was currently making, and there was no way she'd delay its construction any further.
"Then Uncle Qrow and Pyrrha can handle it... or hell, Yang, you, and I can do it. We have pretty strong fighters, Weiss." A solid argument, yet one that wouldn't help her.
"And what if they're too strong? Or what if not all of us are available?" This was beginning to sound like an argument, Ruby was thankful that they were in the workshop at least. There was only a slim chance of Argus randomly appearing to hear it...
"Weiss... what you're suggesting-"
"Ruby... I know that... after Emerald, you-" And finally, Ruby stopped working. Her tools were placed gently on the bench in front of her, all concentration left her mind, all effort left her body... now she had to fully devote herself to this conversation. "I know it's difficult for you to trust people... but we need to protect our kingdom, our family."
"I think we already can..." It was true, at least in her head. Given the Harbingers, the Dragons they already had, and even the average strength of the Hunters... What could Vacuo or Mistral possibly do to them?
"Maybe you're right... I hope you're right... but, why risk it? As much as I want to believe that we won't struggle during this war... it's our lives that we would be gambling. And more importantly... Argus's life." She was right, Ruby knew she was. Weiss was the smart one in their relationship, she always had the answer and always knew what was best... and yet Ruby still couldn't think of this idea as a good one.
"I... I don't trust this plan." Her work and bench was fully abandoned as she stood. "But I trust you."
"And that's all I ask, Ruby." They shared a moment, a small and intimate hug... weirdly, it felt like it had been ages since they had. "I already have some ideas as to who we can bring in."
Ruby laughed, it was gentle, but she couldn't help it. "I do too."
"This time... This time will be better."
Ruby chose to believe that she still had friends she could trust.
The familiar sounds of metal clashing, the steps and footwork signalling the movements of a battle, and of course the building itself. It was old, a mansion constructed perhaps even before the castle itself, and practically made into a fortress. The halls of Beacon were familiar, yet not. Ruby could have sworn it hadn't been long since shed been here last, yet she was forced to confront the fact that Argus hadn't been born the last time she was here. Not that she could have come here in that time, what with the house arrest and all. But, she was only still on that because Mistral's ruler, Neptune, was on their case about it. Now that they were at war? Well... his opinion didn't really matter to Vale anymore.
Not to its Queen, anyway.
Finally stepping into one of many training rooms, she was stunned for a moment at how similar it looked to the castle's own. In fact, it may as well have been an exact replica. Tough stone walls, windows that reached the roof but started many metres off the ground, and absolutely nothing to get in the way of any fights, just a barren floor. The only difference she could spot was a doorway not too far into the room... peaking through, it seemed to lead to another training room. Which was also the exact same. She didn't look into it further, instead stepping further into the first room... the people she was here to find were sparring.
Ruby was thrown for a moment as she laid her sights on the two of them. They had changed so much in such a little amount of time... though, now that she thought of it... it hadn't been a 'little' amount of time. For one of them, gone was the style she had always assigned the woman... though perhaps that was just a sign of her taking the training seriously. For the other? Well, she actually had some differences that Ruby could spot with ease. She looked... bigger. Not fat, rather the opposite. Taller, bulkier, clearly the clothes she donned hid some muscle underneath, though not nearly enough to make Yang jealous. In fact, she was still smaller than her partner. For a moment, Ruby just stood and watched them train. They seemed to be wearing metal gauntlets, less meant for attacking and rather for blocking or parrying blows. Ruby remembered one of them being incredibly strong... but there was a good chance that she herself was mightier.
Eventually the blows ceased, both women looking rather tired and quite sweaty... yet smiling. There hadn't been a winner, instead of acknowledging that or even talking to one another, they met with a tight hug... and a gentle kiss. One that quite surprised Ruby for a moment, but made her smile the next.
"Guess you did it after all, Velvet."
The kiss lasted longer then expected, certainly longer then any of her and Weiss's kisses had lasted... those outside the bedroom anyway. Their eyes held each others gazes for a few more seconds, and without turning away, Coco spoke. "You just gonna keep staring like a perv?" She turned with a smirk, one that wavered for a moment as her eyes set on Ruby. "Uh... Your highness. Sorry, I thought it was someone else." Ruby couldn't help but laugh a little as the usually confident woman rubbed the back of her head awkwardly.
"It's ok. We're friends, after all." Silver eyes glanced to Velvet, the faunas girl looking more surprised than her partner. "At least... I hope we still are."
"Yeah..." Velvet spoke unsure of herself at first, but quickly reiterated with confidence. "Yeah. Yeah, we are."
"I'm guessing that you didn't come here to talk about that, though." Ruby laughed again, this time awkwardly, as Coco hit the nail on the head. "Right... so, what's up, Red."
Memories of two people flashed in her mind... surprisingly, both having orange hair. "Um... please don't call me that."
"Coco, be nice."
"I am being nice, nicknames are nice."
"Not that nickname."
"Why?"
"That's the nickname Carmine called her!"
"You mean the chick she bit in half!?"
Ruby really did miss these two.
They moved to a more comfortable place to speak... Velvet's office, surprisingly.
"When did you get this?" Ruby couldn't help but inspect the room, lower in grandeur than her wife's office, obviously, but impressive nonetheless.
"Glynda is filling in for Ozpin at the moment-"
"Oh yeah, I heard about that." Mainly because Ozpin hadn't stopped singing the woman's praises since she had taken over most of his duties at Beacon. It made sense that he didn't need an office here anymore. "So she's in his old office, and you got hers?"
"Pretty much, Glynda wanted to train an assistant immediately... and for some reason she chose me." Ruby and Coco wore the same expression as they looked at Velvet, both of them having heard way too much of her self deprecation to hear any of it through anymore. Velvet seemed to pick up on this quickly, and continued before they could get a word in. "So, why has the Queen of Vale stopped by?"
"Queen Consort. Trust me, there's a difference." Ruby and Velvet sat on opposite sides of her desk, Coco chose to lean against Velvets chair instead... probably to tease her. Though, Velvet looked pretty comfortable with the situation, which surprised Ruby.
"Just means that you get to have the title but don't need to do as much work, right?" The second time that Coco had hit the nail on the head, to which Ruby just nodded with a small sigh. "Nice. Got the same thing going on here with this one." That comment got a raised eyebrow as a response from Ruby, and Velvet simply sighed.
"Coco likes bossing around the other Hunters because we're dating." This clearly wasn't a new thing... and Ruby could guess that Velvet had tried many times to stop this behaviour, and had since given up.
Ruby decided to just cut to the chase, getting the impression that Velvet and herself would need to do a lot of catching up later. "I'm here because of the war-"
"The Hunters should be ready to mobilise at any and all times. Airships are always ready, and we can have a squad of the best in the air and heading out in five minutes." Ruby smiled at Velvets words, now understanding why Glynda had chosen her instead of Blake. There was a good chance that the other woman would have her hands too full with her family to have that same response time.
"Or we can just send out the big guns." Coco's addition to Velvets words was intriguing, and she clarified before Ruby could ask what she meant. "Your sister."
"Ah... yeah, Yang is the second-strongest Hunter now, without a shadow of a doubt."
Pyrrha wasn't actually a registered Hunter, Jaune was strong but lacked the fighting experience that Yang did... and Qrow? Well, he was obviously stronger than Yang, but he reported directly to Ozpin and Weiss. It was more direct to just tell Yang to go do something, then ask the higher ups for permission to send a Harbinger to handle it.
"Well...-" Ruby supposed she could use this to get back on topic. "How would you like to have more... 'big guns'?" That was definitely something that Yang would have been more comfortable saying.
Velvet's eyes widened for a moment, but she quickly got ahold of herself and smiled. "I mean... we wouldn't say no."
"I call dibs!"
"Coco!"
"What? I wanna be a Dragon! It sounds awesome!"
"I'm not turning anyone into a Dragon-" Ruby had to clarify that now. "Yet."
" 'Yet' sounds promising." Coco was surprisingly mischievous.
"...Coco..." At the sounds of her partner's annoyance, Coco held her hands up defensively and promptly stopped talking... for a bit. "You were saying, Ruby?"
"Weiss wants to have a squad ready. A group of people we can turn some or all of into Dragons if we have an emergency. Surprise attack or something like that." This was the bit she was less excited to talk about. "But... Weiss doesn't want heaps of Dragon families running about..." Both Coco and Velvet nodded in understanding. "So, the change will only be temporary. They'll be turned for the emergency, but as soon as everything is safe-"
"Back to what they were?"
"If we have the Formula. Otherwise, ill get ahold of the Wyvern or Elemental Formula." Both powerful creatures, but not enough to match a Dragon.
Velvet shared a look with Coco for a moment. "Well, that all sounds fair... and, I mean... you know you can just order it to happen right?"
"I want people I can trust in the squad... and-" She gulped. "I trust you." Ruby could better see now when others were lying, it was some training Weiss had been sure to make sure she picked up... but she also taught her to recognise when someone catches you lying. Velvet just caught her.
"Alright." But she chose not to say anything about it. "So... myself, Coco, I can assume Blake?" Ruby shook her head. She had already asked Yang and... Blake still wasn't ready for that. "Ok... I have some other ideas about people we can recruit. I can get a list ready if you'd like?"
Ruby took a breath, and tried her best... but she could tell that Velvet caught her lying again. "Sounds great."
Weiss Schnee
Ruby was off recruiting, that was good... she was getting her friend's help. Now that just left Weiss to do her part in recruitment. Which left a glaring and unfortunate issue that she hadn't foreseen.
"I don't have any friends." A startling revelation that she was not thrilled to happen upon. Though, she wasn't lonely exactly. So what if she didn't have 'friends', Weiss had a loving wife, a beautiful son, her siblings, and Yang and Blake may as well have been her sisters. Yes, Weiss Schnee was many things, but she definitely was not lonely.
A sigh filled her office as she slumped in her chair.
"Who am i kidding... If i didnt have Ruby and Argus then I probably wouldnt interact with anyone besides when i had to."
Once again, not the most comforting of thoughts to have. So, she had to distract herself from said thoughts... and what better way then with the task at hand. Recruitment for the... 'Drake Squad'. "Ruby really needs to get better at naming things..." She was sure that Argus would have come up with something worse, not that she could talk. Weiss herself hadn't had any better ideas than what Ruby presented.
"Who do I know that could be a good fit..." There were four answers that immediately came to mind, though, convincing said individuals to agree to it would be... challenging. Not to mention they were all plenty strong already, so perhaps they didn't exactly mesh with the whole point of the squad. Still, she went through them one at a time in her head.
"Jaune Arc..." Not a bad choice at all. His skill in combat with both blades and magic was impressive, thanks to tutelage from both Pyrrha and Glynda... but, he was the only currently Awoken Hero in the Arc family. The chances of him going along with this were slim to say the least... and it wasn't like they could turn him back into a Hero after it was over. "I suppose Ruby could probably figure out the Hero Formula..." Things to ponder on later.
"Glynda Goodwitch..." An incredibly powerful Wizard, in fact, one of the bearers of a High Wizard title. Ruby and her were close friends, and Weiss would consider herself and Glynda close... But, her loyalty lay with Ozpin before Weiss. A Dragon, especially one that would be that strong, wasn't something she was willing to hand over to Ozpin... not before she fully understood his motives.
"Pyrrha Arc..." Skilled, loyal, a close friend of Ruby's... and herself now that she thought of it. More importantly, however, she was a Harbinger. Conquest. Weiss shuddered at even imagining a Dragon with a Harbinger title, and after a moment she remembered someone else that had been described with that same situation. "Salem..." Ozpin said that apparently the Grimm Dragon had lost her Harbinger title... she had to in order for someone else to get it. Would becoming a Dragon remove Pyrrha's Title of Conquest? This was definitely something she would have to ask Ozpin about... and something that would have to be carefully considered.
Last but not least... "Qrow Branwen..." Ruby and Yang's uncle, a man that heavily sought to protect his family no matter what, which happened to include nearly everyone Weiss cared about. A lot of the problems with Pyrrha carried over... but Weiss wasn't thinking about that anymore. Instead, she had a thought. "Everyone I care about..." Atlas. There were people she knew in Atlas, few, but certainly some.
Handing more Dragons over to Atlas was risky, even if they were allied... who's to say that Whitley's descendants and Weiss's own would see things that way? There were only two people she even considered, one of which wouldn't work even if they did agree... which they almost definitely would have. "Penny..." Weiss chuckled softly, spinning in her chair a bit to gaze out the window of her office. How long had it been since shed thought of Penny, her once rival for Ruby's heart... or, at least that's how she once thought of her. They had last seen each other shortly after Argus had been born... she had to wonder for a moment if Ruby had seen her since either. Thinking of Penny was nice, a sweet girl that held no anger or hatred in her heart... but it wouldn't help. Penny wasn't the same as everyone else. As a Homunculus, she couldn't be changed... not even the Abaddon Curse could turn her Human. Which left one person she could think of.
An ideal choice... but one that posed a few risks, and unfortunately would most likely not stay in Vale. "Winter..." Weiss trusted her sister well, but not as much as she did Ruby. As much as she wanted to say that Winter would always take her side... Her older sister was also Whitley's. Winter would be a Knight of Atlas, not Vale, that much was for certain. Yet, she had to consider her sister anyway. Weiss knew that the more power they had on their side, the better... and for now, Atlas was on their side.
"I may come to regret this in the future..."
But that was a risk she would take for now. "I trust Winter enough to know she won't betray me... at least not until decades after this war has passed... and not until Whitley takes action against Vale." If he did. "It would be best to turn her now... rather than make her a part of the Drake Squad." Weiss turned in her chair once more, facing her desk and slowly reaching for a Scrying Orb. "Ruby Schnee."
"And you're sure about this?" Ruby's worries were valid, however, this needed to be done before the war truly picked up in terms of battle. So far, the first strike had yet to be made... unless you were to count the Atlas Fleet's failed attempt to squash Vacuo day one.
"Yes... I know the exact details aren't..." She glanced away. "Ideal... But... This will do more than just add power to our side if we play our cards right." As much as she wanted to send Ruby on her way in an airship packed to the brim with guards... that wasn't the smart way to handle this. Airships used Dust, a resource they had to be careful with right now... and they would be hard to defend if the ship were to be attacked. No, as unfortunate as it was... Ruby would have to fly to Atlas using her own wings.
"It makes sense." Weiss thanked the dead gods for Ruby. "I'll already be in the best form I can be if I'm attacked, and we need to see how long the flight takes for a Dragon... otherwise Winter wouldn't be able to help Vale in an emergency anyway." Hopefully the flight would take less than a day... but Remnant was vast, and the whole point of Winter being able to come to their aid was her power, so she couldn't rush and waste all her Mana.
"Try to use less than five-percent of your Mana-Tank on the way there... if it takes more than a day, up it to ten." Flying didn't actually consume Mana, but long flights could eat through stamina. Healing magic could be used to replenish stamina, but it was a difficult process. Still, that meant that if you had the Mana, you could go full speed the whole way. In reality, a Dragon with a Physical Enhancement Affinity could probably make the trip in less than three hours... at the cost of a good chunk of their Mana.
"Got it." Ruby looked through her bag again as Weiss stared over her shoulder. The Rose was kneeling over the bag, with Weiss sitting on their bed behind her. Weiss saw clothes mainly, some supplies like food and water, her magic items of course, her cloak... and... a picture...?
"Ruby... is that...?"
"You remember this?" She held up the small picture, so Weiss could see it. It lacked a frame, and looked to have been folded before. But more importantly was its contents... it was a picture of them. Of their family, the day Argus was born. Weiss stared over it, a soft smile gracing her expression as she looked at the image of six years ago... She was in the hospital bed, Ruby laying in it next to her of course, and Argus in their arms.
"How could I forget..." Her wistful voice turned teasing for a moment. "I had just finished pushing a person out of me, you know." A small laugh was shared between them, and Ruby nodded.
"Yeah... and I would thank you every day for it if it wouldn't get annoying."
"You could thank me more often." Voice growing quieter, she pulled Ruby in for a gentle kiss... a part of her worrying for her wife's safety... but another ensuring her that it would be fine. "Make sure to come back to me..." A whisper this time, one Ruby just smiled at.
A finger gently poked the pendent hanging from Weiss's neck. "If you need me, you know how to call me."
"Atlas is very far away, Ruby."
"I know-" She rose, this time pulling Weiss in for a hug. "I'll always be here if you call me." They held each other close for a moment... and Ruby couldn't help but to reaffirm her statement in a whisper. "Always."
"You'll be back soon... right...?"
"You know I will, Kiddo." Ruby chuckled gently, she was playing this off as nothing serious... but Weiss knew she didn't want to say goodbye to Argus just as much as he didn't want to say bye to her. "And here I thought you wanted me to leave the castle?" Her teasing didn't have the desired effect.
"Not like this... I wanted to come with you." Argus was usually a very polite boy, one who always tried to be proper and refined like his mother... yet here he was, a grip as tight as he could make it while clutching onto Ruby as she knelt down to him on the Landing Pad.
"Don't worry, buddy... you won't even notice I'm gone."
"That's stupid..." Weiss had to stop herself from chuckling lightly at his comment. "I'll always notice when you're not here."
"And yet...? Life goes on." Ruby held him out, hands resting on his shoulders as she stared into his eyes. "It'll only be a few days, I promise. But... even if it was more than that... I promise that you just have to be patient. A week... a month... a year...? No matter what... I'll always come back to you." She brought him in close again, and like her statement to Weiss... she had to reaffirm herself. "Always."
13th Day, Fourth Strike, 2115 PE