Chapter 9

Day 3: Early Morning

Tundra

The soft howling of the wind from outside the tent slowly woke Ruby from her light slumber. She found that they hadn't moved at all during the night, her head still rested against Weiss' chest, her partner's arms still wrapped around her in a comforting manner.

Despite the pain she was in, she felt incredibly comfortable. Weiss' warmth, her familiar scent, her soft breathing; it all gave her a sense of peace. She lay for a while, just listening to her partner's heartbeat as wishing they could stay like this forever.

Eventually there was a large gust of wind outside, and the fabric of the tent gave a noisy snap and Weiss stirred against her. Ruby gave a small involuntary cough and she felt Weiss' arms tighten around her in response, pulling her even closer to the white-haired girl.

"Morning…" Weiss mumbled sleepily. Her lips brushed the top of Ruby's head, placing a tender kiss on her forehead.

Ruby felt an intense rush of affection for Weiss. "Have I ever mentioned how much I love you?"

Weiss chuckled softly, "Many times."

"Good," Ruby said, snuggling a little closer, "I just wanted to make sure you knew."

"You make sure I know how much you care every single day." Weiss sighed contentedly, she would be more than happy to just spend the day in the tent if Ruby wasn't sick, but she knew they'd have to leave fairly soon. "You rest some more, I'm going to try to get the camp packed up a little bit." Ruby gave her a sleepy nod. Weiss gently disentangled herself, and made her way to the text flap. Her jaw dropped as she unzipped it.

Their entire camp was completely buried in at least a foot of snow by a blizzard that had hit during the night. In the very dim morning light, Weiss could see that the camp fire had been buried in a snowdrift and that the snow was still coming down quite heavily. She would have thought it was beautiful if it didn't prevent them leaving camp any time soon.

Her mouth a grim line, she zipped the tent back up and crawled into the sleeping bag with Ruby.

"Back so soon?" her ailing partner murmured, pulling herself closer to Weiss, "Everything ok?"

Weiss shook her head, "It's snowing out there," Weiss said softly, "really hard. We can't leave until it lets up…"

Ruby sat upright as fast as she was able, a look of despair on her face. The comfortable mood of earlier vanished, both of them knowing they would lose hours of travel time with the snowstorm outside.

They stayed huddled together in the tent for the next several hours as the snowstorm raged outside. They ate some breakfast and Weiss could see Ruby's hands shaking as she held her fork. She continued to look sicker and cough more as the hours ticked by. When they changed out Ruby's bandages they both could see that the purple lines had spread even further, now reaching Ruby's upper chest and shoulders.

Eventually, Weiss couldn't stand her suffering any more and they ventured out of the tent despite the snow still falling from the sky.

The snow had tapered off to light flurries by the time they finished packing and actually left the camp; it was almost one in the afternoon and much of their daylight had been wasted. Weiss decided to make up for lost time by shooting them across the tundra on her conjured glyphs; Ruby, of course, revoiced her concerns of Weiss over exerting her aura but her complaints were promptly ignored. Weiss had passed the point of caring about her own health, saving Ruby was all that mattered. Even with the glyphs, they were moving slower than usual due to the new drifts and obstacles created by the blizzard during the night, and she was constantly having to navigate around them.

"You know," came Ruby's voice from the back of the sled as Weiss pulled them along, taking a break from using her semblance, "Our ride was supposed to be here yesterday, and there's still no sign of it today. What could possibly be going on?"

Weiss sighed, "Well they have to know we went down since the manta didn't return." Weiss' heart twinged at the thought of their unfortunate pilot lying dead in the cockpit. "So I don't understand why they aren't looking. Two huntresses and an oh-so-precious manta go missing and they just don't bother to look? It just doesn't add up."

Ruby was silent for a moment, "Well the only thing that I can think of other than them actually wanting to get rid of us," she said, a slight note of amusement in her voice, "is that there's some kind of massive military operation going on and they just assumed that we were dead." her face dropped, "And there's whatever went down in Mantle a couple nights ago. They're probably just busy."

Weiss could tell that Ruby wasn't entirely convinced by her own words. She stopped to take a short rest. "Too busy to look for two of the people with the most experience fighting Salem? I don't know Ruby…" she said, taking a swig of water, "All I know is that I'm going to get you home no matter what, whether they help me or not. Even if I have to fight Tyrian and Watts myself." Weiss gave her a soft smile, "I'll get you home even if it kills me." she said softly.

Ruby shook her head, "You're not going to die Weiss," she said matter of factly, "We'll both get home."

"I'm holding you to that." Weiss said as she picked up the rope and began pulling again.

Ruby settled back in on the sled, making sure not to let Weiss see the sad look on her face.

Day 3: Evening

Ruby was leaning back against the duffle bag, gazing off the back of the sled at the setting sun. It was one of the prettiest sunsets she'd ever seen, the snow and distant mountains were stained red and orange. It almost looked like a painting. She would give anything to be able to stop and watch it with the girl she loved but unfortunately stopping right now just wasn't an option.

With the sun dipping below the horizon, the temperature would drop dangerously low soon and they still had a while to go before they reached the site they wanted to camp for the night.

Ruby coughed hard and spit a wad of blood and purple goo into the snow. When she brought her hand away from her mouth, she noticed a vein on her exposed finger had now turned purple. She pulled her glove off and examined her hand. Her stomach fell; all the veins on her hand had turned the same sickly purple color as the ones on her chest.

She sighed. It was time to face the truth. She could feel herself getting sicker by the hour, and the painkillers Weiss had been administering were getting less and less effective. She sighed heavily again, sparing a glance at her partner, who was steadfastly pulling the sled. Ruby now knew very well what was happening to her...it was about time everyone was on the same page.

When they finally arrived, Weiss began to set up the camp. Ruby insisted on trying to help but was immediately shut down by Weiss when she saw how weak Ruby was. Ruby sat on a large flat rock as Weiss built a fire next to her, feeling utterly useless as her partner set up the entire camp by herself.

A short time later they both sat on the rock, eating their warm ration packs. Ruby was having trouble even holding her fork because her hands were shaking so much. Ruby saw Weiss deliberately pretending not to notice. The tension between them grew with each passing moment.

Ruby sighed, "Weiss…" she said softly. She saw her partner flinch at the sound of her name. "Weiss we need to talk."

"Ruby," Weiss replied, rubbing her eyes, "Can't this wait until morning? I'm so tired."

"No," Ruby said, shaking her head, "It can't." she saw Weiss' hand shaking as she pinched the bridge of her nose.

"Ruby I can't-"

Ruby huffed loudly, running out of patience, "Weiss, I'm dying."

Both girls froze, Weiss staring unblinking at the fire, Ruby waiting tensely for her reaction. She saw tears begin to gather in the corners of Weiss' eyes.

"Weiss, look at me." the older girl slowly turned her head, her jaw trembling. "The venom is killing me Weiss, it's time we both accepted it."

Weiss wiped her eyes before the tears could spill over. "I know." she whispered quietly, "I know. I suppose I've known, deep down, since your coughing attack yesterday. I just haven't been able to admit it to myself." She scooted closer and clasped Ruby's hand in hers. "It's why I pushed so hard today, I knew I needed to get you back or you'll...you'll..." Weiss choked on a sob, tears beginning to flow down her face. "But it doesn't matter. You don't have that kind of time do you?"

Ruby shook her head sadly, "I have maybe two more days before…" she trailed off unwilling to finish the thought. "And we're still at least three days out from Mantle." she finished. Weiss' hand tightened around hers to an almost painful level.

"Look Weiss..." Ruby said, rubbing her thumb against Weiss' white knuckled hand, "I won't let Watts and Tyrian take me to Salem. I won't be her slave. I won't hurt you guys."

"So what are we supposed to do?" Weiss asked, her desperation evident in her voice, "Just give up and sit here?"

Ruby shook her head, "With the way this venom works, the last few-" she swallowed hard, "My last few hours will be so, so painful." she looked into the fire, "I'm going to need you to...I'll need you to..." she couldn't bring herself to finish the sentence.

"What are you saying Ruby?" Weiss asked, her eyes widening, "What are you asking of me?"

Ruby's heart hammered in her chest. She slowly looked up into the brilliant blue eyes of the girl she loved, hating herself for what she was about to say.

"Weiss I'm...I'm asking you to kill me."

I am 100% not at all sorry for leaving you guys on a cliffhanger. But I am sorry for the short chapter! I can promise that the next chapter will be significantly longer. As always thanks to V for being my editor, and of course thanks to YOU for reading! Let me know what you thought in the reviews!