Ruby and the girls sat at their desks in Port's class, simply staring. The MP guy, Rob, was right. Whatever benefit they thought they'd get from stealing that thing from Vic felt completely worthless now that the man was angry at them. And he was angry for good reason, too. It wasn't like they'd just stolen a piece of chocolate.
Robert had pretty much told them that the stuff on that Drive was tantamount to Vic's last few good memories. Disregarding the Russia bit. They hadn't seen much of the other videos, just the 'Russia' stuff… From the seizing of villages and disarming of militias to the fighting and the mass Grave.
Ruby shuddered.
How could man be so cruel? And that blonde hair, that must've been the girl Vic rather obviously longed for. Let none say Ruby was oblivious to this type of stuff, she thought to herself as she wrote away whatever prof Port was mumbling. She cast a quick glance back toward Yang, the blonde-haired girl staring down at her paper and faking writing.
Weiss seemed to also have taken the sight of humanity's cruelty upon their own kin hard. She stared down at her paper, obviously listening, but didn't think to make any notes like she usually did. Heck, Ruby was writing the notes. Blake was also scribbling something, her headband strangely droopy. Team JNPR also seemed to have noticed them looking down.
After classes, the two teams walked out of the amphitheater and toward their dorms. Pyrrha herself was first to initiate conversation, asking, "Is something wrong, girls?" while Jaune stared. He seemed to have noticed, too, as did Ren. Heck, it must've been as obvious as a red flag floating above their heads.
"I guess I wasn't the only one who noticed," Nora quipped as she strolled beside Ren with a spring in her step. She added, "You all look like someone just kicked a puppy in front of you," while walking to Ruby's side. She saw the fifteen-year-old with gradient hair offer an awkward smile, though the young girl seemed scared.
Blake replied, "You wouldn't exactly be wrong…" her voice mildly saddened. Team JNPR paused at the sight, with Blake commenting, "You wanna tell them, Weiss?" as she scratched her cheek. She seemed visibly uneasy. The group also noticed some of the Misfits were out on patrol today, namely Sammy and Paul.
They waved to them and the group waved back.
"You four know that thing 'we' managed to 'get' from Victor's room?" Weiss inquired, putting heavy emphasis on the two words she had put in air quotes while casting a sideways glance at Ruby, who chuckled, awkwardly rubbing the back of her neck. Part of the reason the group was currently so uneasy was Ruby's rash decision. She was a teenager, though, so…
"That weird Drive thing, yeah," Jaune nodded. They'd mentioned it before, but the teams were a bit too busy. He recalled, "You wanted to watch it with us, but we were a bit busy sparring," then he looked and smiled at Pyrrha, who, despite her cheeks flushing, smiled back. Nora grinned and gently nudged Ren with an elbow, to which the Mistrali boy let out a low chuckle.
Sad to interrupt such a cute interaction, going by the frown on her face, Blake told them, "We… watched what was on it," then bowed her head, her bow visibly drooping again, as if it was alive. Nora and Ruby both simultaneously, yet individually thought they wanted to understand what the heck was going on with the girl.
"How bad was it?" Jaune asked, brutally oblivious to the situation.
All of team RWBY visibly winced, unsure how to properly articulate it. The concerned looks of Jaune and Pyrrha told the four girls immediately that they, at the very least, understood just how bad the situation got. Somewhat, anyway, in Jaune's case. He was one of the heirs of a warrior family, after all, some bigshots in Vale and Mistral.
"Oh. That bad?" Nora, however, remained blissfully oblivious, despite even her partner and long-time friend registering the severity in team RWBY's eyes. He gave her a gentle bop on the head, causing her to yelp a little, before she turned to face him and raised a brow. He sighed and showed the others to continue.
Weiss smiled a little at the sight, then her shoulders sagged as she told the group, "The kind of stuff man can do to man when there's no unifying threat is terrifying," while fiddling with her belt, on which Myrtenaster still resided. Training classes were something else entirely when Port really had it out for them.
Nora seemed to understand, furrowing her brows, "I'm gonna take that as a yes."
Ren hummed, taking a moment to consider his words. Once he found them, however, he explained, "As far as I am aware, Victor and his team-mates have made it no secret that they aren't from our world," only for everyone to pause and seemingly realize that, yes, they were aliens. Earthlings, apparently. And the team was taking it for granted.
Ren continued, "I recall speaking to Paul during one of their patrols and he mentioned his home country. They are quite open about being basically alien…" then he looked to his team after a short pause and stated, "So, their wars must be just as alien to us. Much worse since the Grimm are not around…"
"Ain't that the truth…" Yang mumbled, crossing her arms to her chest.
"What exactly did you guys see?" Jaune asked. He was still genuinely curious what the heck had driven their friends into such a slump, much more, with Blake looking like she hadn't slept at all while Yang's bubbly self was subdued. He urged, "Seriously, don't leave us hanging," only to get a 'light' punch from Pyrrha in the shoulder. It hurt.
"I think we'd rather not describe it in any vivid detail, Jaune," Weiss deadpanned, crossing her arms to her chest. She cast a glance at Sammy and Paul, only to watch as they were joined by a happy Saila. Despite it all, the three and even Vic seemed to be in decently good spirits, so they had that going, at least. If they were here, after all…
"Right. Sorry…" Jaune awkwardly laughed, then jabbed a thumb the way of the soldiers and raised a brow, "Can we ask them, then?"
"Probably not a good idea…" Yang managed to crack a smile at Jaune's blonde innocence. The boy was sharp as his sword whenever he needed to be, but much like any teenage guy about to hit adulthood, he was dumb as a bag of rocks when it came to social cues. She told him, "They're pissed off at us. Don't get'em pissed off at you, too."
Pyrrha, in her usual kind, courteous way of self, spoke, "I never thought I'd see the day you four are so down," before suggesting calmly, "Regardless, I think we have issues to focus on right now. Schoolwork should get your minds off of it, considering how much homework Professor Port gave us today."
"And there's Pyr with one of her standard 'Good Girl' suggestions, heh. Never change," Yang chuckled. Nora seemed to agree, laughing her butt off at Yang's little suggestion. Nora, at least, knew how to remain happy in the face of adversity. Then again, Yang should've been able to, as well, considering she was basically team mom.
"S-Sorry…?" Pyrrha's face flushed as she stuttered, garnering yet more laughs from the others. Jaune gave her a gentle pat on the back. He seemed a tad more open toward the redhead fighter, at least, so that was a nice show of how the young man had grown throughout this first semester. Hopefully, they'd be a thing by the second. Yang had bet good money on it.
"... I should've just asked them. Like Robert said," Ruby mumbled, shoulders slumping.
"I'm sure it'll be alright, Roob… Let's just let it all simmer down," Her sister reassured her, giving the girl a gentle pat on the back. Having security personnel be pissed at you when you go to try and talk to them probably isn't a good thing regardless of intention. Sammy and the others didn't seem that mad, though.
Ruby, however, admitted, "Yeah. Good idea…"
Ruby also didn't want to wait that long. Once a couple days of 'letting it simmer down', she decided she was gonna seek Victor out herself. The guy deserved an apology straight from the thief's mouth. Sure, it probably wouldn't exactly help ease the tension any, but she needed to apologize. Maybe he wouldn't be that pissed off at-"OOF!"
She tumbled backward after having felt the hard plate in the chest rig of a soldier. She'd slammed face-first into someone and, the moment she looked up, she saw it was Vic. The Romanian machine gunner turned to face Ruby, eyes wide, then asked, "Are you alright, Ruby?" as he offered her a hand to help her to her feet.
Ruby took a second to register the fact that that was, in fact, Vic. Her face suddenly glowed red and she quickly bowed her head, letting out a stuttered "I-I-I'm sorry!" as she put her hands together. She paused, however, when she realized Vic was offering to help her up. Embarrassed, the leader of team RWBY took the man's hand, then bowed her head.
Vic blinked, then spoke, "If this is about you stealing my SD Card, I've calmed down already. Admittedly, I'm still not over it," he then offered, before flicking Ruby on the forehead with his finger, causing her to yelp as he told her, "But I'm disappointed now. Not angry… What the hell was going on in that head of yours?"
"... I wanted to figure out how to help you," Her shoulders sagged, "We all did."
The Romanian spoke, "And you figured out the best way to figure me out was to steal something instead of asking me and everyone else to share our experiences…?" with a raised brow. Ruby nodded, embarrassed, to which he sighed and said, "Man, I forgot how stupid teenagers are some times. I'm sure Rob's already yelled at you enough as it is."
"He wrote us up…" Ruby admitted through half a mouth
Vic snorted, "Yeah, that sounds like him…" before he showed her to follow him, "C'mon. If you wanna learn more, I'm on patrol today considering I had to skip it two days ago…" as he shifted his MG onto his back, safety on. Ruby nodded, meekly following him as he walked out onto the daily patrol route. He told her, "You befriended a bunch of folks who aren't exactly starry-eyed and bushy-tailed, Roob."
The girl chuckled awkwardly, "I think I figured that out."
"You now know at least half of the reason why," He told her, "So let's skim over it. We're soldiers. We're the guys who make sure the world stays bright in our world, by going to the dark side to make sure whatever nightmares Satan's cooked up don't come spewing out," then he sighed deeply, "Sadly, as you figured through that video, though will hopefully never have to in real life? Man's one of the worst monsters."
Ruby nodded, then added, "Especially the ones with nothing left to lose… Russia was kinda falling apart."
Vic snorted derisively, "That's genuinely the understatement of the century. Earth as a whole was a mess, heh."
"Y'know," Ruby started, seemingly bouncing a little on her feet. She chuckled, then told him, "I keep re-registering it in my head that you and your pals are aliens!" before pausing to wait for his reaction. She knew it was kind of stupid to try and slightly change the subject, but here she was. Regardless of how horrific their world seemed, it couldn't have been all bad, since it spawned them.
"... I guess we are, huh. Genuinely wild," Vic blinked as his own mind re-realized the matter. Yes, they were, in fact, zombies or aliens deployed to this weird place by some magical doohickey. It about summed up whatever silly-ass Isekai trope this would've been, had it not been for him and his friends dying some of the most horrific deaths.
"Yeah!" Ruby, however, seemed to retain the eagerness, even months after they all first met. There was still a hint of sadness and apologia behind her way of acting, but she seemed like she really was happy to realize that some of her newfound buddies are aliens. Vic may've gone through awful stuff, but that didn't give him a reason to really cut her off.
"At least we're not grey-skinned and with completely black eyes, I guess," Vic joked, "Would've been kinda freaky," and he led the way forward, past the classroom halls, past multiple students exiting weekend clubs and classes and past the medical area. Ruby giggled, to which he hummed and asked, "Yeah. Or are we ghosts? Since we kind of died to get here."
"Ooh. Good question!" The little girl seemed to enjoy her weird stories. Good.
The young man mumbled, "... You really are still just a kid, huh?" as he cracked a smile. Of course, she was just a kid. She and her team wanted to get to know them, but they didn't think for a moment that they'd be fine venting (with some censorship) to the team. Then again, no, not really. Early Victor barely trusted himself, much less a bunch of teens…
"Yeah. I guess…" Ruby spoke, then her shoulders sagged as she murmured, "Sorry again," while rubbing her right arm. He sighed deeply. Let none say he didn't recall doing dumb shit himself. Hell, he'd done plenty to piss off the nuns, to the point they whipped him and his sister a-plenty. Though they never went beyond that.
"I get it. I was dumb as a kid, too," He shot back after remembering.
"You were in an orphanage…" Ruby spoke, as if being a dumbass kid was a good way of rebelling against the system set up by those psychotic whores. She told him, "Can't imagine it was easy. Any idea why you wound up there?" and she winced the moment she saw the boy's expression shift back to surprise, his eyes glimmering a little as some involuntary tears he suppressed quickly had made their way to the corner of his eyes.
Clearing his throat to keep a steady voice, he spoke softly, "... I did tell you you could ask…" in order to assuage the young Rose's worries. He continued, "What the nuns told me and Vicky, though I wouldn't believe the lot of'em without three lawyers, two polygraph tests and one Priest's worth of staff present," words which got a chuckle out of Ruby, before she urged him to continue. He did, "Was that my family dumped us on their porch, told them my and my sister's names because we had no birth certificate, then left. Just like that," He snapped his finger.
"Oh… Shoot, I'm sorry. I didn't mean to bring up bad memories," She winced. She seemed to have a bad habit of just… The young Toma could genuinely see it in her eyes that she was, at the very least, aware of and sorry for being the way she was, what with taking stuff without permission. He decided to let her be.
"It's alright. Best to actually ask instead of…" He spoke, then paused and grinned. He offered to Ruby, "I don't know, stealing Diana's diary or something," as he kept going forward. He clearly got some gears turning in miss Rose's head, but he also saw that she knew it'd probably be a bad idea to steal the Sergeant's god-damned diary.
Ruby did. It's why she asked instead, "Wait, Dee has a diary?"
"Yeah. Heh. You don't wanna know what she writes in there," The Romanian gunner quipped, smirking. Oh, poor Dee was gonna get so many questions from Ruby about it, though it was kind of deserved. She'd stolen his muffin yesterday, the dumbass. And, hey, Vicky would appreciate seeing their Sergeant knocked down a peg or two.
"She'll probably kill you for telling me about it," The gradient-haired red-riding hood monster slayer joked. Vic snorted at that, then laughed a little, acutely aware of his Sergeant's penchant for doing that type of stuff. Diana was a good Sergeant, though. And a very good, old-timey friend for him and Vicky. Still, what worried him was there was still a little frown on Ruby's face.
"Wouldn't put it past her, but…" He cleared his throat, then turned a little serious, telling Ruby, "I can see the stare, Ruby," then he continued, "Yes, I am still a bit disappointed, but I fully expect you've learned your god-damn lesson…" that being not to steal and instead just ask. Driving the point home never hurt.
"I did… Sorry again," She yet again apologized, trying to do the same, obviously. She added, "We'll ask if we have any other questions, though I don't think I'm ever gonna wind up having to kill, heh…" and she laughed awkwardly. Killing humans and faunus was not something Ruby would ever do and she was sure of it.
"Hope so, too, Roob…" Vic nodded, then hummed and said, "C'mon, let's get you back to your team. I gotta link up with Hass after," and as they started walking, he added, "Before that, though, there's one way you can make it up to me. I know you made Crescent Rose by yourself, so… I want to upgrade my PKM a little. Nothing too grand, but a modernization would be nice."
The sun itself seemed to glow from Ruby's eyes. She giddily replied, "Yessir! You got it!" then snapped a salute. Vic rolled his eyes and saluted her back, a smile on his face, before he took her to her building. Afterward, he departed with his MG surprisingly absent, before pausing as he saw the Warhound rolling about.
He approached the vehicle, watching Hass, Jim and Aleks(The Russian-American) dismount from it, weapons close, then greeted them, "Fellas. New intel?" as he noticed the bagged intel piece:Another data drive. The boys nodded, then walked with Vic back to the house. Yeah, there were some new details on the ship:Its name, the time of arrival and the possible task force present.
Shit, Vic thought, looked like the bastards were bringing in some heavy weapons to the business deal. A hell of a lot of troops, too. Did they have the ammo?