Chapter Text
Jaune…
Come on Ruby, we can still save her!
It’s ironic that you were promised a power that never belonged to you.
Get away from her!
Jaune!
Jaune!
Ruby opened her eyes to a silver moon shining through the thicket. She took a few breaths, but she found herself short. In the last few months, she awakened more and more in such a situation. It would fade soon, and she’d be able to go to sleep. Her teeth chattered at the thought of relieving the night Beacon fell, but what choice did she have? She needed rest in order to keep traveling towards Mistral.
She turned around in her sleeping bag and glanced at the camp. The fire had gone out, only a faint trail of smoke going up. Ren and Nora were in their sleeping bags, side by side, with Nora snorting loudly. A few meters from theirs, one bag remained empty.
Ruby narrowed her eyes and focused her ears. Maybe they had gone to the bathroom?
A sound emerged from the south, and she shot up, grabbing Crescent Rose and holding it tight to her chest.
It wouldn’t be right to wake Ren and Nora up if it wasn’t an emergency, so Ruby simply climbed out of her bag and followed the direction the sound had traveled from.
As soon as she reached the perimeter of the camp and passed a crooked try, she heard the sound of wood breaking. She kept going, trying to keep light on her toes and moving only when a night animal did, or when the wind moved something, just like Blake had once taught her.
Remembering her missing friend pained her.
Eventually, grunts joined the rhythmic breaking of wood. Ruby walked past a few more crooked trees that seemed to lean against each other to form a passage, and emerged upon a small clearing.
At the center, under the moonlight, she found the source of the noise.
Pyrrha Nikos threw her spear at some sort of crude wooden dummy, then violently dashed and ripped it out before kicking it with her left leg. Then she threw her shield at another dummy.
Ruby hid herself near a tree, observing the champion with worry, but at the same time unable to look away. Pyrrha had always been an amazing fighter, and even after everything that had happened, she remained strong, swift and technical. Not a single wasted movement, not a hint of hesitation. It amazed her. Ruby admired such determination to keep going, to keep training. She hoped she’d be as strong as her one day, as an ideal huntress.
However, after taking out another dummy, Pyrrha spun on her heel, and collapsed with a pained whine before slamming her spear into the ground, shaking her shoulders.
Ruby gasped, and the red-haired champion looked upwards.
“Who’s there!” She shouted, using her right leg to at least seem ready. She grabbed Milo and pointed it in Ruby’s direction. “Show yourself!”
Ruby took a breath, letting her arm out from behind the tree. “It’s me…” she announced with a pained grin, now leaning her head out.
“R-ruby?” Pyrrha said, spear faltering. “H-how long-?”
“Uh… since you pierced that wooden dummy through the chest, all the way until you did that sick shield throw,” she replied sheepishly.
“That’s…” her green eyes turned away for a moment. “I didn’t wake you, did I? I’m sorry if-”
“-No, no. I just… had a… I just woke up on my own,” Ruby replied. She couldn’t talk about having nightmares. She didn’t want to worry her friends. She had to be strong for them.
“I see. You should try to get more sleep,” Pyrrha said, using her spear to hoist herself up, left foot limp.
“Are you alright?” Ruby asked then.
“Just this stu- this ankle. It never heals,” Pyrrha replied, looking down. She no longer wore heels, having had to switch to boots to help her tendon heal.
Ruby looked away. “How long have you been doing this?”
“A few… hours? I think?” Pyrrha replied.
“Hours? Pyrrha…”
The champion raised a hand. “I know what I’m doing.”
“But-”
Pyrrha’s eyes narrowed. The kind, gentle girl she knew was replaced by something harsher, something angrier. “I said I know what I’m doing. I need this. I need to be…” Pyrrha deflated, features softening. “Nevermind. Just go back to camp. I’ll join you when the sun rises.”
With that, Pyrrha went to sit on a log, left foot still limping. The moonlight shone through the leaves, painting the champion in a pale light, leaving her without color.. Ruby could see the champion lean to the right. While Pyrrha, to her detriment, had never stopped training, at least in Vale she had doctors and teachers and her team to keep her seated and healing. That had made her smaller, Ruby thought. Meeker. Less muscular. On a wheelchair, on a bed, she seemed to lose her life. At least now she seemed to be taking it back, but the pain on her face never let up.
Ruby bit her lip. Had it been the right thing? To ask her to come with her to hunt down Cinder? Well, it had started as a simple suggestion, but Pyrrha had immediately jumped into it. It had been the first time in months the champion looked lively again. Ruby couldn’t resist. She had known it would be bad, that it wasn’t the right time for Pyrrha… but she couldn’t deny her… not after Ruby had…
Not after Ruby had gotten Jaune killed. She owed Pyrrha that much.
She sighed and pulled Crescent Rose out, going to the middle of the clearing and getting into position.
“Let’s go,” she said.
“What?” Pyrrha asked, eyes widened.
“I remember Yang… or was it Weiss…? Saying that that it was always better to have a partner, that training with dummies would only get you so far,”
“You don’t need to do that,”
“But I want to. I also… I also need to be stronger. Who better to train me than the Champion herself?” Ruby asked.
Pyrrha’s shoulders heaved, a silent, bitter laugh escaping her lips. “I’m not a champion. I’m a failure.”
“You’re still you. You’re still my friend. At the very least, I wanna make sure you don’t hurt yourself,” Ruby replied, eyes hard.
She owed Jaune that much.
“Ruby. You need sleep,” Pyrha said. “You need to guide us.”
Ruby looked away. So many people needed her. Yang, Weiss, Blake, her dad, the world. But instead was here, in the middle of nowhere. The only person she could help was in front of her, even if it was only by giving her her company.
“And I need you to fight with us,” Ruby shot back.
Pyrrha sighed. Ruby had heard that so many times these last few months.
“What… would get you to stop?” Pyrrha asked.
Ruby pondered it. “If you stop, I stop,” she said with a shrug.
Pyrrha raised an eyebrow. “And if I don’t?”
“Then I won’t stop either,” Ruby replied.
Pyrrha hummed, the ghost of a smile passing through her lips. “You are…”
“Me. Just me. So… shall we? I always wanted to learn some moves from you,” Ruby replied with a smirk.
Pyrrha stood up. Without the moonlight shining on her, her features seemed to recover some color.
She pointed her spear at her. “You’re on.”
During the rest of their trip, Pyrrha didn’t stop training at night, and Ruby never stopped joining her.