Chapter Text
Weiss sat alone against the cool hull of the airship. She closed her eyes and allowed a moment of true reprieve for what felt like the first time that day.
The lighting from the cockpit was sparse, and all the metal did little to help mitigate the bite of the elements. Overall, the atmosphere reminded her somewhat of Atlas proper. Cold. Dark. Manufactured, in more ways than one. Rather fitting, in a way, for the next leg of their obscure war.
This sense of dreary calm was suddenly perturbed when a body inserted itself into her personal space. Despite the suddenness of the presence, the boreal chill somehow seemed the less austere for it. Only one soul among them could have had such an effect recently, even under the most pressing of times.
Ruby sat down next to Weiss, their shoulders touching, and their breaths audible in the relative silence. The airship did little for keeping warmth, but it did go some way to keeping the wind's whistle at bay.
They were quiet at first, and just took everything in. Blake and Yang were no longer in the conscious realm. They'd drifted off, once again at peace. JNPR wasn't faring much better, lounging about in a pile of body parts, like they'd been a family for years already. The silence was only cut by the occasional curt whispers coming from the pilots' seats, probably Maria's rambling.
Ruby leaned her head against the hull, and craned her neck to face her partner. Their conversation too was kept barely above the level of a whisper.
"Are you OK?"
There it was again - that question. Ok? Maybe not. Maybe Atlas was the last place in all of Remnant she'd want to be, but she couldn't say that again. The prospect of being back in the Schnee Manor terrified her, and the future more broadly terrified her. But she'd survive. That would have to suffice.
"I'm... OK," she said weakly. Weakly enough, in fact, that she knew Ruby wouldn't buy it. "Or, at least, I will be."
She'd expected more silence, expected Ruby to leave them with an awkward, open ending. She was surprised when a sympathetic warmth took her hand and gave it a squeeze.
"Talk to me, Weiss."
But Weiss wasn't sure what to say. She didn't know what to do in their situation, how they'd fare in the Atlesian airspace, and didn't know where this part of the journey would end. What could she say?
"Ruby," she said with a huff, "I really didn't want to come back to Atlas." She looked out the small window, at clustered, individual stars in the skies over Solitas. "I hate the place."
She didn't look back, but kept her gaze trained on the open sky. "I know we have to be here. And, I trust that you'll do your best to reassure me. But I can't help but feel…afraid. Of what will happen when we get to Atlas, of what Ironwood will say, of whether or not I'll find Winter, and of what will ultimately become of all of us."
For her part, Ruby didn't interject. She turned her own gaze to the wall, without a word. After a solid minute, Weiss began to wonder if maybe she'd been laying out her grievances a bit thick.
"You know, " she eventually said, "it's OK to feel that way. Considering your position, I think I'd be more worried if you didn't."
A few more seconds went by, while they both contemplated their feelings.
“And, I'm terrified sometimes too."
Weiss turned to see her face.
"I don't know if it's been obvious or not, but I'm afraid sometimes, Weiss. This whole war is terrifying."
It was obvious, if nothing else, that Ruby was being open about her fears. She'd only rarely used that tone - that heavy, emotional whine that instilled a protective instinct in Weiss’s heart.
"When I found out I was being hunted for something I had no control over, it was scary. It made me feel so vulnerable. And then, around every corner, as we learned more and more about the truth, we could never be sure if our next discovery would be something good, or if it would be something even more horrible.
Ruby's features retained a semblance of comfort and curiosity, but there was no masking the apprehension. She was still their competent leader, but even she wasn’t fearless in all of this. "So, believe me, you're not alone in that either."
Somewhere in her mind, Weiss did find it a bit helpful to be able talk with Ruby. "I just-" she shifted her position to face her more directly "-get tired, more recently than ever, of all of the unknowns."
She subconsciously tightened their handhold. "All my life I've been treated like a tool, and kept in the dark. And now, it feels like my life is coming around in a circle. There's so much we don't know, and so much being kept from us. I get tired of it all."
Ruby's response was quick – she huffed again, wistfully.
'Weiss," she started, "I understand. Probably better than most people, I understand wanting to know - wanting some sort of answer to our longest-held questions, for any amount of closure." She stared now, at something Weiss couldn't see, as if there were a hidden layer beneath the bite of the tundra.
"I've probably asked myself more times than I can count, if my life as a huntress would have a happy ending. Or, if I'll... just go missing someday."
The mood between them was now saturated with a sort of uncertainty. For all her vocal talent, Weiss had never been particularly knowledgeable about raising spirits in situations such as this. So, she relied on her limited experience to speak from the heart.
"Ruby, I don't know if any of us will get our happy endings." She cupped the side of her partner's face, and brought their eyes to level. "But, if there is a happy ending, if there is a light at the end of this war,-" her eyes looked down to Ruby's lips before returning to meet her eyes once more "-then I think I'd like to have you in it."
Ruby flashed that familiar comforting smile, accompanied by a resounding hum. Their hands joined, Ruby rested her head on Weiss's shoulder, and they resigned to wait out the rest of the flight in relative peace.
Even before the fall, Weiss didn't put much stock in happy endings. There was more or less a plan for her life - she'd become a huntress, eventually take over the SDC, and spend the rest of her life leading the company to an image in which her grandfather could take pride. Maybe that was still a possibility. Or, maybe, it was lost to her. Maybe the SDC would end sooner than later, and it's legacy would be unsalvageable from the poison of her father's touch. To Weiss, it would be a great loss.
Then she thought of the girl on her shoulder, her partner, and the rest of her family of a team. Whatever the future had in store, she was glad to have her best friend, and her family there for it.
Later, when they saw the Atlesian fleet in aggressive formation, Weiss took Ruby's hand almost instinctually. She wasn't alone. They were in it together.