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“What’re we going to do?” Yang blurted as the ultimatum ended and the projection faded to nothing. Ruby glanced around at those present, they’d all watched it with her. They all knew what was weighing down on them. They couldn’t let Mantle be destroyed but… Penny, Penny wasn’t even awake to make this decision herself, and it didn’t feel right to make it for her.
It was too much, this was all too much.
Ruby hadn’t really trusted James, but this was far beyond what she had thought him capable of. Not just to abandon an entire city full of people who desperately needed Atlas’ support, but to threaten them directly was an entire other low.
They still didn’t know where Robyn or Qrow were. The thought left a knot in her stomach.
“Ruby?” Yang prompted.
Yang was the one that didn’t think she’d done a good job leading. Ruby didn’t know what to say to her to reassure her, and she didn’t know what to do just then.
“I don’t know.” Ruby mumbled, weight shifting back and forth slightly. “I’m thinking.” Was what Ruby finally said.
“I don’t think Penny would want to let that happen to Mantle. And I don’t think we can trust that he’s bluffing.” Jaune said quietly.
“No, we can’t.” Ruby agreed softly. “And you’re right, she wouldn’t. But she’s also not conscious.” Ruby kept her voice as level as she could manage. It made her sound slightly hollow.
Yang and Blake shot her a look of concern. Ruby pointedly ignored them.
“An hour isn’t much time.” Weiss murmured. “And any wrong move…”
Ruby nodded. “I know.” She responded after a minute.
The gears in her head continued to grind away, but they kept stopping at one simple thought. She hated it. It was probably the only way.
She glanced at her scroll, at the awful countdown. It had been less than 5 minutes.
Ren and Yang (and Blake) followed her as she made her way upstairs. Ren to see Nora, of course. And Yang… Ruby assumed her sister didn’t want to let her out of sight yet. And Blake, of course, was happy to be with Yang and wanted to stay close.
They’d all been watching her since the Hound, too. They hadn’t told Yang. Ruby wasn’t ready to tell anyone.
No one stopped her as she sat down next to Penny on the bed, taking one of the other girl’s hands into her own.
“I only see one way out, now.” She said softly, more to Penny than anyone else. She knew Yang was listening, anyway. “I just wish that you were awake to talk it over with me. I don’t want to make this choice without you.” Too many people had been making Penny’s decisions for her for her whole life.
“And what way is that?”
“You won’t like it.” Ruby said primly.
“That doesn’t answer the question.”
“Penny and I going to the Academy to answer the ultimatum. The rest of you getting back to Mantle if at all possible.”
“Ruby, you can’t just-”
Ruby shifted her weight to glare at Yang. “Then what do you suggest? Letting Mantle be vaporized?”
“That’s not what I said.”
“Unless you have a better idea, there’s no point in arguing with me.” Ruby said in a quiet, resigned tone. “Because at this point it's the only path to minimal deaths.”
“We should come with you.”
“Absolutely not.” Ruby said in a firm voice. “Mantle will need all the help it can get, and we can’t bank on Ironwood letting us free.”
“That’s exactly why-”
“I need to know that Mantle will be taken care of.” Ruby said firmly. “I know I can trust you all with that task. I’ll be counting on you, Yang.”
Penny stirred and opened her eyes.
“Ouch.” She mumbled.
“Penny, you’re awake.” Ruby sounded surprised, but relieved.
“You seem… upset.”
Ruby looked down, but nodded slightly. She was still holding Penny’s hand. She watched as green eyes flickered red and back again. It concerned her a little.
“Why?”
“You were hurt badly,” And that was enough of a reason to be upset, even if it wasn’t the entire answer. “And General Ironwood…”
Penny’s eyes flickered again. The girl sat up, and then stopped herself, looking at their conjoined hands.
“What about the General?”
Ruby explained the ultimatum they had been delivered.
“We cannot let him destroy Mantle.”
“I know.” Ruby said quietly. “I’ll go with you to the Academy to answer it, while the others go back to Mantle.”
“But… Ruby…”
“You’re hurt, and we don’t really know where all of Salem’s minions might be.” Ruby said firmly. “You shouldn’t go alone.”
“I guess you are right.” Penny looked down. Her eyes flashed red again, and she raised one hand to her temple.
“Penny, what’s going on?”
“I'm not… I’m not sure.” She admitted. “But I am being driven to go to the Academy.”
So James was trying to force her then, too. It sat wrong with Ruby, because this should always have been Penny’s choice. They didn’t have any choices anymore.
Ruby would never forgive the General for backing them into a corner like this. It was one thing to abandon Mantle in desperation, but this?
And they still didn’t know where Qrow and Robyn were.
“We should go.” Penny said quietly.
Ruby nodded and stood up, offering a hand to the other girl as she did so. Penny took it. Ruby looked at Yang. “Get the others together and get out of here. Find out if Klein, Willow, and Whitley are staying or coming and act accordingly. Please, Yang. For me.”
“I’ll take care of it.” Yang promised softly.
“Thank you.”
Ruby didn’t look at the others as she and Penny descended the stairs together. They didn’t exchange any words, either.
The pair made their way through empty streets, following a path Penny knew very well. Finally, Penny stopped abruptly and looked at Ruby.
“You should not be here with me. I can go by myself from here.”
“Penny, we talked about this-”
“I will use my scroll and tell him I'm coming and where I am. I am sure he will send people to make sure I make it.” She said softly. “I know you want to be here to support me, and I thank you, Ruby. It means a lot to me. But it means more to me to know you will be safe.”
“But Penny…”
“We will see each other again. I am sure of it.” Penny murmured, eyes shining green. She shifted slightly and rested her forehead against Ruby’s. Ruby clung to her for a second in a tight hug before backing away.
“Okay.” Ruby didn’t believe her. It sat like a weight in her gut. They wouldn’t see each other again if she walked away.
But she didn’t want their last moments to be a fight, either.
Ruby forced herself to turn around, to walk away. Once she’d gotten far enough, she used her Scroll to reach out to find out the path the others had used to make their way down.
Weiss found her a set of SDC tubes that would bring her safely down and shouldn’t be in a manned area. Ruby tried not to think about it. She tried not to hope that Penny would end up being okay. She tried not to worry about Qrow and Robyn.
“Ruby?”
The girl whipped around and dropped into a crouch, pulling Crescent Rose free before she even had time to register that she knew the voice.
“Uncle Qrow.” She straightened up, but looked surprised. “I’m… not going to dwell on how you found me. Come on, we don’t have much time. We need to get down to Mantle.”
Qrow blinked in surprised, hands raised just slightly to show he wasn’t a threat to her. “Where are the others?”
“Down in Mantle.” She said, simply. “I’m serious, we need to go. We can talk later.”
“Ruby, what’s going on.?”
“Penny’s going to open the vault and Ironwood’s going to abandon Mantle. Given the alternative was letting him bomb Mantle…” She shrugged, looking helpless. “It’s been a long two days.”
She didn’t look back to see if Qrow and Robyn were following her, she just kept following the path that had been drawn for her.
“And how are we getting down, exactly, Pipsqueak?”
Ruby shot her a glare fit to blister paint at the unwelcome nickname. “There’s an SDC outlet nearby. Manned only by robots. We can use the transport tubes to get down. It’s the same way we got up the first time when this mess started.”
“That doesn’t seem particularly…”
“Well, you’re welcome to find your own way down without being shot down by the General’s forces.”
And with that, she continued down the pathway, eyes on her scroll until she reached the indicated building. Getting inside was easy enough. The robots paid them no mind as they moved through the building to reach the transport tubes.
“So we’re just going to climb in and slide down?”
“More or less. I’ll go first if you want.”
“No, I will.” Qrow said evenly, approaching the tube in question. “Where in Mantle is this going to let out?”
“Near the mines at the Crater. That’s where all the civilians are gathered anyway, so it’s the best placement we could hope for.” She took a breath as if to steady herself. “Once you get down to the bottom, leave enough room for us.”
Qrow entered the tube. And Ruby watched the time on her scroll. “Five minutes, then you should go.” She told Robyn without looking at the other Huntress.
“Fine by me.”
Robyn went, and Ruby was alone. She focused on slow, steady breaths while she watched the time tick down. 5 more minutes, and she would follow Robyn.
She hoped Penny was okay.
Now that she was alone, everything that had happened that night closed in on her, and she had to focus harder on just breathing and not losing track of time.
The grimm attack on mantle. Salem’s projection. (Her mother. She’d never seen her mother like that before.) Ironwood turning on them. Infiltrating the base to launch Amity. Salem’s invasion. Nora getting hurt. Penny crashing into the courtyard. That thing that had once been a person - a silver-eyed warrior, just like her. Ironwood threatening to destroy Mantle. For a second her breath caught in her throat and it felt like the walls were closing in on her.
Ruby forced herself to take another few breaths.
It didn’t feel like it had been less than forty-eight hours. It felt like it had been so much longer than that. And yet somehow it had all passed by in the blink of an eye.
It was time, there wasn’t time to dwell any more. It was for the best. She approached the tube and carefully positioned herself inside. Going down with gravity was easier than going up against it, at least.
Ruby prepared herself to have to use her semblance if something went wrong.
Ruby landed in a careful crouch at the bottom, low to the ground and carefully alert.
Qrow and Robyn had waited for her, it seemed. She straightened up after only a second or two of processing.
“You alright there, Petal?”
“Yeah, fine.” She flashed a bright smile and almost believed it herself. “Don’t worry about me.”
Qrow didn’t believe her. She could tell from the slight way his eyes narrowed at her. She was, however, eternally grateful because he decided not to press her in Robyn’s presence. And she could tell it was because of the other Huntress by the way his eyes flicked to the woman and then towards the door.
“Then I suppose we should go see how we can be useful.”
“That’s the idea.” Ruby responded in as controlled a voice as she could manage.
Ruby proceeded towards the door without another look at either of them, taking point with her head held high.
“Is she always like that?” Robyn’s voice was low, and Ruby suspected she wasn’t supposed to hear it.
Qrow just snorted from behind Ruby. She resisted the urge to glance back at him. Out in the open air it was frigid, and Ruby was sharply reminded of the fact that she had sustained an aura break in the not-very-distant past.
She could see the others fanned out around the area, dealing with Grimm that pressed too-close to the sheltering civilians. The civilians, mostly had withdrawn into the mines, probably during the bombing run that had destroyed the SDC cargo ships intended to evacuate.
Mentally Ruby worked on trying to assess the situation as it stood. May joined them a moment later. Ruby tuned out their reunion and moved towards where she could see Weiss engaged in combat with a few sabyr. She pulled Crescent Rose free and joined the fray.
Moving, doing something, it felt necessary. If she stopped, she would have to think about everything else. Right now Ruby didn't think she could handle having to think about much else right this second. Handling Grimm, protecting civilians, that was what she’d become a huntress to do.
Somewhere there, between waves of Grimm, she felt it. A strange swirling energy that seemed to take up residence in her core.
She almost lost her grip on Crescent Rose, instead her hands tightened convulsively on the shaft.
The presence, the soul of the rush of energy was familiar, almost as familiar as the presences surrounding her. Penny?
But why would… what would that burst of energy have been? And then she knew, with a sudden, horrific certainty. Penny was gone.
“Ruby?” Blake asked, attention trained on her.
Had her expression given her away? It must have, Ruby realized.
“I think…” She trailed off and breathed out slowly. She couldn’t say it. She couldn’t. If she said the words, then it would be true.
But it was true whether or not she said it. Just like it had been true that her mother was never coming home long before anyone tried to explain that to her.
“I think I’m the new winter maiden.” Was what she said instead. It was no less true, and it meant the same thing. Penny was gone.
“Why do you think that?”
“I felt this… presence, and energy. And now there’s something there that wasn’t before. I’m… I’m afraid to reach for it.”
What if she couldn’t control it? What if it overwhelmed her? What if she failed everyone?
Hadn’t she already failed?
She was already so exhausted anyway, it could be dangerous to try.
Atlas was shifting above them. Blake turned her attention to the anchor chain high above, ears flattening a little. “Maybe we should take shelter. When that pulls free there could be debris…”
There were still so many grimm, but… Ruby looked up, uncertain. But after only a few seconds of consideration, she nodded, expression resigned. “You’re right. We need to fall back. Make sure there aren’t any civilians still in the open area.”
It was relieving to have the focus off of her as they drew back. Ruby was the last to move, destroying the last few grimm in the group before allowing herself to fall back with her team.
They weren’t fast enough. As Blake predicted, when the chain ripped free there were tons of debris that fell.
Ruby knew with a cold certainty that they wouldn’t make it back to the mines, and she also knew that she couldn’t abide by losing anyone else.
She reached for it, the core of energy that was alight with life and power so much greater than anything she had ever known. Power that was distinctly Penny but also Fria and probably dozens of others before her. And now it had threads that were distinctly Ruby as well. It broke all the laws of Aura, having distinct-yet-merging of multiple auras all coiled together inside of her.
Ruby reached for it, and she felt the world around her explode.
Wind swirled around her like she was the eye of a tornado. A scarlet glow surrounded her eyes as she levitated upward in the center of the storm.
Both hands raised up, fingers splaying widely. She did not know if she could do this - if the maiden's powers were capable of this, if her aura would hold long enough for her to remain conscious while using this immense amount of energy. But Ruby had no choice but to try.
She tried to focus on the largest pieces of the falling rubble, holding them in the air by controlling the wind currents around them to resist gravity. Ruby quickly found it became much harder with each subsequent chunk she held in place.
Despite this, Ruby forged on, watching as her team made their way to the mine entrance. Nearly as soon as they’d reached it, the rubble began to fall again, and the wind around Ruby died, and the new winter maiden couldn’t resist as the darkness closed in around her and she fell.
Qrow resisted the urge to leave the sheltered overhang of the mine entrance to go to Ruby despite the debris. He motioned for her team to continue forward instead of going back to her, too.
“What in the hell is that?” Robyn asked from somewhere near his elbow.
“Have you ever heard the Story of the Seasons?” Qrow asked.
“Hasn’t everyone?” Robyn retorted, tone skeptical. “I fail to see how that relates to the question.”
“Everything you’ve learned in the last two days, and you can’t make the jump?” Qrow sounded surprised. “The maidens are real. Though how Ruby ended up with it is-”
“Penny must be gone.” It was Jaune who answered the unfinished question.
The three girls reached them before Qrow could think on the particulars of that statement, and everything went deadly quiet for a second before the rubble crashed down.
In the distance, Ruby collapsed onto the ice.
Yang turned as if to go back, but Qrow caught her arm in his, shaking his head. “I’ll get her, Firecracker. Stay with your team.”
Qrow knew better than most that it didn’t get easier, seeing someone he cared about so vulnerable. He hesitated for just a second before scooping her up off the ice and cradling her near his chest.
He didn’t say anything. She was too far gone to hear him now, and maybe there was nothing to say. There were thousands of terrified civilians, and they had incredibly limited resources to keep them all from freezing to death out here. They couldn’t count on help coming for them.
And they had no way of knowing what James was going to do, given the winter maiden was now, again, out of his grasp. But he’d gotten his wish, Atlas was raising high into the sky, as if it would matter. As if it would save them.
Gently he settled Ruby down near where her team huddled, where one of the groups of civilians had made room near a fire, and invited their presence.
An older faunus with mole paws for hands was encouraging them to drink something from a bowl. Qrow would trust them to handle Ruby for the moment.
He rejoined Robyn near the entrance of the mines. Evacuation would be best, but they had nowhere to go. The few places he could think of would require a significant amount of transportation, and it simply wasn’t an option.
“I don’t supposed you have any bright ideas?”
Robyn shook her head, just fractionally. “Hold on as long as we can, maybe see if we can get the grid up and running without Atlas’ support. I don’t know that it’s possible though.”
“SDC has some facilities down here in Mantle.” May added. “I don’t know what all of them are, but we have three members of the family with us, maybe one of them will have some options.”
“Why don’t you go find out?”
May nodded once and moved back into the mine.
“Do you have any better ideas 5 o'clock shadow?”
“Nothing concrete. I have one, but it requires someone to cooperate with me and we’re not seeing eye to eye right now.” It was perhaps the understatement of the decade, but the troubles he had with Raven were hardly Robyn’s concern.
“Good luck with that.”
He snorted, but said nothing more on the topic. “I’m going to do a perimeter sweep.” Was what he said instead, moving back out into the open before Robyn could say anything more.
It wasn’t as if he could contact Raven, anyway. And if she was going to answer the message that had apparently been put out, Qrow suspected she would have already.
They were on their own, in the ashes of a broken promise for the future.