Chapter 23

Combat Ready

Yang, Blake, and Weiss couldn't take their eyes off their leader as she skipped merrily down the halls of Beacon with a trail of rose petals following behind. Occasionally the girls would trade perplexed glances with each other but otherwise remained silent with their gazes fixated on her. Every time she did a ballerina hop however all three would cringe and look away.

When they finally reached the dorm room on the other side of the campus, Ruby slid her student ID card and was greeted by Zwei who eagerly jumped into her arms. She in turn launched herself onto the top bunk and wrestled with the corgi until he began licking her face.

"Cut it out!" she cried with tears rolling down her cheeks. "You just saw me ten minutes ago!"

The team watched the younger girl with smiles creeping on their faces as her playfulness returned, but one thing hung over them like rain clouds above Vale.

"Alright, sis." Yang crossed her arms, suddenly serious. "Time to spill. What happened?"

Ruby's head rose and she smiled. "I'm all better." She picked up Zwei and flew him around as if he were an airplane.

"We can see that." Weiss rubbed her temples from stress. "And we also saw how the bottoms of your feet were literally taped together. You shouldn't be walking around right now. You can't be walking around right now."

The caped-girl hopped down from her bunk with the corgi still in her arms. "Well I can," she answered simply. "I don't know how it happened and I really don't care."

She kissed Zwei on the head who in turn kissed her on the nose making her giggle, and pulling at Yang's heartstrings. She still saw her baby sister as the little girl who barely ate and refused to talk. Every night she'd sneak into her bed and cuddle with her, and she'd tell her that everything would be alright and would sing until she fell asleep.

All that changed when Zwei came home one day with their father and uncle. Ruby had said hello to the then nameless corgi and shared her dinner with him. She even started snuggling with him to keep the nightmares away, though still occasionally snuck back into Yang's bed with little dog in tow.

Yang uncrossed her arms and hugged her sister so tightly Zwei was nearly crushed between his two favorite people. "It's good to have you back, sis," she breathed.

"It's good to be back," her sister agreed.

Weiss coughed and looked up at the ceiling as if it was the most interesting thing in the world at that moment. "Well I suppose it's a good thing you're back," Weiss sighed. "It's been far too quiet around here."

Ruby smirked at her teasing. "Thanks, Weiss." The heiress smiled but still refused to look her partner in the eye.

"What about you, Blake?" Ruby cocked her head to the side waiting for her to say something, anything. She hadn't said a word to her since returning, and she was the only one still hovering by the doorway as if afraid to enter.

The raven haired girl continued to study her leader from afar, her eyes staring intently and her nose occasionally twitching. Everyone had a scent unique only to them no matter much the person tried to cover it up, but Ruby's was all wrong. As a faunus her senses greatly overshadowed that of a human's, and besides her scent there was also something wrong with her aura shield. It looked dull, almost faded.

She made a choking sound as she realized why Ruby's scent was wrong. Her rose petals smelled as though they were wilting...

'Adam!'

"Blake?" the younger girl asked, concern and hurt entering her voice and showing on her face. Yang and Weiss also mirrored this expression, and moved toward her as if to pull her closer by force.

She hesitated to speak. 'Don't be stupid,' Blake chided herself. 'This is nothing like Adam's aura, or his scent...'

Except it was, if only vaguely, and her aura still didn't smell like the sweet roses it once had.

"It's good to see you on your feet, Ruby," she smiled convincingly.

The caped-girl dropped Zwei onto Weiss' bed who eagerly scooped him up into her own arms, and she surprised Blake with an embrace, which after a moment she reciprocated uncomfortably. Yang and Weiss both laughed watching the shy girl be tortured by the show of emotion.

"Thanks, Blake."

"Don't mention it," she choked. When the two separated Yang cleared her throat getting everyone's attention. The sight of Blake's bow and Zwei's ears perking up at the same time however distracted her and she lost her train of thought.

"Yes?" Weiss said waving her hand in front of her.

"Oh right." She coughed and shook her head. "So what do we do now? We've got a mission tomorrow, and just today to pack. Where do we start?"

All eyes turned to their leader who glanced down at Zwei for the answer. Her face turned red at the attention and she opened her mouth before promptly closed it.

"I dunno." Ruby shrugged. The team in unison put their hands over their faces. It seemed she had given this very little if any thought at all.

"We'll need some gear from the storage house," Blake started, hoping Ruby would take it from there. "Sleeping bags, mosquito repellent, and food would be nice."

"Right." She nodded as she thought things through. "Hmm, Weiss, you make a list of all the supplies we'll need. Go with Yang to the storage house and grab everything. Sis, since you're the strongest you'll do all the heavy lifting." Yang flexed her muscles as Weiss began making a list on her scroll after setting Zwei down on the bed.

"Blake and I will buy the dust, ammo, and other supplies we'll need from the city and meet you back here." She turned to Weiss." I'm guessing you've already got all of the dust crystals you'll need right?"

"More than enough."

"Good. I know a shopkeeper in the city who should have everything we need for a good price."

"Need any lien?" Weiss asked, casually retrieving her wallet.

"That's alright." She waved her hands. "Since this is an official mission the school will cover most of it. Yang and I will probably take up most of the budget anyway."

Weiss shrugged and put her wallet away which no doubt held more lien than most people's bank accounts, which made her partner sigh with relief. She hated taking advantage of her partner's bottomless bank account. To the heiress money was no object and she often went out of her way to buy lunch or clothes that she thought were cute on her friends, and while the girls enjoyed it and often took her up on her offers, they generally didn't like using their friend for her wallet unless absolutely necessary.

"Aright!" Yang exclaimed, rubbing her hands together. "Sounds like a plan."

"What about Zwei!?" Weiss panicked, realizing the corgi would be all alone. "We can't just leave him here!"

The sister's however merely shrugged. "He'll be fine." Yang waved off. "He's got food and water, and we'll leave the window open so he can go play and use the bathroom."

Blake glanced out the window to the long drop below. "I don't think that will work, Yang. The fall will probably kill him." She tried not to sound hopeful at the prospect.

"Nah," she scoffed. "He does it all the time at home. Don't you, boy?" Zwei barked in agreement. "See?"

Blake and Weiss looked at each other in horror and wondered what life was like at Signal Academy. They also wondered how he'd get back up to their room.

"Now that Zwei's taken care of..." Ruby clasped her hands together, posing just like her sister. "Let's get to work! Go team RWBY!"

"Go team RWBY!" they yelled in unison.

Weiss and Yang spent hours scouring the storage house for everything on the heiress' list. It had been difficult but they had finally been able to find backpacks that matched their outfits and supplies, having insisted that they be color coordinated to each team member.

Although Ruby had suggested they follow an official huntsman guide for mission prep, the duo decided style outweighed practicality. Although the pair normally avoided the dirty supply house and left all visits to Ruby, they couldn't help but feel giddy in the expansive 'huntsman mall' as Yang called it.

It was almost like shopping except everything was free, and the amount of accessories were enough to make a girl's head spin. Of course there was a guard on duty who made sure neither of them went overboard, but he missed the fact that Yang had stuffed her jacket full of permanent markers. Weiss wasn't sure why she needed so many, but had decided to keep her mouth shut on account of her own jacket being full of corgi hair clips. She wasn't quite sure why there had been so many in a huntsman warehouse, but they quickly became vital to the mission.

"Hey, Yang?" she asked, glancing down at her wrist scroll for what must have been the thousandth time that day.

"What?" she grunted, in the middle of pushing a heavy cart up to the locker room, where from there they could quickly take the elevator back to their room.

"How do you think Ruby did it?"

Yang stopped, brushed the mane out of her eyes and took a deep breath. "I don't know. I've seen Ruby do some crazy stuff but this takes the cake."

"Crazy stuff?" Weiss cocked her head like a bird seeing something shiny. "Like what?"

"We'll there's the fact she can burp the alphabet backwards," she answered proudly.

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, I do," she said softly, "but I'm still trying to figure it out too..."

"Are you sure there isn't another aura match? Maybe your dad or uncle?"

Yang shook her head. "Dad isn't an aura match, and our uncle isn't related to Ruby by blood. He's my mom's brother. Technically I guess he's not even her actual uncle."

"Oh..." She still didn't know the full story of the sisters, and if she had been told Weiss was pretty sure she may have been tuning them out.

"Summer was Ruby's only aura match but even she couldn't transfer that much aura safely," Yang said slowly. "Even an aura match has too much variation, and Ruby's body would have rejected it."

They were silent after that. Neither girl offered a reasonable explanation for Ruby's seemingly miraculous recovery other than it had been an actual miracle.

"I'm sorry about your mom," Weiss apologized, "and Ruby's. I didn't mean to-"

Yang smiled and held up a hand. "Don't worry about it, Weiss."

The heiress sighed with relief she hadn't said something to offend her.

"It's not exactly something we talk about all the time but it's not something we're ashamed of. We're still sisters. I don't remember much of my real mom anyway, and Summer always treated me like her own. She was the best."

"I'm glad you two got along so well." Weiss smiled but a pang of guilt struck the blonde in the heart.

"Come on." She coughed and started pushing the cart again. "We've still got two more loads to bring up. You sure you've got enough suitcases?"

"Positive."

Weiss walked in stride with the overloaded cart while Yang tried to clear her head from the thoughts of Summer. The older her sister got the more she was resembling her. She loved that woman who had tried to be a mother to her, and wished she'd been more like a daughter to her when she was alive. She couldn't take back all the things she'd said or done now, but it was too late for that now...

'Yang, Ruby's all we have left of Summer...'

The other girls were exhausted by the time they came trudging back to the dorm. They had spent the entire day in the City of Vale gathering whatever supplies Weiss and Yang couldn't. They easily bought all the ammo they'd need at the 'From Dust Till Dawn' shop, and Ruby even picked up the newest batch of magazines which were on the house. They then hit every food court and all their favorite bakeries so they wouldn't have to eat rations all week. They figured as long as it was preserved well it would last. What wasn't going to last however was Ruby's supply of cookies. With the dozens of boxes she'd bought only a handful were remaining as it had been days since her last chocolate chip cookie, and she was making up for lost time.

Blake had kept a watchful eye on her but the girl had been in good spirits all day and hadn't shown any signs of her injuries. She took her time walking the streets and taking in the scenes, but had avoided the CCT to the best of her abilities which Blake understood. They had often skirted around the neighboring plazas just to get to their destinations.

The faunus had been devastated however to learn one of her favorite bookstore had closed down. She hadn't been to it in weeks, and had been looking forward to it ever since her last visit and was now a wreck.

"It'll be okay," Ruby comforted, trying to cheer her up as they walked back to the academy. "I'm sure you'll find another bookstore."

While she didn't read nearly as much as Blake, she loved books and like her preferred having the real thing instead of downloading them on her scroll, and quite enjoyed going to bookstores together just the two of them.

"Let's just get back to Beacon," she had muttered, the bookstore having been their last visit.

'It's the White Fang,' she kept repeating to herself. 'It has to be...'

One air taxi later and everyone had returned to the room and began putting their packs together. Their supplies piled in the corner reached up to the ceiling, and often had to dig through the mountain just to find what they were looking for. Ruby's pack was by the book huntsmen code, except for a small back of cookies in a pouch on the front, but her teammates however had been a little less conservative than her.

"Isn't that a bit much?" she asked, walking out of the bathroom after her shower and eyeing the dozens of packs and suitcases piled in the corner.

Weiss and Yang nodded while Blake stared out the window.

"We're going to be gone for seven days," Weiss pointed out. "Chances are that we'll need all of this."

Ruby didn't seem so sure as her head tilted back further.

"Don't worry about it, sis." Yang messed up her hair which earned her a shape elbow to the ribs. "We'll be leaving most of it at base camp anyway."

"You sure?" She narrowed her eyes.

"Positive." Yang and Weiss gave each other high fives and congratulated each other. It seemed to their leader they were bringing everything but their bunk beds with them, but supposed her sister and teammates knew what they were doing.

"We should get some sleep guys," Blake said absently. "We've got a big day tomorrow."

"The biggest," Weiss agreed.

"I'm just so excited!" Ruby cried, bouncing up and down even though she was exhausted.

"Too bad. It's time to go to sleep," Yang cooed.

"But I'm not tired," she whined, though knowing they were right. They had to be up at the crack of dawn, something that wasn't normally easy for the nocturnal team.

"Well I'm exhausted," Weiss pouted. "I'm going to bed. Good night." Without another word she crawled into her bed, and after a moment Ruby climbed up to her own and waited for her sister to hand over Zwei.

"Goodnight, sis. Try to get some sleep."

"Night-night," Ruby yawned. "Still not tired..."

Yang turned out the lights and both she and Blake crawled into their beds as well.

"Good night, team RWBY!" they all said in unison for the first time in days. Since their leader had been in the hospital it hadn't felt right to do it without her.

Before long Yang was sprawled out and snoring while Blake was curled into a ball atop of the sheets. Ruby held Zwei underneath her arm like a teddy bear and buried her nose in his fur. It seemed like some kind of cruel joke that this was their first and last night together after so long part. She wanted to sleep, she needed sleep, but the prospect of leaving her best buddy again brought tears to her eyes, and her anticipation and anxiety about tomorrow reminded her of Christmas morning.

She scratched her heel on the footboard as the itching was driving her crazy. She wasn't sure if it was from worrying or a side effect from her injuries, but it was making it difficult to get comfortable. She didn't feel a scab anywhere on her foot, but something didn't feel right.

'Just worry about the mission,' she told herself. 'Worry about the Grimm and finding the White Fang. Just ignore it. You feel fine...'

*hic*

Ruby covered her mouth as she let out a loud hiccup. Rose petals scattered across the room, and luckily she hadn't woken her team. Yang was still snoring and Blake still curled up in a ball.

Below her however and unable to sleep, Weiss watched the petals fall to the floor before disappearing. She glanced at her wrist scroll and noted how her partner's aura had suddenly dropped. All day Ruby's aura fluctuated and she'd had seen signs of her semblance activating accidentally. In the supply house Weiss had pointed out the levels dropping but Yang said it was just her sister being excited and using her semblance to get around. The heiress wasn't so sure...

'I'm going to have to keep an eye on her,' she thought. 'She isn't right.'

She wished they could call the mission off for her partner's sake, but knew that would never happen. Ruby would go on this mission even if it killed her, which was exactly what she feared.

The heiress brought her hands together and closed her eyes.

'Please don't let her get hurt again,' she prayed. 'Keep her safe. Keep the dolt safe. She's my best friend...'

*hic*

Weiss opened an eye as more rose petals fell.

'And please stop the hiccups. I NEED SOME SLEEP TOO!'

(A/N: Thank you for reading I hope you enjoyed. A quick thank you to everyone for catching my spelling errors and giving me the chance to correct them. I do my best to catch errors but I don't always see them. Thank you. I also changed the description slightly as this story is not so much of a novelization as much as it is just based on Volume 2. The overall plot is still there but I've obviously made some major changes. All credit goes to my Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ who has made this story possible. God bless